We are still not posting blog posts generally at present while our server problems get taken care of. But we might post news items like this one as seems appropriate.

Distinguished NT scholar and non-Calvinist, Scot McKnight, has been blogging about the most troubling element of the Calvinist resurgence, which he labels "the neo-Reformed". Here are links to his first and second posts:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/02/who-are-the-neoreformed.html

http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/02/who-are-the-neoreformed-2.html

But McKnight has created a bit of controversy because he started this critique in a blurb for N.T. Wright's new book responding to John Piper's criticisms of Wright's work. So some have taken McKnight to be classifying Piper and certain other prominent Calvinist scholars in this pejorative category.

Mr. Hamilton discusses the necessity of Allegiance to Christ.

"What exactly must I do in order to be accepted by God? What are the conditions for salvation?
There is a tendency today for us to answer that question based more on the catch-phrases and metaphors we have accumulated over the years from sermons and Christian writings than on the inspired Scriptures themselves. The result is that we sometimes go beyond what the Bible teaches God requires of us for salvation, or miss the biblical focus entirely."

Please click on the attachments to view all of "Allegiance. What Must I Do To Be Saved?" Parts 1 and 2.

It is argued by proponents of Openness as well as Calvinists that claim Openness is the logical conclusion for Arminianism that in order for people to be free the future must be somehow open. Their argument claims that if God's knowledge of future unactualized contingencies is perfectly known, then creaturely freedom is a farce and whether we like it or not, our Lord has effectively predestinated all of creation. Countering the argument Arminians point out that simply knowing for sure that a person will freely do something is not enough for God to control or predestinate the world. This is because foreknowledge of an event does not imply direct influence or omnicausality, or absolute determination, but merely knows what other wills are doing. In other words, foreknowledge doesn't mean absolute determination. Yet a fine point should be sharpened at this time: God not only grasps and understands what actually will happen, but also what could happen under varied possible contingencies.

This blog post has been placed in an attachment to preserve its formatting. Please click on the attachment to see today's blog post. We try to avoid this for the most part, but the formatting was quite important for what Richard has to say. We believe you will find it well worth it.