This Week in Calvinism - August 30, 2013

• What about Calvinists and Southern Baptists? Daniel Akin offers six ideas for navigating this issue.
  
  
• "Calvinism and the First Sin" is the title of James N. Anderson's contribution to the forthcoming book, Calvinism and the Problem of Evil, edited by David E. Alexander and Daniel M. Johnson. Anderson has made available a preprint version of the paper. Here's a brief glimpse of what to expect:

  Calvinists can affirm that the first sin considered in itself was a supremely evil act while at the same time affirming that God decreed Adam's sin for his good and wise purposes—ultimately, for his own glory manifested in his mercy and his justice—as part of the overall storyline of the history of creation.

  
  
• While Paul Imbrone shares his final thoughts on the Calvinism/Arminianism debate, my guess is the debate is far from over.
  
  
• Now this is a new one. Someone on a theology forum wants to know why people end up in Hell according to Calvinism. As this person sees it, Calvinism provides an excuse for those in Hell because Christ did not die for their sins. I'm sorry, but it isn't all that difficult. People who end up in Hell are there because they are receiving the due penalty for their sins, pretty much how scripture explains it.
  
  
• What does David L. Bahnsen think of John Piper and John MacArthur?:

  They are both Calvinists only in their soteriology which is the least important piece of Calvinism to me. In other words, they are Reformed baptists. ... Piper and MacArthur sometimes can be very tribalistic (M more than P). I also am very covenantal in my Calvinism. I baptized my children within two weeks of birth. I believe God deals covenantally with families and societies. M and P loathe this. I appreciate much of their work, but am far less Romeaphobic than they both are, and happen to be less rah rah for the predestination piece (as Biblical as it is) than they are.