The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Epic radio debate on Evangelical Universalism! (Pregame)

Featured Debates & Dialogues "Francis TurretinFan" and Jason Pratt
#1

, Chris"][size=150]Theopologetics Debates: Evangelical Universalism[/size]
Announcing the second ever Theopologetics debate! This time on the topic of “evangelical universalism.” Participants have agreed to field questions from you, my listeners, so send them my way at theopologetics@hotmail.com. Stay tuned!

Date: Friday, October 7th (or Tuesday, October 11th if unforeseen circumstances rule out Friday), to be published in the podcast feed shortly thereafter.

Resolution: Some people will not be saved from their sins according to the following passages and their contexts: 2 Thess. 1:9, Matt. 25:41/46, Matt. 18:8, Romans 9:22 and Jude 1:6.

Pseudonymous blogger TurretinFan of turretinfan.blogspot.com/ affirms. Jason Pratt, contributor to The Evangelical Universalist, denies.

Debate format:
]30 minutes opening affirmative/:m]
]30 minutes opening negative/:m]
]15 minutes rebuttal affirmative/:m]
]15 minutes opening affirmative/:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of affirmative/*:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of negative/:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of affirmative/:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of negative/:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of affirmative/:m]
]10 minutes cross-examination of negative/:m]
]20 minutes “audience” Q&A, alternating/:m]
]15 minutes closing negative/:m]
]15 minutes closing affirmative/:m]

[size=75]* Negative has offered to be cross-examined first if the affirmative so chooses.[/size]Yes it could go for over 3 hours!!! :astonished: Please pray for Jason as he prepares, that the moderator of the debate is fair, that truth would become clear to people, and above all, that God would be glorified by this.

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#2

Pray for TFan, too. :slight_smile:

We all need strengthening from God, without Whom we can do nothing, much less anything pleasing to Him!

(Edited to add: by which I mean, we should pray for TFan to be strengthened by God if TFan is actually correct. We shouldn’t be merely praying for me to ‘win’ or for him to ‘come to the truth’. See my agreement on this with Chris below.)

#3

Yes please do pray for me, though I do want to share with you an email sent to me by someone who participated in the last Theopologetics Debate. Oneness Pentecostal James Anderson wrote me this email:

I share this so that you’ll have reason to be confident that I’ll be fair, as strongly as I might disagree with Jason.

Also, I wholeheartedly concur with your request that we pray that “truth would become clear to people,” but let us on both sides pray that if we don’t presently recognize what that truth is, that God would enlighten us. It might be that particularism, not universalism, is the truth which we should pray would become clear to people. Of course it might be the other way around. So let’s make sure that we’re prayerfully considering both positions, not simply rooting for our side to win.

#4

Where/how do I find/listen to the debate?

#5

An addendum regarding the Q&A period:

Chris will select some questions (and already has some in mind), four for me and four for TFan. We’ll get 1:30 to answer, and the other guy will have thirty seconds for rejoinder, leaving 30 seconds for Chris to ask the question.

That’s a tight 20 minutes! So, please try not to send questions to either of us that would require a book to answer. :laughing: That wouldn’t be quite fair to either TFan or myself.

(The questions could of course be fodder for another debate, whether with TFan or someone else; or for an interview with Chris a few weeks later; or for blog posts afterward come to think of it.)

I entirely concur with Chris’ last paragraph in the comment he left while I was composing this, by the way: we should pray that if we ourselves don’t currently recognize the truth that God would enlighten us.

I know a lot of us here are like that; but I also know some of us (not Alex) are Team U partisans. :wink: I’m going to be verrrrrrry picky about protecting Chis and TFan from badmouthing (unless they act like nits perhaps, which they haven’t so far). Good opponents should be cherished and fostered for a bunch of reasons, not least for self-critical purposes.

Be warned; be very awarned. Unchivalrous remarks (and members) may be mod nuked!

#6

We’ll post another thread when the debate portions start to go up, with links. (We won’t record the debate until Friday night Oct 7th, at the earliest. Theoretically Chris will have portions edited and start posting the following week.)

You can also keep track of progress at Chris’ blog: theopologetics.blogspot.com

His announcement post can currently be found there at theopologetics.blogspot.com/2011 … lical.html

See also his subsequent comment immediately below.

#7

I doubt the debate will be live. I’ve listened to a PalTalk debate and it was horrible in terms of quality. If I can figure out how to record the debate while making it available over UStream or something, I will. But don’t assume that.

For now, assume that within a day or two of the scheduled date, you will find it published in my podcast feed at theopologetics.podbean.com. I’ll also make available the raw audio without including my intro and outro music, monologue, etc. The podcast feed will contain those things, but in the show notes I’ll include a link to the raw debate recording.

#8

That way people can hear me pick my nose on live radio!

:mrgreen:

More seriously, we’re doing this by Skype so there may possibly be video recorded (by Chris and/or by one of us). And if the feed comes out good, and I (and/or they) figure out how to shift the main screen to the speaker at appropriate times, there could possibly be a YouTube video or something of that sort later (so long as all parties are in favor of it.)

#9

Sorry, Jason, if there was some confusion. I will not be recording any video. My recording plugin records only audio. Besides, I doubt that TurretinFan, given that he’s operating under a pseudonym, will want his face shown :slight_smile:

#10

Oh, argh, I should have remembered that… http://www.wargamer.com/forums/upfiles/smiley/00000030.gif

#11

Alex, I’ve added a bit to the thread title so as to clarify that the debate hasn’t happened yet, it’s just on the way. :slight_smile:

#12

I’ve only ever heard good things about you, so I have confidence you’ll do a great job :slight_smile:

Amen!

#13

How Exciting.

May God use this to open eyes and warm hearts!

#14

I’ll try to keep an occasional eye on TFan’s blog to see if he starts posting up pregame material, and if so I’ll provide links to it back here. (And/or the other admin/mods will.)

His (few) posts tagged with “Universal Salvation” so far (including his pregame announcement), can be found collected here. (I have also done a more general search for that and related terms on his site, and these are all that have come up, so far as I recall.)

TFan considers the term “Universal Redemption” to mean something different from “Universal Salvation”; his posts (rather more detailed) on that topic can be found collected here.

Readers should NOT suppose that this is all he relevantly has to say on the topic on his blog (much less elsewhere).

A cloud-list of all his topical tags can be found at the bottom of any of his blog pages, including those collections, for readers interested in looking up other topics on his site.

#15

Chris (the host of our debate) has posted the beginning of an article on Hebrews 6:4-6 which, while not directly involving the material of our debate, is of some interest as it’s also one of the texts that have often been adduced in favor of final perdition (of one or another kind).

His initial article can be found here; I’ll try to remember to post updates as he continues. (I have posted a comment myself already. :slight_smile: )

#16

My side of that discussion on Heb 6 may be updated soon. It’s long enough that I’m thinking of making a separate thread for it, too. :smiley:

This is still the pregame, by the way. The actual debate won’t be until next Friday. (And won’t be mainly with Chris but with TFan, although Chris will have some shots during the Q&A period. :slight_smile: )

#17

Just a reminder to everybody that the debate is scheduled to take place tomorrow night, Lord willing, and I’ll publish it as soon after as possible.

#18

How long does it take you to publish? A few days?

Sonia

#19

Yes, it should only take Chris a few days to edit and begin posting it up, although the posting itself will occur over a span of several days (I expect), probably in three chunks.

I’ll have been at it two hours by this time tomorrow night. :smiley: Pray for us!

#20

Will do! :slight_smile: