In a book review yesterday, Roger Olson expressed his puzzlement about how God’s giving rewards to believers in the final judgment coheres with Calvinism’s monergistic understanding of sanctification. He wrote: “My fear is that Spence, and Calvin before him, rob rewards of any meaning and imply that God is actually rewarding himself and not believers. […]
Category: Soteriology
John Marshall wrote an interesting comment on my post “What makes a theological statement newsworthy?” I will answer it in this post rather than in the comment thread, to allow for broader interchange. John wrote: “I am an undergrad in the UK and working on a dissertation on providence and I am wondering if we […]
Categories
Olson’s “No” to monergistic grace
In the seventh chapter of Against Calvinism, Roger Olson states his objections to the “high Calvinist” understanding of irresistible grace/monergism Olson’s representation of the Calvinist doctrine of irresistible or effectual grace Roger understands the fundamental motive of Calvinists in asserting the monergistic understanding of grace that is represented by the fourth point of TULIP: that […]
Categories
For whom did Christ die?
In the sixth chapter of Against Calvinism, Roger Olson states his objections to the “high Calvinist” understanding of limited atonement/particular redemption. Olson’s representation of the Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement In his reading of high Calvinist theologians (Boettner, Steele and Thomas, Palmer, Sproul, Piper), Roger hears this: penal substitution is the central purpose of Christ’s […]
Having spelled out his objections to Calvinism’s doctrine of double predestination (in chapter 5 of Against Calvinism), Roger Olson outlines the Arminian alternative that he deems superior. An Arminian doctrine of election As John Wesley stated the classic Arminian doctrine of election, it is God’s foreknowledge of who will freely receive the prevenient enabling grace […]
Categories
Universally sufficient enabling grace
In my compatibilist proposal, the ninth point of my platform had to do with universal sufficient grace. It may be the most unusual of my points but I find it helpful, and so I continue to commend it to other Calvinists for consideration. I summed up the concept with this statement from Who Can Be […]
Gospel exclusivists frequently express grave concern that, if Christians were to believe that God saves some people who do not hear the gospel from a human messenger, they would become unwilling to make the costly sacrifice that the missionary mandate requires of Jesus’ followers. Since reaching accessibilist convictions myself, I have taken that concern seriously […]
Categories
On “inviting Jesus into my heart”
Some years ago, when people did theology on list-serves rather than on blogs, I wondered aloud, on the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association List serve, about the wisdom of encouraging people to “accept Jesus into their hearts.” It triggered a good discussion. I was reminded of that conversation when I read a post by Paul Helm, […]
Categories
Particular revelation accessibilism
In a comment on my previous post regarding the metanarrative that informs accessibilist readings of Scripture, Chris Wettstein has said some things to which I want to respond more fully, by way of a new post. Chris’s comment Chris wrote as follows: In further reflection upon your article, I think that there could be a […]
I am always intrigued when sincere believers, committed to the authority of Scripture, and reading it with essentially the same hermeneutic, arrive at different conclusions about what Scripture teaches. It happens re: monergism/synergism, complementarianism/egalitarianism, credo-baptism/pedo-baptism, and on many other points. In recent years, since becoming an accessibilist, I have pondered the matter in regard to […]