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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nDon\u2019t you hate it when someone tells you what you believe and then tells you why you are wrong? And you say, \u201cBut that\u2019s not what I believe. You are not stating my position properly.\u201d And they return, \u201cAh, but your position logically leads to this, so this really is<\/em> what you believe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t we hate being caricatured by others? \u201cThe Republican Party wants a dictator for life in the White House. They want to take away all our health care. They want to take away all our rights.\u201d And many Republicans shake their heads, \u201cNot even close to what we believe.\u201d But then the Republicans say, \u201cDemocrats want to kill all the babies. They want transgender kids to have their private parts cut off. They want the government to run and control every aspect of our lives.\u201d And many Democrats shake their heads, \u201cThat is not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do this in religion, too, and we must be careful to avoid it. It\u2019s sloppy, lazy, and downright disingenuous. Do the hard work. Study to show yourself approved before God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We do not want to lie about anyone. The Jewish counsel sent Jesus to be killed based on false accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we need to avoid using the monolithic \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem,\u201d right? We lump everyone under one banner because it\u2019s easy to dismiss an entire group, and usually we pick the most outlandish to represent the group. Folks are easily dismissing Christian Nationalism because of a few radicals under the banner, but many who accept the Christian Nationalist title have truly conservative, Biblical, and thought-provoking ideas. Non-Christians like to dismiss all Christianity based on a few evil acts they can find that \u201cChristians\u201d committed through the years. Not fair. Don\u2019t lump everyone under one monolithic philosophy or theology. Certainly, we can attack a philosophy or a worldview or a theology on its merits, but just because we understand, for instance, that Islamic jihad is a poison to the world does not mean every Muslim agrees with it. Meet a man where he is, love him for who he is, and treat him with respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a debate this week in Athens, AL<\/a>, at the meeting house of the Pepper Road church of Christ. They are live-streaming the debate each night, and I have watched the first two installments from Monday<\/a> and Tuesday<\/a> evenings in which Bruce Reeves (from the Highway 65 church of Christ in Conway, AR) took the positive position on \u201cThe Scriptures teach that those who obey the gospel of their own freewill, and only those, become the elect of God\u201d while Joel Ellis (from Reformation Presbyterian Church in Apache Junction, AZ) took the negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two more debate nights are coming on Thursday and Friday, in which Joel Ellis will present the positive, \u201cThe Scriptures teach that God chose, from the foundation of the world, a definite number of people to be saved, not on the basis of anything foreseen in them, but solely on the basis of his own purpose and grace\u201d while Bruce Reeves takes the negative. I encourage you to explore those presentations, if you can make some time.<\/p>\n\n\n At its core, the debate is about what God has revealed about Himself in Scripture\u2014that\u2019s the bottom line, and God expects us to seek Him and get to know Him as He has revealed Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s be seekers, and let\u2019s work hard not to caricature opposing viewpoints, build straw men which are easy to knock over and burn, or dismiss something before we understand it. If you take the time to study these debates, I encourage you to listen carefully to both sides and see what the Scriptures say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t listen to debates just to find out who will win, but listen to gain understanding on the issues. For debates on biblical topics, you should always be thinking, \u201cDoes this match with what the Bible says? Is that what the Bible means?\u201d When each speaker is making his case, think about his position as if it were true and evaluate it. If it is true, what would that mean for me right now? What would it change for me? What does it say about God? What does it say about the state of man? Ask those questions and don\u2019t be afraid to admit that you don\u2019t know right now\u2014but then work and study to find out! Keep asking good questions. That is how we grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let me know what you think. I\u2019m genuinely interested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Raised attending conservative churches of Christ, I have heard many preachers tackle the questions of Calvinism, outlining TULIP, and explaining why God is not sovereign in the way Calvinists believe. Over the years, I have listened closely to several well-studied men who believe and teach from a Calvinistic perspective\u2014men like John MacArthur, John Piper, Voddie…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[322,477,240,183,109],"tags":[327,478,479,87,82,113],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","category-calvinism","category-church-of-christ","category-truth","category-worldviews","tag-bible-study","tag-calvinism","tag-debate","tag-study","tag-truth","tag-worldview"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanbekah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/argue-9039512_640-1.png?fit=640%2C512&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Monolithic \u201cThey\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nA Debate in Alabama<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nSeekers of Truth<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n