Who says God has to love everybody equally? (Sentimental Arminians, that’s who.) “Au contraire mon frere” says the Calvinist. There is nothing wrong with God having a general love for all humanity even as he has a special love for his elect. And why shouldn’t it be so? After all, as Linda asks, “Is it […]
arminianism
The day the Arminian Pride Parade came to Geneva
The Genevans were outraged to learn that the mayor had declared April 1 “Arminian Pride Day.” “Political correctness run amok!” the Calvinists growled. “And right here in our fair city. Why can’t those Arminians just go back in the closet?” Rumor even had it that the Home Depot and Disneyland were both sponsoring the Arminian […]
Hell we go again
Linda responds to my Calvinist critique as follows: “No matter how you slice it, the Bible is clear that many will go to Hell. Is not the real problem is [sic] that many go to Hell, yet God could of made it where all go to Heaven?” Not according to the traditional Arminian free will response. On […]
Do Arminians have the same problem as Calvinists?
Paul Manata offers a response to my article “Calvinism preaches a God of love, and yet…” The response was a tu quoque, an argument form which functions like this: Randal and Paul were walking home from the Barry Manilow concert when Paul was surrounded by a group of growling headbangers who were focused on his […]
God’s (arbitrary?) love revisited
I am working on a couple blog posts on demons for later this week. Should be interesting. In the interim, I’m going to say a bit more about divine love. I argued last week that God’s electing love on the Reformed view is arbitrary. I then added to the mix my lamely-named “Token Choice Claim”: it […]
Why God might save a Chinese over a German
PM raises a good question to my charge that election, and God’s love with it, is arbitrary within Calvinist theology. He asks: How do you derive [A] God’s selection of any arbitrarily chosen member of the set of elect, x, is an arbitrary choice having no reason at all. From this: [1] God’s reason for […]
The Case of Dr. Maximus Amore
James Palmer asks: “Isn’t the idea of total depravity that we completely deserve eternal conscious torment, so giving us that is justice, rather than evil?” It may be. But that point means something very different for an Arminian than for a Calvinist. To consider the problems with the Calvinist position further let’s consider an analogy. […]
Does universalism have a chance in hell of being true?
Thomas Talbott has pointed out that one can find evidence from scripture to support the following three incompatible claims: (1) God wants to save everyone (2) God can save everyone (3) Not everyone will be saved Since this is an inconsistent set, a person has to give up at least one of these propositions. And […]
