Weylan Deaver, gospel preacher and son of Mac Deaver, sent me this note this morning, and he has allowed me to post it here for your information. Weylan writes,
“Matthew Black, the Baptist pastor scheduled to have a four night debate with Mac Deaver on April 27-30 in Chicago, has, at the eleventh hour, pulled out of the debate. This, in spite of the best efforts of members of the Schaumburg church of Christ (the debate’s sponsor) to encourage Black to keep his commitment to participate.

“Months of preparation have gone into this event, including advertising and numerous people making travel arrangements to attend. Expecting several visitors, and not wanting to have to turn them away with nothing, the Schaumburg church has asked that Deaver go ahead and come to present his material, at least for Monday-Wednesday nights. The URL for listening to the audio of the now-canceled debate will (hopefully–no final word yet) still be used for streaming the audio of Deaver’s presentations.

“Having gone over Deaver’s PowerPoint presentation, including affirmative and negative arguments, it is excellent and most helpful material in addressing whether sin is (or even can be) inherited, and whether a person can, of his own free will, respond to the gospel’s invitation. So, even without an actual debate, the study that has gone into preparing for it will pay dividends in helping brethren in the future who have to deal with Calvinistic thought. Having already made all plans to be there, I will still make the trip to encourage the event, and it will be grand to see the good brethren at Schaumburg once more. Of course, the initial shock of this news was most disappointing. However, Lord willing, good will still come from it!”

We will keep you up-to-date on the availability of the audio broadcast as the date nears.