CalvinDude.com

Inasmuch as certain detractors have engaged in discourse designed to feign prowess at belles-lettres elocution, it has become incumbent that a congruous rejoinder be promulgated. Pursuant to that end, and ignoring inherent recalcitrance, the manifestation of the foregoing proposition is inevitable. Ergo, we must engage in pandects respective of the nihil.

(Excurses: By nihil, one should not surmise nihilism, wherein the suffix negates the tenor of the body; the –ism smuggling non-nothing into the prime verbal delimitation, contra the autochthonous.)

Since most cerebral brigands require—nay, crave—the estimation and assessments of abstruse philosophers, we may adduce a few aphorisms from definitive authority. Namely, Beckwith Forester Adams, who gave a visceral portent in the form of a soliloquy directed at neo-panindocredelopathy: “Fortune never discloses errata before the acquisition of solecism.” (Viz. Martin: “Coextensive supplications obligate the onus.”; Epitome: “Monsters subsume only in tepid reliance.”; Socrates: “I drank what?”) Regardless, one may yet remain suspect of the exigency of the proposition. The thesis, however, is not subject to such adventitious contingency. Rather, Bethrick, Morgan, Enloe, et. al. needs be must divine the remainder of the scope, else they are ill able to evert the thrust of this passage.

The nihil is, ipso facto, a reductio ad absurdum (or mayhap, in these palliative repartees, an abductio ad absurdum). Accordingly: licentia est iustus a vox hodie. Or as Cyril may have rendered: λεξικό δεν βρήκε καμία λέξη. (But this, naturally, is mere speculation, as Cyril is renowned expounding hieroglyphically rather than in the Hellenistic vein.) Inasmuch as inquiry into infusing intimation internally will intrinsically impair intellectual inclination, it is imperative to forgo alliteration momentarily. Concordantly, this paragraph shall now engage its terminus.

While the unattainable nihil remains uncommunicative, we can empathize with Bethrick, Morgan, Enloe, et. al. and, perchance, lucubrate enlightenment. Until then, however, they continue to be oppugnant. I only desire that this sanguineness utopia continues awaiting our prognostication on the dialectic until all else be superseded: verily, the nihil of this post is its own exemplification.

when Sheryl Crow is treated like a global warming expert.

But I am oh so comforted by knowing she’s reducing her use of toilet paper. Spotted owls everywhere are rejoicing.

One of the sad things about our modern culture is that there is very little Biblical literacy anymore. Not even many Christians read the Bible, let alone non-believers. This presents a problem not just in terms of spiritual growth, but also in terms of literary and cultural understanding (for instance, try reading The Pilgrim’s Progress with no knowledge of the Bible and see how much you understand).

Naturally, I can’t read the Bible for other people; but one thing I can do is continue to read it myself. I had to read a large portion of the Old Testament for one of the classes I took recently, but once that was finished I spent most of my time on other projects. Thus, I want to pick up again and start from today!

Since it helps me to have written goals and to have some measure of accountability by making it public, my goal is to read through the entire Bible by the end of June. Since I just read a bunch of the Old Testament, I will actually start this in the New Testament now. If anyone else would like to join me on this, feel free to comment :-)

Since Loftus likes to say I never get any traffic to my website, and since I’ve not been posting as much this month as previously, I thought for sure that I could finally give him some good news.

But alas, it’s not to be. For you see, I am actually getting more hits per day this month than last month. Yes, despite not posting daily and despite not being “active” (and thus promoting ye olde blog more than normal), people still actually read my blog.

Last month, I had an average of 1487 hits per day; this month it’s 1514. What’s more impressive is if you realize that this month’s stats were tabulated at 12:09AM this morning–which means that for today it only counted 7 hits. That’s right, a day with only 7 hits still cannot pull my average down lower than what I was getting last month.

