NowTHINK!AboutIt

Book Release: Calvinism’s Fallacies by Ennis Pepper

March 13, 2023 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Calvinism’s Fallacies: Why The Gospel Applies To Anyone, Anywhere, At Any Time, Under Any Circumstance

Calvinim’s Fallacies is available for free through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program but the ebook version can also be purchased at Amazon inexpensively for just $2.99.

This book is not so much about Calvinism as it is a response to Calvinism. Since Calvinism grates against fairness and logic to begin with and has proven very difficult to clearly and rationally explain, it wouldn’t make sense to write another book on that topic.

To be sure, there are plenty of books attempting to explain or teach Calvinism and if you read them all, you would still be in the dark. Apart from the terminology (called, chosen, elect, predestined, grace, etc.), which everyone accepts, calvinists and non-calvinists alike, there is no thread of agreement. The acronym, TULIP, is a good example.

The acronym represents the five points of Calvinistic teaching, which on the surface seems to focus the thinking and coalesce disparate ideas, but when you read through explanations for each point, you find a range of variations as broad as the Gulf of Mexico and the reasoning for the differences, if you could call it that, as long as the Mississippi.

The intention here is not to explain Calvinism but rather to point out an entirely different perspective on terms like elect and predestined. There are, of course, other books that have attempted this also but those voices are drowned out by all the celebrating over being specially chosen while everyone else goes to hell. Hence, one more book to add a different perspective to a well worn discussion. Hopefully you find it clear and concise enough to be helpful.

This book only shares a few anecdotes on the historical effect of Calvinism but an extensive study on that topic could settle the question for most people. The interesting truth is Calvinism wasn’t institutionalized till John Calvin gave it academic weight in His Institutions. It didn’t take strong hold till it settled into the American northeast with the Pilgrims. Maybe that will be the next book.

Abortion: It’s Not What You Think

December 2, 2022 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Faith Is Important
But Only If It Is An Option
And Not An Imposition

After my wife and I retired, we did what many retirees do which is whatever we wanted. We went where we wanted, whenever we wanted and we sat around watching TV snacking as we pleased. It was great at first but the downside became apparent rather quickly.

Not having a schedule or a plan got old and we couldn’t figure out how to get paid sitting on the couch so we decided to look around for some temp work.

The casual lifestyle also caused another problem. All the snacking created a need for a new wardrobe.

About the time we were coming to our senses, my wife noticed an ad for a local charity and it seemed like a fit. It was seasonal work and it paid a little so it met our criteria. We weren’t looking to be consumed by a job so this was a way to work a bit, get paid a little, and in this case, it was a way to give back too.

We had to fill out applications which is fairly standard. What we didn’t know is the application also involved a level of scrutiny not usually associated with part-time, casual, no-skills-required work.

It wasn’t long after submitting the paperwork before we got a screening call. It was a surprise. There was no advance notice of a call and the caller abruptly hit us with two questions we didn’t see coming:

One, do you believe life begins in the womb?

And two, do you believe the Bible teaches marriage is only heterosexual?

The wording was a little different but that was the essence and it really bothered me. The questions were offered in the spirit of interrogation like the caller was daring me to disagree.

But aside from being irritated, I actually had a question of my own (more than one) which I didn’t share in the phone conversation but have thought about ever since.

In what way do these questions qualify anyone to do charity work?
If the people who do charitable work must qualify in this way are the people who receive the charity required to think this too?
If so, must they agree before receiving charity? Are material goods dangled scintillatingly before the eyes of the needy till they comply?

In other words, is charity provided to meet genuine human needs or is it used as leverage to force a point of view on unsuspecting but needy people?

This conversation didn’t sit well with me. I’d spent over thirty years doing missionary work in South Africa and had witnessed first-hand religious groups preying on the desperation of very needy people, providing material goods just to maintain social/religious control. That type of charity is neither biblical nor liberating.

Jesus certainly never did anything like that.

The caller and the questions came across a little heavy-handed and my wife and I decided to give the job a miss but we did go through the in-person interview which was the next step. We wanted to put eyes on the people and organization that took this approach. I wasn’t going to just call and say no thanks although I would have been in my right to do so.

This experience also provoked a deeper dive into a bothersome issue.

Abortion

In the past, I had always just gone along with the fundamentalist ideas about abortion and marriage.

Mostly.

I differed on some issues and moderated on others marginally, and had shared a few ideas about those differences with others but when it came to abortion, I had usually acquiesced to popular opinion.

Before anyone becomes too judgmental about the apparent prevarication, consider the fact that religiously, people aren’t given the option to choose freely what they think. Thinking is generally not allowed. Compliance is required. Anything else is heresy.

The phone conversation, as I said, didn’t just irritate me, it motivated me to do a deeper dive and look at the issues more closely. Unfortunately, I can’t say I came up with the absolute answer. In fact, the conclusion I came to was there is no absolute answer and that is important. We can’t just motor on in the same vein unless we can dispel every possible doubt. Uncertainty must be factored into the discussion.

The Real Question

What I realized is we’re actually asking the wrong question. The question we got was “do you believe life begins at conception?” That’s a fair question but it isn’t the right question.

