Download or read book The Calvinist Universalist written by Stephen Campana and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -From eternity past God intended that the most vivid and profound demonstration of his glory would come in the form of His work of salvation on the cross of Christ. -God then made man to punish him. -He made him perfect and thus unlikely to ever need punishing, or, for that matter, a Savior. -By a happy coincidence, and against all the odds, this perfect man sinned, thus allowing God to fulfill His purposes for both the man and Christ. -When he sinned, God, who is suddenly confronted with the prospect of being able to fulfill all of His original plans, becomes furious. What you have just read is not a joke. I wish that it were. Rather, I have simply enumerated the points that comprise the Calvinist theological system, or, as I call it: the Happy Coincidence model of sin and salvation. It reflects what can only be described as an Alice-in-Wonderland reality, in which the only sense is nonsense, and logic is the enemy. This book will seek to explore some of its many logical inconsistencies and, in the process, propose a perfectly viable--and biblical--alternative.
Download or read book The Calvinist Universalist written by Stephen Campana and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -From eternity past God intended that the most vivid and profound demonstration of his glory would come in the form of His work of salvation on the cross of Christ. -God then made man to punish him. -He made him perfect and thus unlikely to ever need punishing, or, for that matter, a Savior. -By a happy coincidence, and against all the odds, this perfect man sinned, thus allowing God to fulfill His purposes for both the man and Christ. -When he sinned, God, who is suddenly confronted with the prospect of being able to fulfill all of His original plans, becomes furious. What you have just read is not a joke. I wish that it were. Rather, I have simply enumerated the points that comprise the Calvinist theological system, or, as I call it: the Happy Coincidence model of sin and salvation. It reflects what can only be described as an Alice-in-Wonderland reality, in which the only sense is nonsense, and logic is the enemy. This book will seek to explore some of its many logical inconsistencies and, in the process, propose a perfectly viable--and biblical--alternative.
Download or read book The Evangelical Universalist written by Gregory MacDonald and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can an orthodox Christian, committed to the historic faith of the Church and the authority of the Bible, be a universalist? Is it possible to believe that salvation is found only by grace, through faith in Christ, and yet to maintain that in the end all people will be saved? Can one believe passionately in mission if one does not think that anyone will be lost forever? Could universalism be consistent with the teachings of the Bible? In The Evangelical Universalist the author argues that the answer is ‘yes!’ to all of these questions. Weaving together philosophical, theological, and biblical considerations, he seeks to show that being a committed universalist is consistent with the central teachings of the biblical texts and of historic Christian theology.
Download or read book The One Purpose of God written by Jan Bonda and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. Throughout the centuries the church has taught that the vast majority of humankind will suffer eternal punishment. But is this teaching truly biblical? In this provocative book Jan Bonda scrutinizes church tradition and Scripture -- especially Paul's letter to the Romans -- and concludes that neither Paul nor the prophets to whom he appeals show any trace of supporting the doctrine of eternal damnation. On the contrary, they tell us that God wants to save all people and that he will not rest until that goal has been achieved.
Download or read book Calvinism and the Problem of Evil written by David E. Alexander and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-07-13 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to what many philosophers believe, Calvinism neither makes the problem of evil worse nor is it obviously refuted by the presence of evil and suffering in our world. Or so most of the authors in this book claim. While Calvinism has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years amongst theologians and laypersons, many philosophers have yet to follow suit. The reason seems fairly clear: Calvinism, many think, cannot handle the problem of evil with the same kind of plausibility as other more popular views of the nature of God and the nature of God's relationship with His creation. This book seeks to challenge that untested assumption. With clarity and rigor, this collection of essays seeks to fill a significant hole in the literature on the problem of evil.
Download or read book Deviant Calvinism written by Oliver Crisp and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers. This book was released on 2014 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deviant Calvinism seeks to show that the Reformed tradition is much broader and more variegated than is often thought. Crisps work focuses on a cluster of theological issues concerning the scope of salvation and shows that there are important ways in which current theological discussion of these topics can be usefully resourced by attention to theologians of the past. This book contributes to theological retrieval within the Reformed theology, and establishes a wider path to thinking Calvinism differently.
Download or read book Grace Saves All written by David Artman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-04-17 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grace is amazing. About this all Christians agree. Yet nearly all forms of Christianity put significant limits on grace. Those forms of Christianity which proclaim grace alone actually saves typically don’t believe God gives grace to everyone; while those forms of Christianity which proclaim God gives grace to everyone typically don’t believe grace alone actually saves. Must grace either be that which saves alone but doesn’t go to all, or that which goes to all but doesn’t save alone? In Grace Saves All, David Artman argues that grace saves alone and goes to all. This inclusive approach to Christianity is variously called universal reconciliation, universal salvation, or perhaps most accurately, Christian universalism. He contends that the inclusive/Christian universalist approach is necessary because it offers the only Christian theology which successfully defends the goodness of God. For it logically follows that if God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then God must also be all-saving. Often dismissed as a modern feel-good theology, Christian universalism is an ancient, orthodox, and biblical theology which was expounded by early Christians and early church fathers. Artman brings much deserved attention to this wonderful spirituality.
