BEN: The issue of how to interpret the phrase ‘only begotten of the Father’ has bedeviled Christological debates forever it seems. Is this Scriptural notion the basis of Arminius and various his successors arguing that…
Determinism
Sin, Reprobation and Foreknowledge: The Calvinists Attempt to Have Their Cake And Eat it Too
The doctrine of the unconditional election of a part, necessarily implies the unconditional reprobation of the rest. I know some who hold to the former, seem to deny the latter; for they represent God as…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 7”
BEN: I take it as given that you have established both that there are some strong incompatibilities between Calvinism and Arminianism, but at the same time there are some strong agreements between the two theological…
Augustine’s Evolving Views on God’s Sovereignty (Part 2)
We have been examining Augustine’s changing views on faith, free will, and God’s sovereignty. His original views on these topics evolved from a synergistic model (where God and man cooperate in coming to faith) to…
Augustine’s Evolving Views on God’s Sovereignty (Part 1)
In a previous post we examined Augustine’s changing views on free will. His original view regarding free will and faith mirrored that of the other early church writers and theologians. But later, Augustine articulated views…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 5”
BEN: One of the major emphases in Stanglin and McCall’s fine book on Jacob Arminius is that Arminius did not agree with Beza et al. on the issue of monergism, which is to say that…
Can One Be Both a Calvinist and a Molinist?
Can one be both a Calvinist and a Molinist? Many Reformed Christians have deemed this an impossibility, while some prominent Reformed philosophers like Alvin Plantinga and Del Ratzsch profess to be simultaneously Calvinists and Molinists.…
Life is like a …
On one of the Society of Evangelical Arminian (SEA) forums, we were exploring illustrations on how we might describe the world, specifically how can we describe the interactions between God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom and…
Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 4”
BEN: On p. 55, you talk about Wesley’s treatise on divine sovereignty compared to Calvin’s view. Would you say that while Wesley agrees with Calvin that God is sovereign, absolutely so, and could do what…
Hank Hanegraaff, “How Could Pharaoh Be Morally Responsible if God Hardened His Heart?”
Please click on the link to view Hank Hanegraaff, “How Could Pharaoh Be Morally Responsible if God Hardened His Heart?”.
Jonathan Sheehan, “Teaching Calvin in California”
Please click on the link to view this opinion piece that appeared in The New York Times on 9/12/16 by a professor of history and a co-director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of…
Rich Davis, “Clary’s 10 Concerns”
In my “The ‘C’ in Calvinism?” (reproduced here), I set out three difficulties for Calvinistic choice. In his “Calvinism and Choice,” historical theologian Ian Clary lists ten points at which my thinking is in need…
Steve Sewell: Response to John Piper: “How Do Arminians Pray?”
John Piper video clip: How Do Arminians Pray? In Piper’s words, Arminians praying to God for someone’s salvation: “Arminians don’t believe that He has the right and authority and power to save anybody. Do they?…
Steve Sewell, “Does Compatibilism Make Sense?”
My definition of “Compatibilism” : A desperate attempt by Calvinists to exonerate God of evil doing. Calvinists believe that God has predetermined all things, that all things happen in the world — including all sin…
The Practical Implications of Free Will
In the follow-up post to “A Beginner’s Guide to ‘Free Will’,” entitled “Six Practical Reasons ‘Free Will’ Matters,” John Piper expounds upon the practicality of Free Will. After all, he states, “It is a great…
A Beginner’s Guide to Free Will
Free Will regards the ability to make choices — choices that were not necessitated and brought into reality by a proactive and eternal decree of God — choices that lead to belief systems resulting in…
Arminian Theology Superior to Calvinism Regarding God’s Decrees
[Editor’s note: While SEA vigorously opposes supralapsarianism, it does not question whether supralapsarian Calvinists worship the God of the Bible as the author seems to. We generally accept both supralapsarian and infralapsarian Calvinists as brothers…
God and Foresight
Bombastic Calvinist James White thinks that the deterministic-Calvinistic view of the sovereignty of God is “the single issue that separates the supernatural religion of Christianity from the man-centered religions that surround us.”1 James White, who…
Ben Witherington and Keith Stanglin, Jacob Arminius, Theologian of Grace – Part Fourteen
BEN: As we conclude this discussion, let’s talk about the practical implications of Arminius’ thought for today. It seems clear to me that Arminius, and Wesley as well, would have rejected recent ideas that have…
Determinism in the Hebrew Scriptures: Hosea
What scholars refer to as the Minor Prophets, which include the books following the prophet Daniel (from Hosea to Malachi), we discover that the consistent theme of God’s sovereignty and humanity’s relative free will remain…
Recent Posts
William Burt Pope on the Relation of the Attributes of God to the Divine Essence
Does Foreknowledge in Romans 8:29-30 Support Calvinism?
Donald Smith, “On Zimmerman’s ‘The Providential Usefulness of “Simple Foreknowledge”'”
Video: Part 2 of Assessing the Theological Framework of William L. Hess’ Book, “Crushing the Great Serpent”
