Determinism and the authorship of sin in Calvinism and Arminianism
Arminians object to determinism because it makes God the “author of evil”—but does their own system avoid it? In this post, I argue that although they disagree with Calvinists about the nature of God’s sovereignty, their own theology commits them to an equally deterministic view.
Presupposing freewill theism is the opposite of the Naked Bible method
Modern ideas about libertarian free will, conditioned by our culture and theological history, are completely foreign to the assumptions that ancient readers would have brought to the Bible.
Constructive criticism of The Unseen Realm #4: predestination and foreknowledge
In which I offer a friendly critique of some elements of Michael Heiser’s The Unseen Realm—in this instance, his comments in chapter 9 on how God foreknows without predestining.
If God wants to save everyone, why did he only choose Israel?
If you want all people to be part of your kingdom, you don’t disinherit them and then pick just one family.
Is there a relevant difference between causing and permitting evil?
An exchange with Arminian theologian Roger Olson.
Thorny problems with Molinism #2: the demonstrable falsehood of its governing intuition
The Molinist’s governing intuition is that people can’t be responsible for choices which (i) do not ultimately originate in their own wills or (ii) where they could not have done otherwise. This intuition is flatly contradicted by Jesus in John 6:44; so Molinism should be rejected as false.
Thorny problems with Molinism #1: doing theology backwards
Molinism as a system begins with human intuitions about responsibility, and then reads these back into God’s word; rather than beginning with God’s word, and conforming our intuitions to it. In this regard it is no different than any other man-made religion.
The incoherent love of Jerry Walls
An example of the muddled thinking about God’s love that passes for good theology in some circles.
Why Molinist/Arminian intuitions about God and evil must be false
A simple parallel argument to clarify my previous posts.
Why can’t God interfere with our free will?
After all, we do it all the time.
The Molinist/Arminian ideal of fatherhood
If God is the “author” of sin under Calvinism, what does that make him under Molinism/Arminianism?
Was the atonement wasted if God chooses who to save?
A response to the common intuition that, under Calvinism, Jesus’s suffering was wasted for all those who God did not choose to save.
On the atonement: introduction
In which I introduce the case I will forward for a particular redemption grounded in an unlimited satisfaction on the cross.