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- Luke 23:34 and the salvation of the unevangelized
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Tag Archives: Calvinism
Introducing Calvinism and Middle Knowledge: A Conversation
I am happy to report that a new book is hot off the press, Calvinism and Middle Knowledge: A Conversation, to which I contributed two chapters and half of a third one, which was co-authored with Paul Helm. I’ll give a brief introduction to the book, and then I will trace the history of my own theological journey in relationship to middle knowledge, and finally I’ll briefly sum up my current beliefs about God’s knowledge … Continue reading
Who wrote/writes the script for the drama, ”The History of the World”?
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about the nature of the freedom God gave to moral creatures, both angelic and human, and how this correlates with the degree of control which God has reserved to himself, within the history of the world. I thought it might be helpful to think of that history as a script, and to describe some of the key models of God’s providence in terms of different … Continue reading
Posted in Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Arminianism, Calvinism, compatibilism, hypothetical knowledge, incompatibilism, Molinism, monergism, open theism, synergism
3 Comments
My compatibilist model: a response to some questions
John Johnson wrote a lengthy comment on my post responding to Jerry Walls and my compatibilist proposal. He raises some substantive questions and I think it better to deal with them in another post rather than to reply in a lengthy comment or a number of smaller comments. Because John’s questions are of a sort often raised to positions like mine, I think they deserve careful consideration. 1. If God is meticulously in control, why … Continue reading
Posted in Divine Knowledge, Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Arminianism, Calvinism, compatibilism, hypothetical knowledge, John Johnson, Molinism, open theism, theodicy
3 Comments
Tensions regarding soteriology, within the Southern Baptist Convention
I am not a Southern Baptist, but I am a Baptist, and I watch with interest theological developments within the Southern Baptist Convention. Like many other Baptist associations, they have not clearly identified themselves as either Particular or General Baptists, that is, as Calvinistic or Arminian in their theology. This has caused significant tension in recent years, some of it possibly growing out of the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement because of the large number … Continue reading
My previous case for “middle knowledge Calvinism” (WTJ, 2007)
A draft of “Why Calvinists Should Believe in Divine Middle Knowledge, Although They Reject Molinism” (eventually published in WTJ 69 [2007]: 349-66) can now be read online at my web site. Since I now believe that God knows counterfactuals naturally or necessarily (cf. my later conversation with Paul Helm), it might seem counterproductive for me to be publishing this earlier material now. But I still affirm a great deal that I said in this article, … Continue reading
Posted in Divine Knowledge, Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Calvinism, middle knowledge, Westminster Theological Journal
3 Comments
My part of the conversation with Paul Helm regarding the validity of a Calvinist version of middle knowledge
In the Westminster Theological Journal, in the Fall of 2009 (437-54), Paul Helm and I published a conversation which was prompted by my previous article in WTJ (Fall 2007:345-66) in which I had argued that Calvinists should affirm middle knowledge even though they reject Molinism. My conversation with Paul Helm is not available to the public on line, and it would not be right for me to publish Paul Helm’s work, but I want to … Continue reading
Should we forgive the unrepentant?
When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we find it easy at the start. We do want our heavenly Father’s name to be reverenced, and we do want his kingdom to come, which means that his “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are also happy to ask God for our daily bread, because we know that he is the source of all that we have and need (Mt 6:9-11). So far … Continue reading
Posted in Christology, Soteriology, Spirituality
Tagged atonement, Brian Stiller, Calvinism, forgiveness, J. O. Buswell Jr, Lord's Prayer
1 Comment
“Mysterian compatibilism”: a third category
I have been in the practice of distinguishing two forms of compatibilism, hard and soft. Both are forms of soft-determinism, and they both assert that God’s meticulous control is compatible with creaturely moral culpability. They differ, however, in their account of how that compatibilism works. Thomism offers a version of hard compatibilism, which I call “hard” because it asserts that creatures are libertarianly free, but that this does not diminish God’s ability to meticulously control … Continue reading
Posted in Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Calvinism, compatibilism, Greg Welty, human freedom, John Martin Fischer, Thomism
1 Comment
God “weakly actualizes” evil
I have been reading a fine paper that Greg Welty presented at the annual ETS meeting in 2013, entitled “Molinist Gun Control: A Flawed Proposal?” In that paper, Welty expands on his earlier (ETS 2010) contention that the Molinist model of divine causation “inherits all of the alleged liabilities” attributed to Calvinism, “with respect to divine authorship of sin, responsibility and blame.” (Interestingly, Welty’s argument may be seen as supporting Roger Olson’s proposal that Molinism … Continue reading
Posted in Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Arminianism, Calvinism, Greg Welty, hypothetical knowledge, Molinism, Roger Olson, theodicy
2 Comments
Hypothetical knowledge Calvinism and libertarian freedom
Thus far, I have responded to 5 criticisms leveled against hypothetical knowledge Calvinism in John Laing’s ETS paper in 2013: that it is vulnerable to the grounding objection that Calvinists and Open Theists bring against Molinism that it has an “odd notion of necessity/possibility” that it includes an “odd ontology of personhood” that it “flirts with fatalism,” and that its theodicy is less effective than that of Molinism or Arminianism In this final post of … Continue reading
Posted in Divine Knowledge, Providence, Theology Proper
Tagged Calvinism, compatibilism, divine freedom, human freedom, hypothetical knowledge, John Laing, Molinism, Thomism
1 Comment