This Week in Calvinism - May 27, 2016

• A former cage-stage Calvinist himself, William Birch lays the blame for the enabling of cage-stagers at the feet of men like R. C. Sproul and John Piper: "These Calvinist teachers enable young and impressionable Calvinist converts toward demeaning, objectifying, and condemning Arminians and other non-Calvinists, and maintaining a superior attitude that is most unChristlike." While Mr. Birch may try to assure us that "[t]here is no category as a cage-stage Arminian," I do find it interesting that the most vocal anti-Calvinists seem to be former Calvinists themselves.
  
  
• Peter Lumpkins presents evidence suggesting "that Baptists of the south were not as forged into strict, confessional Calvinism as many Southern Baptist Calvinists claim."
  
  
• SBC presidential nominee Steve Gaines on teaching Calvinism: "I do believe that our students need to know about Calvinism. I don't mind our seminaries teaching about Calvinism, but it should not be the exclusive theological position taught in any of our schools."
  
  
• This week's Free Stuff Fridays giveaway is sponsored by Missional Wear. And don't forget to claim your free sticker!
  
  
• The Calvinism debate between Dr. James White and Steve Tassi has been postponed.

This Week in Calvinism - May 20, 2016

• Tim Challies explains why he is not an atheist.
  
  
• John Piper on how to hate your life.
  
  
• Mary A. Kassian discusses the issue of women teaching men in the church.
  
  
• Richard Bushey responds to Eric Lounsbery regarding Calvinism and Luke 8:12.
  
  
• You might think that Arminian William Birch doesn't have any Calvinist friends:
  

  That is not so. I do have Calvinist friends that I love, cherish, and highly respect. I think they hold to egregious theological errors. My hope is that they will, like me, abandon those errors and glorify the Lord by maintaining a proper hermeneutic that informs us rightly regarding the character and integrity of our sovereign God.

This Week in Calvinism - May 13, 2016

• Colby Bonham responds to a self-proclaimed "destroyer of Calvinism."
  
  
• Trevin Wax argues that "it is problematic to claim that a move away from Calvinism necessarily entails a move toward theological liberalism."
  
  
• Jared Longshore responds to Trevin Wax.
  
  
• Another response.
  
  
• Benjamin L. Corey finds John MacArthur's statement about reaching the Spanish-speaking world with the gospel "racist" and "paternalistic."
  
  
• Jared C. Wilson troubleshoots the celebrity pastor problem.
  
  
• Ronnie Rogers eschews the Calvinist view of compatibilism and instead embraces extensivism.

This Week in Calvinism - May 6, 2016

• "The doctrine of Calvinists should not trouble us," writes Jack Wellman, pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane, Kansas. "Debating over something that is not essential to salvation leads to the ruin of the hearers." While I agree that a belief in Calvinism is not essential to salvation, I disagree that a loving debate over the doctrines of grace is harmful. As Dr. James White so often points out, "theology matters."
  
  
• Timothy George of First Things takes a look at Mark Dever and Capitol Hill Baptist Church in his article "Puritans on the Potomac."
  
  
• Good living is rooted in good theology.
  
  
• Tom Nettles discusses Calvinists and non-Calvinists in the SBC.
  
  
• The free stuff featured today at Challies.com is sponsored by Westminster Theological Seminary.