White Interacts With Caner

James White dealt with a recent Ergun Caner "sermon" in his latest Dividing Line webcast (Link Here). Craner's sermon exemplifies everything that I dislike about many preachers today. He works the crowd's emotions to a frenzy, tries to impress them with mindless "preacherisms", and thoroughly misrepresents the real issues at hand. At the end, he hypes his crowd up and leaves them to believe that he has actually dealt with the issue in a meaningful manner. If you listen to White's webcast, then you will hear the difference between meaningful interaction and shallow emotional presentations. The Arminian scholars that I respect don't do this kind of thing. Caner is much like Dave Hunt in this sermon--he uses emotionalism over reason and Biblical exegesis. His brief statement on Romans 9 is simply unbelievable. You will actually have to hear it yourself to believe it.

The webcast is informative for a couple of reasons. It gives us a preview of the debate this fall, and it highlights how ignorant many people are on the subject. Caner mixes in a little historical "hyper-Calvinism" with more mainstream Calvinism. He never tells you what the differences are between the two. He also thoroughly misrepresents what most Calvinists believe. The most grieving line was: "Calvinists don't mind stating that God is the author of sin." Anyone with even a cursory understanding of Church History or Theology know this to be false. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. If you read, for example, the Westminster Confession (which is a Calvinistic statement of faith) you will find the words, "God is NOT the author of sin." Caner does a horrendous job of representing historical Calvinism. My hopes of a meaningful debate have been shattered.

Listen to this webcast with your Bible in hand. White takes some of the hardest scriptures against Calvinism and attempts to deal with them. He does a great job of clearing up some common misunderstandings about certain key scriptures. Whether you are a Calvinist or an Arminian, you will learn a lot about what Calvinists believe and what they don't believe. Scriptures need to be studied in context and, unfortunately, this is rarely done in today's church. In issues of controversy, it is important to represent your oppenents viewpoints accurately and respectively. This was nowhere to be found in Caner's sermon. Hopefully, Caner will correct some of these things before his debate with White. If not, then it will be a frustrating night for all of those involved.