The following brief article was taken from http://www.fwponline.cc/v21n1/v21n1witzki.html, an article by Steve Witzki in The Arminian. The article Witzki refers to by John Jefferson Davis may be viewed online here at SEA at http://evangelicalarminians.org/john-jefferson-davis-the-perseverance-of-the-saints-a-history-of-the-doctrine/. John…
One of our members drew attention to a clever comparison of God’s offer in the gospel to a manufacturer issuing a recall notice. It struck me as Arminian in orientation. So, I thought it would…
That’s right. Lamentably, the Calvinist resurgence has made such an impact that Time Magazine has noticed it and diagnosed its influence to be even greater than we might have thought in its cover story for…
“Prevenient Grace: Why It Matters”
by Roger Olson
This is a follow up to my earlier post regarding the statement of the traditional Southern Baptist view of salvation by certain Southern Baptist non-Calvinist, non-Arminian pastors and theologians. If you have not read that post, go back and read it before reading this one. Here I am picking up where I left off there and taking some comments subsequent to it into account.
Also, here, I am not delving into the debate between Calvinists and Arminians over the nature of prevenient grace as irresistible or resistible. That’s certainly interesting and much discussed in evangelical and Baptist circles, but here I am simply talking about prevenient grace AS IT IS BELIEVED BY BOTH CALVINISTS AND ARMINIANS.
In the attached article, Steve Witzki surveys the thought of the early church on the topic of apostasy, concluding: “It seems rather apparent that the Ante-Nicene Fathers believed that a Christian could sever their saving…
This post was originally published as the third installment of a series, the first two numbers being “The New Perspective on Paul” and “The New Perspective and the Development of Reformed Doctrine.” The background for…
We recently changed our website platform and are now in the process of restoring material and fixing any glitches that occurred with the switch. We will be working on the site and trying to improve it, and hopefully putting up…
Holding Firmly, I Am Held (An Arminian Approach to Eternal Security) written by SEA member, Roy Ingle There are two things we really want to know about being a Christian. First, we want to know…
written by SEA member, Roy Ingle I saw this posted on Twitter and have received this complaint before. The reasoning is that in Calvinism God is allowed to be sovereign so that all that comes…
The following is a series of important excerpts from some of the best scholarly works espousing the corporate view of election. Taken together, these quoted sections give a very detailed description of the fundamental elements…
James Arminius (The Security of the Believer)_0
Arminius on the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ submitted by SEA member, Roy Ingle VII. The Son is the second person in the Holy Trinity, the Word of the Father, begotten of the…
By Dr. Dale Wayman
It seems to me that some people have more faith in their relationship with God than I do. I hear people talking about how God does special things for them. For example, I hear people say, “God made this sunny day just for me. I prayed that God would let the weather be nice and sunny and dry so that I would have a good day on my birthday.” I think, “Really? God put in a high pressure system over where you are today just so you could have a good day?” I then imagine a farmer in the same region praying, “Lord, today, could you make it rain really good? My crops aren’t doing well and they could use the moisture.” So, now we have competing prayers. How does God know who to listen to?
Often cited as a proof text for the doctrine of Total Inability is Jeremiah 13:23, which reads, Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do…
The Practical Implications of an Unlimited Atonement written by SEA member, Roy Ingle On a more personal level, what are the implications of an unlimited atonement when it comes to ministry? I believe there is…
Arminius on Our Election Being in Christ This post is provided by SEA member, Roy Ingle Arminius wrote the following in a debate over the subject of predestination. He clearly shows that he taught that…
Is Faith a Work?
This post is written by SEA member, Roy Ingle
In Romans 4:4-5 we read the following:
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
Calvinism, Arminianism and Omnibenevolence
This post was written by Randal Rauser, PhD
[Please note that Dr. Rauser is not a member of SEA and that SEA does not necessarily endorse all of his theological positions. We include this post on our site because we think it helpful in some respects.]
Arminians like to point out that according to Calvinism God elects some people to damnation. Of course some Calvinists try to soften this teaching by claiming that the election to damnation is a passive divine act according to which God simply “passes over” and thereby opts not to redeem these people.
Unfortunately this shift in nomenclature doesn’t really make the divine act of election to damnation passive in an ethically significant way. Indeed, it calls to mind James Rachels’ famous thought experiment on passive euthanasia so I’m going to borrow from that thought experiment to make my point.
This is the heart of the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore of authentic Christianity: the incarnation of God as “one of us.” Take it away and Christianity is little more…
Leading Calvinist John MacArthur asserts that,
“The contemporary idea today is that there’s some residual good left in the sinner. As this progression came from Pelagianism to Semi-Pelagianism, and then came down to some contemporary Arminianism, maybe got defined a little more carefully by Wesley, who was a sort of, ah, um, messed up Calvinist, because Wesley wanted to give all the glory to God, but as you well know, but he wanted to find in man some place where man could initiate salvation on his own will… So that the sinner, un-aided by the Holy Spirit, must make the first move. That’s essentially Arminian theology: The sinner, un-aided, must make the first move.”(Bold Emphasis mine)1
Loraine Boettner writes,
