Calvinism
Predestination: What Does It Mean?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Destiny, Determinism, Free Will, Is God to Blame?, Open Theism, Predestination
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
When some people hear the biblical teaching that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) and that “he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Christ,” (Eph 1:5) they…
Resignation to Evil: Not an Option
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Evil, Kingdom Revolution, Revolt, Warfare Worldview
One lucky guy via Compfight While few Christians would deny that Satan is in some sense the ruler of this world, since it’s so clearly taught in the New Testament, many nevertheless insist that everything…
A Dear John Letter to John Calvin
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, John Calvin, The American Jesus, Zack Hunt
Zack Hunt of The American Jesus wrote a brilliant “Dear John” letter after reading Calvin’s most famous work, Institutes of the Christian Religion. If you want to hear a well-articulated and engaging challenge of classic Calvinism,…
Molinism and Open Theism – Part I
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Choice, Determinism, Free Will, God, Molinism, Open Theism
Topics: Open Theism What it is and is not, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
I’ve been asked for the umpteenth time on Twitter lately about the difference between “Molinism” and “Open Theism,” and for some reason, today seemed like a good day to begin addressing this question. I’ll do this…
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled…”
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Greg Boyd, Problem of Evil, Roger Olson, Satan, Satan and the Problem of Evil, Theodicy
“…was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” ~Verbal Kint, The Usual Suspects Roger Olson reflected a few days ago on the curious absence of any discussion of Satan in modern theology. He even speculated: I…
Lighten Up: Fate
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Calvinism, Cartoons, Fate, Free Will, Lighten Up, Predestination
Some Questions a Year After Her Child’s Death
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Calvinism, God's Will, Grief, Henry, Jessica Kelley, Open Theism, Prayer, The Jesus Event, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Jessica Kelley wrote a post for The Jesus Event that we wanted to share with you. You might remember that last year we were getting to know Jessica as she lost her four year old son Henry just…
Lighten Up: Good Question
Category: General, Lighten Up
Tags: Calvinism, Free Will, Humor, Lighten Up, Open Theism
A Calvinist and an Arminian walk into a bar…
Category: General
Tags: Arminianism, Calvinism, God's Love, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Roger Olson
Toby Bradbury via Compfight Roger Olson posted A Conversation between a Calvinist and an Arminian about God’s Sovereignty that we thought was dead on. In fact, we kind of wonder if Roger is bugging some of the conversations…
Arbitrary Election
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, John Piper, Micah J Murray, Neo-Reformed Theology, Salvation, Unconditional Election
Micah J. Murray wrote a blog entitled Five Reasons I Reject Unconditional Election, which was a response to John Piper’s recent arguments for embracing unconditional election. If you’re looking for Scripture-based argumentation, you would do well…
The End and Beginning of Faith
Category: General
Tags: Agnosticism, Calvinism, Doubt, Faith, Micah J Murray, Picture of God
Eduardo Amorim via Compfight Micah J. Murray shared the story of how his doubts and loss of faith led him to a truer, deeper faith. While we fear the doubts that sometimes sneak in, sometimes…
Sermon Clip: Escaping the Twilight Zone God
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Fear, Love, Sermons
In this sermon clip from Woodland Hills Church, Greg Boyd discusses how in an episode of the Twilight Zone, a young boy gained omnipotent powers, and people were forced to accept his every decision as…
The Open View and Radical Suffering
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Calvinism, Jess in Process, Jessica Kelley, Open Theism
Jessica Kelley spoke at Open2013 this morning, sharing her journey with tenderness and authority. Jessica began wrestling with her view of God a couple of years ago and embraced Open Theism prior to the diagnosis…
Henry’s Mom: Did God Author This?
Category: General
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Henry, Jess in Process, Jessica Kelley, Love, Open Theism, Problem of Evil, Warfare Worldview
Many of you were touched last month when we featured some reflections on little Henry’s death. Well, Henry’s mother Jess has started a blog to process through some of her thoughts and we wanted to…
Free Will: How free will presupposes a great deal of determinism
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
This particular video was recorded last week when the forecast called for a high of -4F. Greg makes light of the freezing conditions before he settles into the topic of how a mostly determined world…
Free Will: Are studies that demonstrate genetic determinism a threat to free will?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Responding to Objections
Greg shares his continuing thoughts on free will with a thought experiment (and a hand-drawn graph!) granting that we are largely determined by forces outside of our control. If we grant this presupposition, does that…
Free Will: What is a free agent?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Free Will, Open Theism, Philosophy
Topics: Free Will and the Future
What does it really mean to be a free agent? In this reflection, Greg offers some thoughts on free agents and how it can be that they are not exhaustively determined.
Free Will: What about “natural” evil? Was Hurricane Sandy a Free Agent?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Evil, Free Will, Natural Evil, Open Theism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict, The Problem of Evil
What about natural evil? How does free will help to make sense of this? Greg reflects on the origins of sickness, natural disaster, animal suffering and so on. Hope you’re enjoying the series so far….
Free Will: The origin of evil
Category: Q&A
Tags: Calvinism, Determinism, Evil, Free Will, Open Theism, Problem of Evil
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
In this continuing series on free will, Greg discusses how evil can only be accounted for if we acknowledge free will. This is especially true if you believe that God is good.