Chew on this!

Men,

Yes...it's starting again.  Classes that is.  I've begun my reading for the second half of Historical Theology.  It starts with "Post-Reformation."  Obviously this means that the Reformation has happened with the likes of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin as the stars of this Reformation.  If you're not sure what happened at the Reformation, well in a nutshell...men, specifically Martin Luther, who were tired of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, broke from it in an attempt to reform it.  The result...the Protestant Church.  As you can imagine, "man," in his great desire to do his own thing decided that the reform of the Reformed Church wasn't quite "reformed" enough.  So, "Protestants" began to divide to reform the Reformed Church.  Anyway, one of the topics that caused the reforming of the reformed church is Supralapsarianism.  I know...SupralapWhat???

Supra indicates logical priority to something else.  lapsarianism indicates reference to the fall of humanity (from the same root as lapse - to "fall").  Thus, Supralapsarianism literally means "something prior to the Fall."

Theologically, Supralapsarianism is a certain way of ordering the divine decrees of God concerning predestination and creating humans.

Check out how Supralapsarianism orders God's decrees.  I'd be interested in your take on this.

1.  The decree of God to predestine some creatures to salvation and eternal life and some other creatures to damnation and everlasting punishment in hell.
2.  The decree of God to create.
3.  The decree of God to allow human creatures to fall into sin.
4.  The decree of God to provide the means of salvation (Christ and the gospel) for the elect.
5.  The decree of God to apply salvation (the righteousness of Christ) to the elect.

"The Story of Christian Theology" Olson

Tradition or Truth

There is nothing wrong with tradition as long as we do not confuse tradition with truth. As soon as we become more attached to our traditions than we are to truth, we are in VERY deep trouble. The best tradition is recognized for exactly what it is: one that may help us to better worship or serve God, but which is not in and of itself the embodiment of truth. Traditions must be tested, including traditions that touch on the use of particular translations.

As soon as we make our tradition the test of someone else's standing with God (as people have done to Jerome, to Erasmus, and to those who today would use a non-KJV translation), we have elevated it to an anti-biblical status.

An excerpt from "The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust the Modern Translations?" By James R. White