I was directed to this article relating to my debates with Michael Brown on monergism and synergism. Now, I am glad this fellow is listening, but goodness, what is he hearing? We have a tremendous example here of tradition filtering out the majority of what the person just doesn't want to hear. Take this description for example:

My own reservation about Calvinism is that it requires that God create people who go to Hell. They go to Hell only because God chooses not to draw them to him. So there are people pre-destined to Hell for eternity who are not responsible since its God's choice where they are saved or not.

I totally agree with Romans 9, where it says that God creates some people for destruction, and that those people cannot resist Gods will that they be created for destruction. But on my view, those people are people who would resist him in any time, in any place, even if he tried to save them. They cannot demand to be saved even though they resist God. They cannot say to their maker that they should not be created only to be damned, either, because being damned is their own fault. They dont have a right to demand that they be saved because they would freely choose not to respond to God in any set of circumstances that God might try to place them in in order to save them. So God is permitted to create vessels of wrath for his own glory but its their fault, not God's.

On a less theological, but just as tradition-bound note, I was directed to this kind, even-handed, truly brotherly blast from, from what I discern, is the Senior Pastor (!) of Arlington Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tim Guthrie. You hardly even know where to begin when reading something like this--the number of factual errors, emotionally-driven logical crashes, and ad-hominems, is quite impressive for a relatively short article! It takes some work to cram all of that in there! Most of Pastor Guthrie's errors are plainly seen upon a first reading (yeah, I've never once talked about Columbia Evangelical Seminary, my work there, or anything else---despite having articles on the web since 1998 and doing entire programs on the topic! Nothing like doing your homework there Pastor Guthrie!), but what is completely lacking from this rant is the first bit of honesty in regards to the real issues behind the Caner saga. Check out this example of whistling a happy tune while walking through the graveyard: "There is absolutely nothing new being brought to light concerning Dr. Ergun Caner." Really? How can anyone say that (or, I guess, type it) with a straight face? Did Pastor Guthrie point out to Ergun Caner that he had not, in fact, debated Shabir Ally, when he had claimed to on multiple occasions? Did Pastor Guthrie recognize that Abdul Saleeb is a Christian name that no Muslim would ever bear? Did Pastor Guthrie recognize that Ergun Caner confused Surah Al-Fatiha with the Shahada? Did Pastor Guthrie point out that Ergun has claimed that Arabic was his first language, only to contradict himself later and admit otherwise? Did Pastor Guthrie detect the nearly decade-long "problem" in Ergun Caner's time-line, including his claim to have always lived in "majority Muslim countires" prior to coming to the US (Sweden is not a majority Muslim country, and Ergun has been living in the US since he was four years old, shivering through the Ohio winters just like all the rest of you!) and that he came here via Beirut and Cairo? I rather doubt it.

A student has died after being beaten to death by pro-Taliban radicals at a Pakistani university.
The beating, which occurred earlier in the week, culminated in the death of Anan Khan, who attended the University of Engineering & Technology in Peshawar.
He was severely beaten with several other students at the university by members of a student wing of the hard-line Jamiat-e Islami party.
Witnesses have said the IJT attacked Adnan for playing music.
Members of the IJT have a record of breaking up music appreciation functions and dance parties on the campus.

Arshed Masih is fighting for his life after he was nearly burned to death by Muslim militant leaders backed by police, sources tell BosNewsLife.

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN - A Christian man was fighting for his life in Pakistan's Punjab province Saturday, March 20, after Muslim leaders backed by police burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam, while his wife was raped by police officers, Christian and hospital sources familiar with the case told BosNewsLife.

Lo! th'incarnate God, ascended,
Pleads the merit of his blood;
Venture on him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude:
None but Jesus,
None but Jesus,
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.

If our debate this evening was that I was going to stand here and say that this is the only pen of its kind in all the universe, how would I go about proving it? Well, the only way I could prove the statement "there is no other pen like this in all the universe," is if I looked in all of your purses, and all of your shirt pockets, and in all the stores in the world that carry pens, and look through all the houses, and all over the planet Earth, and the Moon, and the planets in the Solar System, and in the entire universe, looking for another pen like this. And, of course, I could not do that. But it would be very easy for Mr. Madrid to win that debate. All he needs to do is go out, get a Cross Medallist pen, walk up here, hold it right next to mine, and say, "See! Another pen, just like yours!" and he's won the debate.

In light of this, I would assert that Mr. Madrid must either recognize this reality, and not attempt to win this debate by doing nothing more than depending upon an illogical demand; or, he must demonstrate the existence of "the other pen." That is, he must prove to us what the Council of Trent said was true. I quote, "It also clearly perceives that these truths and rules are contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions, which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down to us, transmitted as it were, from hand to hand."

