The entire world of science journalism has been unable to explain in a way the public can understand how quantum computers can accomplish so much so quickly. Might BEL be able to succeed where all of journalism fails? This topic begins about 20 minutes into today's program after NASA's website this weekend briefly posted a paper annoucing that Google achieved quantum supremacy. Wow! If this report is true, they've run a program that on the world's fastest super computer would take about 10,000 years to complete but on one of Google's few quantum computers, it completed in about three minutes. How can a quantum computer be so efficient? It's not because they execute computer instructions more quickly and its not because their bits are smaller. So, what is it? Tune in tomorrow to hear Bob and Doug briefly address the Iranian threat and then as Bob attempts an analogy to help people visualize how it could be that quantum computers are so fast in a program titled How Do Quantum Computers Do It? And on Wednesday's program, hear the Westword newspaper's succinct quote from Bob. But to start today's program, Bob shares an email interaction, pasted below, with a critic of his YouTube debate with James White on whether or not God is able to think a new thought.
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Christians sometimes need a push forward to grow spiritually. After forty years as a Christian, these teachings represent my best effort at discipling another Christian to mature in his or her relationship with God:
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The Plot presents an amazing overview of the whole
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* Reply to Critic of Debating Calvinism in Public:
------------------------
Date: Sat, Sep 21, 2019 at 2:00 PM
To: <service@kgov.com>, <bobenyart@gmail.com>
[Isaiah/John] sent a message using the
contact form at kgov.com/contact.
The sender's name
[Isaiah/John]
The sender's email
****@gmail
Subject
Opentheism vs. Calvinism
Message
I was on YouTube One Night and Bob's debate with James White
on Calvinism versus open theism popped up so I decided to watch it. What I got
out of the debate the most was a great big headache. That debate was piled up
with so much theology, that you guys sounded like a couple of theological
eggheads forgetting that there's a world out there perishing in their sins. I
was thinking about giving my life to your God. But why should I give my life
to your God if you guys don't even know who your God is?
[Bob read this just before beginning Sunday School at Denver Bible Church and assumed that Isaiah/John was already a Christian and misrepresented himself only for oratorical effect. Yet he replied anyway...]
From: Bob Enyart <bobenyart@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 9:01 AM
To: <****@gmail.com>
----------
From: Isaiah/John <****@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 10:15 AM
To: Bob Enyart <bobenyart@gmail.com>
Perfect answer, but Bob, you have a very unique way of avoiding the question. I'll ask you again. And I'll try to break it down and simplify it for you. if you are a born-again believer, and James White is a born-again believer, then that makes you Brothers in Christ. Right? If someone comes into a presentation like that wanting to know the truth about God, and sees a brother in Christ staying; no God is this to another brother in Christ who says; no God is this, that person is going to think in his mind that these two brothers supposedly in Christ don't know who their God is because one says he's this, and the other says he's that. Now how is that presenting Christ crucified to that person? Isn't that making that person that is seeking the truth stumble? Didn't Jesus say in his own words, be not a stumbling block to one of these little ones. It would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea than to make one of these little ones of Faith stumble. Calvinism, opentheism is not an essential part of Christ on the cross, or the Great Commission.
You're arguing with another brother in Christ is a very poor way to bring a person to Christ.
John
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 11:10 AM
To: Isaiah/John <****@gmail.com>
Hey Isaiah! I've considered what you've written and have written my thoughts about each of your concerns. People, especially online, almost always just hit back at each other, seemingly regardless of whether they should be considering their opponent's points. So, if you have the least willingness to consider that you may be wrong [in your criticism], I'd be happy to forward what I've written to you. (Right now, I've just emailed it to myself so I don't lose it.) If you have zero intention of considering my words, AND if you happen to be wrong, then by me putting them in front of you, I'd only be making matters worse for you. (That's what "hardening hearts" is all about.) As I've interacted with folks on YouTube I've had some tell me that they simply would not consider anything that I presented to them, and so I've saved their time and mine by not continuing. It's up to you. And, thanks for writing and challenging me.
[And here's the reply that I wrote and decided to hold back:]
----------
From: Bob Enyart <bobenyart@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 11:02 AM
To: Bob Enyart <BobEnyart@gmail.com>
Perfect answer, but Bob, you have a very unique way of avoiding the question. I'll ask you again. And I'll try to break it down and simplify it for you. if you are a born-again believer, and James White is a born-again believer, then that makes you Brothers in Christ. Right?
Yes, and brothers often disagree, and if one brother is doing something destructive to the family and to the neighbors, God doesn't ask the other brother to accept it for the sake of a superficial peace.
If someone comes into a presentation like that wanting to know the truth about God, and sees a brother in Christ staying; no God is this to another brother in Christ who says; no God is this, that person is going to think in his mind that these two brothers supposedly in Christ don't know who their God is because one says he's this, and the other says he's that. Now how is that presenting Christ crucified to that person? Isn't that making that person that is seeking the truth stumble?
Good question. I think you will agree Isaiah that not everything that appears to you to be an unacceptable stumbling block is so to God. He may have a different opinion than you do, and I know that I have a different opinion, and I think my opinion lines up with the Scriptures. The Bible doesn't hide the disagreements, let alone the sins, of God's people. It exposes them. Imagine a church where disagreement, including disagreement to the point of sin, is never publicly exposed. That'd be a very different church that what the Bible presents. The epistles are filled with correction and rebuke. It might be that if you ask God to help you understand the reason for your negative reaction, there might be other factors that motivated you. As to presenting Christ crucified, yes, but always and without focus on other matters, no. You'd have to reduce the Bible by 99.87% of its content, if that were the rule.
Didn't Jesus say in his own words, be not a stumbling block to one of these little ones. It would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea than to make one of these little ones of Faith stumble. Calvinism, opentheism is not an essential part of Christ on the cross, or the Great Commission.
You're arguing with another brother in Christ is a very poor way to bring a person to Christ.
John
God doesn't require us to only air disagreements in secret. Probably the reason that God chooses in the Bible to air in public the sins of believers is that to do the opposite would cause even more harm than airing them in public. And the same goes with rebuking sin (which Calvinism is). The purpose of this debate was not directly to bring someone to Christ. (If you know a Christian trash truck driver who says that his direct purpose in picking up your neighbor's trash is to bring your neighbor to Christ, he is overspiritualizing.) As to indirectly bringing people to Christ, yes, the debate was about that. For a Calvinist, he thinks that the number of the elect has been eternally settled and that there's nothing in heaven or earth that can change that; but for an open theist, we know that it is not a forgone conclusion where the millions who stand in the Valley of Decision will head for eternity, to heaven or hell, and so we know that it is vitally important not to misrepresent God or His Word. So, a known stumbling block, something cited by unbelievers countless times, is the claim that every cruelty was decreed by God. And that stumbling block is so widespread that attempting to correct and rebuke it only in private, one person at a time, is unwise.
[I'm glad I withheld my response because Isaiah/John reacted with a super spiritualized and hyper humble response to the question I asked about his criticism...]
From: Isaiah/John <****@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 12:10 PM
To: Bob Enyart <bobenyart@gmail.com>
From: Bob Enyart <bobenyart@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 2:35 PM
To: Isaiah/John <****@gmail.com>