James White and Child Rape – What Next, Antwoord?
Antwoord Bedieninge, a Christian apologetics institution who has hosted many sound, biblical and genuine Christian apologists and philosophers in the past, seems to have made a dive for the worst when they invited the Reformed Theologian, James White, to debate several people in South Africa. He was here from 2 to 8 October this year.
Antwoord Bedieninge introduces James White as follows on their site.
James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a presuppositional apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He received a BA from Grand Canyon College, an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a ThM, a ThD and a DMin from Columbia Evangelical Seminary (formerly Faraston Seminary), an unaccredited distance-learning school. He has served as a professor of Greek, Hebrew, systematic theology, and various apologetics topics at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary’s extension campus in Arizona and the unaccredited Columbia Evangelical Seminary.
He is also a critical consultant for the Lockman Foundation’s New American Standard Bible. White is an avid debater, having participated in over 100 public moderated debates, covering topics such as Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Mormonism, the King James Only movement, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Atheism.
White has also been an elder of Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church in Phoenix, AZ, since 1998. He is married to Kelli and they have two children; a son called Joshua and a daughter called Summer.
My question is this. Why would anyone in his right mind invite a man who believes that God decrees child rape to address Christians and Muslims when South Africa is called the child rape capitol of the world?
According to the Daily Maverick “The rape of a child is an abomination so horrific that it seems an impossible task to attempt to explain it. But if we are to defeat it, it’s essential to understand something about our enemy.” I’m sure every normal human being will heartily agree with this statement. Nonetheless, James White suggests that God Himself is the enemy because He actually decrees child rape.
SAMJ, The South African Medical Journal, reports that:
“The majority of rapists are known to the victim; relatives of victims comprise 21% of sexual offenders.3 Schoolteachers are the most common child rapists and are responsible for 33% of rapes of minors. 3 And, just when they most need support, many rape survivors feel alone and let down by loved ones, friends, and the institutions that ostensibly exist to protect them.4
My experience working in the four rape crisis centres (CCs) in the eThekwini Health District (at Addington, Prince Mshiyeni Mission and Mahatma Gandhi hospitals and the Pinetown District Surgeon’s Office) has shown that despite systematic reforms in health policy, there has been no significant change in the quality of services offered to rape survivors. Over the period 2002 – 2010, there was a 43% increase in the numbers of rapes reported at these CCs.”
According to statistics the numbers could actually run up to 1, 548, 366 rapes per year of which 45% of rapes reported to the police are child rapes. One of the major reasons for these rapes is the abominable assumption that child rape is a cure for aids. The statistics for aids in 2013 are as follows
According to Dr James ( lily) White, God is not only responsible for aids but also for its alleged cure – child rape.
Those who, after watching James White admitting that God decrees one of the most heinous and horrific sins imaginable (child rape), are determined to remain in Calvinism, are not only the enemies of humanity but of God Himself. I urge you to repent before it is too late. Get your God-given free-will into gear and repent of your evil doctrines.
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, (Pro 6:16-17)
And then there are some Calvinists who have the nerve to say that free-willism is akin to offering strange fire. while their colleagues and fellow-Calvinists assert that it’s OK to charge God with child rape. They are raving mad to believe that God decrees child rape. They are making a mockery of God’s socereignty. They are not exalting God but insulting Him to the uttermost levels of despicability.
Some Calvinists would probably say that Dr White’s opinions are his own interpretation of Calvinism or that it does not represent the normal run of the mill opinion of most Calvinists.
Calvinists are well-known for their insidious back-pedalling as soon as they are confronted with their own doctrines. I have heard many Calvinists on Facebook say: “I am a Calvinist but I do not agree with everything John Calvin said and taught.” (This kind of back-pedalling is conveniently called a “Calvie-disclaimer”).
Imagine a Christian saying something similar: “I am a Christian but I do not agree with everything Jesus Christ said or taught.”
Let’s take these remarks to their logical conclusion. Calvinists assert that their Doctrines of Grace or Reformed Theology are the purest form of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this to be true, everything John Calvin said and wrote must of necessity be in complete accordance with everything Jesus Christ said and taught. Hence, a Calvinist who says he/she does not agree with everything John Calvin said and taught is equivalent to saying: “I am a Christian but I do not agree with everything Jesus Christ said and taught.”
So let’s sum up Dr James White’s “Child Rape Theology.”
- It’s OK to rape a baby. Why?
- Because God who is the sovereign Lord of the Universe decrees it.
- He decreed it because there is purpose in his sovereign methodolgy.
- His purpose is to redeem the elect child rapist whom He predestined unto salvation before the foundation of the world. If the baby is an elect, he/she too will be saved. So, in this particular case both the child rapist and the baby served God’s sovereign purpose. Hooray!
- But, in the case of a non elect child rapist and the non-elect baby, where the rape was a meaningless and maliscious act of evil intent, God did not decree that rape. So, God cannot be held responsible for this kind of child rape.
