(Editor’s Note: Some Calvinists try to claim that if Cavlinist theology makes God the author of sin [a classic charge Arminians have made about the logical implications of Calvinist theology], then so does Arminian theology…
Free Will
Infralapsarian (Moderate) Calvinism’s Doctrine of Unconditional Election
from The Arminian site. Did God create some souls for hell and others for heaven, as John Calvin1 insisted? Calvinist C. H. Spurgeon, quoted from Kenneth D. Keathley, Professor of Theology and Dean of Graduate…
Does the Atonement Actually Save Anyone?
Calvinist James White insists that the message Christians should give to the lost is that Jesus does not “merely try” to save them but that He “saves them perfectly” (Youtube video link, beginning at 28:15).…
J.P. Moreland on Complementarity, Agency Theory, and the God-of-the-Gaps
Though the article is not primarily concerned with free will or defending free will, it does contain a good comparison between libertarian free will and compatibilism from a top notch and well respected Christian philosopher.…
Kenneth Keathley and the Doctrine of Overcoming Grace
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…
Some Excellent and Concise Comments on Free Will, the Bondage of Sin, and Prevenient Grace
Overall, the following comments by F. Leroy Forlines are an excellent representation of the Arminian viewpoint: “Freedom of will is a freedom within a framework of possibilities. It is not absolute freedom. Man cannot be…
A Fatal Flaw in Calvinism
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)…
Mission Possible: A Response to Shai Linne
The following is an edited response to Shai Linne’s Limited Atonement rap song, “Mission Accomplished.” The original version was posted by “Murray” in the comments at the Gadgetry, Thoughts, Unleashed! blog. What is in brackets…
Eric Landstrom, The Reciprocal Dynamic of Grace
A reciprocal dynamic of acting and reacting occurs in any relationship between persons. If we lived in a clockwork universe operating under Calvinist assumptions of predestinating decrees, then we would be little more than very…
Church History vs. Calvinism (Part One)
To say that any semblance of a Calvinistic framework is entirely absent from the teachings of the early Church fathers, as will become evident shortly, is an understatement. Ironically enough, however, John Calvin was not…
Some Basic Thoughts on “Decisional Regeneration” From an Arminian Perspective
Someone asked a while back in the comments thread to one of my blog posts what I thought of “Decisional Regeneration”. Since this is a rather new label being thrown around mostly by Calvinists in a seeming attempt to mock a view of salvation conditioned by faith, it is important to address. Rather than write a new post I will just quote my initial response to the question below:
- I think “decisional regeneration” is a hard phrase to pin down and is just thrown around as a slander by Calvinists towards those who do not believe that regeneration precedes faith or that regeneration is irresistibly and unconditionally given to the “elect” alone. But there can be much more to it and so I wanted to be clear as to what your specific concern was.
In Defense of Resistible Grace to Retain the Goodness of God
To Calvinists, God’s grace is irresistible. This follows naturally in their entire scheme of salvation by logical necessity. It is a point that must stand or the system falls. If God has not made His…
Friday Files: Hunt – Why Simple Foreknowledge is Still Useful
In Dave Hunt’s article, Why Simple Foreknowledge is Still Useful, Hunt argues that God uses simple foreknowledge providentially. His primary case is a rock, paper scissors example: The lynchpin of my argument was a counterexample,…
Friday Files
Robert Chisholm’s article “ANATOMY OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHISM: DOES GOD DISCOVER FACTS?” explains OT texts like Genesis 18:20-21 and 22:12, which seem to indicate God does not know everything. Chisholm is not satisfied with saying they…
Calvinism’s Exhaustive Determinism and Old Testament Scriptures
“I don’t see how anyone could read the Old Testament and not conclude that Calvinism is right,” was the assessment of one Calvinist professor recently. By “Calvinism” he meant the notion of God’s exhaustive predeterminism…
Does Proverbs 21:1 Teach Calvinistic Determinism?
Very often Calvinists will cite Proverbs 21:1 as a proof text for God’s exhaustive control over the will and decisions of men. Their use of the passage is not intended to demonstrate that God may…
Dr. Thomas McCall Takes On John Piper and the Calvinistic View of God’s Sovereignty: 2 New Articles Added to Our Resources
We are excited to have added two articles by Thomas McCall, assistant professor of Biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which critique John Piper’s theology of God’s sovereignty.
Do Calvinists Read the Same Bible?
Here is an exchange that took place in our private discussion group (edited a bit): One SEA member said: I read the following during my daily reading time today. FIRST: David was being pursued by…
Refuting Edwards and Calvinist Compatibilism and Arguments against Genuine Free Will
We have recently added a few book length resources that advance the Arminian view of free will and take on Calvinist arguments against genuine free will, especially the view that has become the dominant view…
A Problem for Open Theism
Open Theists deny God’s foreknowledge because they believe that if the future is known it is determined. Calvinists and Open Theists agree on a principle of foreknowledge. If the future is certain, it is necessary.…
