Pyromaniacs: The Art of Smug
John on September 3, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I guess the guys over at Pyromaniacs feel they’re entitled to be smug and belligerent. After all, John MacArthur is a man so smug that even people who agree with him on 95% of his positions are fed up with him. That’s a hard act to follow.
Here’s how I look at it. If MacArthur has raised smugness to an art, the Pyro guys are like cheap Taiwanese knock-off-smug, i.e. not quality but cheap and plentiful. Have a look at these and you’ll see what I mean.
Other bloggers are just tired of beating their heads against a wall. I probably would be too if I bothered to read their site more than once a semester.
Anyway, I’m not above a little return smugness. Here’s my take on the Pyro guys in the form of motivational posters parodying their beliefs. Not accurate? Sorry boys, it’s a little late to complain about that.
They’ll pretend to ignore this post like they have all the others I’ve written about them. One thing I’ve learned about the reformed and that’s that they won’t bother arguing if they can get away with crowd pleasing demagoguery or a quick dis. They’ve been that way since Calvin’s day actually.
Plus ca’ change…
Update: I stole this one from Matt Johnson at The Boar’s Head Tavern:
Category: Religion & Faith |
Great post, Phil. Oops, I mean John. Must have been infected with the pyrobot virus. Nice work.
September 4, 2007 @ 3:39 pmPlus la change… as if “Plus la change, plus la même chose.”
September 4, 2007 @ 5:47 pmI am not a fan of either, however why do I get the feeling that your posters aim up and theirs aim down, or so it would seem? I guess it is relative to what place you presently inhabit on the doctrinal ladder, or what place you have ascribed to yourself.
September 4, 2007 @ 6:17 pmSo what did you want us to not ignore?
Did you want to ask a question, answer one, or did you have a different method of opening a conversation?
Hi.
September 4, 2007 @ 7:45 pmGreat inspirational posters! Are you going to make them available for a small “love gift” of $30-$40 each? You might get $100 each if you claim that God is going to strike you dead….
September 4, 2007 @ 7:49 pmChange!
Corrected.
September 4, 2007 @ 8:15 pmGood work, John. I haven’t been following this debate as closely as you have (obviously), so I have a dumb question. Do the Pyromaniacs really hold to a pre-trib rapture? Are they aware that Calvin was a postmillennialist?
September 4, 2007 @ 10:28 pmFrank,
As someone sympathetic to the emerging side of things, I just thought I’d return the visual broadsides you guys were dishing out.
Sarcasm cuts both ways.
September 4, 2007 @ 10:31 pmScott,
Yes my understanding is that they hold to the pre-trib rapture. I’m not sure how they reconcile that particular problem. Perhaps that’s a good question for Frank.
For the record, I’m a partial preterist.
September 4, 2007 @ 10:36 pmGood job on the posters! I especially like the “Change” and “Pre-Trib” posters. The Barney Fife poster is classic (I’m a huge Andy Griffith fan, owning all BW episodes on DVD). Oh yeah, I’m headed to my fourth Shepherds’ Conference in 2008.
This is fun!
September 5, 2007 @ 9:57 amKeith,
As a fellow fan of Mayberry who owns the first three seasons on DVD, I salute you.
September 5, 2007 @ 10:38 amScott G,
Not quite right.
September 5, 2007 @ 11:03 am“Outreach” is my favorite, if you’re keeping score. The one with the comb-over is, as they say, “too soon”.
September 5, 2007 @ 2:05 pmFunny, funny stuff. As were theirs.
September 5, 2007 @ 2:23 pmCheers,
RICHARD
Ha! “We go to 11.” Classic.
September 6, 2007 @ 11:51 am[...] guys at Verum Serum go tit-for-tat with the watchdog websites. I’m not sure how I feel about turnabout, but you have to admit [...]
September 7, 2007 @ 9:14 am[...] Poster Craze. I am really partial to these. (Thanks, Heather!) [...]
September 10, 2007 @ 9:04 amI am sympathetic, but shouldn’t a little “turn the other cheek” be applied here? How is dishing back a dose of “smugness” accomplishing anything?
September 11, 2007 @ 1:22 pmMark,
I don’t think it really helps which is sort of the point. It doesn’t help when they do it either. I’d like to think they get that now, but who knows.
September 11, 2007 @ 3:12 pmI realize that this comes pretty late after this post, so many won’t even read this, but I have to get it out there. I am a member of the Reformed Church in America, and also extremely sympathetic toward the emerging church, and I think there are some mis-characterizations going on here. I see Theology: Something decided in the 16th century, and my immediate response is the Reformed credo: Reformed and always Reforming. Also, Reformed people are NOT pre-trib pre-mils or anything like that. In fact, the reformed churches (RCA, CRC, PCA, OPC, PC(USA), UCC, etc.) are almost entirely amillenial (with some post-mils thrown in for good measure- you can’t have a good party without post-mils!). If by Reformed, you are thinking of Calvinists (and if you are thinking of Calvinism and think of a certain flowery 5-point acronym), you are mistaken in your terminology. I don’t think people like MacArthur would call themselves reformed. John may be a Calvinist in the sense of election, but I don’t think he believes in real spiritual presence at the Eucharist and I know he doesn’t hold to amillenialism. I don’t really have a point other than to say that the use of Reformed here might a touch off.
Otherwise, I love these posters. I even have the Reformed one as my desktop wallpaper. It may not be accurate to the Reformed I know, but it still gives me a giggle every time I see it.
November 14, 2007 @ 3:17 pmHey, you were dead wrong about TeamPyro. They didn’t ignore your post. Phil Johnson himself commented about it and gave you a link the very same day you made the post. He wrote:
Just thought you should see it.
December 6, 2007 @ 11:18 amAlan,
Well, look at that. I guess I was wrong about them ignoring us.
December 6, 2007 @ 1:25 pmFantastic.
October 14, 2008 @ 10:48 pm