[AndrewC]

Not really — did you read it? it gives a very good description of the problem that is the BAers v/s the Calvinists.

Yes I read it, but it is still the wisdom of men. Are you asserting it is the wisdom(word) of God?

[Cronos]

no, it gives a very good description of the problem that is the BAers v/s the Calvinists.

For example It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one's own. -- the BA philosophy is today's "age", just like Arianism, Gnosticism, Calvinism, etc. had their "age". It's easy to fall for this flavor of the decade or century

But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure;

The extremes are easy to sink in to and seem correct for those times, but that is the problem, they are of those times only. The BA philosophy, as I said, has some good, but the problem is that it is so curtailed and cut short of the entire 'good' that is the Word of God, that it is hollow and alone, like tantric dancers fighting away the sense of the impending by ignoring it utterly in a trance

The wisdom of God is here

Mk 16:16, Lk 13:3, Jn 6:54, Matt 23:13 are Jesus's own words telling us that

1. He who believes
2. and is baptized will be saved.
3. [U]nless you repent you will all likewise perish
4. [H]e who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day
5. he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved

These are the Lord's very own words His very own statements, exhortations, commands.

this is not the philosophy or wisdom of men, this what God Himself has commanded.

[Cronos]

Remember,

cronos: I'm talking about the entire BA philosophy which expunges and belittles scholarship -- as an adverse reaction to Calvinism's human logic reducto

andrew: f you mean ignoring scholarship as a requirement for salvation is belittling scholarship, well sorry then you must accept it. God does not require a cap and gown for entry into heaven.

That is the other extreme -- the Calvinist extreme that I pointed out. As I said, the BA version is the adverse reaction to the extremes of Calvinism, which, as you correctly point out is wrong as God does not require a cap and gown for entry into heaven

However, the position taken by the BAs is also wrong -- for the opposite reason. There is to be a balance, my friend, not this wild swinging from side to side remember God Himself gave a clear picture in the Gospels in Mk 16:16, Lk 13:3, Jn 6:54, Matt 23:13 which are Jesus's own words telling us that

1. He who believes
2. and is baptized will be saved.
3. [U]nless you repent you will all likewise perish
4. [H]e who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day
5. he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved

These are the Lord's very own words His very own statements, exhortations, commands.

this is not the philosophy or wisdom of men, this what God Himself has commanded.