Finally, this past Friday’s NPR broadcast of “Fresh Air” featured an interview with Bart Ehrman, a professor at UNC and author of the bestselling book, Misquoting Jesus. Though his research is in depth, the most striking points are the ones readily accessible to all readers of the Bible. For instance, the four gospels contain contradictions not only on “small” matters, but on the grandest as well. There is no consensus, for example, on the crucifixion nor is there, outside of the gospel of John, any mention of Jesus’ divinity (you’d think that’d be pretty important, huh?). The interview is a great listen and for those interested in furthering their knowledge, I recommend Dr. Ehrman’s course at The Teaching Company, History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon.

Thursday was a busy day for me. I had to get packed and out of my hotel room early, and I gave the last presentation of the conference on the very difficult and challenging issue of Peter Enns. I did not get access to my e-mail until I was sitting at the gate in Charlotte waiting for my flight back to Phoenix at 8:10pm EST. The first e-mail that came through was from Peter Lumpkins. As I sat at the gate I could not but shake my head in amazement at the thought process that went into what he wrote. Here is an accusation that I had made up a single chat conversation from 2008 being paralleled to the public claims of Ergun Caner relating to doing debates in a dozen countries and forty states; debating Shabir Ally and Abdul Saleeb; being born in Istanbul, living in majority Muslim countries all his life before coming to the United States, Ramadan is forty days long, etc. and etc. How can men think like this? It truly leaves me without words. But, here's what I was sent:

Subject: So Now Who is is it Making up Conversations?
Dear Mr. White,

You need to be aware of a slight discrepancy apparently on your part. Tony Bryne recently logged on my site these words:

"p.s. With respect to his first video, I [Tony] have NEVER had a conversation with White about Robert Reymond at all; no, not even in his chat room. His claim that we discussed Reymond in his chat channel is totally false."

As a result, I queried David Hewitt--the 'reconciler' (self-appointed or other I do not know) between you and Byrne--with the following:

David,

The little p.s. Tony left on one level is hilarious and another is alarming. James White has ground Ergun Caner's name to dust insisting he made up a debate with a Muslim. According to Tony's insistence on not conversing with White about Reymond, James White apparently made up the conversation the two had. Unless, of course, Tony is now making this up (or forgotten, etc). So, if White did have the conversation, then he needs to produce the evidence--a DL phone call, a chat room thread, or other will do.

If White cannot produce the evidence, could you please explain why he should not release a public statement of repentance for making up exchanges with people he never had? Could you also explain why White should not include his own failures each and every time he names the alleged failures of Ergun Caner?

Or, better yet, James White could come here and straighten out the confusion.

With that, I am...
Peter

I'd be glad to see your evidence for the conversation between you and Tony, Mr. White. If you do not have such evidence, I suggest you read carefully the questions I gave to David.

With that, I am...

Peter Lumpkins

Now, of course, I have provided the logs demonstrating the conversation did, in fact, take place, as I will document below. But I wish my readers to ponder for a moment the mindset illustrated by Peter Lumpkins here. As some of you know, Mr. Lumpkins represents the "keep your Calvinism out of the Southern Baptist Convention" mindset. He is a gadfly on the Internet, and over the past few years has shown himself incapable of unbiased analysis of anything relating to Reformed theology, or yours truly (and a number of others). Recently he has rushed to the aid of Ergun Caner, not by providing any kind of rational or logical explanation for the wild claims Dr. Caner has made, and the many self-contradictions they have produced, but by engaging in "distract, cover, and impugn" tactics meant to keep the less thoughtful from considering the importance of the real issues.

We have here an example of the mindset that develops when "the tyranny of denominational traditionalism" sets in. Consider what Mr. Lumpkins has attempted to do here. The title of his e-mail says it all: without even asking first (remember I contacted Shabir Ally before I contacted Ergun Caner directly before I made any public posting on the matter), he impugns my character on the basis of...what? A single conversation noted in passing in a video that took place in a chat channel. This is not about claiming to have been born in, say, Geneva, or claiming to have debated Richard Dawkins and Zakir Naik and Pope Benedict the XVI and Captain Kirk (via time travel). This is about my recollection of a single conversation in a chat channel, and Mr. Lumpkins seriously wishes to make this a parallel to the consistent pattern of exaggeration and fabrication that has been demonstrated in the self-promotional claims of Ergun Caner. The rational mind is left wondering what Mr. Lumpkins was thinking. Let's say I could not produce the information below. Let's say the logs for that week were lost (it has happened in the past). Would there be some basis for any charge of personal sin on my part for recalling a chat channel conversation? Evidently, for Lumpkins and those who cannot see the facts and the truth due to devotion to denominational tradition, I am guilty until proven innocent (and Dr. Caner is innocent---period, no discussion allowed).

It is this amazing example of "let's try defending Dr. Caner by making every kind of incredibly ridiculous accusation we can against anyone who would dare question Caner" that is most important to see. What a shame this kind of thinking is not uncommon in certain circles.

But now to the rather easy, and I admit, enjoyable, demonstration of Mr. Lumpkin's error. A word of instruction to would-be accusers: every word you say is recorded in our chat channel. 24/7. It took less than five minutes to find the logs of the conversation I had referred to in the video.

