He’s not off the hook by any means, but I have to give him credit for the moves he’s made this off-season. I didn’t get why we waited so long to pick a head coach, and we get one of my favorite current NBA coaches with Doc. Daryl Morey seems like a fuckin slam dunk of a guy that I’d love to have a beer with and talk basketball. The coaches surrounding Doc are to fit him as we start to rid ourselves of anything Colangelo.
Basically what I’m trying to say is I thought Harris was the worst owner in Philadelphia, but it’s clearly that stupid bastard John Middleton. I know the Sixers haven’t played a game yet or made any player moves, but I’m feeling strangely optimistic, and it feels really good.
Unconditional election is a Calvinist doctrine which says that God predestined some people to receive salvation (the elect) and the rest (assuming limited rather than universal election) He left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation.
A well known Calvinist was Joshua Harris who wrote a best selling book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" which was published in 1997 and sold 1.2 million copies worldwide. He became senior pastor of the Covenant Life Church, a charismatic Calvinist megachurch. He also started Sovereign Grace Ministries' New Attitude Conference for Christian singles in 1999 leading it until 2011. Its primary focus of New Attitude was to equip young Christians with the biblical truth of the gospel.
Harris was a committed Calvinist pastor and was, I imagine, convinced of his election. Then recently, he announced he had lost his faith. He wrote on Instagram that he had “undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction’, the biblical phrase is ‘falling away’. By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practise faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.”
Harris is going down a well travelled road. Not long ago, I posted about how I was trying to answer questions from a Calvinist online acquaintance who was losing his faith.
One of the interesting questions that arises from cases like these is how can someone who holds to unconditional election ever be completely sure of their own status. I had asked this question on various forums before: "If you think you are one of the elect, how do you know that God hasn't planned for you to be one of the unelect (for example by making you think you believe when you don't truly believe like those who seemed to be solid Calvinists but suddenly became atheists or agnostics)?" and wrote up the best answers in [this post](https://
... keep reading on reddit ➡This caught my eye today and I thought I would share it since it was mentioned on our Sidebar as "I Kissed Dating Goodbye (haha, screw that)". Obviously we at RPChristians do NOT recommend his book.
Here's the text of his Instagram post (emphasis mine):
My heart is full of gratitude. I wish you could see all the messages people sent me after the announcement of my divorce. They are expressions of love though they are saddened or even strongly disapprove of the decision.
I am learning that no group has the market cornered on grace. This week I’ve received grace from Christians, atheists, evangelicals, exvangelicals, straight people, LGBTQ people, and everyone in-between. Of course there have also been strong words of rebuke from religious people. While not always pleasant, I know they are seeking to love me. (There have also been spiteful, hateful comments that angered and hurt me.)
The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.
Martin Luther said that the entire life of believers should be repentance. There’s beauty in that sentiment regardless of your view of God. I have lived in repentance for the past several years—repenting of my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting to name a few. But I specifically want to add to this list now: to the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. I hope you can forgive me.
To my Christians friends, I am grateful for your prayers. Don’t take it personally if I don’t immediately return calls. I can’t join in your mourning. I don’t view this moment negatively. I feel very much alive, and awake, and surprisingly hopeful. I believe with my sister Julian that, “All
... keep reading on reddit ➡For those under 25: Joshua Harris wrote a book called I Kissed Dating Goodbye and it came out in 1998.
During a time when Purity culture was at its height (a lot of Christian teenagers wore silver rings signifying that they wouldn't have sex before marriage and at their weddings, they took them off and replaced them with wedding rings. It was a little nuts) Joshua Harris suggested in his book that it wasn't just sex that was problematic. He suggested that Christians not date at all and instead adopt a "courtship" model similar to what my grandparents did.
The idea was, boys are to ask a father's permission before courting their daughter. And the couple is never alone. The boy just visits the girl at her house and the intent is that they will get married when the time is right.
The book was insanely popular.
Now that Joshua Harris is grown and has several teenage children himself, he has started to rethink his book: https://www.npr.org/2016/07/10/485432485/former-evangelical-pastor-rethinks-his-approach-to-courtship
He has started apologizing to people who say the book damaged their view of sexuality and he is working on a documentary called "I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye" (not released yet) in which he listens to people talk about how his book affected them.
He hasn't straight up said "I was wrong", but he has said that he is rethinking a lot of what he wrote and he has a website where he asks people to submit their stories about how the book affected them.
I wanted to submit my story, so I wrote up 5 paragraphs, and then deleted it all and wrote something like:
"Hi Josh. I had written five paragraphs but then I realized that my story of shame and redemption is not unique, so I'm going to cut to the chase: I forgive you. I don't know if you want my forgiveness or not, but here it is.
You were just a 21 year old kid when you wrote the book and we were all 21 once. When we're young, we think we have the world all figured out and then as we grow, we realize we don't know everything.
Purity culture was damaging to me, but I've had some great therapists and I've built a happy life for myself. I'm okay now. And I wish you the best."
Edit: turns out he did a TedX talk a month ago where he talked for 20 minutes about how he was wrong.
He replied " I am probably a Type O"
https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2019/April-2019/Joshua-Harris-Why-I-regret-writing-I-Kissed-Dating-Goodbye
I almost feel sorry for this guy, he seems really sad for the harm he caused and was only 21 when he wrote the book! I think the people who made him believe those bs are equally responsible for the damages!
https://twitter.com/KyleNeubeck/status/1315696238143119361
What are the chances Silver comes in and tells this dingus to sell the team? No way the NBA is cool with Epstein connections.
The rabbit says, “I’m probably a Type-O”
It's amazing to me that a player who makes $30 million a season + endorsements, etc. is taking up the bill for an owner with a net worth of $3.7 billion who is enforcing a pay reduction for employees making $50k a year. The audacity on top of that to ask those under contract to voluntarily give back 20% of their salary, absolutely appalling.
Joshua Harris, you are truly the lowest of the low. I don't know what we can do to protest or take a stand against Josh Harris and David Blitzer but spreading this story and the generosity of our big man Jojo is a start. When the quarantine period passes hopefully a protest of some sort can formulate.
Thank you Joel Embiid for stepping up to the plate and being a leader in this time of need.
The nurse asked the rabbit: "What's your blood type?"
"I'm probably a Type O", said the rabbit.
The nurse asked the rabbit: "what is your blood type?" "I'm probably a type O" said the rabbit.
Joshua Harris was a committed Calvinist pastor who posted on Instagram that he had lost his faith. Was he tricking himself about his faith? How can believers in unconditional election ever be sure they aren't tricking themselves if even the most apparently solid Calvinists like Harris can fall away?
More here
Note: He also changed his views on LGBT and issued an apology which is fantastic, but the article focuses on the topic of unconditional election
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