It’s St. Clement of Rome’s Day (who might be the guy Paul mentioned in Philippians 4.3; dunno), and in the United States it’s Black Friday, so named in the 1950s by Philadelphia police who had to deal with all the traffic, crazed shoppers, and shoplifting. What, you thought it was ’cause store accounts are finally in the black? That’s just what the Man wants you to think.
Oh yeah, and it’s the Friday Files!—our weekly shuffle through older SEA articles, which you can read, meditate on God’s goodness… and think about how he did not foreordain today’s chaos and rampant Mammonism. All opinions expressed (including that one) are frequently those of SEA, but not always. Our members’ names are in blue.
From Roger E. Olson’s blog:
• “‘God’s will’ in Calvinism and Arminianism.”
12 August 2014. God has two wills (or perhaps two modes of his will): One regarding his plan for our salvation, and one wherein he expresses what he wants his people to do. The difference is Calvinists extend God’s plan to the whole of the cosmos… which has its problems.
Read Post at Patheos →
• “Intuitive Evangelical theology versus scholastic Evangelical theology: ‘Classical Christian theism’ as case study.”
15 August 2014. Conservative Evangelical theologians mix an awful lot of Greek philosophy into their “orthodox” teachings on God. Namely, they make God dispassionate whereas Hosea describes him just the opposite—and to defend themselves, call Hosea “anthropomorphism.”
Read Post at Patheos →
“All kinds of inconsistency.”
Evan Minton, 11 September 2014. When it comes to atonement, y’know how Calvinists like to claim “all” doesn’t really mean all? Well let’s apply that idea to the rest of the scriptures, and watch it turn to insubstantial mush.
Read Post →
“Resources on the book of Romans.”
6 September 2014. Videos from Ben Witherington III, Craig Keener, and Jim Miller on Romans.
Watch Videos at Seedbed →
“Acts 4:28: Mental resolution or causal predetermination?”
Dan Chapa, 17 September 2014. Comparing the way the 1984 NIV and the 2012 ISV translated προορίζω to support either God’s stated intentions, or determinism.
Read Post →
“Exegetical notes on Calvinist texts.”
Grant Osborne, 18 September 2014. On the most common proof texts used to support Calvinism’s five points—and how, once read in context, any claims they support Calvinism’s points are undone.
Read Post →
“Things Calvinists really need to stop saying.”
Evan Minton, 23 September 2014. They presume these statements will end any argument and vanquish any opponent. They really don’t.
Read Post →
“A hermeneutics of hearing informed by the parables with special reference to Mark 4.”
Klyne Snodgrass, 2004. The parables were given so we’d listen, have insights, understand, and obey. Not merely allegorize; especially not to read our own peeves into them.
Read PDF →
“Introduction to Wesleyan theology.”
Steve Seamands, posted 29 September 2014. Systematic theology from a Wesleyan, Arminian perspective, taught at Asbury Theological Seminary, consisting of audio lectures and some PowerPoint slides. [You can listen to the audio without an account, but you’ll need a free account before you can download them.]
Listen to Audio at Biblical Training →
“The great debate: Predestination vs. free will.”
Bruce Ware, Thomas Schreiner, Joseph R. Dongell, Jerry Walls, April 2001. Ware and Schreiner take the Calvinist side, Dongell and Walls the Arminian.
Watch Video at YouTube →
Assuming they’ve not taken the week off…
SEA’s members have various books, links, websites, and blogs, and some of ’em keep writing stuff even during the holidays. (Me, I write it in advance.) So if digging though SEA’s archives isn’t enough, and you’re looking for more to read from an Arminian worldview, feel free to check out any of these links.
And if you’d like to follow a blog on a regular basis, may I recommend a feedreader or news aggregator instead of having to remember (and frequently forgetting) to look at that blog every week? If your browser doesn’t have a built-in feedreader, get one off the internet: Bloglovin’, Feeder, Feedreader, Feedly, Flipboard, FlowReader, G2Reader, Inoreader, Netvibes, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Selfoss, or Winds. Copy the link to a blog’s RSS or Atom feed, past it into your feedreader, and it’ll keep you current on everything that’s been posted.
