In the last post, we explored Owen’s admission that there is a distinction between Christ obtaining spiritual blessings and the application of these blessings, which are given on the condition that a person believes. Owen’s solution, used…
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Mike Barlotta, “The Death of John Owen’s Argument That a General Atonement Means God Failed to Achieve His Goal (Part 3)”
In part 1, we examined Owen’s contention: Christ’s death does not make salvation possible. It actually and infallibly applies the benefits of the cross to everyone that Christ died for. the [purpose] of our Saviour’s coming, … [was] namely, to “save sinners;”…
Mike Barlotta, “The Death of John Owen’s Argument That A General Atonement Means God Failed to Achieve His Goal” (Part 2)
In part 1 of this series the dilemma that Owen poses to those who reject a limited/particular atonement was explored. According to Dr. Owen the options are: Universalism Accepting that God had no purpose or intention behind the…
Mike Barlotta, “The Death of John Owen’s Argument That a General Atonement Means God Failed to Achieve His Goal (Part 1)”
In the Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), Dr. John Owen offers a famous argument for a limited atonement. That was explored in another post. In chapter 1 of Book I there is another challenge presented…
Mike Barlotta, “John Owen on Preaching the Gospel to those whom Christ did not die for”
John Owen was well aware of the arguments against limited atonement regarding the preaching of the gospel. Particularly that the gospel, preached to the non-elect (or reprobate), was vain and useless. Opponents make this claim,…
David L. Allen, “Carl Trueman on John Owen, the Covenant of Redemption, and Definite Atonement – Review 9, *From Heaven He Came and Sought Her*”
Please click on the link to view David Allen’s review of Carl Truemen’s chapter on “John Owen, the Covenant of Redemption, and Definite Atonement” in From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in…
Provisional Atonement Part 1: Dealing With John Owen’s Arminian Dilemma
I lifted this from Jeff Paton’s website. He gives an answer based on his commitment to the “sacrificial” view of the atonement, which allows him to bypass the force of Owen’s argument. As I have…
John Goodwin Responds to John Owen and Other Calvinist Critics
This 1658 work is a lengthy rejoinder to multiple Calvinist rebuttals written against Goodwin’s Arminian magnum opus, Redemption Redeemed (1651). It includes response to John Owen’s critique. The book runs 515 pages. It has a…
Provisional Atonement Part 1: Dealing With John Owen’s Arminian Dilemma
I lifted this from Jeff Paton’s website . He gives an answer based on his commitment to the “sacrificial” view of the atonement, which allows him to bypass the force of Owen’s argument. As I…
First Installment of a Review of John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
This post is an excerpt from the book review of Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Often Calvinists appeal to John Owen’s the Death of Death in the Death of Christ as the…
A Hard-hitting Comment from Paul Owen on the New Calvinism and a John Piper Video
Calvinist theologian Paul Owen left this comment on Roger Olson’s post, “Is the Problem Calvinism or Fundamentalism (or the Combination)?”: If one wants to see the problem illustrated, you need look no further than John…
David L. Allen, “RESPONSE TO JEFFREY JOHNSON’S BOOK REVIEW OF MY BOOK “THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT””
Response to Jeffrey Johnson’s Review of David Allen, The Extent of the Atonement: A Historical and Critical Review (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2016) David L. Allen Dean, School of Preaching Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Let…
Jesse Owens, “Arminius and the Doctrine of Prevenient Grace”
In his recent essay, Jackson Watts reminds us that Arminius wholly affirmed the human will’s complete depravity and perversity after the Fall. The Magisterial Reformers were not alone in affirming this. Arminius too held to the…
Gerald Owens, The Incarnation as Divine Self-Defintion
Fundamentally, salvation is very simple. In 1 John 4:14-15 we read:
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.[NIV]
This central claim of Christianity is the most controversial: that a man who looked like everyone else and had a body just like everyone else’s that died like everyone else’s, was God. To deny that claim it is to depart from Orthodoxy Christianity as seen by both Calvinists and Arminians. However, its implications call into question some of the core assumptions of Calvinism, for what definition of God permits Jesus to be God?
John 6: Jesus Says He has Good News! His Father has Chosen to Save Some of You!
Among such biblical texts as Romans 8 and 9 and Ephesians 1, Calvinists are convinced that John 6 secures the notion that Jesus taught a Calvinistic soteriology. I am convinced, however, that Calvinists tend to…
J.I. Packer and Arminianism
by Roger Olson
Today I received an e-mail from a reader who asked why I didn’t mention J. I. Packer in either Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities or Against Calvinism. That’s a good question. I didn’t, so now I will.
To the best of my knowledge, the only lengthy, detailed treatment of Arminianism in print by Packer was his Introduction to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ in A Quest for Godliness. It may be found at this web address. There Packer, a Calvinist, completely misrepresents Arminianism. It’s truly shocking how distorted his understanding of Arminianism was then. I don’t know if it’s improved since then or not.
For example, there he wrote that:
For the Sins of the Whole World
This post is an excerpt from the book review of Death of Death in the Death of Christ.
I plan on 1) presenting the passages that teach Christ died for the world, 2) presenting my argument for unlimited atonement, 3) explaining 1 John 2:1-2, 4) going into some detail on the word “world”, and 5) addressing John Owen’s counter definition.
The Text
The New Testament has 10 passages which teach Christ died for the world. 1 John 2:1-2 is one of them.
1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Roy Ingle, “Spurgeon’s Misunderstanding of Arminianism”
“The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth;…
Mark K. Olson, “Millennial Aspirations and the Problem of Religious Nominalism”
Abstract: This is part one of a five-part study on John Wesley’s eschatology. This opening article recounts the development of eschatology in England from the Protestant Reformation to the Evangelical Revival in the eighteenth century.…
Friday Files: Monergism
Calvinists often love the terms ‘monergism’ and ‘synergism’. The usefulness of these terms is dubious, and the use of the term ‘monergism’ as some test for orthodoxy can be question begging, but they have become…