It’s the St. Nicetas the Confessor Day edition of the Friday Files, SEA’s look back at our previous years. (Yep, I’m still posting them. Nope, haven’t succumbed to the ’rona; I just gotta stop using my 20-year-old laptop to post things. Funny stuff happens when I do.)
The views expressed in these articles and links sometimes aren’t those of SEA, so watch out. Our members’ names are in blue. Articles are from the last week of March and first week of April…
Last year! (2019)
- Roy Ingle, “Pray Without Ceasing.” Christians gotta pray!
- Kevin Timpe, Book Review: Excusing Sinners and Blaming God by Guillaume Bignon. [PDF] Deterministic Calvinism undermines human responsibility and free will, undermines God’s moral perfection, and makes God sin’s author. Bignon’s book claims that’s not so.
- Ed Jarrett, “The Doctrine of Election: Who Are the Elect?” Is it individual or corporate? And why does it matter?
- Finney Raju, “Chosen In Him: A Response to Credo House.” C. Michael Patton of Credo House wrote “An Open Letter to Arminians” to condescendingly tell us we needn’t worry about our election. Um… we really don’t.
- David F. Watson, “Did John Wesley Affirm Total Depravity?” Yes; we have a corrupt sin nature which needs Jesus.
- Ben Henshaw, “Great Quotes: Thomas Ralston on the Compatibility of Freedom and Foreknowledge With Regards to Judas Betraying Jesus.” And if you wanna read the full section, here’s that.
- “Roundtable Discussion.” Held with members of the Fundamental Wesleyan Society at their 2018 conference. In two parts: Part 1 and Part 2. Part of the FWS Podcast.
Five years ago! (2015)
- Kingswood Hart, “Introducing the New Calvinist Bible (NCB).” Some satire in which the bible gets an “update” to better suit Calvinist theology.
- Roy Ingle, “Declared Righteousness or Imputed Righteousness.” Is Christ Jesus’s righteousness granted to his followers, or does God simply declare us righteous?
- Richard Coords, “James White’s Testimony on His Conversion to Calvinism.” He read R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God, and it whipped him into the zeal he has now—and his desire for others to share this work of the flesh. [Zeal, or ζῆλος, keeps getting hidden behind the translation “jealousy,” but yeah, it’s in there.]
- Roger E. Olson, “C.S. Lewis Said It: God’s ‘Goodness’ Cannot Be Wholly Other.” In his The Problem of Pain, Lewis pointed out when we redefine “goodness” to conceal a not-all-that-good God, it’s because we’re serving him out of fear not love.
- William Birch, “This Week in Arminianism.” What was going on that week in Arminianism, on the internet.
- Kingswood Hart, “New Calvinist Bible—Limited Atonement.” More satire; check out the NCB’s new proof-texts in favor of limited atonement!
- Thomas Cogswell Upham, “The Death and Resurrection of the Human Will.” It’s gotta die if we’re ever going to become holy.
- Roger E. Olson, “Calvinism and Evangelism.” Calvinists evangelize; many are great evangelists. But calling people to choose Christ conflicts with everything they believe about how election works.
- Richard Coords, “Genesis 50:20—Commentary in Light of Calvinism.” Joseph’s brothers intended evil, but God made something good of it. Not foreordained that evil must happen.
- William Birch, “This Week in Arminianism.” Yep, it’s another week in Arminianism.
Ten years ago! (2010)
- Ben Henshaw, “Some Further Reflections on the Nature of the Sealing of the Holy Spirit in Eph. 1:13 and 4:30.” We’re sealed with the Holy Spirit, but let’s not read into the text that this is an unbreakable seal.
- William Birch, “Does the Atonement Actually Save Anyone?” Under limited, irresistible atonement, the Calvinist assumption is Christ’s atonement does nothing but save. Hence their struggle with the Arminian idea that Christ’s atonement has to be activated by faith—and can be deactivated by apostasy.
- Dan Chapa, “Friday Files: Ryrie, ‘The Extent of the Atonement.’” In Charles Ryrie’s “The Extent of the Atonement” he makes the case for unlimited atonement.
- Steve Witzki, “Calvinism and Arminianism Compared.” [PDF] A quote from James Nichols’s book Calvinism and Arminianism Compared in Their Principles and Tendency.
- William Birch, “James White and Turretinfan on 1 John 5:1.” Why the passage doesn’t teach that faith precedes regeneration.
- William Birch, “Conflating Arminianism and Secularism.” Another wild Calvinist claim: Arminianism is a capitulation to secularism. What the what?
- William Birch, “Infralapsarian (Moderate) Calvinism’s Doctrine of Unconditional Election.” On a Calvinist view that God determined to create us, let us fall, then save us—as opposed the more common Calvinist view that God first determined to elect or not, then created humans to carry his determination out.
Today: Wash your hands!
And once your hands are clean, feel free to check out SEA’s archives, plus our links and books so you can see what our members and friends are up to. Hey, if you’re sheltering at home, you have time to write, right? So they have. So check ’em out.