- QED. So, according to James White, first make doubly sure that you are an elect before you venture to rape a child because then and then only will you be acting out a decree in obedience to God and subsequently be saved.
- Woe to you, you non-elect varmints who rape children. There is no redemption for you in this whole child rape scenario because your evil deed was not decreed by God. There is NO purpose in your malisciously contrived rape of a child.
“How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Molech (the one who decrees child rape), then follow him.” And the people (Calvinists) did not answer him a word.” (1 Kings 18:21)
It’s bad enough that he believes God decrees child rape but, as a Calvinist, he’ll surely believe that God decrees murder and ever other evil thing. Let’s face it, his god has decreed that the overwhelmingly vast majority of people who ever lived are bound for hell and all because that’s what He’s decreed.
The fact is, Mr White cannot reason logically. He should remember what 2 Pet 3:16 says about twisting the Scriptures and where it leads. And he should compare it with 2 Pet 2:1-2. 2 Pet 1:20 should also be a warning to Mr White.
The fact that he cannot reason logically and either ignores these Scriptures or thinks they don’t apply to him, shows he’s little different from the people who run the cults he decries.
When I think of the fact that God promises to send a stong delusion to the unrepentant, as He did with the Pharaoh of Exodus, I think Mr White needs a lot of prayer.
It’s hard to understand how and why Calvinists think as they do.
Martin Horan,
Calvinists dare not renounce or recant of their despicable belief that God decreed everything that happens, including such an heinous sin as child rape. Should they do so, their entire doctrine on the sovereignty of God would collapse, and that to them is blasphemy.
The irony, however, is that they are the ones who are committing the sin of blasphemy because they are attributing to God that is of the devil. And that’s dangerous, very dangerous.
Thanks Thomas.
I wonder if Calvinists are on the edge of committing the unpardonable sin, as I think they are near to blaspheming God’s Holy Spirit. It’s especially worrying when close friends become Calvinsts because they become so dogmatic about their beliefs that it seems it is almost impossible for them to repent of them.
Reading the book “Debating Calvinism” with Dave Hunt and James White is very telling.
The first half starts with James White giving his Calvinist points and Dave Hunt’s replies. The second half is Dave Hunt giving his non-Calvinist points and James White’s replies.
Mr Hunt, in all parts of the debates, answers logically and scripturally that his points are invariably definitive. Mr White’s replies are virtual retorts that include Scripture-twisting, ad hominems, straw men and side-stepping the answers.
I have read accusations against Dave Hunt of that very thing by Calvinsts when it is patently false. It’s like the Calvinists cannot even see the irony. That’s why it concerns me that Calvinists are committing the unpardonable sin.
I debated with a Calvinist friend on e-mail who kept offering ad hominems and straw men for answers, or he simply ignored the questions and made unrelated replies. It reminded me of the reasoning of autistic people with whom I used to work who actually were incapable of giving a straight answer. I have met the same king of mindset with people in cults.
My friend eventually accused me of being childish then stated that I was still a Catholic! (I went to Catholic schools but was nothing more than a nominal Catholic. And that was nealy fifty years ago.) He coudn’t see the childishness of his own comment. His retort reminded me of a Calvinist accusation on the net which accused Dave Hunt of being a Jesuit.
How does a person get through to a Calvinist, especially as we desire their repentance? It certainly seems impossible. My friend used to be a loving and a gregarious person. I don’t wish to sound self-righteouss but though he still is a friendly person, his mindset seems a mixture of arrogance and stupidity.
It is like trying to pull someone out of a burning house as they are struggling to remain inside it.
Martin
>> His retort reminded me of a Calvinist accusation on the net which accused Dave Hunt of being a Jesuit.
Yes we’ve seen this, how rediculous. It’s actually gotten so bad now they they claim all Arminians are Jesuits. LOL (Calvinists call everyone who is not a Calvinist Arminian) Their minds are so small.
The question that comes to mind is this – Can Satan do something that God does not allow – in other words, can Satan “overrule” Christ?
As long as you believe that God’s creatures (humans and angels) do not have a free-will, you will always argue from the perpective of “Can Satan do something that God does not allow – in other words, can Satan “overrule” Christ?”
In any case, allowing and causing something to happen are two different things. You, for instance, are overruling Christ’s will for your life in many ways everyday single day (unless you are alrerady perect). Is He allowing or causing it to happen? The right thing for Him to do whenever you overrule his will, is to immediately judge and get rid of you. Why doesn’t he do it? Maybe you are still not saved and He is patient toward you because He does not want you to perish OR you are already saved and He wants to sanctify you for his glory.
God is GOD; He is not a tyrant.
That video exposed darkness in the Calvinism camp. To say that God caused that child to be raped is beyond Blasphemy and Heresy. These things like this in Calvinism/Reformed just make me angry. To teach that God would cause a little boy or girl to be raped, is a god I do not know and it certainly is not the God of the Bible.
Then they also believe that children of the non-elect go to hell if they die. That is not what the Bible says.
Matthew 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
Now that I am righteously angry with this Calvinism…I will go eat lunch.
