Q & A on The Calvinist Claim That Salvation Conditioned on Faith Necessarily Implies Some Sort of Merited Contribution to Salvation

Here is the question as originally posed along with a break down interaction below:Full Question: "So, let me reason this way, If prevenient grace is given to everyone, and my neighbors resist it, so they are not brought to salvation (regeneration), and I don’t resist it, so I AM brought to salvation, then they merit …

Addressing the Calvinist Claim That Being Dead in Sin Necessarily Implies That Regeneration Precedes Faith

We have a lot of material addressing and refuting this oft repeated Calvinist claim on the site, so I thought it would be good to archive them into a single post for easy reference:An Arminian Response to John Hendryx on the Meaning and Implications of Spiritual Death Part 1: What Does it Mean to be …

An Arminian Response to C. Michael Patton’s “The Ultimate Balanced Guide to Arminianism (From a Calvinist)”:The Good, The Bad, And The [Very] Ugly

You can find Patton's original post here I was referred to this recent post by C. Michel Patton and thought I would respond to it.  My comments can be found in-between sections of his post below: Definition of Arminianism Arminianism is a theological system developed by the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). It is a …

Does Arminianism Imply That we Can Boast in Our Salvation Over Those Who do Not Believe?

Out of all the arguments for Calvinism, this is the one that I probably hear the most. It comes in a variety of forms but usually imagines two people under the influence of prevenient grace, suggesting that the one who responds positively should have some reason to boast over the one who did not. It …

An Arminian Response to John Hendryx on the Meaning and Implications of Spiritual Death Part 3: John Hendryx Concedes That it is a Plain “Fact” that Faith Precedes Regeneration

[You can find part one of this series here, and part two here] John Hendryx continues his response to the "synergist" visitor: Finally, your attempt to overturn the doctrine of total depravity relies entirely too much on the one biblical concept of "dead in sin" for the unbeliever. From my standpoint, if those texts which …

An Arminian Response to John Hendryx on the Meaning and Implications of Spiritual Death Part 2: Dead Reckoning

Continuing from Part 1... Hendryx begins his response to the visitor:  (John) Dear Brother ...You say, "monergists take the 'dead in sin' phrase too far" but, I would turn that around to say that you have relied entirely too much on what you believe to be the force of this ONE argument.... Here's why: ... …

An Arminian Response to John Hendryx on the Meaning and Implications of Spiritual Death Part 1: What Does it Mean to be “Dead in Sin?”

Calvinist John Hendryx takes a “synergist” to task in an article entitled Can We Make an Exact Analogy Between Unbelievers' who are "Dead in Sin" and Believers who are "Dead to Sin"?(Excerpts From Debate in Which Synergist Attempts to Overthrow Doctrine of Total Depravity).  We will use this exchange as a basis for interacting with …

Does Arminian Theology Suggest That We Depend on Ourselves Instead of Christ for Salvation?

From the late R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries we find a short article "praising" limited atonement by Richard Phillips.  For the purpose of this post we will be focusing in on a section that promotes a critique of Arminianism that has been common among Calvinists for a long time and has been expressed in many different …

Addressing the Calvinist Claim That God Can Irresisitibly Cause (Make) People to “Freely” Love Him

Below is a recent response to a Calvinist in a discussion forum which addresses the oft repeated Calvinist claim that while God works in the elect irresistibly, the elect still freely come to Christ in such a way that their free will is not violated. In other words, Calvinists often say that it is a …

Interesting Comments From John MacArthur on the Nature of Preveninet Grace and the Ordo Salutis

A Concise Description of Prevenient Grace From a Surprising Source (spoiler: It's John MacArthur) Excerpt: I don't think...particularly I don't think that regeneration precedes anything except the fruit of regeneration which is a righteous life. I do not think that regeneration precedes saving faith. Now I know that that's becoming a...that's a strongly Calvinistic...I shouldn't …

No Real Choice in Calvinism

Here is a good post that looks at some of the major difficulties in Calvinist accounting of free will and choice (below),  It also does a good job concisely pointing out how Irresistible Grace is indeed coercive, even on some Calvinist definitions: The "C" in Calvinism? Excerpt: The Coercion Problem First, the Sproul-Edwards account of …

Dr. Brian Abasciano’s Follow-up Response to James White on Acts 13:48

Brian Abasciano, "A Reply to James White Concerning His Faulty Treatment of the Greek and Context of Acts 13:48 Excerpt: The pluperfect construction places the disposing prior to the belief of the subjects of the verbs in Acts 13:48, which means that it could have happened any time before they believed. But strikingly, White does …

Determinism and Regrets

From SEA:   Regrets are problematic in determinism as they often presuppose belief in free will (though that is not necessarily true of all regrets).  I touched on this same topic long ago in this post: Struggling With Regrets.  Another related post I hope to expound on in more detail sometime soon is Sacrifice and the …

Reproof: Recent Book Looking to Re-Package Calvinism With a Fresh New Acronym (PROOF) is Reviewed by a Former Calvinist

Former Calvinist, Doug Sayers, gives a concise and irenic review of the recently released Calvinist book, PROOF. Excerpt: It is a fair criticism to say that PROOF is a one-sided cherry picking of the biblical texts that would seem to support their teaching with very little time devoted to the texts that present Calvinism with …

Another Nice Short Post on Problems in Calvinism and the Calvinist Use of Language

Janis Joplin, Calvinism and More Words w/ Multiple Meanings Excerpt: I think Jonathan Edwards & Co are looking too much to the hard sciences to explain spiritual realities and therein lies their mistake. They also would deny God the sovereign prerogative to delegate the power of contrary choice to everyone born in sin. In this …

Nice Short Post on Some of the Problems with Calvinism and Calvinist Use of Language

Led Zeppelin, Calvinism and Words With Multiple Meanings HT: Dale Wayman