ryan.the.calvinist

Yesterday I sat in STRONG (Hall) #204 in my REL 320: Jesus of Nazareth course a bit more than slightly frustrated with the clips our class had just watched from The Last Temptation of Christ . We were comparing this fictional re-telling of Christ's life to the gnostic Gospel of Judas . I'm not sure which notion was more difficult to stomach-- the gnostic view that YHWH is the evil creator that we need to defeat (essentially), or the notion that Jesus and Judas... cuddled... (and more?) Yuck. ANYWAY. A student in the class brought up a point that he had always struggled with growing up: If it was foreordained that Judas would have to betray Jesus, and it had to happen for Jesus to save the world, why should Judas suffer and be held to blame for his actions? I just sat there in my silence fully confidant of the answer. And yes, I too had wondered this before -- he was supposed to do this, and yet he is held to blame? But after years of maturing in the faith, I was able t

Every day there is one podcast I must listen to. Now what this is has seemed to change frequently since the school year began. For a while I could not miss any of the Bible Answer Man (Hank is alright and has some good things to say, but I feel now I've heard the majority of what people call in about anyway). Then I was REALLY into John MacArthur's morning show podcast as he was preaching a series on the Doctrines of Grace (election, Calvinism, predestination, etc). But for over a month now, my thirst is for the Way of the Master Radio podcast. The Way of the Master is an organization of sorts headed by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (yes... that actor from Growing Pains and the Left Behind films), whose radio show is hosted by Todd Friel. I was first introduced to Mr. Friel over the summer when I ran across a video of his on YouTube entitled " Response to Bullhorn Guy " (a response made to counter the crazy crap in Rob Bell's Nooma video on a similar topi

Currently, I am very frustrated with the Republican Candidates who are currently running for President in 2008. Take Rudy Giuliani for example. This man is FAR too liberal for me, especially as I greatly value and find importance in the Pro-Life movement and keeping the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman (no gay marriage). In an interview with CNN , Giuliani claimed that illegal immigrants are not criminals... really? REALLY RUDY?!!? They came here ILLEGALLY! Their being here ILLEGALLY is a crime... if it wasn't a CRIME, then it wouldn't be called ILLEGAL!!! He's definitely a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and is a "moderate"... which is just a term for a somewhat conservative member of the liberal left. He supports the killing of babies for embryonic "research"... apparently the lives of the defenseless is not really important if it can be sacrificed so someone can replace an arm. And lastly... he claims a woman should have a ri