The Berean Call Podcast

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Our topic is Calvinism. But we’re approaching it a little differently. This is not an apologetics thing. We’re not arguing back and forth about Calvinism. What Jim is helping me with is over the years, Calvinism is one of the most puzzling belief systems, and if you’re familiar with The Berean Call, you know we’ve looked at quite a few things. But my concern here is that we’re talking about something within the church. We’re not talking about Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses or whatever it might be, in a cultic fashion. We’re talking about a belief system that has greatly influenced Christianity – Christendom – in the last 500 years. And it’s growing stronger. I could say, I think, and back it up, that today – or at least within the last ten years – it has become militant, aggressive; it has split churches. It’s just a burden for me and a concern that I have. Why? Because, number one, I have family members who are Calvinists. Number two, I have great friends – and I really mean good friends. We probably don’t go to this issue, although I would like to, from time to time, address these things because I’m concerned about the teachings and all of that.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call with T. A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for being here! In today’s program, Tom begins a two-part series with guest Jim McCarthy. Here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. As Gary mentioned, our topic for today is Calvinism. It’s a theology, a belief system, that’s had an impact on Christianity for about 500 years, depending who’s credited for starting it off. Since the theology is named after John Calvin, and based upon much of his writing, few would argue against starting with him. And of course, he lived from 1509-1564. Our guest, who will discuss the subject, is Jim McCarthy. He’s the author of a number of books including John Calvin Goes to Berkeley. His other books include: The Gospel according to Rome, which, in my view - and I’ve told you this many times, Jim - in my view it’s the best book out there for a view on Catholicism from a biblical perspective. And Jim, like myself, grew up in a Roman Catholic family, and, I should add, an extended Catholic family that included aunts who were nuns and uncles who were priests. Now I mention that because Jim’s books supply information regarding the experiential side of his former faith, which to me is a major part of the practice of Roman Catholicism. Jim’s ministry is Good News for Catholics. He’s also very much involved in a discipleship program, primarily for young adult Christians.

Jim, welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7.

Jim: Thank you, Tom, it’s always good being with you.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

[Dave Hunt’s newsletter on Anti-Semitism is as relevant today as it was when it was published 37 years ago. The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) finally recognized the State of Israel, establishing diplomatic relations on December 30, 1993, over 45 years after the modern nation was founded. 

The RCC also recognized the (non-existent) State of Palestine on June 26, 2015.

The RCC continues to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the new Israel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1994, says, “…from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus instituted the Twelve as ‘the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy.’”1]

If you’ve followed our discussion, the discussion with Ed Newby that I’m going to reintroduce in a minute, but we’re dealing with things like the influence of evangelical Christians – or Christians per se – Christendom, because of our affinity for conservatism. And we are conservative, especially in comparison to the liberal ideas and views that are out there. But our concern is how influential are entities, whether they be talk show hosts, columnists, whatever they might be, how are they influencing us with regard to their conservative worldview – political? Social? Even moral, in some cases. How are they influencing those who claim to go by the Bible? And what we’ve seen, many have an affinity for conservative views to the point of making it part of their religious worldview. And that’s not good…from our perspective.

Today we’re going to address more of the same. Last week, if you’ll check out part one, we dealt with things like Glenn Beck and his influence as a conservative – not just talk show host but columnist – and his views and how he has intermixed his religious worldviews, whether it be Mormonism, New Age ideas; we talked about his book with the psychiatrist, and how he presents - and folks, you can check us out on this – his book Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, coauthored with psychiatrist Keith Ablow, so you not only have psychobabble there, but you have New Age ideas and concepts, and he specifically lays out what his theology is, even though he tries to play to a wider group of people.

Today, however – well, first of all my associate in the studio today is Ed Newby. He’s a TBC staff member. He handles most of our correspondence, Q&As; he produces our online updates, and again, he’s a researcher and contributor to TBC’s newsletter. So, again, Ed, welcome back!

Ed: Thanks, Tom.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

In today’s program, Tom begins a two-part series with guest Ed Newby. Here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. Today and next week, we’re going to be discussing the world’s influences in the lives of those who profess to be biblical Christians. Our emphasis will be on media influences, such as television, video, radio, books, magazines, and particularly Internet websites. So we want to address the lack of biblical discernment regarding the content of those media outlets, especially those that seem to be “Christian,” or are very conservative.

My associate in the studio to discuss this with me is TBC staff member Ed Newby. Ed is our primary question-and-answer correspondent. He produces our online updates, and he’s a researcher and contributor to TBC’s newsletter.

Ed, thanks for taking the long walk from your office to our studio and joining me on Search the Scriptures 24/7.

Ed: You’re very welcome, Tom, and I think I’ve even memorized the route that I followed you here!

Tom: Yeah! All 100 feet of it, right?

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.