The Debate Debate Continues, Three Years Later, with Twitter Blockage
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, October 19, 2009
- Viewed 165
- (6) comments so far
It was supposed to be a big debate on Baptists and Calvinists. Well, it never happened. Now, three years later, it has all come down to blocking on Twitter...
According to Examiner.com:
Today marks the three year anniversary of a historical debate that was supposed to take place between Dr. Ergun Caner and Dr. James R. White on “Baptists and Calvinists.” The irony is that on this very same day, October 16th, 2009, Dr. Caner blocked Dr. White from following him on twitter. Some Christians are left asking, can’t a Southern Baptist get along with a Reformed Baptist? What’s the story behind the Caner/White conflict? As always, history tells the story.
The conflict between Dr. Caner, the President of Liberty Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA, and the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries Dr. James R. White goes as far back as April 2006 (although perhaps to even 2005, see page 23). Dr. Caner preached a very strong anti-Calvinist sermon at Liberty that left many students (and theologians across the board) in shock. In the sermon, Caner redefined what was historically known as “hyper-Calvinism,” and introduced a host of common misrepresentations regarding historical “5-point Calvinism.” Dr. White reviewed the sermon several times on his webcast The Dividing Line (also on youtube here) to document these errors. At one point, Dr. Caner made an even more radical assertion, saying that “Calvinists are worse than Muslims.” Caner has not retracted this statement, nor will Caner publicly refer to White as a Christian.
The conflict finally culminated into the planned debate: Monday, October 16th, 2006, 6pm, at the New Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. A debate on Calvinism. The debate was jointly agreed upon between James White and Tom Ascol (favoring Calvinism) and Dr. Ergun Caner and his brother Emir (critiquing Calvinism). Ironing out the details, however, was another matter. The four exchanged a series of letters regarding the topic, format, and setting of the debate. Words were exchanged between the moderator, Dr. Bret O’ Donnell, and White before things got further off the tracks:
And click here to read James White's latest shot to reignite this firestorm.
Whatever will we do? We will never know who would have won the debate! How shall we think?
Actually, I think neither won this debate. In fact... they both lost it.
(Oh great... there's two more people who will block me on Twitter.)
Todd
Today marks the three year anniversary of a historical debate that was supposed to take place between Dr. Ergun Caner and Dr. James R. White on “Baptists and Calvinists.” The irony is that on this very same day, October 16th, 2009, Dr. Caner blocked Dr. White from following him on twitter. Some Christians are left asking, can’t a Southern Baptist get along with a Reformed Baptist? What’s the story behind the Caner/White conflict? As always, history tells the story.
The conflict between Dr. Caner, the President of Liberty Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA, and the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries Dr. James R. White goes as far back as April 2006 (although perhaps to even 2005, see page 23). Dr. Caner preached a very strong anti-Calvinist sermon at Liberty that left many students (and theologians across the board) in shock. In the sermon, Caner redefined what was historically known as “hyper-Calvinism,” and introduced a host of common misrepresentations regarding historical “5-point Calvinism.” Dr. White reviewed the sermon several times on his webcast The Dividing Line (also on youtube here) to document these errors. At one point, Dr. Caner made an even more radical assertion, saying that “Calvinists are worse than Muslims.” Caner has not retracted this statement, nor will Caner publicly refer to White as a Christian.
The conflict finally culminated into the planned debate: Monday, October 16th, 2006, 6pm, at the New Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. A debate on Calvinism. The debate was jointly agreed upon between James White
and Tom Ascol (favoring Calvinism) and Dr. Ergun Caner and his brother Emir (critiquing Calvinism). Ironing out the details, however, was another matter. The four exchanged a series of letters regarding the topic, format, and setting of the debate. Words were exchanged between the moderator, Dr. Bret O’ Donnell, and White before things got further off the tracks:
Comments
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Leonard on Mon, October 19, 2009
Dr. white should know this is destined to happen….
I wanted to be the first with bad humor, I am sure I wont be the last.
CS on Mon, October 19, 2009
I’d have to say I’m on Dr. White’s side in this matter. He wanted a structured debate, based off of formal rules and process. Caner wanted to wing it. White was smart enough to avoid the train wreck that could become.
As for their final exchange:
“On October 14th, 2009, Dr. Ergun Caner tweeted the following message: �Conservative churches do not need Reformation of doctrine. We believe�We need a Revolution of soul winning.�
Dr. White tweeted in response: �What you win them with is what you win them to.�
Finally, Dr. Caner�s first tweet after White�s tweet was: �Pray for bitter Christians but do NOT get infected by them. Remember: Mules cannot kick & pull at the same time.� And then Dr. Caner blocked Dr. White.”
I’ll have to go again with White on this one.
—
CS
sonny on Mon, October 19, 2009
I’m a graduate of Liberty, I like Dr. Caner as a person, and I am a Calvinist. Dr. Caner is over the top and inflamatory in just about every position that he holds. He is confrontational and his apologetic method is to lower himself to the climate of our current culture. In many ways Dr. Caner is an impressive scholar, but in many ways he is a poor example of a Christian caricature. The message on Cavinism, his attitude toward White, and his reactions to this ‘debate” are exactly what I would expect of him. Perhaps we can pray that God would convict him and help him work through his obvious anger issues.
Jim on Tue, October 20, 2009
I believe that Dr. Caner in his earlier years of theological teaching at the Criswell College, where he inspired me to be a lover of church history and many other topics was genuine and significant for the cause of Christ. However, when he accepted the call from Dr. Falwell and went to Liberty something happened. First, he did give a school that had little theological credibility tremendous validity and staff that were worthy of theological training. Second, though he became very antagonistic and extremely condescending to the very theological training and held beliefs that most of his own friends and professors whom he was trained by and went on to work with at Criswell held. That is not cool! I will finally say Dr. Caner while choosing misguided vernacular and arrogant conversation to prove his points, is a tremendous teacher, pastor, person, and Christ follower. His testimony is amazing, his desire for Christ and the evangelical nature he has is extremely admirable! There are many more things to like about him than dislike and Sonny I believe you have some really great ideas!
David Buckham on Thu, October 29, 2009
Ditto what CS said.
all about Christ,
David Buckham
Shawn on Sat, October 31, 2009
I’ve heard Dr. Caner bash reformed pastors by name on 3 occassions in different settings. 2 of them before he went to Liberty. I was not a Calvinist at the time, but Dr Caner’s comments did nothing to hold my positions. The debate is an important one and should be considered with wisdom and discernment from the Father and His word, not with inflammatory words and condescending tones.
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