This Week in Calvinism - August 23, 2013

• Few things are more Reformed than eating sausages.
  
  
• Merge Calvinism and universalism and you are getting to a theology Lana Hope can live with.
  
  
• What is the root of all evil in the American church? Why, Calvinism, of course.
  
  
• Chris Gordon discusses two-kingdom theology and neo-Calvinism.
  
  
• One blogger observes, "Calvinists have a corner on theologically-themed conferences. Arminians have apologetically-themed conferences. Leadership conferences don't do theology."
  
  
• I'll admit that I've never heard an Arminian say, "I saved myself," if you'll admit that you've never heard a Calvinist say, "I'm a puppet."
  
  
• Not to be outdone by Calvinists, Roger Olson lays out an Arminian ordo salutis. He concludes, "There is urgency to the call to conversion. It is something we do, enabled by God, in response to God's call, and not something that just happens to us. It is freely entering into a new relationship, not just having a new condition imposed." Wait...conversion "is something we do"?

John Piper on Perseverance

Will you be a believer tomorrow morning? John Piper writes:

The biblical answer is: God will see to it.

Are you okay with that? Does this make you uneasy, admitting it depends decisively on God? I hope it is your joy and song. It really does have huge implications to believe this. Let God’s word shape your mind on it. ...

... Because God will see to it, we will — not just must — endure to the end. If we have been justified by faith, we will be glorified. It is as good as done.

"Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Romans 8:30).

Read the full post here.

This Week in Calvinism - August 16, 2013

• Poll: Does Calvinism get a bad rap? Vote here.
  
  
• Carl Trueman reviews D. G. Hart's book Calvinism: A History.
  
  
• Jeff Peterson confesses, "We are saved by an act of free will."
  
  
• And THEOparadox confesses to being a 10-point Calvinist.
  
  
• Daniel Chew writes, "The danger of the New Evangelical Calvinism is that it sucks people in who think that is the real deal."
  
  
• Really? An atheist who doesn't understand the concept of a sovereign God exercising control over his own creation? Go figure.

This Week in Calvinism - August 9, 2013

• 12 myths about Calvinism.
  
  
• Doctrine Matters is a new free eBook from Desiring God.
  
  
• I think it's safe to say that when it comes to 60-year-old white pastors, no one has had more of an influence on Reformed Christian hip hop than John Piper.

Watch 'Evolution vs. God' Online

The documentary Evolution vs. God is now available online. Enjoy!

If You Haven't Already Done So, Check Out ReformedAudio.org

ReformedAudio.org has audio versions of books and other writings from numerous Reformed theologians including John Calvin, Arthur W. Pink, Jonathan Edwards, J. Gresham Machen, and many more. Check them out here.

This Week in Calvinism - August 2, 2013

• Paul Dohse offers six nonsensical reasons why he thinks New Calvinism is appealing.
  
  
• Anyone who thinks the Calvinism excuse for not doing missions is "If God's going to convert the heathen, he doesn't need us to do it" doesn't understand Calvinism.
  
  
• Tim Challies interviews Paul Washer (part 1, part 2).
  
  
• How do I know I'm saved? John Piper answers.

When Does Life Begin? It Depends on the 'Feeling of the Parents'

Those who wish to throw off the intellectual shackles of believing in a sovereign Creator have always appealed to science as their ultimate authority. But when it comes to the issue of abortion and determining when life begins, many choose to ignore science as well logic and simple common sense. (This was all too apparent when I once tried reasoning with a pro-abortion atheist.)

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry addressed this issue. "When does life begin?" she asked rhetorically. "I submit the answer depends an awful lot on the feeling of the parents. A powerful feeling — but not science." I can appreciate her candor, but even that honest statement is a little misleading because pro-aborts care only about the feeling of the one infected with the parasitic blob of tissue. The father of said blob has no say in the matter whatsoever.

While watching this ludicrous conversation, keep in mind that Ms. Harris-Perry thinks of herself as a mother merely because she made the choice that what came forth from her womb was worthy enough to be deemed a child.


At least the pro-abortion ideology seems to be getting more consistent. Of course, that's also what makes it so disturbing.

This Week in Calvinism - July 26, 2013

• Brett Younger, associate professor of preaching at the McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, tries to be funny while insulting Calvinists. Those whose knowledge of John Calvin is limited to predestination and Servetus might get a chuckle out of it.
  
  
• What about the Calvinist antimission movement?
  
  
• Please. Don't comment on Calvinism if you have no idea what it is.
  
  
• A professing Christian husband married to a Jewish wife writes, "God chose corporate, national Israel, not each individual Israelites (sic). ... I can't seem to find a way to pry the Jewish people or even one single, individual Jewish person out of the covenant promises that started with Abraham, continued into Sinai, and that were renewed for the future in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36." Um...Romans 9?
  
  
• J. I. Packer's conversion.

'Tolerance' in Action

Activists like these do not seek tolerance. They want nothing less than complete acceptance of their lifestyle as well as the elimination of any and all dissenting opinions.

This Week in Calvinism - July 19, 2013

• Is Molinism as depressing as Calvinism? "No," says William Lane Craig.
  
