It’s St. Abbán moccu Corbmaic’s Day, although more people are probably gonna focus on another Ireland-related saint, along with the many, many violations of the Lenten season which irreligious people plan to commit in Pádraig’s name tomorrow. Oh well; don’t forget to wear orange. And in that spirit, names in orange indicate our SEA members.
Nope, inclusion on this page does not mean endorsement: Some of the authors are (gasp!) Calvinist, ’cause the Friday Files tries to keep you up on topics you might find relevant, regardless of affiliation. So not all the views expressed are those of SEA or its members. The summaries are K.W. Leslie’s fault.
From the SEA archives:
Brendan Paul Burnett.
• “The fallenness of man, the will and the workings of grace: An exposition on historical Arminian theological thought.”
[Dec 2011, PDF] The earliest historical beliefs of Arminianism—which were namely orthodox, reformed, and evangelical.
• The Five Points of Calvinism: Weighed and Found Wanting.
[24 Jun 1997, PDF] The whole of Bryson’s book, minus a bit called “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Understanding Calvinism.” A refutation of Calvinism’s points from a non-Calvinist.
• “The one purpose of prayer.”
[30 Mar 2013] Namely that God’s will be done.
• “The wills of God: Assessing Arminian and Calvinist accounts of God’s seemingly conflicting wills toward human evil and the scope of salvation.”
[2001, PDF] How does God will one thing, yet appear to will the contrary? Calvinists imagine he has two wills, but Arminians rightly recognize God acts in relationship, not unilaterally.
• “An Arminian response to John Sanders’s The God Who Rises: A Theology of Providence.”
[Sep 2001, PDF] Focusing on the open theism in Sanders’s book, he’s right in that God is relational, but wrong in that God lacks foreknowledge.
• “The diversity of Arminian soteriology: Thomas Grantham, John Goodwin, and Jacobus Arminius.”
[Spring 1998, PDF] How Grantham departed from Arminius and Goodwin’s views on salvation—and took the General Baptists in the “traditionalist” direction.William Burt Pope.
• A Higher Catechism of Theology.
[1885, multiple formats] Pope’s comprehensive Arminian theology, presented in traditional (and convenient) Q&A format.
• “John Wesley as a theologian of grace.”
[June 1984, PDF] Wesley’s views on the nature of grace and how it works in human lives.
• “The faith factor.”
[30 Mar 2013, PDF] Saving faith, how it’s not a one-time decision for Christ, and how we’re justified by it.
• “The impact Arminius left on his nine orphan children.”
[Dec 2009, PDF] A letter from James Arminius’s heirs, and how their father’s teachings influenced them.
From the interwebs:
Michael L. Brown, Ask Dr. Brown.
• “Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart?”
[12 Mar 2018, video] Of course he did. But it’s not like the pharaoh of the Exodus wasn’t complicit in his attitudes.Leighton Flowers (Traditionalist), Soteriology 101.
• “The fate of the unevangelized: Pluralism, exclusivism, inclusivism, restrictivism & Calvinism.”
[12 Mar 2018, video] Introducing the different worldviews about how far God’s saving grace extends to those who’ve never heard the gospel.K.W. Leslie, Christ Almighty!
• “Heavily investing time in bad theology.”
[15 Mar 2018] Probably the most common reason Christians cling to our incorrect beliefs, bad theology, and heresy, is a rather simple one: We put an awful lot of time into our wrong ideas, and can’t fathom it’s time wasted.Nicholas Maricle, Thinking Theologically.
• “What is Arminianism?”
[9 Mar 2018] A fine introduction to what we Arminians believe.Roger E. Olson, My Evangelical Arminian Theological Musings.
• “What is ‘original sin?’ And where has it gone (in American Christianity)?”
[14 Mar 2018] Have extreme views on original sin (i.e. graceless interpretations) got Americans to throw out the baby with the bathwater?Kim Riddlebarger (Calvinist), The Riddleblog.
• “Children in the hands of the Arminians (part one).”
[14 Mar 2018] Based on his incorrect premise that Arminians believe our salvation to be initiated by us, B.B. Warfield worried our children might not be mature enough to respond to the gospel with true, salvific faith. So where’s that leave them?Derek Rishmawy (Calvinist), Reformedish.
• “The comfort of a moral cretin.”
[12 Mar 2018] Reviewing Roger Olson’s Against Calvinism, Rishmawy defends the idea that God kills children in tsunamis… but admits it’s not the best thing to tell the grieving.Tim Stratton (Molinist), Free Thinking Ministries.
• “The Kalam’s illumination of Molinism.”
[12 Mar 2018] Using the Kalam argument to deduce God’s nature, we can deduce God can create freewill creatures, and foreknow everything they’d freely do—or potentially do.James White (Calvinist), Alpha & Omega Ministries.
• “The new GTY Assault Bible, NA29 due in 2021, Billy Graham, then back to Ehrman/Licona.”
[8 Mar 2018, audio] White starts his podcast with some fun with John MacArthur’s new $200, 5-pound-7 The Preacher’s Bible, which he calls “the Assault Bible.” [He’s thinking of the titanic size as the assault; Arminians and continuationists are likely thinking the theology.]
Got a feedreader?
SEA members write! A lot. Which means there’s all sorts of good stuff to read, but it’d make the Friday Files crazy long, and that’s why we encourage you to keep up with their blogs and websites with a feedreader or news aggregator.
Visit Feeder, Feedreader, Feedly, G2Reader, Inoreader, NewsBlur, or The Old Reader. Some web browsers even have news aggregators built in, and of course plugins are available. Pick a feedreader, find your favorite blogs’ RSS or Atom feeds, plug ’em in, and let their feeds come to you.
And the Friday Files? That’ll come to you again next Friday, God willing. Ta-ta.
