Kenneth D. Keathley, Professor of Theology and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, has completed his latest book, Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach, published by B&H Academic. Today's post will interact with his chapter on Overcoming Grace (pp. 101-37).

From the back cover of the book, one reads the following: "Salvation and Sovereignty begins with author Kenneth Keathley asking, 'What shall a Christian do who is convinced of certain central tenets of Calvinism but not its corollaries [conclusions]?' Like many, he suspects the usual Calvinist understanding of sovereignty (that God is the cause of all things) is not sustained by the biblical witness as a whole."

Regarding the Calvinist claims that the "all" of John 12:32 actually means "all kinds...."

Why would John the Evangelist craft his gospel to emphasise that God wants "all KINDS" of people to be saved--as if anyone would ever disagree with such an inane statement. In the context of the fourth Gospel, saying God wants to save "all KINDS" of people to be saved is a truism which should go without saying--unless there was a real Jew-Gentile conflict going on in John's Gospel--which there isn't. The only narrative in John's Gospel where diversity in election ("all KINDS") could be viewed as the emphasis is John 4 (the Samaritan woman), but this theme is not emphasised elsewhere.

SEA is excited to announce the addition to our site of Dr. Brian Abasciano’s recently published article Clearing Up Misconceptions About Corporate Election which argues forcefully and compellingly for the corporate view of election. The theological concept of corporate election has been gaining force in modern scholarship for quite some time. It is widely held among scholars that a primarily corporate election is the election described in the OT. It is on this basis that Dr. Abasciano and others argue that this corporate view of election is the view that Paul and the other apostles would naturally carry over into the NT. This is not just speculation but is strongly supported by the language of election used especially by Paul, not least in Romans and Ephesians.

This is an excerpt from Brian Abasciano, “Paul’s Use of the Old Testament in Romans
9.1-9: An Intertextual and Theological Exegesis” (Ph.D. thesis; University of Aberdeen, 2004). This doctoral thesis is available in full here at our site, and has been revised and published under the same title. This excerpt explains how the biblical concept of calling is not in line with the Calvinistic view of effectual calling, but actually supports Arminian theology. Click on the attachment to view Abasciano's treatment of calling. Page numbers and footnote numbers differ from the original.