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”…
Posts By SEA
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)
Daniel Gracely, “Calvinism: A Closer Look: Evangelicals, Calvinism, and Why No One’s Answering the Problem of Evil”
A book available to read online by Daniel Gracely: Calvinism: A Closer Look: Evangelicals, Calvinism , and Why No One’s Answering the Problem of Evil, published by Grandma’s Attic Press, © 2006-2009. Please note that…
Robert Chisholm’s Excellent Article on Hardening in the Old Testament
We do not always announce in the the blog the addition of specific articles to the site’s article database. (We regularly add articles to the site, and upon being added they appear in the “Recent…
Norman Geisler, Entry on “Free Will” in the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
This article was take from http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/theological-dictionary/TD1100W3.htm
Free Will
by Dr. Norman Geisler
(from Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Books, 1999)
Concepts of the nature of human choice fall within three categories: determinism, indeterminism, and self-determinism. A determinist looks to actions caused by another, an indeterminist to uncaused actions, and a self-determinist to self-caused actions.
Determinism
There are two basic kinds of determinism: naturalistic and theistic. Naturalistic determinism is most readily identified with behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner held that all human behavior is determined by genetic and behavioral factors. Humans simply act according to what has been programmed into them.
Roger Olson Joins Scot McKnight in Taking It to the Neo-Reformed
One of our members, well known Arminian theologian Roger Olson, has weighed in on the controversy stirred up by Scot McKnight’s recent comments about those he has labeled the “Neo-Reformed” (see our recent post about…
Scot McKnight–Taking It to the Neo-Reformed
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…
Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell, “Examining Calvinism”
Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell, “Examining Calvinism”, Good News Magazine (September/October 2004).
Scholars Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell critique Calvinism and explain why they reject it.
Upcoming Radio Debate on Calvinism between Dr. Michael L. Brown and Dr. James White
Former Calvinist Dr. Michael L. Brown and continuing Calvinist Dr. James White are scheduled to do a radio debate on Calvinism on Jan. 26 and 27 (2009). It will take place on Dr. Brown’s daily…
Brenda B. Colijn, “Let Us Approach: Soteriology In The Epistle To The Hebrews”
Please click on the attachment to view Brenda B. Colijn, “‘LET US APPROACH’: SOTERIOLOGY IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39/4 (December 1996) 571–586. Soteriology in Hebrews (PDF)
Arminius’ “Declaration of Sentiments”
The 400th anniversary of Arminius’ “Declaration of Sentiments” occurred last week. We missed the opportunity to mark the anniversary on its exact day here at our site. But it is still worth drawing attention to…
Olson’s Ten Myths about Arminian Theology
by James M. Leonard Arminian Baptist Roger Olson has written a helpful volume entitled, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities. Basically, he sets the record straight on a number of issues where Calvinist polemic has falsely…