In this article I have a conversation with Guillaume Bignon about Calvinism and the concept of God’s love. Bignon is a French analytical philosopher (yes, there are such things!) and an executive committee member of Association Axiome, a society of French-speaking Christian scholars. He also works in New York in the financial industry. Perhaps most importantly for this […]
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Calvinism and God’s Love: A conversation with Guillaume Bignon
Another failed attempt to demonstrate that Calvinism is irrational (due to a contradiction)
A few days ago Fr Alvin Kimel invited the readers of his blog to formulate an argument demonstrating the incoherence of Calvinism. The point of this challenge was to offer a rebuttal to my claim that one should be prepared to worship God if it should turn out that Reformed theology is broadly correct qua the […]
Calvinism is perfectly coherent. In which I continue defending a view I reject
In “Calvinism as a logical contradiction,” I reproduced Zeno’s very detailed attempt to demonstrate that Calvinism entails a logical contradiction. I’m grateful for Zeno’s efforts and his clearly evident acumen. Despite this fact, I’m wholly unpersuaded by his efforts. In this response I’m going to direct my criticism at premise (10) of Zeno’s argument. To […]
Calvinism as a logical contradiction
This is a guest post by Zeno. It started life as a comment in the discussion for my article “If the God of Calvinism exists, would you worship him?” However, it seemed to me that this comment was of sufficient length, depth, and careful crafting (and carries such delightful terms as “Randal’s burden” and “Randal’s abominable conjunction”) that […]
Can the saved lose their salvation?
The other day one of my readers, John, asked me to share my views on “whether or not someone who has had a genuine salvific experience can subsequently lose their salvation.” As you might have guessed, much depends on what one means by “a genuine salvific experience”. One could define it in many ways. Let’s go with […]
30. Roger Olson on Calvinism and Arminianism
Twenty years ago when I took a university course in contemporary theology, my main textbook was Stanley Grenz and Roger Olson’s modern classic 20th Century Theology. Since then I have profited from reading several of Professor Olson’s books. So it was a real thrill to have him on The Tentative Apologist Podcast. Professor Olson is the Foy Valentine […]
If God wants to damn your children, should you agree?
I ended off my last article on John Piper’s new video with the following quote where Piper embraces the possibility that God has willed Piper’s own children be reprobate for God’s greater glory: “I am not ignorant that God may not have chosen my sons for his sons. And, though I think I would give […]
What’s so Calvinistic about John Piper’s “The Calvinist”?
Check out this newly released video which features a long poem courtesy of John Piper, and then let’s talk: The interesting thing is that while this video is titled “The Calvinist”, and thus presumably aims to offer a portrait of theology that is uniquely Calvinist which is then worked out in the life of the […]
The chief end of Man in Reformed perspective
I’m currently reading through a new book called God and Evil (InterVarsity, 2013) for review in the blog. However, a comment by Paul Copan in his essay on the origin of evil caused me to pause. He writes of what he calls “strong Calvinists” that they find themselves in tension with “the Westminster Catechism’s own […]
Calvinism, Arminianism and Omnibenevolence
Arminians like to point out that according to Calvinism God elects some people to damnation. Of course some Calvinists try to soften this teaching by claiming that the election to damnation is a passive divine act according to which God simply “passes over” and thereby opts not to redeem these people. Unfortunately this shift in […]
Does Calvinism oblige you to withhold hope in your child’s salvation?
Some good news: the Milwaukee Hyatt Regency offers free wi-fi in the lobby. Consequently I have some time for blogging. But what shall I blog about? I just finished an interesting discussion with my friend Robin Parry (acquisitions editor at Wipf and Stock). During the conversation the topic of Calvinism came up and we discussed the problem […]
The joy of hell
In an earlier thread (“Singing the Praises of the Imprecatory Psalms”) I said to David Houston: “by your logic the unimaginable torment of those in hell is a cause for delight. And many Christians from Tertullian to John Piper have agreed with you.” David was happy to find himself in this venerable tradition. And so […]
God loves you … but he hates that guy over there
God’s love shines through a prism I’m so confused by Calvinism Bill Mallonee, “It’s not bothering me” Many people have found themselves confused by Calvinism. This article is concerned with exploring some of the confusion, more correctly the cognitive dissonance, introduced by this theology. Let’s begin with the first of Bill Bright’s four spiritual laws: […]