Now, there is a chance that Polhill in the following log is not Tony Byrne. It is possible Polhill is former President George Bush, I suppose. But there is every reason to believe it is, in fact, Tony Byrne, which raises the question, why did Tony forget this conversation? Do a search on Tony's blog for Polhill. You will see he quotes Edward Polhill all the time. I found ten blog entries on Tony's blog using his name (probably more than on any other blog out there). That would be enough in and of itself, but, it is self-evident that the person posting under the nick Polhill claims to be Tony Byrne (on the technical level, we identified his IP as that of Tony Byrne, so it really isn't questionable). I will insert relevant links after his comments that demonstrate that if this is not Tony Byrne, then he has an impostor running about the the Internet who knows his own website like that back of his hand, claims to be him, and promotes his views. I suppose that is possible (I mean, who would not want to impersonate such a well known Amyraldian blogger?), but I think it is only a little more probable than our being assimilated by the Borg next year.

So here is the log. I start with when Polhill joined, and include all the relevant conversation up to the point where the exchange took place that I noted in the video, thusly refuting Peter Lumpkin's false charge against me:

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass:[1] yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin,[2] nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.[3]

1. Psa. 33:11: Eph. 1:11: Heb. 6:17
2. Psa. 5:4; James 1:13-14; I John 1:5; see Hab. 1:13
3. Acts 2:23; 4:27-28: Matt. 17:12; John 19:11; Prov. 16:33

   Pat Robertson: What about the concept of kismet? It is fate. Isn't that deeply involved in the Muslim religion?
   Ergun Caner: Absolutely. I always say to my students that Islam is hyper Calvinist. Islam believes that if you are a believer in Islam, a believer in Allah, great. If not, it is our job to kill you and send you to hell faster. If you kill us, we go to paradise. Its the only eternal security that a Muslim has.
   Pat Robertson: That's it? In other words, if you live your life and you die, you have no knowledge of where you are going to go eternally?
   Ergun Caner: Muhammad even said, 'I don't even know where I will go.' He said, 'Only Allah knows.' The founder of the faith in which I was raised had no assurance of his own salvation.
   Pat Robertson: What about the satanic verses? Salman Rushdie said that in the Koran Muhammad admitted that certain of it came from Satan. I have not read the Koran and certainly not in Arabic. Is that true?
   Ergun Caner: He started to have seizures at the age of 40 and his wife assured him it was from god and not demonic. What Salman Rushdie did was he switched it. He asked, What if the seizures and the visions that Muhammad received were from Satan? That's why it is called the 'Satanic Verses'.
   Pat Robertson: I was under the impression that Rushdie found something where Muhammad was questioning if it was from Satan.
   Ergun Caner: He did. Muhammad did question that. His wife said it was from god. She is the one who told him, 'God is trying to reveal something new to you.' Muslims who become Christians who speak Arabic, they don't even use the word Allah. When they speak of God, they call him 'Khoda,' a Persian word, because we are so terrified of confusing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with Allah, the false god that we served as Muslims.

Jim Handyside's 2010 US Itinerary
March 3-11 Williston, FL 352-528-2216
March 10 Jacksonville, FL 904-272-6483
March 11-19 Sebring, FL 863-385-3787
March 19-24 Sanford, FL 386-492-2218
March 24-27 St. Mary, GA 912-882-5704
Mar 27-Apr3 Macon, GA 770-631-3660
April 3-6 Atlanta, GA 404-484-7690
April 6-13 Woodstock, GA 678-880-1123

Marcus, I saw your wall post. In fact, I recently read all of James White's accusations and I just returned home from our bi-annual LU Board of Trustees meeting. I brought this matter up and it was discussed in detail. The board will meet again tomorrow. Are you a seminary student? Jerry

Basil of Caesarea (AD. 329-379): How are we to deal with those who avoid greater sins but commit small sins regarding them as venial sins? First of all we must know that in the New Testament it is impossible to observe this distinction. For one sentence is passed against all sins, that of the Lord Who said: Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.
----W. K. L. Clarke, The Ascetic Works of Saint Basil, Translations of Christian Literature Series I, Greek Texts (London: S.P.C.K., 1925), The Shorter Rules, Question & Answer #293 (CCXCIII), pp. 342-343.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - A court in Kasur district, Punjab, convicted a Christian couple, Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi, to 25 years in prison. According to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), judge Ajmal Hussein convicted the couple for touching the Qur'an without washing their hands.
Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi were released on bail last January, but were re-arrested after the judge ruled against them. The husband was locked up in Kasur's district prison; the wife was sent to the women's prison in Multan. Both have started serving 25 years behind bars.

Mr. White,

As a Southern Baptist I am very angry with what you are doing right
now. Dr. Ergun Caner is an incredible scholar and man of God. Why do
you incessantly attack him all the time?

I have personally benefited from Dr. Caner's ministry and believe he
is an intellectual giant who is doing a great service to the SBC.

Please stop attacking fellow christians and stick to debating Mormons
and Muslims.