Tyler Bauer

👀 (Pt. 2)

Go to "divinity school," lose your faith.

Fwiw, I read and teach Aquinas’ Summa and On Kingship annually. And I’m a completely convinced Protestant. The lesson here isn’t “don’t read Aquinas.” It’s “don’t make your intellectual life your whole ethos.”

Hey guys, what if Calvinism was the secret ingredient that allowed the West to meld conservatism and liberalism into a healthy unified political order…

John Davenant is like a gateway drug to Roman Catholicism.

Many evangelicals, particularly in the South, identify dispensationalism with Christianity. They are not aware of the novelty of their own view, nor are they are aware of theological alternatives (covenant theology, postmillennianialism, partial preterism, etc.) within historic orthodoxy. They often don't even know they are "dispensationalists," they just think the dispensational way of reading the Bible is the only option for "born again Christians." Ignorance of church history feeds parochialism on this issue. Dispensationalism has been so popular and pervasive for 100+ years, it's often just assumed and anything else readily dismissed as liberal. Because theologians in more covenantal traditions, including some conservative Presbyterian denominations, don't have much to say about eschatology from the pulpit (especially amillennialists), dispensationalism largely goes unchallenged. I've known quite a few dispensational Baptists who joined conservative Presbyterian churches and yet held on to their dispensational eschatology for years without ever hearing anything from the pulpit that challenged it.

Every southern guy who gets over 40 has to choose between "gentrified crank w obscure literary taste and archaic manners" and "act like the vulgar Californiazation and Arizonafication of the South is normal."

Me: "Give me a couple of quotations from early church fathers about the doctrine of hell...with reference." ChatGPT: "Here's a quote from Ignatius." Gives quote and reference. Me: Checks reference. It's not there. "That isn't the right reference." ChatGPT: "Oh you're right. My mistake. Here's the correct reference." Me: Checks reference. "It's not there either." ChatGPT: "Good catch. It's actually not in that writing at all. It's actually here." Gives third reference. Me: Checks third reference. "It's not there. This is a direct quote?" ChatGPT: "Yes. I understand your frustration." (Psychoanalyzes me as being frustrated and because o that, I am now frustrated.) Me: Wastes an hour of my life trying to find the quote because it was really good. "I can't find that quote anywhere. You're sure it's an actual direct quote from Ignatius?" ChatGPT: "Good catch. My mistake. That is not an Ignatius quote." Me: "Who said it?" ChatGPT: "Actually, that quote is not found in any of the church fathers." Me: "Where did it come from?" ChatGPT: "I was summarizing the popular understanding of Ignatius on the doctrine of hell. If you would like me to be more precise in the future, just say things like "facts only." Me: "Why do you just say stuff that is not based in fact?" ChatGPT: "I don't intentionally make things up, but I can generate statements that sound confident even when they're not fully correct, oversimplified, or based on incomplete information." I am persuaded that ChatGPT is programmed to be a pathological liar and when you confront that, it is programmed to gaslight you. Prove me wrong.

Author: All done! Proofread: No mistakes. Copy editor: Why didn't the author catch these errors? Proofreader: Why didn't the copy editor catch these errors? Indexer: Why didn't the proofreader catch these errors? Reader: Why didn't anyone catch these errors? BECAUSE THEY HIDE.

Find out why many Reformed men have been ditching Owen’s view on the atonement and embracing the view held by Davenant and many other Reformed divines. Go buy and read Davenant’s On the Death of Christ. You won’t regret it.