Bill Pratt | December 24, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt According to church historian John Hannah, there were four major Protestant streams that developed during the Reformation in the 16th century: Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anabaptism. Each of these streams placed great stress on the idea of salvation by faith alone, yet they did not all agree on what infant baptism [...]
Darrell | September 20, 2010
Image via Wikipedia Post Author: Darrell Five Point Calvinism is commonly referred to by the acronym TULIP. The “T” in TULIP stands for Total Depravity. Theopedia defines it as follows: “[E]very person born into the world is morally corrupt, enslaved to sin and is, apart from the grace of God, utterly unable to choose to follow God [...]
Bill Pratt | April 2, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt This question first came to a dramatic head in the church in the fifth and sixth centuries. There were four main protagonists. Augustine of Hippo argued that salvation is totally and causatively of God’s grace. A contemporary of Augustine, Pelagius, argued that salvation is totally and causatively of man’s free will. [...]
Bill Pratt | September 5, 2009
Post Author: Bill Pratt Some people get hung up on the idea that God can know, for sure, what I will freely do in the future. Their argument goes something like this: if whatever God knows will certainly occur (as virtually all Christians agree), then either I am not free to act or God does [...]
Bill Pratt | July 9, 2009
Post Author: Bill Pratt Once a person is justified (saved), can they lose their salvation? This seems like an important question, but there are differing views within Christendom. Calvinists, both moderate and 5-point, affirm eternal security. Eternal security is the idea that once a person is truly saved, he can never lose his salvation. Calvinists [...]
Bill Pratt | April 7, 2009
Post Author: Bill Pratt Yes. There is absolutely nothing contradictory about an infinite God being in control of every little electron in the universe, but creating creatures in that same universe who have a special power of free will. God can accomplish everything he wants to accomplish in human affairs through human free will. While he [...]
Bill Pratt | December 4, 2008
My young friend, Tyler, asked me recently about Molinism. Molinism is a doctrine developed by a 16th century theologian, Luis de Molina, that attempted to reconcile the sovereignty of God with man’s free will. Molina posited the idea that God possesses a special kind of knowledge, known as middle knowledge (scientia media), that effectively lets him [...]
