Recent Posts

SEA Vice President James Leonard Gets his Ph.D.!

, , Comment Closed

A brief press release from the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog about one of SEA’s vice presidents, James Leonard, and his recent successful defense of his doctoral dissertation. Congratulations, Jim!

Bonus: We’ve pulled a comment from Jim on the announcement/blog post, which is humorously related to the Arminian/Calvinist debate, and included it after the announcement.

Here is the announcement, originally posted on 10/13/11 by Jim’s doctoral supervisor, Peter. J. Williams, who is the warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, one of the foremost libraries of biblical studies in the world:

Read Post →

Do Calvinists Seek the Specific Will of God?

, , Comment Closed

This was a comment made by Rebekah Reinagel in regards to the nature of prayer within the Calvinist system. She gave us permission to publish it here.

Calvinists pray, even though they “know” that God has everything decreed in advance. But here’s what I was wondering about: Do Calvinists seek the specific will of God?

And what I mean by that is that Arminians, in addition to following God’s moral law (i.e. Do not murder), also seek God’s will in specific situations in which it isn’t clear which way to go. For example, praying about whether to take a job or not. This presumes that God knows which is the better option, and it is an attempt to seek His will in the matter.

Read Post →

No Interpretation Needed: Deliverance from a Naive Approach to Biblical Interpretation

, , No Comment

We have all, most likely, encountered believers who insist that they neither adhere to this or that theological position: they are, simply, “biblicists” (i.e., what opponents of this theory call naïve realism1). Such believers “don’t follow a man’s teaching,” they “just read their Bible.” On one level, there is an admirable simplicity in such a confession. On another level, however, such an approach to biblical interpretation is not only naïve but is fallacious and self-deceptive because it neglects the fact that we all read Scripture from cultural and personal presuppositions already in place.

Read Post →

Calvinistic Determinism and the Thoughts of Demons

, , Comment Closed

Pointed questions from one of our members in our private discussion group regarding Calvinism’s doctrine of exhaustive determinism: “What about the thoughts of demons? Did God ordain those too? If, literally, everything is subject to…

Read Post →

The Liberalism Straw Man of Young, Restless Reformers

, , No Comment

As Arminians, we often have to deal with a number of scurrilous charges and various innuendos inflicted upon our faith by an assortment of polemicists, predominantly at the hand of the young, restless, Reformed variety and their elder teachers. Whether it is a straw man of “free willism,” salvation by works, or open theism and a host of other unsupportable accusations, each is brought to nothing by the revelation of plain, simple truth. Truth will always bring to naught any straw man fabricated for divisive purposes. I came across another bale of straw dressed up as knowledge today. The following quote was offered to buttress another’s doctrine of mush and as always, truth will grind it to chaff.

“We are living in a day in which practically all of the historic
churches are being attacked from within by unbelief. Many
of them have already succumbed. And most invariably the
line of descent has been from Calvinism to Arminianism,

Read Post →

Arminianism vs. Calvinism Comparison Chart (FACTS vs. TULIP Acronyms)

, , Comment Closed

We have put our outline of the FACTS of Arminianism acronym vs. the TULIP of Calvinism acronym into a convenient chart that places the corresponding positions of the two systems side by side (the horizontal version) rather than presenting one system in its entirety first and then followed by the other (the vertical version). The vertical version can still be found at our FACTS vs. TULIP outline page, but now the chart/horizontal version has been attached to the page for those who would like to access it. It has also been attached to this post.

Read Post →

Is Faith a Work Created by Man?

, , 1 Comment

Here are some edited comments by one of our members posted in our private discussion group concerning the Calvinist claim that the Arminian view of faith makes faith a work created by man: When they…

Read Post →

Finally Arrived

, , Comment Closed

by Roger Olson

I hold in my grubby little hands the first ever copy of Against Calvinism (outside the publisher’s warehouse). I received my author’s advance copy yesterday.

You know, when you’ve worked on a book for two years (and actually longer if one includes the years of preparing to write such a book) and gone through the ordeal of reading the edited manuscript and answering editors’ questions and making revisions and reading page proofs, etc., etc., the arrival of the book itself is kind of anti-climactic. I finished the manuscript well over a year ago and submitted to the publisher. It doesn’t usually take that long to get a book published, but for some reason….

Read Post →

Lots of Talk about Angry Calvinists Going On

, , Comment Closed

There seems to be lots of talk about angry Calvinists going on, with Calvinist leaders recognizing that there seems to be a problem with anger/rudeness/harshness/incivility etc. particularly among Calvinists. Here are 2 posts on this:…

Read Post →

Arminius/Arminianism Conference at Point Loma Nazarene University

, , Comment Closed

The Wesleyan Center at Point Loma Nazarene University is sponsoring the upcoming conference, Rethinking Arminius: Wesleyan and Reformed Theology for the Church Today on February 24 and 25, 2012.

In addition to the plenary lectures, there is a call for papers on any topic related to Arminianism.

From the conference website:

Read Post →