CRN.Info and Analysis

A commenter left a lengthy comment on the post that brother Jim Bulbitz references and links (I honestly don’t think I can link it from here, maybe I’m wrong - Chris help?)to at Old Truth. This was part of what the commenter said to another commenter about feeling compassion about people going to hell:  

“Based on your statements, its plain that you think that its a grievious sin for tons of people to go to hell. Well thats YOUR perspective, not God’s. Since God does not sin and God WILL send at least one sinner to hell, it is not a sin. And when God is doing ANYTHING, you had better be excited.”

And since his all around comments seemed very Calvinistic I asked him this in light of that particular commenter’s words:

“The most disturbing thing about your comments is that you subscribe not just to an emotionless, Calvinistic view of people being damned forever, you seem to teach we should rejoice.

Then when Jesus wept over Jerusalem He was just being an Arminian cry baby, right?”

His words were emotionless and they were Calvinitic and my words refered to those comments and that commenter alone. And in an obvious metaphor I used our Lord’s weeping as a sign that Jesus wasn’t rejoicing over their unbelief and the impending judgment of God. I have much more open inconsistencies than this, Jim can do better than this. This was a confined exchange that in no way brought in the great men of God that Jim rightly says had compassion. So I wonder if this post deserves a link to clear things up.

But to Jim’s credit he did not attack me personally, but brother Ken couldn’t resist saying:

“For reasons known only to Rick and God he has become decidedly hostile to the Biblical doctrines of grace and quite sympathetic to new evangelicalism. And to the surprise of not a few I know ‘round the ol’ blogosphere Rick has also warmed to the Hollow Men of the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church.”

I guess brother Ken, and he is my brother, forgot to link to a post only a week ago entitled “Where is the Outrage” about some of my personal concerns about that same Emergent Church that he suggests I am warming to. They haven’t given me a membership card yet and yet they allow me to write here. What does that say about their willingness to examine themselves? By the way I do espouse the Biblical doctrines of grace, but even further I espouse the Lord Jesus and everything inherant within Him and Him alone. 

And here is a comment I left about my views on how the gospel is being comromized on many sides. Please notice I gave a lot of attention to my own Arminian camp which doesn’t reflect any self inspection from around the “blogosphere:  

“The gospel is being compromised on many fronts. There are the modern day Judaizers who approach it with legalism and strain at what comes first repentance or faith or regeneration, etc.. Then you have the pragmatizers like Rick Warren who believe you can construct a system that will insure a greater harvest of souls.

Then you have the seeker sensitive people who attempt to manipulate people’s feelings and desires by presenting them with the comfortable things they would normally want any way and in that hoping to have them make a decision many times based on the method and not the Spirit.

The you have some of the emergent movement which in many cases muddies the whole thing up by downplaying a time and place faith experience and playing up humanitarian works with a large dose of wider gospel parameters. Then there are the strict adherants to aspects of the ceremonial law which they attempt to bring into the New Testament, as in baptismal regeneration and even transubstantiation.

Then you have many Calvinist churches that preach the true gospel but are so prideful about their doctrine they have made themselves fairly inaccessible. So yes, the gospel is being pulled like salt water taffy on all sides.”

So I stand be my view that none of us, Arminian or Calvinist, should rejoice over people going to hell, and our greatest example is the compassion of the Incarnate Creator Himself. We all could shed a few more tears for the lost, don’t you think?

Habakkuk was a prophet anointed of YHWY Himself and God used him as a watchman in the Southern Kingdom sometimes called Judah (Hab.2:1). Now these watchmen were prophets anointed to speak to God’s people in warning about their sin and spiritual lethargy. In the first chapter Habakkuk speaking of internal conditions in Judah points to a time after the reign of King Josiah and probably during the reign of King Jehoiakim and especially during the early years of his reign, the conditions seem to fit. He was a godless king who led the nation (church) down the path to destruction — II Kings 23:34 - 24:5; Jeremiah 22:18.

Now as anointed as Habakkuk was, he could not figure out why God wouldn’t intervene in what was happening. And just what was happening? The Chaldeans, the Babylonians, in a period of approximately 20 years were sweeping over Judah in successive waves of violence and ultimately destroyed the country and took its inhabitants away into captivity in 586 BC. And in the midst of these violent waves of destruction Habakkuk cries out to God and asks Him why He is not doing anything to intervene and protect the Southern Kingdom and God replies that even if He were to inform Habakkuk about what He is doing Habakkuk probably wouldn’t believe Him anyway. But the Lord tells Habakkuk that it is God Himself who is raising up the Chaldeans to come and attack Judah and eventually they will be carried away into Babylon.
More…

So, Ken Silva has reposted an article he wrote nearly 2 years ago.  It definitely reflects a kinder and gentler Ken Silva than many of us have come to know.  It makes me wonder what has caused such a change in his heart over the past 24 months.  Yes there was the occasional jab at the emerging church, but the article actually had some good content in it. I didn’t have to wade thru the obscene name calling and outlandish accusations that have become a staple in Mr. Silva’s articles.  It made me want to hear what he had to say, rather than constantly refute what he says.

I wonder what happened to this Ken Silva.

This week we finally get around to posting our podcast. In this episode Chris Lyons explains why he started CRN.info and some of the philosophy behind it.

Download it here or listen to it in the browser below.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast in Itunes.

Here’s the feed for every other podcast client.

 

 The CRN.info philosophy: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The David Crowder Band, it seems, has announced an upcoming tour which will be performing in “club-like venues”, according to the Christian Post.

On the heels of the release of their fourth studio album, REMEDY, David Crowder Band embarked Wednesday on a 28-city tour that will hit many unlikely venues.

The popular band will perform at clubs, House of Blues, and a dancing hall in addition to stops at traditional venues like concert halls. And it’s not from a lack of options.

David Crowder, the band’s frontline singer, said the move to stop at club-like venues was deliberate.

“We’ve been really intentional about what kind of space we wanted this music to enter into,” he explained.

The idea behind the tour carries a similar tune to the message presented in the group’s new album REMEDY, which encourages listeners to be part of the remedy in today’s ailing world.

“This tour presents opportunity to tear down walls that are drawn between what is sacred and what is secular, a chance to reorient space where corporate worship would be unexpected,” said Crowder.

“If we are reading the gospel right, once the veil is ripped, God is everywhere. He is accessible in every space, and there’s not one moment that’s not a spiritual moment in our lives.”

The DCB, one of the artistically best overtly Christian bands in America, started out as the band for the University Baptist Church at Baylor University in Texas. Today, many of the songs written and performed by the DCB are staples in contemporary and modern worship services. It is exciting to see that they are moving out to venues which might encourage non-Christians to attend, where they will definitely be rubbing shoulders with Christian fans of DCB.

I received news of this from CR?N, whose mysterious ‘editor’ posted the news without comment. Perhaps the “editor” this time was Mike Corley, who uses Crowder’s music in segments of his radio program, despite DCB’s direct ministry as part of the ECM. If so, thanks Mike. If not, thanks Mr. Editor - perhaps you are a DCB fan, as well?