This Week in Calvinism - October 9, 2015

• Former Calvinist Austin Fischer, writing a guest post on Roger Olson's blog, admits that monergism may be true, but it isn't necesary:

  Because when one realizes every creature—not to mention space-time itself!!!—is sustained, nanosecond by nanosecond, by the wild and unconditioned generosity of God, monergism is simply unnecessary. It might still be true, but it is not necessary. The infinite God, Being behind all being, does not need monergism to protect his glory.

  
  
• In response to a question about Lutheranism, Calvinism, and the Renaissance, a teacher writes:

  The Reformation remains one of the most important developments in history, and its occurrence during the years of the Renaissance was no accident. Luther and Calvin did not so much respond to the challenges of the Renaissance as they exploited it for their own purposes, irrespective of how one views the split of the Church into two major halves.

  
  
• Jamaican journalist Ian Boyne finds Calvinism to be "intellectually revolting and repulsive," especially the belief that the unsaved will suffer eternal, conscious torment: "Calvinists, particularly, have no qualms about teaching the doctrine of an ever-burning hell. In fact, they would be quite offended at my temerity in questioning this 'clear biblical truth.'" Offended? No. Saddened? Yes.
  
  
• Joel Beeke, president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, thinks evangelicals today would do well to learn from the Reformers and Puritans: "They consistently aim to apply the Word of God to the heart, and yet do so by illuminating the mind and addressing the conscience with the claims of truth."
  
  
• Can a sound biblical theology be maintained without Calvinism? Dr. Tom Nettles writes, "Though the human heart can pervert any system of thought, the non-Calvinist system in its emphasis on heightening human autonomy and diminishing divine efficiency creates wider berths for deception about the character of salvation."
  
  
• "As a very young Christian," writes Mark Shea, "I had just had my first taste of the destructive power of Calvinism and its cold diagrammatic god that might or might not love you depending on whether he felt like capriciously damning you."