Download or read book The Universalist Movement in America 1770 1880 written by Ann Lee Bressler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-04-19 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume Ann Lee Bressler offers the first cultural history of American Universalism and its central teaching -- the idea that an all-good and all-powerful God saves all souls. Although Universalists have commonly been lumped together with Unitarians as "liberal religionists," in its origins their movement was, in fact, quite different from that of the better-known religious liberals. Unlike Unitarians such as the renowned William Ellery Channing, who stressed the obligation of the individual under divine moral sanctions, most early American Universalists looked to the omnipotent will of God to redeem all of creation. While Channing was socially and intellectually descended from the opponents of Jonathan Edwards, Hosea Ballou, the foremost theologian of the Universalist movement, appropriated Edwards's legacy by emphasizing the power of God's love in the face of human sinfulness and apparent intransigence. Espousing what they saw as a fervent but reasonable piety, many early Universalists saw their movement as a form of improved Calvinism. The story of Universalism from the mid-nineteenth century on, however, was largely one of unsuccessful efforts to maintain this early synthesis of Calvinist and Enlightenment ideals. Eventually, Bressler argues, Universalists were swept up in the tide of American religious individualism and moralism; in the late nineteenth century they increasingly extolled moral responsibility and the cultivation of the self. By the time of the first Universalist centennial celebration in 1870, the ideals of the early movement were all but moribund. Bressler's study illuminates such issues as the relationship between faith and reason in a young, fast-growing, and deeply uncertain country, and the fate of the Calvinist heritage in American religious history.
Download or read book English Hypothetical Universalism written by Jonathan D. Moore and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2007-06-25 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Preston (1587-1628) stands as a key figure in the development of English Reformed orthodoxy in the courts of ElizabetháI and JamesáVI. Often cited as a favorite of the English and American Puritans who came after him, he nevertheless stood as a bridge between the crown and the nonconformists. Jonathan D. Moore retrieves Preston from his traditional place as one of the "Calvinists against Calvin," provides a convincing argument for Preston's unique hypothetical universalism, and calls into question common misperceptions about Reformed theology and Puritanism.
Download or read book Evangelical Calvinism written by Myk Habets and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2012-06-08 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this exciting volume, new and emerging voices join senior Reformed scholars in presenting a coherent and impassioned articulation of Calvinism for today's world. Evangelical Calvinism represents a mood within current Reformed theology. The various contributors are in different ways articulating that mood, of which their very diversity is a significant element. In attempting to outline features of an Evangelical Calvinism, a number of the contributors compare and contrast this approach with that of Federal Calvinism currently dominant in North American Reformed theology, challenging the assumption that Federal Calvinism is the only possible expression of orthodox Reformed theology. This book does not, however, represent the arrival of a "new Calvinism" or even a "neo-Calvinism," if by those terms are meant a novel reading of the Reformed faith. An Evangelical Calvinism highlights a Calvinistic tradition that has developed particularly within Scotland, but is not unique to the Scots. The editors have picked up the baton passed on by John Calvin, Karl Barth, Thomas Torrance, and others, in order to offer the family of Reformed theologies a reinvigorated theological and spiritual ethos. This volume promises to set the agenda for Reformed-Calvinist discussion for some time to come.
Download or read book Her Gates Will Never Be Shut written by Brad Jersak and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everlasting hell and divine judgment, a lake of fire and brimstone--these mainstays of evangelical tradition have come under fire once again in recent decades. Would the God of love revealed by Jesus really consign the vast majority of humankind to a destiny of eternal, conscious torment? Is divine mercy bound by the demands of justice? How can anyone presume to know who is saved from the flames and who is not? Reacting to presumptions in like manner, others write off the fiery images of final judgment altogether. If there is a God who loves us, then surely all are welcome into the heavenly kingdom, regardless of their beliefs or behaviors in this life. Yet, given the sheer volume of threat rhetoric in the Scriptures and the wickedness manifest in human history, the pop-universalism of our day sounds more like denial than hope. Mercy triumphs over judgment; it does not skirt it. Her Gates Will Never Be Shut endeavors to reconsider what the Bible and the Church have actually said about hell and hope, noting a breadth of real possibilities that undermines every presumption. The polyphony of perspectives on hell and hope offered by the prophets, apostles, and Jesus humble our obsessive need to harmonize every text into a neat theological system. But they open the door to the eternal hope found in Revelation 21-22: the City whose gates will never be shut; where the Spirit and Bride perpetually invite the thirsty who are outside the city to "Come, drink of the waters of life."
