Warning! Serious Post - Narrow in Theology, Wide in Grace

The Tominthebox News Network has been in existence for about 13 months now. Over the course of this time, I've tremendously enjoyed sharing with you Boxers some of the crazy thoughts that come through my mind in order to, hopefully, make you laugh and think. As I've said before, we try to be purposeful here in what we do. While some of our stuff here has been "just plain silly" at times, I have strived, and I believe Eric and Carlos have also, to in a humorous way make a point. Some of our posts have been "knockouts" drawing links from all over the place with many comments. Believe me, nothing makes me happier than to know that someone spewed coffee all over their computer screen because of something written here. And there have also been "that's cute" days. If you've been a long-time reader, I'm sure you can remember some of those.

If there's one thing that's stood out during this time is that we here at TBNN are unashamedly Reformed Calvinists. We make no excuses for that, as our humor tends to reflect. It would seem that the majority of our readers are also from this "camp" or somewhere in the neighborhood. Yet, we do seem to have even a few non-Reformed readers also. But despite the scale being heavily tipped to one side in our readership, I feel want to take a moment to make a couple of comments.

Two days ago Eric posted his article "72 Bible Verses that Simply Can't Mean What They Say." Let me begin by saying I fully support the article. I'm not about to make an excuse for it. It made a point of exactly what I believe too, that God is sovereign in everything, even the salvation of mankind. But given that we "pick at" Arminianism so much here I want to take a moment to set the record straight about something, so please bear with me for a moment.

I have taken up a motto, as it were, for my life, "Narrow in Theology, Wide in Grace". I am unashamedly "narrow" in what I believe, and my beliefs and convictions are drawn from Scripture. And I believe we should all be "narrow" in our theology. Believe what you believe. Back it up with Scripture. Hold it firmly with conviction. But I was reminded by a friend many years ago that the debate between Calvinists and Arminians is a "family" debate. There are both Calvinists and Arminians that love the Lord Jesus Christ, long to serve him and long for his appearing. If we know the Lord Jesus Christ, rest in him completely and long to please him, then we are united in Christ; we are family. We will spend eternity together in the presence of Christ. Therefore, there must be "wide" grace in how we deal with one another now. This is a family disagreement.

Now, I will continue to be narrow in my theology, and I will also continue to write satire about Arminian theology. But I wanted to set the record straight here. There is no ill will in my intentions, and I will strive to be civil in how I deal with subjects. All "debates" that take place in the comments will be expected to adhere to this standard.

So, that's it. We'll be back tomorrow with something else to hopefully make you laugh. In the mean time, grace and peace.

-Tom