This Week in Calvinism - June 24, 2016

• Even many professing Christians shy away from the doctrine of total depravity, "Which is a shame," writes Tony Petersen, "because, if anything, the Bible is harsher on the question than TULIP."
  
  
• Calvinism found in John 3.
  
  
• Ennis Pepper gives nine reasons why Calvinism is illogical (and cruel, and abusive, and responsible for the Holocaust, etc.). Each point has been refuted countless times over the years, but for some reason they still persist.
  
  
• Benjamin Corey may be on his way to becoming a Calvinist. Three points down (UIP), only two to go!
  
  
• More pleas for Calvinist and non-Calvinist Southern Baptists to get along.
  
  
• Tim Challies explains why he is not dispensational.
  
  
• Whatever happened to beauty in worship? "Modern churches tend to look like prefabricated warehouses," writes R. C. Sproul, "or they're designed to be functional music halls so that the production of music may have center stage."

This Week in Calvinism - June 10, 2016

• If you missed ReformCon last week, you can watch the videos at Apologia Studios' YouTube channel.
  
  
• Dr. James White dismantles Molinism. Again.
  
  
• Norm Fields thinks TULIP is a lovely flower, but a lousy doctrine.
  
  
• One redditor asks a question about Calvinism: "[I]s there any worth in this theology? I have only see it cause harm for the people that cling to it the closest."
  
  
• The essence of the Calvinistic life.
  
  
• Michael F. Bird predicts "that there is about to be a miniature civil war among conservative Calvinist Complementarians about Trinity and gender."
  
  
• Check out the $5 Friday deals at Ligonier.
  
  
• Free stuff from Tim Challies: the God's Word For You series.

This Week in Calvinism - June 3, 2016

• William Thornton hopes the upcoming SBC election isn't about Calvinism. But nominee Steve Gaines seems to be focusing on that topic.
  
  
• Is atheistic determinism similar to Calvinism?
  
  
• "In Calvinism," writes William Birch, "God did not merely foreknow acts of evil, but He concocted evil acts in His mind to be carried out by certain persons, He decreed them from eternity past, and He then brings them into reality by His own secret methods." So, naturally, if we cannot read God's mind and know exactly why he decreed certain evil acts, then God cannot possibly have a reason decreeing certain evil acts, therefore Calvinism is wrong.
  
  
• Jon Bloom writes, "You don't have to know God's will if you are confident in God's word."
  
  
• For whom did Christ die?

This Week in Calvinism - May 27, 2016

• A former cage-stage Calvinist himself, William Birch lays the blame for the enabling of cage-stagers at the feet of men like R. C. Sproul and John Piper: "These Calvinist teachers enable young and impressionable Calvinist converts toward demeaning, objectifying, and condemning Arminians and other non-Calvinists, and maintaining a superior attitude that is most unChristlike." While Mr. Birch may try to assure us that "[t]here is no category as a cage-stage Arminian," I do find it interesting that the most vocal anti-Calvinists seem to be former Calvinists themselves.
  
  
• Peter Lumpkins presents evidence suggesting "that Baptists of the south were not as forged into strict, confessional Calvinism as many Southern Baptist Calvinists claim."
  
  
• SBC presidential nominee Steve Gaines on teaching Calvinism: "I do believe that our students need to know about Calvinism. I don't mind our seminaries teaching about Calvinism, but it should not be the exclusive theological position taught in any of our schools."
  
  
• This week's Free Stuff Fridays giveaway is sponsored by Missional Wear. And don't forget to claim your free sticker!
  
  
• The Calvinism debate between Dr. James White and Steve Tassi has been postponed.

This Week in Calvinism - May 20, 2016

• Tim Challies explains why he is not an atheist.
  
  
• John Piper on how to hate your life.
  
  
• Mary A. Kassian discusses the issue of women teaching men in the church.
  
  
• Richard Bushey responds to Eric Lounsbery regarding Calvinism and Luke 8:12.
  
  
• You might think that Arminian William Birch doesn't have any Calvinist friends:
  

  That is not so. I do have Calvinist friends that I love, cherish, and highly respect. I think they hold to egregious theological errors. My hope is that they will, like me, abandon those errors and glorify the Lord by maintaining a proper hermeneutic that informs us rightly regarding the character and integrity of our sovereign God.

This Week in Calvinism - May 13, 2016

• Colby Bonham responds to a self-proclaimed "destroyer of Calvinism."
  
  
• Trevin Wax argues that "it is problematic to claim that a move away from Calvinism necessarily entails a move toward theological liberalism."
  
  
• Jared Longshore responds to Trevin Wax.
  
  
• Another response.
  
  
• Benjamin L. Corey finds John MacArthur's statement about reaching the Spanish-speaking world with the gospel "racist" and "paternalistic."
  
  
• Jared C. Wilson troubleshoots the celebrity pastor problem.
  
  
• Ronnie Rogers eschews the Calvinist view of compatibilism and instead embraces extensivism.

This Week in Calvinism - May 6, 2016

• "The doctrine of Calvinists should not trouble us," writes Jack Wellman, pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane, Kansas. "Debating over something that is not essential to salvation leads to the ruin of the hearers." While I agree that a belief in Calvinism is not essential to salvation, I disagree that a loving debate over the doctrines of grace is harmful. As Dr. James White so often points out, "theology matters."
  
