I know I can be a bit of a Mark Driscoll apologist, but I have been listening through the “Christ on the Cross” series he did a while back, and have been finding it great.

Phil Johnson over at the Team Pyro blog has initiated a firestorm of commenting over his post on Total Depravity.

The concept of total depravity (which basically says that people left to their own device and will cannot turn to God) leads on to issues of spiritual regeneration and therefore election or predestination.

Growing up the whole topic of predestination has always been clouded in mystery and a sense of “don’t even go near it” and so it was always relegated to the too hard basket. Until recently (thanks to the ‘net) I’d never heard it preached on, and bible studies always glossed over any reference to it, let alone focus on understanding it.

This always frustrated me. I understand that this, like many doctrines, is full of tensions and mystery, but that is no excuse for not coming to as complete an understanding as is possible.

Anyway, this weeks installment in the Mars Hill Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions series is where Mark Driscoll tackles Predestination (or Duck, Duck, Damn as he calls it). There is also a very comprehensive post by Pastor Mark here.

This is a hard doctrine, but one worth studying and understanding as best as we can.