  
• Julie Anne thinks that "Patriarchy is complementarianism PLUS more, just as Neo Calvinism is Calvinism PLUS more."
  
  
• Many people say it is unfair for God to save some and not others. While Jason Dulle believes "there are formidable theological, exegetical, and philosophical problems with Calvinism," he has "come to think that the 'fairness' objection is not a good argument against Calvinism."
  
  
• A friend asks you to pass out evangelistic tracts with an anti-Calvinist message, saying, "Let's go save some Calvinists!" What would you do?
  
  
• Bob Hadley says, "Calvinism teaches that the gospel has NO POWER to save the unregenerate. ... So just like Lazarus who was dead, the gospel has no power to save or give new life in the calvinist (sic) system." I always thought the concept that the God who ordains the end also ordains the means was pretty straightforward. I guess not.
  
  
• Tim Keller and John Piper discuss C. S. Lewis.
  
  
• What is the devotional impact of limited atonement? Richard Phillips writes, "We praise God that we are not required to earn what Christ has done for us, for we never could do so. We receive His death by simple faith alone. Jesus never demands that we earn what He did for us."

This Week in Calvinism - July 12, 2013

• A video has been posted of the SBC 2013 Calvinism Advisory Panel.
  
  
• In a recent interview regarding his position on eternal security, Scot McKnight says, "If some want to counter my views, fine, but the only thing that interests me is if they can show that the audience [of Hebrews] is not genuine believers. If they can, I'll listen but if they want to show how they can explain the text as Calvinists...well, been there and done that."
  
  
• While many evangelicals and Catholics have found common ground, Calvinism continues to divide Protestants.
  
  
• There is a new course on Calvinism from John Piper. You can download the entire seminar in six parts.

This Week in Calvinism - July 5, 2013

• Roger Olson responds to the responses to his response to the SBC committee's report on Calvinism...
  
  
• ...and then feels the need to make one more point.
  
  
• Jason Hiles, one of the men at the center of Louisiana College's Calvinism debate, has been hired as the dean of the college of theology at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
  
  
• Speaking of Louisiana College, "Two investigations into charges of misconduct by Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard found a trail of apparently conflicting documents, but neither group investigating Aguillard interviewed all of the key parties."
  
  
• Andrew Fuller's defense of Calvinism.
  
  
• Jason Helopoulos addresses the question: Does Calvinism kill missions? (SPOILER ALERT: No, it doesn't.)
  
  
• If you think 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is the antidote for Calvinism, then you don't know how to read scripture in context. At the very least look at the preceding verse, for crying out loud.
  
  
• Whenever you read a statement like "Calvinism is an abominable theological position," you can safely assume the writer is going to rely on emotion rather than scripture to support his position. Well, what do you know. That's exactly what Bob Hadley did.

How Christians Should Respond to Conspiracy Theories

From the left and from the right, from man-made global warming to the New World Order, we're constantly bombarded by conspiracy theories. Franklin Sanders tells us how Christians should respond:

Nothing comes to us before God determines, or without God determining, but only exactly when God determines. If he sent it, he will turn it. If he sent it, then he has already made us ready to handle it. If he sent it, no matter how painful, how wrong, how tyrannous on the part of evildoers, yet he will cause it to work for good. Therefore Paul can call himself not the prisoner of the Romans, but the prisoner of Christ, because if he was in prison, he was there because God put him there, and would work greater things through him there than in freedom. Besides, we know that evil things will, most certainly, happen to his adopted children because thus he sanctifies us and conforms us to the image of Christ by sharing his sufferings. Now if Christ himself had to learn obedience through suffering, how will we learn it without?

There are no accidents.

The wicked are not in charge.

God works all things together for good to his beloved.

This Week in Calvinism - June 28, 2013

• Jerry Faught writes, "For now at least, fundamentalism is the new center holding the SBC together, despite the repudiations of post-takeover SBC seminarians who continue to assert that they are either conservative evangelicals or Reformed evangelicals."
  
  
• Is Al Mohler "the most important Calvinist on the planet"?
  
  
• Some of the wording in the SBC committee's report on Calvinism has Roger Olson worried about disingenuous Calvinists:

  I tend to think that no self-respecting Calvinist can or should ever say that "God loves everyone and desires to save everyone" without following that immediately with "but sovereignly chooses to allow some he could save to go to hell for eternity without any real opportunity to be saved." That would be totally honest and forthcoming. Less is not.

  
  
• American Vision's Joel McDurmon wants to know: "Is the PCA on a similar path as the PCUSA?"
  
  
• Kevin O'Brien calls Calvinists "narcissistic nihilists" who might as well support abortion because they "see rights resulting from power only. If you [have] enough power to have a solid claim to life, you have a right to keep it; if you don't, or if you prove useless to someone who has more power than you, you have no rights." Yep. It's a good thing we Calvinists all know exactly which individuals are elect and which are not.
  
  
• If you can't stomach reading Paul Dohse's anti-Calvinist rants, you probably won't want to watch these videos from his anti-Calvinist 2013 Conference on Gospel Discernment and Spiritual Tyranny.