{"id":4603,"date":"2023-12-14T03:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T03:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4603"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:32:44","slug":"heretics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4603","title":{"rendered":"HERETICS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I continue to watch a lot of theological debates on YouTube. Many of them on doctrines of Calvinism, but some also on hell vs. annihilation and, lately, on the nature of God&#8217;s omniscience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is really a struggle over the question, &#8220;If God knows the future, is everything necessarily already predetermined and set in stone?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(I have to limit videos concerning the omniscience debate, though. Large doses give me headaches.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In watching these various debates, I have come to realize that the label &#8220;heretic!&#8221; is the Christian world&#8217;s version of &#8220;racist!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>Every once in a great while it is accurate.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Nobody cares about the dictionary definition.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>It is deployed like a grenade.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>It is intended to end the conversation.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>It is a pronouncement based not so much upon solid evidence as upon the accuser&#8217;s questionable ability to look into the heart and mind of the accused.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>It is apparently difficult to make the accusation without smug superiority dripping from the accuser&#8217;s tongue.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And &#8230; it grows tiresome quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I continue to watch a lot of theological debates on YouTube. Many of them on doctrines of Calvinism, but some also on hell vs. annihilation and, lately, on the nature of God&#8217;s omniscience.\u00a0 Which is really a struggle over the question, &#8220;If God knows the future, is everything necessarily already predetermined and set in stone?&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4604,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}