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Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

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omnibenevolence

Does Calvinism entail that I might love my child more than God does?

March 5, 2019 by Randal

Last week, I presented a simple argument against God as defined in Calvinism and Islam. The core shared theological content of both Calvinism and Islam that was under consideration concerned perfection and the denial of omnibenevolence. Thus, the objection was not, in fact, an objection to Calvinism and Islam simpliciter but rather an argument against any […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Calvinism, love, omnibenevolence

Calvinism and God’s Love: A conversation with Guillaume Bignon

April 13, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Calvinism, divine love, election, Guillaume Bignon, omnibenevolence, providence, theology

Love, omnibenevolence, and Francis Chan

January 8, 2013 by Randal

In his recent book Erasing Hell Reformed pastor Francis Chan addresses the question “How can God be loving and still send people to hell?” This is his first point in response: “First, God is love, but He also defines what love is. We don’t have the license to define love according to our own standards and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Calvinism, Francis Chan, hell, love, omnibenevolence

Calvinism at Madame Tussauds

January 11, 2012 by Randal

In my article “Compassion Reformed” I claim that a Calvinist theology which accepts that God loves some creatures but not others ought to qualify the compassion we feel for others. In this article I’m going to unpack that reasoning a bit further. It is important to keep in mind at the outset that we are […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, love, omnibenevolence

Who is on a tirade against Calvinism?

January 4, 2012 by Randal

I have noticed in the past that often when I write an article critiquing Calvinism Steve Hays of Triablogue writes a response soon after in which he describes my critical analysis as a “tirade”. For example, in the past he has said “Randal Rauser is currently on a tirade”. Other times he has referred to “Randal Rauser’s […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Calvinism, debate, love, omnibenevolence

Does love of one’s spouse require hatred of all others?

December 27, 2011 by Randal

When I was out walking the dog this afternoon I realized I left off one of the most glaring problems with David Houston’s marriage analogy. Remember, this analogy is intended to explain why it is sweeter to discover that God hates some and loves others rather than the Arminian milquetoast view of God loving all. […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: analogy, arminianism, Calvinism, metaphor, omnibenevolence

Why the Calvinist’s need to exclude some people from God’s love does not bode well

December 26, 2011 by Randal

David Houston argues that the Calvinist has a richer view of God’s love than the Arminian. This is initially a surprising claim. We knew that Calvinists had cornered the sovereignty market. But love? Wasn’t that the Arminian’s specialty? Not according to Houston. His argument proceeds as follows: Arminians are able to claim that God loves everyone […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, omnibenevolence, theology

God loves you … but he hates that guy over there

December 22, 2011 by Randal

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: […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, election, imprecatory psalm, omnibenevolence, providence, theology

Does God hate those he does not save?

December 20, 2011 by Randal

This article was originally published at The Christian Post in January, 2010. *** Many Christians assume that God loves all people. This is hardly surprising since scripture declares that God loves all creation (John 3:16-17) and desires to see all people saved (1 Tim.2:4; 2 Pe.3:9). Indeed, the notion that God is loving to all, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Calvinism, causation, free will, God, love, omnibenevolence, providence

Calvinism and the Arbitrary Camp Director Revisited: A Response to Andrew

November 14, 2011 by Randal

Recently (as in within the last couple days) a student of philosophy named Andrew from the University of Auckland posted an article on Matt and Madeleine Flannagan’s website provocatively titled “Randal Rauser’s Mistake: A Defense of Calvin’s Doctrine of Election“. Okay, I consider that provocative anyway. The article focuses on identifying an alleged error in […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, omnibenevolence, perfect goodness, providence

Was Stephen Law guilty of a bait and switch?

October 19, 2011 by Randal

In my summary of the debate I argued that Law was guilty of a bait and switch. I wrote:  “In his closing Law made a striking admission. His argument from the evidential problem of evil is not actually aiming to show that God does not exist. In other words, his argument is consistent with many […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, debate, Landon Hedrick, omnibenevolence, perfect goodness, Stephen Law, William Lane Craig

Why “God hated Esau” is of no use to the Calvinist

September 10, 2011 by Randal

Pete asked what a person who believes God is omnibenevolent does with “God hated Esau” (Malachi 1:3; Romans 9:13). There are a number of complexities in these passages. To begin with, there is the fact that the specific individuals Jacob and Esau serve as symbols representing people groups (Israel and Edom, or more broadly, insider and outsider). Second, there is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, divine nature, election, Esau, God, goodness, omnibenevolence, providence

God’s arbitrary choices and election

August 4, 2011 by Randal

I have argued the the implications of the Calvinist view of election is that God’s choice of those who are elect is arbitrary. But what do I mean by “arbitrary”? I mean this: Arbitrary decision: any decision between two or more options where one option is chosen but another option was equally feasible. For example, it is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, election, omnibenevolence, providence

Tigers, Tabbys, and God’s special love for his elect

July 31, 2011 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: arminianism, Calvinism, election, love, omnibenevolence, providence

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