submitted by KC Swan. Sign from Bixby, OK
I agree with the "not income" part, but the first 4 words are buggin' me. Where's forgiveness in all that? Learning from your mistakes? Effort?
"It is a good thing to pick your friends, but not to pieces."
The same thing applies to your nose. And scabs.
"If you can read this sign you can still be forgiven by God."
submitted AND reviewed by frequent contributor Kelly Quinn, TX
Hmm, so the blind and the illiterate don't stand a chance. Maybe that's what that whole predestination thing is about.
"Come to me all ye who are weak, heavy-laden, and literate, and I will give you rest...."
Keep 'em coming.
Does that last one prove that children who die before they learn to read are non-elect, and thus are in hell?
ReplyDeleteWacky Calvinists...
;-)
Isn't there a more pithy way to express that idea? Oh, I know, "The ends justify the means." Christianity in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteGreat site. There's a church that I drive past every day that has idiotic things like "Come by on Sunday after the game, and bring the kids! - God." I swear I'm going to stop in one day and ask them to show me which epistle that's in.
Keep up the good work.
Got those two aphorisms mixed up, that is. Yep, the English professor leaves a half-baked post. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain to me why Calvinism refuses to die? Aaaaargh!
ReplyDeleteAnd the "If you can read this sign"--I think the person in charge of that got "If you can read this, thank a teacher" and "No one is beyond being saved by God." [sigh] My students get aphorisms mixed up all the time.
The crumminess is incredible in this post, Joel. Nice going!
"If you can read this sign you can still be forgiven by God."
ReplyDeleteAnother victory for the self-righteous intelligentsia.
By the way, thought I'd put this out there. I am a Calvinist.
*waits for the awkward silence*
Sorry, guys.
Me too. Though I hate the terminology because Calvin himself was a bit of a jerk.
ReplyDeleteMostly, I know myself and know that I would never have turned to God on my own accord. He would have had to have come and claimed me. And He did.
I still enjoy poking fun at it, though, as well as everything else. The sign sucks regardless, also.
What got me about the Bixby sign was that it sounds to me like something I would hear from that great televangelist Montel Williams.
ReplyDelete*crickets*
ReplyDeleteWaaaaaaait...people still subscribe to Calvinism? With all the stuff about the elect and the damned and God has already figured out who's going where?
Evidently, I have some reading to do. Sorry if I offended either of you, Greg & Joel.
Yes, you have some reading to do. I'm a Calvinist too. Believe it or not, there's even a Calvin college, where a fair number of non-retarded people actually get a decent education.
ReplyDeleteNo harm, no foul, Miss Kitty. Don't be offended, diesel, she meant well. Remember, you don't have to be a Calvinist to be a Christian.
ReplyDeleteYeah, no biggie.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Calvinism that I can't get away from can be summed up like this: God made the first move on me. I was incapable of coming to him first. Too sinful. I cannot get away from that fact.
Now, if you follow that doctrine through, you end up at a lot of endings that people are uncomfortable with, like "the elect" and "predestination" and "limited atonement" and stuff. I understand the discomfort with that. I still kinda have it too. But the fact remains that I know God moved on me first, not vice versa.
I'm with you there, Joel. Besides that knowledge that I'm beyond making a grasp for redemption, I think that Scripture is supportive of predestination. I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I think I can explain Calvinism in a way that takes some of the sting out of the blunt version, if anyone's interested.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I'm not offended and I didn't mean to give offense. It does seem like there's a widespread misperception about Calvinism out there, so I was just joking that you don't have to be stupid to be a Calvinist. For a while, in fact, Calvin College was in the vanguard in the philosophy of religion. I fully agree with joel and gregory on pretty much everything they said. I think sometimes that Calvinists take a perverse pride in phrasing their beliefs in ways that seem entirely unappealing to normal people, which doesn't help matters. When you come at it from the starting point that God is the absolute sovereign of creation, it starts to make a little more sense.
ReplyDeleteAgain, sorry if I offended. I was just really enjoying the overall snarkiness of the site. :)
You never have to apologize for snark on this site, my friend.
ReplyDeleteSince it was my original post, let me say that like many doctrines there are very intelligent people on both sides of the argument. I don't understand how anyone can accept God as not choosing some. (He would that none would perish). Did God move first? You bet! We free-willers just believe that he allows us to reject him. Just like Israel did, over and over again.
ReplyDeleteLove you wacky Reformeds!