Any semi-pelagians on here -- besides me?

This guy really tells it like it is!

http://reformedbaptistfellowship.or...-to-attend-or-join-a-reformed-baptist-church/

Steve

What makes a Baptist (church or individual) a Baptist?
If one can honestly set aside the differences in doctrines that aren't really important enough to argued about, then can be truthful enough about those issues on which intelligent and Godly people disagree and say "maybe we can't be 100% sure on these", what is there that is distinctly Baptist? Among the "Heinz 57" varieties how can one finally decide "If I want to be a Baptist, this is the place to be."?

This question is for dispensationalists. I am not here to argue with others that are not dispensationalist. There are plenty of debates in the Dispensationalist circles to take much of my time reading, rather than debating others. Thank you for respecting this.

Rev 6:8 (NIV)
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the...

Luke 23:34 quotes Jesus on the cross as saying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Were these people truly forgiven? To what extent were they forgiven? If they were forgiven, does this mean that they were saved?

What are your views on this?

What was this cup that Jesus asked to be able to bypass?

Obviously, if open theism were true (even the "limited" brand from Van and humblethinker), God did not know exhaustively who would be born, what sins they would commit, and which ones would come to faith. Based on this, how do the "limited open theists" understand the "mechanics" of the atonement and how it is a payment for "sins"?

Of particular note for me is 1 Peter 2:24
1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto...

The standard teaching and I haven't figured out why is that When Jesus prayed that night in the Garden, in Mat. 26:
38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

39And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

40And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto...

What are your views about cremation? Is it something that's forbidden in the Bible?

Honestly. Everytime I read him he is preoccupied with reasoning of a theological/philosophical nature and seems to resort to the Scriptures for proof-texting and polemics. Even when delving into the Scriptures he seems ever preoccupied with matters not primarily to do with the text.

Someone who jumps to the application without first exegeting the text has a bad method.