Happy March Fools Day!—where if you prank your coworkers this soon, you’re the fool. It’s also the St. David of Wales edition of the Friday Files, in which we look back at posts and links from the SEA website, and think, “Hmm. That’s not bad.” Unless a Calvinist wrote it; then we think, “What’s this doing here?” which is why I gotta include our weekly disclaimer: The views expressed aren’t always those of SEA.
Our members’ names are in blue. Posts from the final week of Feburary…
Last year! (2018)
• Mike Barlotta wrote a parody, “If I Only Had Free Will,” which you could sing along to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain” if you like… but since you have free will, ditch that and sing it to something off Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
• Roy Ingle compares Calvinist and Arminian views on election in “Who Chose Whom?” (Spoiler: God chose us.)
• Andrew Lobb demonstrates how knowing hypothetical scenarios isn’t the same as creating them—even when the knower is the Almighty—in “Why Knowledge Is Just Knowledge.”
Five years ago! (2014)
• Martin Glynn gave up, capitulated to the Young Restless Reformed view, and wrote “Why Being a Calvinist Is Awesome.” He’s totally kidding by the way, but you know there are YRR kids who’d totally agree.
• Roger E. Olson, “Is the Problem Calvinism or Fundamentalism (or the Combination)?” There are Calvinists who recognize TULIP isn’t the gospel, and if all of ’em thought that way, Olsen wouldn’t have had to write Against Calvinism against the sort of “aggressive fundamentalist ethos” that insists it gets to define orthodoxy for everyone.
• Jakob Hermanszoon (i.e. Jacobus Arminius), “On the Divinity of the Son of God.” In the scriptures, the person of the Son gets divine titles, is described with divine attributes, and performs divine achievements. He’s obviously God.
• Ronnie Rogers, former Calvinist, wrote “In Consideration of Calvinism” to address how when he brings up various problems with Calvinism, Calvinists tend to dodge, change the subject, claim mystery, or otherwise engage in theological jiggery-pokery.
• The Asbury Bible Commentary, a Wesleyan commentary on the whole of the scriptures, is available for free on Bible Gateway. Nice.
Ten years ago! (2009)
• “Roger Olson Joins Scot McKnight in Taking It to the Neo-Reformed.” Former SEA member Olson adds some comments to McKnight’s Beliefnet articles on the neo-Reformed. (Part 1 and Part 2.) He’s had plenty of bad experiences with neo-Reformed thinking.
And a reminder about our bloggers.
There are bloggers among SEA’s members. So if the Friday Files hasn’t pointed you to enough to read, they got you.
