This Week in Calvinism - August 31, 2012

• If "all" means "all" all the time without exception, and God wants "all" men to be saved, but not "all" men are, then we can only conclude that God doesn't get what he wants. Right?
  
  
• Roger Olson writes, "I cannot accept, even with chagrin, Calvinism that says God foreordains and renders certain specific sins. That inexorably, ineluctably, inescapably makes God the author of sin and evil. That sullies God's character OR makes sin not really sin. You have to choose. There's no way around it." Dr. Olson, does that include the greatest sin of all, the murder of God's Son? I might be going out on a limb here, but scripture seems to imply that the crucifixion was foreordained.
  
  
• Relax, folks. The SBC's advisory committee on Calvinism meets this week. I'm sure the whole issue will be resolved in short order once and for all.
  
  
• Where did New Calvinism come from?
  
  
• Two years ago, a group of Baptist leaders published a substantial critique of Calvinism entitled Whosoever Will. This summer, Calvinists responded with Whomever He Wills.
  
  
• Romans 4:6-8 is apparently "a knock-out blow to Calvinism." I'm not sure I can follow the reasoning here, but maybe you can.
  
  
• Stephen Richardson, chair of the Biblical Studies Department and associate professor at Pacific Christian College of Ministry and Biblical Studies, believes that God's relationship with us "is a partnership in which God honors our humanity enough to value our free embrace of his Son and the resulting wholesome fellowship." This freedom to choose has some challenging implications. He says, "I must wrestle with the conclusion that God has taken risks in creating a being in his image and does not always get what he desires." So, God can't always get what he wants. Is that taken from scripture or a Rolling Stones song?