The right question is at what point do you believe the fetus becomes a living soul? Life is one thing. A living soul is another. [Read more…] about Abortion: It’s Not What You Think

Nooses, Abuses And Oppression Are Racism’s Favorite Tools

September 26, 2022 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Racism Is Better Than Slavery
But Not By Much

A guy recently made a remark that caught me off guard. We were working next to each other and somehow the conversation prompted him to make the following statement.

“I think it is time,” he said, “that the black community got over slavery and got on with life.”

It was surprising for two reasons. We weren’t discussing racial issues so it seemed to come out of nowhere. And it was terribly off-center.

There was more to the conversation than that but somehow he thought the remark was related and appropriate.

To buttress the insult, he named several ethnic communities, all of whom had been enslaved and all of whom had done well after liberation.

He also prefaced his remark by affirming he was not a racist. I’m sure you’ve heard some version of:

I’m not a racist but………

To the average person on the street, that idea, which is partly true, gets traction. Other ethnic groups have been enslaved and yet today seem to be doing well in spite of it.

However, there are differences between the black community in America and other enslaved people groups and the differences are obvious. Those differences, however, though easily recognizable are for various reasons met with disinterest.

People just don’t care that the underlying feeling across the American landscape is that Blacks are somehow inferior. I call it a “feeling” because there is certainly no substance to the idea but it is as widespread as blueberry jam for breakfast.

Even my antagonist’s remark was motivated by the idea, although I doubt he realized it. Think about it. If in fact, the black community hasn’t gotten over slavery, how would you explain that? What is holding them back? What could explain their lack of development and over-incarceration?

There are only two possible answers. Either they have been marginalized by the surrounding culture or they are inferior. I would suggest it’s the former.

What I’ve learned while working shoulder to shoulder with black folks while living in the deep south and doing missionary work in a dominantly black community for over thirty-three years is this: whatever gifts, abilities, talents and potential you find in any group you find in every group and to the same extent. Those qualities are just as prevalent among blacks as they are anywhere.

If that is true, though, how do you explain the mindset of my antagonist. [Read more…] about Nooses, Abuses And Oppression Are Racism’s Favorite Tools

People Really Do Want To Work

July 10, 2022 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

A Living Wage
Is A Strong Motivation To Work Hard

My Dad drummed a strong work ethic into us from an early age.

Work!

Work hard!

Show up early and stay a little late.

Engage! Don’t stand around waiting for someone else to do the job.

Don’t wait to be told what to do. Find what needs to be done and do it.

People who don’t work, he complained, are lazy and they’re also the ones who inevitably get into trouble.

That’s a brief summary of his ideas and they’re generally good ones to live by. Bottom line? Work is a good thing and the Bible agrees but not only was he too job/boss centric, his droning made it seem more like a Chain Gang than an opportunity. [Read more…] about People Really Do Want To Work

Foreknowledge Is God’s Domain

March 1, 2022 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

But It’s Human
To Be Curious

The Bible plainly states that God has foreknowledge. He knows what is going to happen before it actually happens and from a human perspective, we are fascinated by that.

We understand the concept but can’t possibly relate to that reality. We can fiddle with the idea philosophically but that’s it, and that’s kind of the point of this post. No human can know with certainty what is going to happen even in the next five minutes much less a year or more from now.

Other than conceptual awareness, foreknowing is completely beyond the sphere of human experience.

We might have an idea, even a good idea, how things will pan out but the difference between that kind of anticipation and knowing absolutely is light-years.

We can know the odds of winning but anyone promising a definite win is either lying or manipulating the circumstances.

When it comes to the future, humans are only capable of imprecise predictive knowledge. We are curious. God is neither imprecise nor predictive nor curious. He’s prophetic.

Our expectations are based on analysis, investigation, reasoning, and are largely influenced by hope. God is all-knowing. His rational capacities are never spent trying to figure out why things happen the way they do.

Humans anticipate multiple possibilities and plan for each one as best they can. We hope for desired outcomes but there’s always a degree of mystery. Nothing is guaranteed. That’s not a space God lives in.

What we don’t do, or at least shouldn’t do, is forget about the future and we shouldn’t just wait for it either.

The future is what helps us get over the past.

But what I’ve described so far is what humans experience. God does none of that.

God doesn’t make predictions because He already knows the outcome. He never spends time hoping for anything.

He knows what’s going to happen, to whom it will happen, how it will affect each person, and how we’ll respond. He knows all that. He knows exactly what our capabilities are and He knows what we’ll do to develop them and how effective we’ll be in using them.

He knows what the possibilities are and He knows how the possibilities will play out. It’s hard to get your head around that.

Involved VS Intervening

God is involved. He created the universe in which we live and the universe doesn’t operate hands-free.

Gravity, weather cycles, biochemical reactions are created and maintained by God. He maintains them continuously but He doesn’t micromanage our responses to these facts once we discover them.

I can know what foods I should eat but God doesn’t make me eat them. He doesn’t plan the menu, cook the meals, or make me sit at the table till my plate is clean.

God doesn’t force the issue.

I can choose not to breathe and God won’t intervene if I make that choice, but I can’t change the fact that I need oxygen. [Read more…] about Foreknowledge Is God’s Domain