Please click on the link to view David P. Hunt, “Contra Hasker: Why Simple Foreknowledge Is Still Useful”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Sept 2009) 545-550. This article responds to William Hasker’s critique (“Why Simple…
Posts By SEA
Enjoying The Good News Of Christ
[The following post was authored by Ben Henshaw, and has undergone some revision with the author’s permission for inclusion here.]
Calvinists often argue that God’s love has failed if Christ’s atonement was made for all and yet not all are saved. I find it strange that Calvinists, who are so quick to criticize Arminians for holding to a man centered religion, argue that unless man responds to God’s love in saving faith, then His love for them has somehow failed. How is it that they feel comfortable equating the success or failure of God’s love with man’s response to that love? Is the nature or validity of God’s love dependant on man’s response? Doesn’t that seem a little man centered?
John Jefferson Davis, “The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine”
[Please note that that author is a Calvinist theologian, but this is a historical review of the doctrine that does not involve the author in arguing for his view. The web version of this article…
The Lazy Man’s Guide to Refuting Edwards and Compatibilism
Recently we posted a list of resources that refute Jonathan Edwards and Calvinistic compatibilism and defend genuine free will (http://evangelicalarminians.org/refuting-edwards-and-calvinist-compatibilism-and-arguments-against-genuine-free-will/). Some of them are pretty hefty. So if you would like to get to the…
Al Jolson vs. Toby Mac Theology
1) Calvinist theology found in the opening lyrics to a famous song by Al Jolson: YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU You made me love you I didn’t want to do it I didn’t want to…
Brian Abasciano On the Corporate Perspective of Paul and His Culture, the Translation of Rom 9:6b, and Corporate Election in Romans 9
This document contains two excerpts 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 dissertation is available in full…
Brian Abasciano on Calling
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…
Exciting News in the Addition of Two New Resources
We have added two new resources to the site. The first to mention is the really exciting addition: The Puritan Arminian John Goodwin’s (1593-1665) magisterial Redemption Redeemed, which some believe to be the best defense…
M. William Ury, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology’s Entry on “Will”
Please click on the link to view M. William Ury, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology’s Entry on “Will”
A. Philip Brown, II, “ELECTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT”
You may view this article either as a regular web page or as a pdf, which may also be downloaded. To view the article as a pdf file, click on the attachment below. To view…
Brian Abasciano’s “Paul’s Use of the Old Testament in Romans 9:1-9: An Intertextual and Theological Exegesis”
We just wanted to alert you to the fact that we now have Brian Abasciano’s doctoral dissertation available on our site: “Paul’s Use of the Old Testament in Romans 9:1-9: An Intertextual and Theological Exegesis”…
Dilemmas of Calvinism
Some problems with Calvinism based on the book, The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism by Calvinist Craig. R. Brown: First, the chapter on Responsibility emphasizes that God decrees everything, controls everything and is the primary cause…
Essays by Collin Hansen about The Reformed Resurgence
At Justin Taylor’s blog, Andy Naselli recently drew attention to a series of seven short essays on “The Reformed Resurgence” by Colin Hansen, author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists…
Paul Copan, “Taking Calvinism Too Far: R.C. Sproul Jr.
In his book Almighty Over All (Baker, 1999), R.C. Sproul Jr. makes some controversial statements—ones that appear to be sub-biblical. What tipped me off to this was hearing a paper presentation at a conference in April in…
The Failure of God?
The following post is comprised of comments submitted to our website by [email protected], slightly revised with the author’s permission. Insofar as such infamous “failed God” arguments clearly assume the doctrine of irresistible grace (grace=force/deterministic salvation)…
Hyper-Calvinism: The Logical Conclusion of Regular Calvinism?
Calvinist Phil Johnson has said, “History teaches us that hyper-Calvinism is as much a threat to true Calvinism as Arminianism is. Virtually every revival of true Calvinism since the Puritan era has been hijacked, crippled, or ultimately killed by hyper-Calvinist influences” (http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/hypercal.htm).
Might this be because hyper-Calvinism is the logical conclusion to the distinctive doctrines of Calvinism? Perhaps regular Calvinism simply refuses to go where its own doctrine logically leads because where it leads contradicts the Bible so blatantly.
John Wesley Charges that Calvinism Makes God Out to Be Worse than the Devil
To follow up on Roger Olson’s essay recently posted here, perhaps it would be appropriate to post an excerpt from John Wesley’s famous sermon, “Free Grace”, in which he made a very similar charge about Calvinism as Olson, but more passionately and more forcefully. Whereas Olson states that Calvinism’s consistent divine determinism makes it difficult for him to tell the difference between God and the devil in the system, Wesley says that the system makes God worse than the devil and so is blasphemous (and he explains why). Now Wesley accepted Calvinists as brothers in Christ, so he surely did not mean that Calvinists are blasphemers or that they worship a false god or anything of the sort. I take him to mean that the logical implications of Calvinism are blasphemous, which Calvinists themselves might not really see, and which Wesley labored to help them see to bring them to the more bibilical position of Arminianism.
Exploring the Psychology of Embracing Calvinism
In one of our private discussions, one of our members was wondering about the influence background may play in nudging some toward acceptance of Calvinism. He noted that he knows someone whose family background resulted…
Daniel D. Whedon, “Commentary on the New Testament, Volume 4: 1 Corinthians-2 Timothy”
Wesleyan/Arminain Daniel Denison Whedon’s commentary on the New Testament books of 1 Corinthians-2 Timothy (1876) (link)
Daniel D. Whedon, “Commentary on the New Testament, Volume 3: Acts-Romans”
Wesleyan/Arminain Daniel Denison Whedon’s commentary on the New Testament books of Acts and Romans (1875)