John Piper preached a sermon on God’s sovereign control over all things. In this sermon, Piper highly praises the works of Jonathan Edwards and relies heavily on his accounting of sovereignty to explain how God can decree and ordain all evil in this world, and yet not be rightly called the author of all sin [...]
Filed under: determinism, Edwards, God's glory, John Piper, predestination, secret decrees, sovereignty | 4 Comments »
Application 2: God ordains means as well as ends. God is the Author. This is his story. We are his characters. Therefore, Be a faithful character in God’s story.* Taken from a sermon by Joe Rigney defending the purpose of prayer in a world exhaustively pre-determined by eternal divine decree [you can find a link [...]
Filed under: determinism, prayer, predestination, satire, secret decrees | 5 Comments »
As I noted in my previous post, according to Jesus, far more will be lost than saved (Matt. 7:13, 14). In Calvinism this can only mean that God has reprobated from eternity far more than He has elected to save. According to Calvinism, God’s reprobation of most of humanity is “for His glory”. From this [...]
Filed under: determinism, election, God's glory, predestination, secret decrees, sovereignty | 10 Comments »
Of course, when Calvinists speak of sovereignty, they are referencing their own bizarre definition of sovereignty which is synonymous with exhaustive decretal determinism. While Calvinists hold to this definition of sovereignty (what they often call “absolute” sovereignty), they have a hard time speaking and thinking in a consistent manner with all that view of sovereignty entails. Thankfully, [...]
Filed under: determinism, predestination, secret decrees, sovereignty | 8 Comments »
Check out this excellent and concise post at SEA on the nature of faith and why the Calvinist view is problematic. Here is an excerpt: It also has a logic problem, because from a Calvinistic perspective, we have to wonder what was the point of the faith/works distinction in the first place. In other words, if [...]
Filed under: determinism, faith, free will, irresistible grace, monergism, predestination | 33 Comments »
I hope to do a few posts on Erwin Lutzer’s[1] book, The Doctrines That Divide: A Fresh Look at the Historic Doctrines That Separate Christians. One might expect that such a book would look to lessen division and ease tension between Christians, but it seems that Lutzer’s purpose is more to present certain divisive doctrines [...]
Filed under: determinism, election, God's glory, predestination, Romans 9, salvation assurance, secret decrees | 6 Comments »
Not surprisingly, a Calvinist has taken issue with my recent critique of Paul Washer’s arguments for unconditional election. This Calvinist, who goes by the moniker, “Saved by Grace” (SBG), left a very lengthy and detailed comment after reading my post, rebuking me for misrepresenting Calvinism and for failing to rightly interpret numerous passages of Scripture. [...]
Filed under: synergism, faith, irresistible grace, ordo salutis, regeneration, John 6, prevenient grace, John 12:32, dead in sin, total depravity, determinism, sovereignty, free will, atonement, election, predestination, monergism, calvinist polemics, Paul Washer, secret decrees | 32 Comments »
I have been frequently referred to Paul Washer’s video discussion, “Doctrine” of Election. I found the video transcript and decided it would be beneficial to interact with this apparently influential accounting of Calvinist election. The sections of the transcript are marked by block quotes with my comments in between. A copy of the transcript can [...]
Filed under: dead in sin, determinism, election, faith, free will, God's glory, irresistible grace, monergism, ordo salutis, Paul Washer | 54 Comments »
About a year ago I engaged in a conversation with someone who kept misrepresenting Arminian and Wesleyan teaching while insisting that his claims were “historical facts”. This person kept making reference to the “15 Major Tenets of Arminianism” to back up his claims. I had no idea what this could be a reference to since [...]
Filed under: apostasy, atonement, determinism, election, eternal security, faith, foreknowledge, free will, irresistible grace, monergism, penal satisfaction, perseverance, predestination, prevenient grace, regeneration, sanctification, secret decrees, sovereignty, synergism, total depravity | 5 Comments »
Glen Shellrude’s article, “Calvinism and Problematic Readings of New Testament Texts Or, Why I Am Not a Calvinist” powerfully demonstrates how incompatible the NT is with Calvinistic determinism. It examines numerous texts and themes in the Bible that simply cannot be made to comport with the basic assumptions of Calvinist philosophy. The conclusion is that Calvinist [...]
Filed under: Calvinism, determinism | 2 Comments »
