EnnisP, Author at NowTHINK!AboutIt

9 Reasons Calvinism Is Illogical

June 20, 2016 by EnnisP 7 Comments

Of All Moral Choices
Salvation Is The Simplest
And Least Complicated

In the colonial era of American history, religion was very prevalent. The first settlers on American soil were religious dissenters, aka Pilgrims or Puritans. They lived by a very strict rule of life and church was the central point of their lives.

One well known minister from that era, Jonathan Edwards, preached a sermon titled Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God. The topic was Hell and no one could describe it better than Edwards.

In response to that sermon, almost the entire congregation reacted in some way. They wept in their seats, moaned, begged for mercy, cried out, walked around, fell down and more. That service is thought to be the start of the great revival that swept the area.

What people don’t always point out is that the colonies were immersed in the doctrine of Calvinism and those early Christians took the belief to it’s logical end.

Calvinism is the belief that God alone determines which individuals will be saved and which will not, and these eternal choices were made before creation.

In other words, if you or any other person is a Christian now, it is only because God decided in eternity past that He would save you. He saw you before you were conceived and chose or elected you for salvation. God was personally and intimately involved with you even before you were you.

In the colonial years, they believed that salvation was entirely a work of God. The Elect need do nothing, indeed could do nothing.

If any person approached a Christian leader and asked how they could be saved, the answer was simple. Nothing! You can do nothing to make it happen or to avoid it. If God has chosen you, you will be saved.

It is no wonder then that so many people responded so emotionally to Edwards sermon. If the listeners were longing for heaven – a reasonable assumption since they were in church – but were insecure about it, how could they not?

It doesn’t stop there. [Read more…] about 9 Reasons Calvinism Is Illogical

8 Reasons Donald Trump Will Beat Hillary

June 16, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Trump’s Neither
Left Nor Right
He’s Trump

Donald Trump is not your average institutional guy. He has never been a politician. He’s worked with many people in his businesses but his history of winning has nothing to do with concessions from peers.

When he announced his candidacy, very few took him seriously. I didn’t. It smelled like another publicity stunt. But Mr. Trump’s actions since have eroded the doubts. He sounds more and more believable all the time.

Even though he’s never held public office, he did run a short lived campaign for the 2000 Presidency. The campaigned stalled because the party he represented – Reform Party – was dysfunctional, according to Mr. Trump.

This isn’t the first time he’s considered the presidency, either. It was a consideration as far back as Ronald Reagan.

That means He’s not a Johnny come lately. He’s primarily a business man but he’s made a habit of speaking out on public affairs many times. The Donald has never been afraid to share his thoughts. People like this.

He has a battle on his hands with Hillary but following are several reasons he might edge her out. [Read more…] about 8 Reasons Donald Trump Will Beat Hillary

How To Transfer Domains To NameCheap

June 14, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Paying More
Won’t Make Your Domain
More Valuable

I recently transferred a domain name from SiteGround To NameCheap. This post will explain how to do that and give you compelling reasons why you should.

I own several undeveloped domain names, one of which is my avatar name, ennisp. I decided to buy the name because it is the one I use almost exclusively for my profile on registered accounts. It’s also my name so it made sense to buy it.

I bought it originally through SiteGround. SiteGround was hosting my developed sites, like this one, and I really enjoyed their service. Registering names in the same place was convenient. It made sense, or so I thought.

I’ve learned since that SiteGround isn’t a registrar. They resell Tucows registration service which means they buy the service inexpensively and resell higher.

If you didn’t know, domains are registered by the year. You can renew for multiple years but you pay for registration by the year. The problem with SiteGround registrations becomes apparent when renewal is up.

That’s when the gouge comes.

I received notification that my domain, ennisp.com, was up for renewal and would auto renew in 30 days. The price was also listed and it really surprised me.

Annual registration: $14.95
Privacy: $24.00

Almost $40 just to renew a name I hadn’t developed yet! The renewal rate was about standard but the privacy was about twice the industry norm.

I had to go elsewhere.

