My Journal

11/16/2024 Today's men's fellowship session was an impressive one. First, Frank led the topic on parachurch. Against my expectation, he turned it into a discussion, and a very good one at that as he left plenty room for discussion after asking "What do you think of parachurches, are they good or bad?" And there are multiple views on it. The pastor though trying to be neutral, is shown to be leaning towards "they must only be sent by the local churches", while someone else tempered that with "it comes down to the leadership of that ministry, regardless of any dispatching by local churches". I obviously would agree with the latter.

But what's next is even more interesting. I have the opportunity to disagree with Phil in front of Clyde, I think, after the session, on his definition that Reformed is just biblical. Phil then, very impaired cognitively, tried to equate 1689 LBC with WCF with the only exception of baptism, which I also disagreed with him immediately. Later, he also had argument with R, who though rejected predestination on the surface, was very sharp and clear in his reasoning, while Phil, as he always does, just shooting blindly, making false accusations here and there. Phil was very bad at reasoning. After I told Clyde that this was why it is a problem for Phil to define Reformed is just biblical, because now you can't even consider your fellow brothers who rejected predestination as biblical. Biblical just means having the Bible as our infallible authority in salvation and faith, which is not limited to only the Reformed. But with Phil's definition, and not just him who defines Reformed this way, he has dumbed himself down to not see any Christians who disagree with him as being biblical. Therefore, he had to make the false accusation that R wasn't biblical in their disagreement. This is not reformed. Phil is if anything, a mere Reformed-Wannabe, who is actually a Fundamentalist at best.

The second half of the discussion was on election, after I said that PCA church membership is open to arminians.

Here are some terms mentioned that non-English native like me has to either look up or remember, these terms can easily be looked up using AI such as GEMINI:

• Tyranny of the minority
• Renter's Law - I think the The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was referred to, for landlord refusing to rent to unmarried couples. This act prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability.
• Homosexual attending as a couple - The language Clyde use here is ambiguous. A better way to say it is just decorum of the typical church. Even for cross-dressers, if the message is on LGBT+ then this public witnessing of ill-decorum of the church must be prevented. Even non-Christians settings have their own decorum to follow. No one is excluded not unwelcome otherwise.
• Paedocommunion was mentioned, Phil called out RC Sproul Jr. as one of such proponent.
• Inclusivity vs. Exclusivity of Christianity: R says that it's inclusive if I get to choose. otherwise, it's WOW, exclusive, so bad, according to R.

Some points that need special correction in the debate which wasn't dealt with properly by both sides:

• Election is favoritism - No, because no sinners would complain about not being chosen. They can complain about not getting the goodies, but no one would care about not being with God unless they are born again.
• Why do we evangelize then? Duty, our own growth, means of God's election (because that's how I was elected).
• When R brought up the fact that people reject grace/gift all the time, that would have been a good time to show that that's what sinners do, which is why sinners will not complain about not being elected.
• When Phil kept bringing up “post-fall" in his argument, R couldn't understand his point, because Phil was drawing from text book. This shows that Phil never truly evangelize in his life, what he calls his evangelism is what most fundamentalists do to chase off their next generation into atheism.
• On how R saw exclusivity of Christianity is bad: I think he conflates exclusivity with non-inviting/unwelcoming. I can't believe 13 years ago I've already given this entry, speaking of exclusivity: Christianity is the only religion on Earth where all of its followers were once against it.

11/15/2024 12pm: Attended some required webinar for accreditation of my ESL school: ALL IN: Understanding Access to Adult Literacy. It seems adult literacy in U.S. is now very low. 54%+ of adults in the U.S. read below a 6th grade literacy level. Because of this, we are somehow losing $46Billions, according to this Barbara Bush Foundation webinar.

11/14/2024 Learn Blender - 3D Modelling, graphics skills.

11/11/2024 Middlesex Park email regarding Bird Watching. With this neat birding chart for Thompson Park. A good starting resource for birding, but I must drive 30 mins to the park from home.