  
• Timothy George of First Things takes a look at Mark Dever and Capitol Hill Baptist Church in his article "Puritans on the Potomac."
  
  
• Good living is rooted in good theology.
  
  
• Tom Nettles discusses Calvinists and non-Calvinists in the SBC.
  
  
• The free stuff featured today at Challies.com is sponsored by Westminster Theological Seminary.

This Week in Calvinism - April 29, 2016

• Tracey Rowland sees the potential for a Catholic revival in Scotland: "It can't be all that difficult to compete with liberal Calvinism and garden-variety New Age paganism when one has the full treasury of a sacramental Catholicism..."
  
  
• Arminian William Birch lists five reasons why New Calvinism is worth rejecting.
  
  
• Carol Howard Merritt, a feminist who embraces "marriage equality," proudly dons Calvin's mantle, despite being against everything he stood for.
  
  
• Dr. Jeff Hagan offers a concise summary of Arminianism and Calvinism.
  
  
• "But the horror genre also shows us how Puritan Calvinism was intimately entwined with witchy folktales," writes Kathryn Reklis, in her review of the film The Witch. "The fear of witches went hand in hand with the Calvinist God whose inscrutable will predestined some to hell."
  
  
• Dr. Vern Charette ponders God's goodness in light of what many Calvinists would consider a false assurance of salvation.

This Week in Calvinism - April 22, 2016

• Mark Driscoll is back, and he answers the question: is the God of Calvinism cruel?
  
  
• Let's avoid hyper-Calvinism when we preach.
  
  
• Jeffrey K. Jue gives five reasons why the New Calvinism is worth supporting.
  
  
• Calvin, Basil, and heathen learning.
  
  
• Most of the talks from this month's T4G Conference are available online.
  
  
• Jesse Johnson addresses the issue of using sermon illustrations from movies.
  
  
• Do we participate in our own salvation?

This Week in Calvinism - April 15, 2016

• Cole Brown begins discussing some common misconceptions about Calvinism.
  
  
• Ronnie Rogers continues his series on Calvinism's view of the origin of sin and God's offer of salvation.
  
  
• Jarvis Williams gives us six reasons that we should find joy in the doctrine of particular atonement.
  
  
• Calvinism and corruption: Louisiana College's real story.
  
  
• An "Arminian slave" to Calvinism?
  
  
• Calvinism for dummies.
  
  
• It just isn't Friday without some free stuff from Tim Challies.

This Week in Calvinism - April 8, 2016

• Gerry T. Neal thinks Calvinist theologians value Calvinism over orthodoxy.
  
  
• Ronnie Rogers offers his take on the "Calvinism makes God the author of sin" argument.
  
  
• Drew Koehler describes his journey to Calvinism.
  
  
• Dr. Michael Bruening, associate professor of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, will be traveling to France to study the detractors of John Calvin during the Protestant Reformation.
  
  
• Tim Challies recalls the time he discussed Twitter with John Piper over a plate of guacamole at Chili's.
  
  
• John Piper discusses sanctification and complete assurance for incomplete people.

This Week in Arminianism - April 1, 2016

• The Seeking Disciple offers a short rant on devotions, praying, and posting.
  
  
• A page from an Arminian comic book.
  
  
• Calvinist James White is changing his last name to avoid accusations of "white privilege."
  
  
• Francis Asbury: Arminian hero.
  
  
• Tim Challies presents the top 10 books on reconciling divine sovereignty and man's free will.

This Week in Calvinism - March 25, 2016

• Tired of the Catholic church, one person asks how to convert to Calvinism.
  
  
• Jim Babka thinks the oversimplification of blaming Islam for terrorism is akin to blaming Calvinism for the antics of Westboro Baptist Church.
  
  
• Steven Sewell exposes the "senselessness of the Calvinist view of salvation."
  
  
• Calvary conquers the fear of death.

This Week in Calvinism - March 18, 2016

• Roger Olson, who has held a personal grudge against John Piper for a long time, responds to Piper's claim that Arminianism is self-centered.
  
  
• In the comments section of that same post, Olson restates his belief that making God the author of sin "is the clear result of what high Calvinism teaches."
  
  
• Stand to Reason provides a helpful list of short apologetic videos.
  
  
• The whole Bible in one meal.
  
  
• William Birch insists that Christ "died for all people without distinction (2 Cor. 5:14-15), since no distinction is given anywhere in Scripture."

This Week in Calvinism - March 11, 2016

• 22% of Australians claim no religious affiliation. "So why is it that a sizeable minority (around 30%) of Australians oppose gay marriage, blame the poor for their own plight, and treat drug usage as a moral issue?" John Wilkins blames what he calls "secular Calvinism."
  
  
• Three gifts we need, but hate to receive: obstacles, suffering, and everyday irritation.
  
  
• Why do so many non-Calvinists identify as Calvinists? I'm sure Ronnie Rogers will tell us.
  
  
• Let's pack it in, fellow Calvinists. I just found out that there is no real scriptural support for Calvinism.
  
  
• How can sinful creatures please a holy God?
  
  
• Hurry! It's $5 Friday at Ligonier!