By the way, I should also add that so far this month, the fewest unique visitors that I’ve gotten in a single day to this site has been 154. Yeah, I’m nowhere near the top thousand websites in the world. But that’s still better than the vast majority of websites.

Poor Loftus. Some day he will be able to bask in the fact that I am irrelevant. I see no reason for him to accept reality while he waits for that day to come….

JP Holding and Steve Hays have been having a discussion of sorts on Calvinism (by discussion, that means they’ve both posted stuff in response to the other on their own blogs). In any case, I’m not all that interested at jumping into the middle of the discussion right now (I have other concerns to deal with first), so I’m only going to post a small thing here. I’m not going to put it on Triablogue because others have already made this point there before.

An anonymous commentor on Triablogue pointed to the new Holding response. At the end of the response, someone who appears Reformed (or at least sympathetic to the Reformed position) commented. This was followed by the following quote from Dopey Gigglz, who said:

Somewhere you make this leap in logic:

All saved men are drawn prior to salvation.
Some men are not saved.
.: Some men are not drawn.

That does not follow at all, unless you insert this hidden premise:

All men that are drawn are saved.

If that is not true (that is, the drawing is resistible) then you have no case to make here, and Hays is wrong (probable).

And all I could think is…”hidden premise”? HIDDEN??? You mean hidden in verse 37:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). Or maybe the part “hidden” in verse 44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44).

By the way, John 6:44 in Greek reads:

ουδεις δυναται ελθειν προς με εαν μη ο πατηρ ο πεμψας με ελκυση αυτον καγω αναστησω αυτον εν τη εσχατη ημερα.

I highlighted the word “αυτον” because it is the Greek word for “him”. As in “…the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up…” As you can see, in Greek there are a grand total of two words between these two uses of “him” (and it’s just one sentence, not two like the ESV translated–but this is already hinted at by the fact the English sentence starts with “And”).

Now in order for the “hidden” premise to actually be “hidden” Jesus would need to completely change who the first “him” referred to from who the second “him” referred to in just two words…and with no justification from the rest of the passage to think there is more than one “him” in view! But there is no warrant to believe that God has in mind two different “him” groups.

In other words, it says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise [this exact same] him [that is, the one drawn by the Father] up on the last day.”

Yes, that premise is “hidden” quite well…

I got my new bike today. It’s a:

Gary Fisher Wahoo!

Thus far, all I can say is…WAHOO! (Okay, woo hoo.)

Initial impressions. After having biked around town on a hand-me-down used bike that I bought from a coworker, having a bike that actually fits me is three billion times better (and I’m not one to exaggerate, not even if fifteen trillion dwarves were using their pick axes on me). Just having the gear range makes it better :-)

So I did my first 4.66 miles from the bike shop to my house. I even had to stop to pick up some allergy medication, and still got home in under 45 minutes. Which means, despite having to go down and purchase my bike (which, grand total after taxes, with a computer for the speed/odometer, and a new stem–plus a free cage and water bottle–was $505), and despite picking up my allergy meds, I still got home in order to write amazingly complex run-on sentences like this one in just as much time as it would have taken if I had waited for the bus to take me home instead.

Today is payday, which means I can finally buy a new bike :-)

I’ve been looking forward to this since I started biking again. Now I’ll see how many miles I can put on “Da Beast” before it gives up the ghost like my last bike (that one made it ~2700 miles before I broke it and discovered it would cost more to repair than to simply buy a new one).

My mom sent this to me…

Robert Fleming, a persecuted Scottish minister who lived from 1630-1694, said, “In the worst of times, there is still more cause to complain of an evil heart than of an evil world.”

From: Depression, A Stubborn Darkness, Light for the Path
Edward T. Welch
VantagePoint, 2004, p. 76

Bravery used to mean someone did something courageous. Now, apparently, it just means you got beaten up.

I used to get beaten up all the time at school. Man, I must have been so brave….

I actually agree with something John Kerry said!!!!

Well, until he changes his mind again.