Ronald L. Dart recently died. Dart was a minister in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). When Garner Ted Armstrong left the WCG and founded the Church of God International (CGI), Dart became a minister at the CGI. Later, Dart left CGI and founded his own ministry, Christian Educational Ministries (CEM). Dart had a radio program entitled “Born to Win.”
I grew up in the Church of God International, so I got to listen to a lot of Ron Dart’s sermons and teaching. We had cassette tapes of his messages, and I would listen to them often (including in art class at school). Years later, I would listen occasionally to his radio program.
Mr. Dart was a good speaker. There was an inviting, storytelling quality to his sermons. There was an intellectual rigor to them, too. I was recently reading a blog post about Dart’s passing, and a commenter said that he actually continued to listen to Dart even after becoming an agnostic! I can identify with that! I do not exactly put myself in the agnostic category, but I do know that I appreciated listening to Dart’s teaching, even after I stopped adhering to Armstrongite faith and practice.
Mr. Dart had a stroke, and that was sad. Here was a man who loved to speak and to write, and he got to the point where he could no longer do that.
What follows are blog posts that I wrote over the years that engage Mr. Dart’s thought. In some cases, I disagree with Dart. In some cases, I agree. Sometimes, I just reminisce. Mr. Dart was a key influence on me in terms of my theology and knowledge of the Bible. Even when I was in graduate school wrestling with academic biblical scholarship, Mr. Dart’s thought was still somewhere in my mind.
The posts are in chronological order. If you are interested in listening to some of Dart’s sermons on YouTube, see here.
More on Religious Pluralism: Clark Pinnock
John MacArthur on the American Revolution, Voting
Sabbatarian “Paul Would Have” Arguments
Eschatological Sabbath: The Literal Interpretation
Samuele Bacchiocchi Has Passed Away
The Two Witnesses of Revelation 11
Respecting Other Gods, Philo on Inspiration
Van Seters on the Flood Doublet and the Pre-Sinaitic Law
Torah or Moral Freedom?; Davies on I Corinthians 9
Speaking with Authority: Delivery
Animal Sacrifice and Substitutionary Atonement
Book Write-Up: Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions, by Gerald R. McDermott