And it just so happened that a friend had recently renewed through NameCheap and the total cost for renewal and privacy was about $10! A savings of $30. I’m in!

But, of course, to use NameCheap I had to transfer the name to the NameCheap servers. Sounds a bit daunting but here’s how it’s done.

Transfer Process

Domain services are standardized so the procedure for transferring names from one service to another is the same for all. [Read more…] about How To Transfer Domains To NameCheap

Politics, Religion And Half-Loaf Thinking

June 14, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

You Can’t
Believe In Others
If You Don’t
Believe In Self

There are two things that every person should understand.

One is that Jesus saves. Not by accident, not occasionally and not under protest. He wants to save souls. You could say He loves to save and He isn’t alone in that sentiment. Heaven rejoices when just one soul repents.

A second important truth to understand is that Jesus believes in people. I didn’t say He loves people. He loves them, yes, but one of the ways He shows He loves them is by believing in them. Believing in a person is the strongest way to say I love you.

We use the word “love” all the time and we love many things. Saying you love some person or group of persons is culturally expected and politically correct, but it is neither real nor convincing till your actions say “I believe in you!”

Of these two understandings, the most important is the second, believing in people.

I can’t save anyone. You can’t save anyone. Only Jesus can do that. Neither you nor I can even confirm if a person is genuinely saved or not. I might believe someone is saved or want to believe they are saved but there is no way I can prove it.

Only Jesus can save a soul and only Jesus knows absolutely who is and who is not saved. But, even though I can’t save a soul, I can believe in people. You can too. Any person can do this.

Unfortunately, we don’t do this as well as we should and I will admit that it isn’t easy to do. It’s easy to believe in charming people. Extraordinarily capable people inspire belief. Thinking of these people as can-do requires little faith. Ability, confidence and potential ooze from them.

But the idiots and jerks are another story. Those are the ones we struggle to believe in. In fact, the apparent inability of our peers – the turkeys – is often used as an excuse. We don’t soar because we are surrounded by them. It’s their fault, which means we don’t believe in ourselves either.

Rigid Us/Them Thinking

One situation that demonstrates the problem is in personal differences. When we differ, we drift apart and then we feud. Varying perspectives don’t just fail to align, they become enemy lines. The middle ground becomes a chasm, and the chasm widens: me or you, us or them, acceptable or unacceptable, good or bad, our side or their side.

It’s all very polarizing! [Read more…] about Politics, Religion And Half-Loaf Thinking

7 Thoughts On Processing Anger

June 12, 2016 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Good Humor Needs Anger
To Deal
With Reality

Going Postal is a catch phrase popularized in the last few decades. In everyday usage it often connotes humour, but the phrase stems from very tragic events.

In at least 20 separate incidence between the years 1986 and 1997, 40 individuals were gunned down in various post office locations by people who worked at the post office or had worked there in the past. Hence the term Going Postal.

The one thing all the perpetrators had in common was anger. In each case the anger had been boiling under the surface and eventually erupted in murderous rage, otherwise known as workplace rage. Consequently, anger is thought of only in bad terms. It gets a bad wrap.

Ridding society of anger, however, is not the solution. Anger has actually served many useful purposes.

It is because people became angry that:

Slavery was ended
Women were allowed to vote
Workers wages were made livable
Divorce laws were made more humane
Rhinos could be protected
Nature could be preserved

These milestones represent great progress in the development of human culture. Anger was a motivating force behind each. That means anger isn’t a bad thing and the Bible agrees.

Be angry, and sin not: don’t let the sun go down upon your wrath. (Ephesians 4:26)

Marriage illustrates this well. According to Hannah Fry, good marriages are the ones in which the partners have a low threshold for negativity. That is, rather than let small irritations go, strong marriages are those in which the partners mention them immediately. Marriages in which partners ignore irritations are the ones vulnerable to spiralling into a divorce rage.

Since small irritations, though harmless in the moment, have the potential to spiral into death-grip rage we need to talk about anger. [Read more…] about 7 Thoughts On Processing Anger