Month: April 2018

The catharsis of the sabbath rest

Christians. They are all the same. No matter how committed we are to follow our Lord, no matter how well we claim to know the very simple yet extremely powerful message of the Gospel, we all have been there: we forget the extent of that power. We forget what it really means and entails to be saved by grace alone through faith alone. And we get entangled in our ‘deeds’, we look at ourselves, our own performance, our own fruits. And we end up using these things as the way to perceive the security of our salvation; to determine whether we are truly saved or not.

Continue reading

Men and Women are equal

Mimosa.

Years ago, when I was still just a boy or a young teenager living in Italy, it was customary to give Mimosa (see picture above) to women as a token of appreciation. Mind you, it might still be, though new customs have arisen with time.

The ultra-progressive/feminist/liberal agenda has now taken over the minds of many worldwide, Italy included. All the men adhering (often mindlessly) to such worldviews today are quick to jump off their seats to make sure everybody knows they are “pro-women” and “pro equality”, though I doubt many of them would be able to articulate what that actually means. Thus, “we will not be humiliating women by adhering to this old-fashioned feast”, they say.

Continue reading

Does anything happen outside the sovereignty of God?

So, it’s Sunday, I’ve just come back from Church and had a nice Sunday meal with my family. Then I went and had a peek on Facebook.

From a recently-joined theological group I read this question from a Calvinist:

Does anything happen outside the sovereignty of God? If so, what? (Scripture references please)

Funny enough, having spent a good year in an apologetic group filled with reformed folks very much acquainted with reformed apologetics (aka presuppositional apologetics — possibly the one and only thing I’ve made my own from the “reformed” camp), I can spot blatant logical fallacies with great ease.

So, whilst others are actually answering his question (giving him a leverage by ignoring the fallacy), my immediate response to the reformed brother is

Loaded question fallacy.

A good lesson I learnt is this: never answer a fallacious question without first pointing out that it is indeed fallacious (Proverbs 26:4-5). The built-in fallacy gives leverage to the questioner; whether it was planned or not, it will put them into an advantageous position, since you’ll end up trapped in the fallacious presuppositions they laid out for you.

The brother, asked, of course, why his question was fallacious. Well, it’s easily said.

Continue reading