Happy St. Nicholas’s Day! (Yes, he’s a real person; yes he has a feast day; yes it’s this early in the month.) In the spirit of gift-giving, here’s the Friday Files, our bags of SEA archive gold down the sooty, dirty chimney of the internet.
Any links and articles on the site are of interest to SEA and its members (whose names below are in blue), but sometimes won’t reflect our views. And that’s okay. We’re all adults here. Articles are from the first week of December…
Last year! (2018)
- D.V. Wayman, “1 Kings 12:24: Is Free Will or God the Causative Agent in Rebellion Against Him?” From SEA’s online discussion group: God foretold the division of Israel, so when Rehoboam ben Solomon took bad advice which resulted in that split, how involved was God in Rehoboam’s foolishness?
- Moses M. Smart, A Brief View of Christian Doctrine. [PDF] Smart’s 1843 systematic theology, from a freewill Baptist view. [Assuming you consider 333 pages brief.]
- StriderMTB, “1 John 5:10-11: The Death Knell of Calvinism.” God has given us eternal life—“us” as in all of humanity. And those who don’t believe him, make him out to be a liar. Which they wouldn’t really be doing if he only gave eternal life to the elect.
Five years ago! (2014)
- J.D. Walt, “Two Takes on the Sovereignty of God: Divine Puppeteer or Sovereign Stage Director?” Were Paul and Ananias just the puppets of a predetermined plot, or following the leads of a brilliant director?
- Eric Geiger, “The Faith of a Servant or a Son?” Christians seek to appease God with our good deeds… not realizing he loves us because we’re family.
- J.C. Thibodaux, “Limited Atonement and the Divine Command to Believe Falsehood.” If limited atonement is true, yet we preach the gospel to everyone, we lie to a significant proportion of our audience: We tell them to trust Christ to save them, but in reality he’s already decided they’re going to hell.
- Thomas Cogswell Upham, “Degrees of Union With God’s Will.” Upham identifies three: Submitting to him, joyfully choosing to obey, and habitual obedience.
- William Birch, “Do Arminians Hate the Sovereignty of God?” Because we don’t define sovereignty as Calvinists do, we get accused of hating sovereignty. No; we hate the idea God’s an unethical despot instead of a loving Father.
Ten years ago! (2009)
Looks like we skipped that week. Regular posts weren’t a priority back then, y’see. (And if that bugs you, now you know why they became a priority.)
Today: Links!
I remind you we SEA members have blogs. Sometimes we write about Arminianism; sometimes not. But if you’re still itching for reading material, there’s lots to be found on our sites. Give them a whirl.