Can Satan do something that God does not allow? Yes, he can do plenty of things God does not allow–only for the present–as we can.
As a child I did lots of things my parents did not allow. Not because they could not have stopped me, they could easily have done so–such as locking me in the house and not letting me out to prevent me from doing things. But they didn’t. They loved me and hated punishing me unless it was inevitable. They let me learn from my mistakes unless those mistakes were dangerous and they prevented me from doing them.
God does the same with us.
ALL things work to the good for those who are IN CHRIST. For example, God allows anti-Semitism. But those who are anti-Semites reap what they sow, eventually [Gen 12:2-3; 27:29; Rom 11]. A cursory study of ancient history will show that. So does modern history: Germany right after Hitler till the Berlin wall came down; Russia till she let the Jews have freedom to leave; and a mere glance at the Arab world and the disastrous natural and other disasters Israel’s enemies are now reaping. Not the mess America, Australia and Britain, who are now in that camp, ought to show Christians that much.
God allows Satan a long rope as He does those who rebel against Him.
That’s so that the latter will have no excuse when God takes the responsibity of sending a stong delusion. God “hardened” (stengthened in the original) Pharaoh’s heart likewise. He did so because He allowed him to go the way his heart was bent on going. The Bible shows us that. God did not force Pharoah go that way any more than He forced Judas Iscariot to betray his Lord. In fact, Jesus called Judas “friend” when he turned up to betray him. If Judas hadn’t gone the way he wanted to go, Satan would not have been able to enter him. People open themselves to demons.
God knows what’s to come long before it happens. We ought to know Satan’s mindset by now. God created Lucifer, the morning star, and Lucifer created Satan by his rebellion.
Satan is deluded. We know that because we are told he knows–or will soon–that his time is short. Yet he remains in rebellion and unrepentent. We know that he knows the Scriptures by how he twisted them in his attempts to tempt the Lord. He couldn’t defeat the Son then and he can’t defeat Him now.
If ALL things work to the good for those that are in Christ, they certainly work to the good for God, and to the detriment of Satan.
The Bible makes if very plain that God permits things to happen that grieve him. For goodness sake, we know that from the very first book in the Bible.
Yes, then, in a sense Satan does do things God does not allow–temporarily! As both the Bible and logic itself testifies. I can never understand why Calvinists disregard both. We can only pray for them because, like everyone else, they will surely reap as they sow.
As you put it so plainly, Debs, their minds are so small.
Wow, you guys really need to take some logic classes. God decreeing that even a wicked event to be certain to take place does not mean he is the ’cause’ of that event. Do you see any evidence in Scripture that the Jews who were calling for Jesus to be crucified were being “coerced” or “forced against their wills” to condemn Christ? No, you do no, yet, probably the most tragic event in human history – the death of Christ – was part of God’s eternal plan. “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Acts 2:23
The events leading up to Christ’s death on the cross were not some random acts that God just managed to string together for some God. It was part of a “definite plan” (Scripture’s words) YET, this took place through the free actions of sinful man without God causing them to act sinfully.
I also always found it interesting how some Christians get so bent out of shape over God’s eternal decrees, yet don’t realize your non-sovereign God approach is even worse (if by worse we’re defining it as to why evil exists.) I’m thankful, that like James White, I understand that even a horrific event like the rape of a child does have some ultimate purpose. What purpose is there in the evil to the non-sovereign God many of you are proposing? So you have a God that when He was forming the world didn’t know what would happen when man fell? Or did He know and chose to nothing about it? How in the world do you think that get’s God “off the hook” so to speak. You just pushed your apparent issue of evil “up a level” – yet you still have to deal with it.
Rick R wrote:
“So you have a God that when He was forming the world didn’t know what would happen when man fell? Or did He know and chose to [do] nothing about it?”
No, you are the one who believes that God could only have known what would happen in the future by decreeing it to happen. To say that God decreed every evil sin, including the rape of children, (pedophilia), is the most wicked thing imaginable. In fact, you are not, I repeat NOT, honoring Him as a sovereign God but putting Him on equal footing with Satan’s wicked psychic devices. He does not and cannot foreknow the future. He can only inspire his soothsayers to tell people what would happen to them and then CAUSES it to come to pass, so as to pretend that he has the divine quality of foreknowledge. Surely, you must know that Satan has always craved to be like God in all aspects of his divinity. Clairvoyance is only one of his despicable ways to imitate God, and the sooner you realize that you are worshiping another god and not the God of the Bible, the better for you. There is still time to repent.
Contrary to your despicable and wicked characterization of God, we believe that God foreknew that mankind would fall into sin and therefore decided to do something about it. Yes, it was the lawless hands of men who crucified Him but it was God the Father Himself who crushed Him. The word dâkâ’ in Isaiah 53: 10 means “to crush,” “to beat to pieces,” “to destroy,” “to bruise.” At any rate, Jesus said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 10:17-18).
Like all Calvinists, you have a warped idea of God’s sovereignty and his foreknowledge. I suggest you repent and believe the Gospel.