Cool! When I am not writing on this interminable dissertation of mine, I am playing baseball with my young son and helping my wife with the new daughter we just had.
Okay. I have tried to give voice to the Middle Eastern Christians as much as I can without delving into the political aspect too much.
It just grieves me to see that many Evangelicals let the demands of Dispensationalist eschatology, and Zionist politics, which often go hand-in-hand, blind them to the persecution and slaughter of their ancient family in Christ in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. I think they would be in for a rude awakening if they saw how the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel treats Christians.
What do you mean? By evangelical scholars?
Certainly there are some that are plausible. There aren't any at the moment that I can think of that I would dwell upon.
I want to take the opportunity to apologize for that comment. I made it in haste in the heat of the back-and-forth and am sorry for it. Please forgive me.
It can be very difficult, especially when both families are mostly if not all Baptists or Evangelicals of some sort. I try to meet them at their interests and once in a while they entertain mine.
I harbor no ill-will towards my personal SBC experience, which has not been one of ignorance or bigotry. I gained my love for the church and for Scripture growing up in one.
At this point in my life, reading all I have read, and praying and agonizing for years over so many different theological and ecclesiological matters, the SBC or Evangelicalism is just not what I identify with or find spiritual challenge and nourishment.
I totally understand how you and many others have had terrible and even damaging experiences in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It just troubles me and becomes a stumbling block when it is phrased in certain ways or with a certain mentality. I say this fully realizing that I probably do not express my problems with such things as well as I could.
I can sympathize with that. The SBC environment I grew up in was pop-Arminian by default. This is probably why I went through a Reformed phase and found solace in a Presbyterian church for a while. I still love A. W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God in so many ways. It is on my bookshelf and I read it over again from time to time.
I still identify with Reformed Christians on some levels both intellectually and theologically. Although I am not much of a strict Calvinist, I still identify myself as "Augustinian" when it comes to matters of election/predestination, divine grace, and the human will. Without Augustine's ground-breaking interpretations of Romans, there arguably would not have been a recognizable Luther or Calvin.
Okay. I have found conversations interesting that I have had with you in the past. You have also given me cause to examine they way I express myself. I will try not to use the term "lonewolf" to describe you in a pejorative manner.
Thanks for the understanding. The same goes for me. I will try to express myself better and not use demeaning terms to describe the issues or problems that I have with Protestantism and Evangelicalism.
