Fourth Year Anniversary for the Baptist Gadfly
This month marks four years since I began this blog. I am thankful for the opportunity to work on my books in this manner and to write essays and articles on various topics of interest to Christians, especially Calvinistic Baptists. I am thankful for every person who has visited and commented.
I have several other blogs that have come into existence as a result of the Gadfly. My blog (link) on Hardshellism contains the chapters I have already written on this cult. It is my plan to go back to work on this book soon. I want to go back and edit the chapters I have already published, attempting to be more concise. I do hope to have this book published in standard book form, but I have to do more work on editing and finishing the contemplated chapters. I have had many Hardshells visit this blog, and some of them have left comments. One Hardshell Elder has become a friend of mine through these writings. He came to see that the bible taught the use of means, and of perseverence of believers, and we have had numerous telephone discussions about these doctrines. He came to see that those who formally call themselves "Primitive" Baptists are really not "primitive," but a new sect, that even his Hardshell forefathers would not believe what is now the official position of the "Primitive Baptist" denomination on salvation. This young elder, sadly, was recently "excluded" from the church he served as pastor for teaching the true Old Baptist faith. I hope my writings against the Hardshells will help others escape the cult and their heretical notions.
I have a blog on Campbellism also where I have posted writings against Campbellism and post news of debates, and other items about Campbellism.
I also have a blog called "My Daily Bread" where I have a "daily devotion" for each day of the year.
I also have a blog on the Book of Job. In this blog I am working on a book and have about one third of this book completed. Over the past year, Robert Sutherland, who has written and published a popular book on Job, has contacted me via email, and I was edified by our correspondence.
The blog "Homilies & Debates" is the place where I have transcribed into written form some of the debates I have had.
The blog on the second coming contains writings on the second coming, particularly dealing with showing how the bible upholds a post tribulation rapture. Hopefully, i will find time to write more on this topic in the future and complete the book.
The blog on the Book of Esther contains many of my writings, with citations from others, on this disputed book of the bible. I also hope to finish my contemplated work on this book.
I held two debates this past year, one on the campus of sbts in Louisville. I also have two debates scheduled over the next year. I have challenges to debate others, but I am limited, presently, as to the number of debates I can engage in.
I am currently teaching bible classes for two hours in the evenings, on Tuesday and Thursday. I am now one third way through the present 16 week class.
I was able to do a lot of Greek grammar studies this past year and am presently working on my Hebrew. Perhaps I will get my doctorate this coming year.
My dad is still living. He is a Hardshell elder. He is now 77 and has been having some health issues lately. Keep him in your prayers.
I will turn 55 in a few months! How time passes swiftly! As a vapor!
This past year has been very difficult financially. I sell commercial real estate, mostly, and this is the worst economy I have seen since I first got into the real estate brokerage business in the mid 70's.
I am thankful to have been able to grow in Christ over the past year, to have matured, to have grown in grace and spiritual knowledge. I am confirmed in my "five point" Calvinism, although I have come to see how God has a general love for all men, and has provided salvation for every man.
I hope and pray the Lord will bless my studies and writings over the next 12 months and that many of you will remember us in your prayers.
Stephen Garrett
4 comments:
I do enjoy your blog brother. Especially when you and I agree over the hard shells! :)
Congratulations on your anniversary.
May God bless you in
your continued growth
in the grace and
knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
I am praying tonight for your dad.
May God's mercies be fresh upon
him day by day.
Dear Dr. Trader:
Thanks and God bless.
Stephen
[Speaking of posttrib, you might enjoy this recently seen web bit---Albert]
PRETRIB RAPTURE – HIDDEN FACTS !
How can the “rapture” be “imminent”? Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven (He is now there with the Father) “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. Since Jesus must personally participate in the rapture, and since He can’t even leave heaven before the tribulation ends, the rapture therefore cannot take place before the end of the trib! Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who would be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the posttrib end of “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which is Israel's posttrib resurrection!) If anyone wonders how long pretrib rapturism has been taught, he or she can Google “Pretrib Rapture Diehards.” Many are unaware that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this "rapture" was stretched forward and turned into a separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which the mass of evangelical scholars rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Other Google articles throwing light on long-covered-up facts about the 180-year-old pretrib rapture view include “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “X-Raying Margaret,” "Edward Irving is Unnerving," “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” "Walvoord Melts Ice," “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" – all by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” which is available at Armageddon Books online. Just my two cents’ worth.
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