The Friday Files compiles links to posts from Arminian and other non-Calvinistic bloggers from around the globe. All links are offered because they are thought to be of potential interest to those who are interested in Arminian/Calvinist issues. Inclusion of links here does not necessarily mean the linked material is Arminian or carries SEA’s approval. Any commentary on highlighted material does not necessarily represent SEA’s viewpoint but belongs solely to the compiler.
- Martin Glynn, aka JC Freak, posts “Calvinist Rhetoric: Piety” on his site, The Irish Protestant, in which he parallels the rhetoric of Job’s friends to the rhetoric of Calvinists.
- Dr. Leighton Flowers of Soteriology 101 engages the subject: “What about Those Who Have Never Heard [the Gospel]?” Were such decreed by God to not hear the Gospel? Calvinists say yes and the rest of all believers say no.
- The Remonstrance podcast offers another minisode: “Arminius on Predestination.”
- Solus Arminius brings us two posts: “The Inglorious God of Uncomfortable Calvinists,” in which the argument is constructed that determinism, and thus Calvinism, renders God not glorious but inglorious, and that, perhaps, this is the intuitive reason why some Calvinists are uncomfortable (and inconsistent) with Calvinism; as well as “Free-Willers Will the Will of God,” a post celebrating the truth that the heartbeat of Arminianism is not “my will be done” but “Thy will be done.”
- Andrew, from his site Beyond Calvinism, presents “Reformed Theologian Emil Brunner on Romans 9 and the Double Decree,” the latter notion being rightly dismissed as one considers the context and theme of Romans 9 being “not the doctrine of predestination, but the sovereign operation of God in History, who has been pleased to reveal Himself at one particular point in History, in Israel.”
- Evan Minton of Cerebral Faith asks “How Do the Heavens Declare God’s Glory?” and answers that biblical question by demonstrating how creation itself declares the worthiness and, more significantly, the existence of a Creator-God.
- Dr. Dale Wayman of IRONSTRIKES focuses on the topic of marriage this week with “A Very Simple Predictor of Marital Success,” which includes communication; “How to Lower Divorce Rates,” the key to which includes mutual affirmative support; “Let Nothing Hinder Your Prayers,” a reminder that the manner in which men conduct themselves toward their wives reflects in their relationship to God via prayer; and, finally, “Marriage is a Life-Long Process,” noting that the spiritual and relational state of the married couple is part of a larger journey upon which both travel together as they grow.
- The Society of Evangelical Arminians highlight this week Ben Witherington’s review of Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities; Jeremy Ostrander’s “Tactics and Total Depravity,” a brief piece in which he engages the subject of Millennials leaving the church and why; Jonathan Sheehan’s “Teaching Calvin in California,” in which he denotes the sour and shocked reaction of his students hearing, for the first time, the core tenets of Calvinism; and Dr. Dale Wayman’s “Wesley’s Creedal Faith,” an informative piece on Wesley’s wide grace regarding those who do not subscribe to the doctrine of the Trinity as outlined by Athanasius.
