I just finished listening to the MacArthur piece on Amillenialism. My greatest fears were realized. It's as bad as I've been hearing. He seemed utterly unable to understand the Amil view of a number of Scripture passages, and therefore mischaracterized it. He seemed unable to interpret passages through anything other than a dispensational grid, which leads to all kinds of error. Mac has been so important to my development and growth as a Christian. This is really sad, and represents a low point, IMO. I don't need to go into a lengthy explanation of what was wrong with his presentation - that's been ably covered by Jason Robertson, and others.

I had to go on an overnight business trip to Altus a couple of days ago, and took my youngest son with me. It was an opportunity to spend a little time together. Everything went well, and I'm trying to find other similar opportunities for us. We stopped in OKC on the way home to see my two oldest daughters - I always stop by when I get the chance. They seemed to be doing well. I always ping them about school and the future - I'm sure they love that. I also stopped to see my dear brother Royce. I met with him weekly when I lived in the area. I sure miss that.

I did my annual fitness test a few days ago. The test is required for all AF personnel, and consists of pushups, crunches, weight/waist measurement (if you're under on BMI, you get full credit), and a 1.5 mile run. I aced it for the fourth straight year. :)

For family devotions, I've been doing something different this year. We're going through the Westminster Shorter Catechism using "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds" It's an excellent resource. Of course, I'll skip the paedobaptism stuff when I get to it. :) This reminds me - many people I respect hold the paedobaptist view. Although I've been a baptist ever since I've been saved, I've been very open on this point. About 10 years ago, I studied this issue very carefully. I was open to being pursuaded they were right, and we credobaptists were wrong. I read book after book on the subject - the best they had to offer - and came away utterly unconvinced. There's a couple of credobaptist books I highly recommend, and I should read them again. One is "Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace" by Paul Jewett, and the other is "The Baptism of Disciples Alone" by Fred Malone - which I just found out is out of print - my copy is available for loan.

Quite a day yesterday. My oldest daughter calls and tells me she's getting married. I was left speechless - an unusual occurrence for me. I had no idea this was coming. I've never met her fiance, so won't know how to react until I meet him.

I finally was able to download the Shepherd's conference message from MacArthur that's been causing all the controversy. I'll listen before commenting, but he's made harsh comments in the recent past about those that hold a view different than his eschatological position. It's really quite interesting. I'm not certain which view I hold, I'm not sure which is right, but I'm quite certain dispensational premillenialism is wrong....which is the view Mac holds. I was a dispensationalist until about 1997, but as I learned the Scriptures in greater depth, I came to the conclusion this system isn't Scriptural. There are so many problems with dispensationalism, it amazes me Godly, educated people can hold this viewpoint. Ironically, I abandoned the system while I was attending Grace University - which is a dispensational Bible College. I could no longer stomach the idea that God has two separate redemptive plans for Israel and the Church, that the church is a "parenthesis" in God's plan, that the sacrificial system is going to be reinstituted during the millennial reign of Christ in clear violation of Scripture, that there will be a "secret rapture" when 1 Thess 4:13-18 is extremely noisy, the exegetical surgery performed on Matt 24, etc., etc. Hope his comments are more irenic than I've been led to believe. I'll let you know.