This Week in Calvinism - January 16, 2009

It's been quite a week!

• The New York Times has a less-than flattering article on Mark Driscoll, essentially painting him as an egomaniac: "Driscoll is still the one who gazes down upon Mars Hill's seven congregations most Sundays, his sermons broadcast from the main campus to jumbo-size projection screens around the city. At one suburban campus that I visited, a huge yellow cross dominated center stage -- until the projection screen unfurled and Driscoll’s face blocked the cross from view. Driscoll's New Calvinism underscores a curious fact: the doctrine of total human depravity has always had a funny way of emboldening, rather than humbling, its adherents."
  
  
• Daniel Ross was surprised the article didn't focus more on the fact that women aren't treated the same as men at Mars Hill Church.
  
  
• Stephen Suh, on the other hand, did focus on that. I would be surprised if Suh had even heard of Mark Driscoll before he read the Times article, but he thinks he knows enough to accuse Driscoll and Calvinists in general of being misogynists. And be sure to scroll down and read the comments comparing Driscoll to Charles Manson and Jim Jones. (What, no Hitler reference?) Pathetic.
  
  
• You can read more commentary, both positive and negative, on the article in question here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
  
  
• Anthony Sacramone used the Times article as a jumping-off point to rant about how bad Calvinist theology is, especially in regard to limited atonement. Stopping short of accusing us of spreading a false gospel, he admits he ended his "sojourn among the Calvinists because their view of justification is not so much 'by faith alone' as it is 'by luck alone.'"
  
  
• Phil Johnson clarifies Calvinism. His "advice to young Calvinists is to learn theology from the historic mainstream Calvinist authors, not from blogs and discussion forums on the Internet." Read also Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
  
  
• A question for William Birch: What is so amazing about a grace that can be resisted?
  
  
• John Calvin persevered despite many physical ailments.
  
  
• Lex Loizides lists some differences between John Calvin and Martin Luther.
  
  
• Matt Perkins confesses, "I'm still an Arminian. But I'm realizing that I may have overlooked some problems in the Arminian system and I may have oversimplified the Calvinist point of view to make it look worse than it really is." I think we can all agree that people on both sides have been guilty of that.
  
  
• Volgens Historiek.net: "Het is dit jaar 500 jaar geleden dat de naamgever van het calvinisme, Johannes Calvijn, werd geboren. Ter gelegenheid hiervan verschijnt morgen het glossy personality-magazine Calvijn!."