Comments on: British barrister helps feed US loons’ paranoia over ‘Christian bashing’

By: rog

rog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:11:32 +0000

p.s. to clarify, I believe that pins exist.

By: rog

rog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:47:07 +0000

I know exactly how many angels can dance on the head of a pin – NONE, because they don’t bloody well exist!

By: William Harwood

William Harwood — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:54:10 +0000

Let me correct the misleading reference to “illegitimate children” and “tenth generation”. Deuteronomy 23:2 (The Fully Translated Bible) reads: “A mamzer is not to be admitted into Yahweh’s community. Not even his tenth-generation descendant is to be admitted into Yahweh’s community.” The interlinear note following reads: “A mamzer was the half-caste offspring of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. The word eventually became equated with ‘bastard’, which originally meant a person of mixed or uncertain paternity.”
The modern concept of “illegitimate” has nothing to do with any belief that existed in biblical times. The Deuteronomist did not equate illegitimacy with lack of a marriage certificate. He was a racist whose condemnation of tenth-generation mamzers was what has recently been called “ethnic cleansing”.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:47:01 +0000

Amongst the Five Points of Calvinism is Unconditional Election. This means that God chose, before the world was even created, those who would be saved and those who would perish (some of them do try to wriggle out of this last part, but THEY make themselves look even MORE stupid by trying that!). As the lost are incapable of finding, or even desiring, God, they are totally dependent on Him revealing Himself to them, granting them repentance from sin, and thus bringing about their salvation. Close on its heels comes the doctrine of the Limited Atonement. This means that, as God knew beforehand precisely who would be saved and who would be lost, Jesus died ONLY for the sins of the “saved”. So, if you are predestined to be “lost” it’s no good saying “Please sir, can I be saved as well?”, because there just ain’t enough salvation to go round! The more you look into it, the more barmy it all becomes!!

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:34:03 +0000

In common with the vast majority, you completely fail to grasp Calvinism, Stonyground! Their idea is that the ungodly are completely dead in sin, and incapable of making themselves acceptable to God in any way whatsoever. Look it up on the net – it’s an amazing attitude. They even have a saying that the worse the sinner is the more God is able to demonstrate His divine grace in “saving” them – so why on earth do they want us to become more “godly” in our behaviour? None of it ties up! (Even the latter statement has no internal logic – how can one sinner be “more dead in sin” than another?) As Dr Harwood has said, the “study of Theology” is akin to the ancients sitting down to deliberate how many angels would be able dance on the head of a pin!!

By: Ivan

Ivan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:35:21 +0000

Has Paul Diamond broken any Law Society or Bar Council rules with this rant? Equality, bringing the profession into disrepute etc. If so, it would be terrible if anyone reported him……

By: JarrodB

JarrodB — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:11:32 +0000

Stoney, I fail that test exactly one generation back.

By: Stonyground

Stonyground — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:52:38 +0000

It is an interesting question as to why the godly should be concerned about the behaviour of people who are already damned by definition. Maybe they want you to repent and get saved or something.

I believe that there is a Bible passage that damns all illegitimate children “even unto the tenth generation”. Is there anyone alive today who could trace their family back ten generations without finding a single case of illigitimancy? I certainly can’t.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:15:08 +0000

How we miss Richard Whitely! “What should he of done Carol?”

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:13:18 +0000

Thanks for that, Dr Harwood. I did wonder whether his doctorate was that peculiar “Doctor of Ministry”, but I didn’t actually come across anything that specific! I did notice, however, that the “primary focus” of the college is “pastoral training”, which tells you everything you need to know really, and that “urban mission” and “biblical counselling” feature prominently in its syllabus. This does not really suggest academic rigour to me – we have “Bible Colleges” in Britain which offer courses like this, and I have had experience of the type of Christians who have “graduated” from them!!