missing the key point as usual

The crowd at the FINO blog, Sharper Iron, are falling all over themselves to debate the anti-Calvinist feature article of John Davis, “Calvinism on the ‘N’ Train“. Of course, such a reaction is to be expected since Calvinism is the theology-du-jour of the neo-Calvinists. Any critique that challenges its tenets must be answered.

But it isn’t really the theology of the article that is most problematic, and the theology, in the end, is unanswerable. The points argued back and forth have been argued back and forth for hundreds and hundreds of years. It is quite unlikely that lightweights like me and any others commenting on the subject are going to solve these theological questions any time soon.

It really is quite amusing to see some say “Scripture forces me to be a Calvinist.” If that were true, all Bible believers would be Calvinists.

But as I said, that isn’t the part of the article that is most problematic… and certainly not the part that needs serious comment and discussion.

Here is the point no one is discussing:

Some of my heroes in preaching and teaching are men like John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Dever, J.I. Packer, and the list goes on. I consider them my friends and desire to be associated with them. However, I hope there is room to uphold their legitimacy and value in the body of Christ, respect them, fellowship with them, but not be compelled to agree on all points.

Sigh. Why is it that no one at SI is picking up on this?

It is unchallenged assertions such as this that lead me to label SI and so many of the participants as FINOs.

• Do real Fundamentalists desire to be associated with the names on this list?
• Do real Fundamentalists desire to fellowship with the traitor, J. I. Packer, who signed his name to the folly known as ECT and has yet to express any regret over it?
• Do real Fundamentalists consider men who believe prophecy is ongoing today to be their friends? Do we believe in inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scriptures or not?

No, instead, the FINO blog blithely publishes these remarks on their front page and no one whimpers. That’s too bad.

[BTW, is John Davis the brother of Steve Davis? I seem to remember that Steve had a brother by that name, but I don’t know if this is one and the same. I’d appreciate it if someone could enlighten me on that point.]