| | I finally uploaded my sermon on Total Depravity to YouTube
yesterday. This sermon has been up on Google Video for quite some time.
I knew it would get tons of views, but didn't know how quickly. A Calvinist Blog posted it and asked for prayers for this "heretic"  .
I'd ask you to pray for them for they are the ones who are deceived. Notice that the fourth comment on this blogpost was by "dusman." This post has some outright lies in it. Jesse Morrell has his own ministry, Open Air Outreach, and I am NOT an Open Theist. I have studied Open Theism, but can't at this point in time agree with it. I actually know this "dusman" guy. His
name is Pastor Dustin Seger. He is a Pastor of a Church in Greensboro, NC. I tried to reply to his comment, in order to correct his lies, but the blog owner
hasn't allowed it and I doubt that he will. Sounds like something a Calvinists would do.
Pastor Dustin actually
told me how great an open air preacher I am, and had John, Jesse and me
over for dinner with about 20 people from his Church to greet us. He also told
me how encouraging my story of stepping out in faith was to him and how
I had motivated him to get out there and preach. He even said that next time I was in the Greensboro area, that we were welcome to stay with people from his Church so that we could preach at UNC-Greensboro for several days straight. He told me all of
this to my face and through emails. Then WITHOUT "confronting" me or
saying a word to me through email, phone or to my face, he calls me a
heretic on a blog. This is typical of Calvinists.
Something
similar to this happened on the Two Reformed Brothers Calvinist Message
Board (the old one that they had). Of course, since I am not a
Calvinist, I couldn't get on there to see the accusations being made of me or respond to
them. People were purportedly questioning my salvation because of my
beliefs. I found about this situation through a brother in Christ, who is also a
Calvinist, and was part of that message board. He wanted to email me to see what the
truth was. According to my sources this discussion was allowed to
continue even though I personally know the owners of the message board.
Someone who used to be a really good friend (someone
that I considered like a "best friend") basically separate from me over
my doctrine. Towards the beginning of the Summer, I hadn't heard from
him in a while and thought about calling him one night. It was on a night that I was going to preach at a concert that him and I had
preached at together for the last two years. I was there with Jesse Morrell and
John McGlone. Well, my "friend" arrived at the concert to preach. Jesse saw him
across the street. He walked on the other side of the street without
saying a word to me or even looking at me. And, yes, he couldn't have
missed us since it was the same preaching spot we had always preached at for the
last two years and since we had banners and sandwich boards on. When I
emailed him about this, he told me that I was preaching a "works
Gospel." When I explained my theology to him, he simply responded back
with something like, "We have different hermeneutics, so there is no
sense in even discussing it. Have a nice life." He has since seemed to
try to act more friendly towards me, but with no explanation of the former.
Another "friend" of mine (supposedly anyway) sent out an
email towards the end of July about an upcoming evangelistic event that
him, I and many others have preached at the last two years. He said
that he would be attending it, but that he would have nothing to do
with me and who I was with (Jesse Morrell and John McGlone). He listed a bunch of
theological terms and doctrines, many of which have nothing to do with
me and said that I believe them. This "friend" did not email me, call
me or talk to me in person regarding any of this. Thankfully, a couple
who I had evangelized with before told me about this "friend's" email and inquired about
the issue (hmm...sounds Biblical doesn't it?). I spoke with them and
they weren't willing to separate with me over our differences in
doctrine. When I got to the event, I shook the hand of this "friend"
and preached the Gospel with "my group".
Still another "friend"
of mine, someone I have known for even longer then the previous two,
did some backstabbing as well. I helped him get a website going a while
back for the local evangelism team that I was a part of. Eventually, he
took over the website responsibilities because I had too much to do
myself, etc. He used to have my face on one page as well as a link to several
of my websites on four different pages. Well, about two months ago, I
went on the website just to check it out. He had removed everything
that had anything to do with me or my websites. And these websites were
not "theological" in nature either. He had linked to my Gospel Tract Website and my Christian Test Website.
I had thought that maybe someone else had become the webmaster or
something. So, to give him the benefit of the doubt, I decided to call
him to see what was up. He acted like he didn't even know what I was
talking about at first. Then he kind of lied about it until he finally
admitted to it. But when I asked him why, he wouldn't give me any kind
of answer at all. My father-in-law who is even closer to him then I
was, called him to talk to him about it. He told him that what him and others had been doing to
me was wrong. Well, this "friend" used to call my father-in-law 2-3
times a week. My father-in-law hasn't heard from him since then. You
know, I wouldn't have even minded him taking down the links, etc., if he
would have just talked to me first to let me know!
So, this is
the Love of the Calvinist that I have experienced. I'm not saying that
every Calvinist out there is like this by any means, but this is what I
have experienced first hand from people who are supposed to be "CLOSE
FRIENDS" (at least 3 of them anyway). If this is the Love of the
Calvinist then God Forbid that I ever become one. If this is how
"friends" treat someone, then who needs enemies? I'm just glad that we
don't live in a Calvinistic Theocratic state. I might be dead by now!
I'm
just glad that as old "friends" separate from me, etc., that God gives
me new friends. It's HARD to believe, teach and follow the truth. It would be much easier
for me to be a Calvinist then be a Biblinian 
, but I couldn't in good conscience become a Calvinist. I just thought I would share
this with those out there who may be going through some of the same
situations. Be encouraged, count the cost and keep persevering in the
Faith once for all delivered to the saints...
|
| | Posted 8/26/2008 1:14 PM - 161 Views - 4 eProps - 7 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