Download or read book Rethinking Hell written by Christopher M. Date and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.
Download or read book Reflections of a Disenchanted Calvinist written by Ronnie W. Rogers and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2016-03-28 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflections of a Disenchanted Calvinist: The Disquieting Realities of Calvinism engages one of the classical strands of Protestant thought with the classical strength of Protestantismshedding the light of the Scriptures on the questions of the faith. Author Ronnie W. Rogers leads readers through the intricacies of Calvinist thought, touching on such topics as the sovereignty of God, predestination, unconditional election, the origin of evil, free will, and faith and works. The intent of this journey is to provide a critique of Calvinism and to present readers with a clear picture of the ramifications of subscribing to Calvinist doctrines. Chapters address particular theological topics by stating both affirmations rooted in the Scriptures and disaffirmations drawing their support from the Scriptures as well. The lines of thought do not shy away from complex theological questions, but instead rely upon the riches of theological reflection to assure the critiques of Calvinism are fair both to the doctrines and to the Scriptures. If you are a part of the Calvinist tradition and want to explore the nuances of your background, or if you locate yourself outside of that tradition but have deep curiosity about the questions the Calvinist tradition raises, then Reflections of a Disenchanted Calvinist: The Disquieting Realities of Calvinism offers a rigorous guide to exploring the depths of the tradition and critique of the tenets of Calvinism.
Download or read book The Inescapable Love of God written by Thomas Talbott and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will the love of God save us all? In this book Thomas Talbott seeks to expose the extent to which the Western theological tradition has managed to twist the New Testament message of love, forgiveness, and hope into a message of fear and guilt. According to the New Testament proclamation, he argues, God's love is both unconditional in its nature and unlimited in its scope; hence, no one need fear, for example, that God's love might suddenly turn into loveless hatred at the moment of one's physical death. For God's love remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. But neither should one ignore the New Testament theme of divine judgment, which Talbott thinks the Western theological tradition has misunderstood entirely. He argues in particular that certain patterns of fallacious reasoning, which crop up repeatedly in the works of various theologians and Bible scholars, have prevented many from appreciating St. Paul's explicit teaching that God is merciful to all in the end. This second edition of Talbott's classic work is fully revised, updated, and substantially expanded with new material. ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FORMAT The Inescapable Love of God is also available as an unabridged audiobook wonderfully narrated by the actor George W. Sarris (running time: 11 hours and 2 minutes). The audiobook can be downloaded from christianaudio.com and Audible.
Download or read book Against Calvinism written by Roger E. Olson and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calvinist theology has been debated and promoted for centuries. But is it a theology that should last? Roger Olson suggests that Calvinism, also commonly known as Reformed theology, holds an unwarranted place in our list of accepted theologies. In Against Calvinism, readers will find scholarly arguments explaining why Calvinist theology is incorrect and how it affects God’s reputation. Olson draws on a variety of sources, including Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience, to support his critique of Calvinism and the more historically rich, biblically faithful alternative theologies he proposes. Addressing what many evangelical Christians are concerned about today—so-called “new Calvinism,” a movement embraced by a generation labeled as “young, restless, Reformed” —Against Calvinism is the only book of its kind to offer objections from a non-Calvinist perspective to the current wave of Calvinism among Christian youth. As a companion to Michael Horton’s For Calvinism, readers will be able to compare contrasting perspectives and form their own opinions on the merits and weaknesses of Calvinism.
Download or read book All Shall be Well written by Gregory MacDonald and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2011-08-25 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Universalism runs like a slender thread through the history of Christian theology. Over the centuries Christian universalism, in one form or another, has been reinvented time and time again. In this book an international team of scholars explore thediverse universalisms of Christian thinkers from the Origen to Moltmann. In the introduction Gregory MacDonald argues that theologies of universal salvation occupy a space between heresy and dogma. Therefore disagreements about whether all will be saved should not be thought of as debates between the orthodox and heretics but rather as in-house debates between Christians. The studies in this collection aim, in the first instance, to hear, understand, and explain the eschatological claims of a range of Christians from the third to the twenty-first centuries. They also offer some constructive, critical engagement with those claims.
Download or read book Calvin and the Calvinists written by Paul Helm and published by Banner of Truth. This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a reprint of the pioneering study of Paul Helm written as a corrective response to a book by Dr. R.T. Kendall who had attempted to show that later Calvinism had significantly departed from the theology of the Geneva reformer.
