John Piper on God Ordaining All Sin And Evil Part 1: An Arminian Response to Piper’s First “Question”

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 [...]

Calvinist Prayer (and many other things) Explained

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 [...]

Preach Reprobation and Preach it Hard!

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 [...]

1 Corinthians 15 and the Claims of Calvinism

Calvinism as a system claims that God reprobated a large segment of mankind so that they can never be saved. [1] It further claims that the atonement is for this reason limited only to the elect who alone will benefit from the atonement and be saved (with no possibility of falling away).  In such a [...]

Acts 13:48: Two Non-Calvinist Views

Below are links to two articles dealing with the claims of Calvinism regarding Acts 13:48.  The first is an excerpt from a larger article by Brian Abasciano on Corporate Election.  In that article Abasciano briefly tackles the Greek and shows how the Calvinist interpretation is not demanded by the Greek and is contrary to the context.  He takes [...]

A Well Expressed and Concise Comment on the Fundamental Problem With Calvinist “Sovereignty”

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, [...]

Is Faith a Work Created by Man?

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 [...]

Brian Abasciano Responds to Bill Mounce on 2 Thess. 2:13

Brian Abasciano argues against Mounce’s claim that the grammar of 2 Thess. 2:13 argues for unconditional election.   He counters that the grammar actually more strongly favors the Arminian view of election conditioned by faith.  Check out the full response at SEA:  http://evangelicalarminians.org/node/1236

Does Erwin Lutzer Offer False Hope to Calvinist Parents?

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 [...]

Jack Cottrell: Did The Early Christian Fathers Teach Calvinism?

Did the Early Christian Fathers Teach Calvinism? by Jack Cottrell on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 12:59pm QUESTION: Some say that the doctrines of Calvinism did not begin with John Calvin, nor even with Augustine (died A.D. 430). Rather, they claim that the TULIP doctrines are present throughout the writings of the church fathers from [...]