Saturday, May 3, 2008

In Reply to Mr. D and All Christians Who Sow Seeds of Division by Demagoguery

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4.1-6

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would Mr. D happen to be one dissidens who blogs at remonstrans.net? Demagoguery seems to be what he is all about. I like the idea of using the bible to reply to him. I've also been reading your replies to the little-dissidens (VC and Chris). I believe either they've never read what you've written about postmodernism or are so mesmerized by Mr. Demagogue, that they come to what you've written already "knowing" what you say and literally cannnot see what you actually do say. I see you also used bible in replying to little-d Chris. It's interesting that they (Mr. Demagogue, VC, Chris) have not responded to your most recent replies. I think that's good. One more thing. Your use of "Who let the dogs out?" when you replied to VC was very funny. LOL!

Kevin Corcoran said...

C-Ignatius:

I kinda liked the "who let the dogs out" line myself. Who let the dogs out? Who, who who? C'mon, everybody--Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who? Love it!

Anonymous said...

speaking of demagogues . . .

I will look for your picture next to "humility"
"gentleness"
"patience"
"love"
"unity"
"peace"
in my OED (if I can find the blasted magnifying glass!)

I doubt that I will find your picture, given your complicity with little Dr. KC.

Your comments betray your hypocritical use of Scripture. You may not like dissiden's approach. I can't say that is always right or most productive, but I think you have proven his point.

I'll admit, I have not read your critique of postmodernity. I should make time for that, but your colleague, Smith, uses this same tactic. I'm not completely convinced that his critique is where I would place mine.

If you have an OED, look up "hypocrite". There you will find yourself, and me, and clementignatius. Imagine what a God whose eyes are too pure as to behold evil might think of this.

You may like the idea of a universal atonement.

I think God might like the idea of a universal repentance better. In faith . . . believing.

Anonymous said...

sorry, i just jumped in here and don't know the history of the discourse between the two sides on this blog, but i wanted to ask a question...

do you define universal atonement as the same as universal salvation? universal salvation meaning that everyone will end up in heaven.

i guess i put the two in similar but different categories, but before i would expound on those i would love to know the starting place here.

thanks,
dave

Kevin Corcoran said...

Hey Dave,

To be honest, I'm not sure where VC got the "universal atonement" from. Maybe he had in mind my saying that God has a program of all inclusive love and reconciliation. While surely to be rejected by card-carrying, hard-core calvinists, the idea can easily be embraced by people who are not cc,hc calvinists but are separationists, i.e., people who believe that some people will spend eternity separated from God. If I read you right, this what you have in mind: God's love and reconciliation might be extended to everyone and yet fewer than everyone be saved.

I published an essay in Books and Culture a couple of years ago on these issues and, if you follow the link in my post called "one hell of week" you can read the discussion I had with two others on these issues at Jason Clark's blog.

Hope that helps.