Tag Archives: Christianity

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These are sections from a book, "Why I am Not an Arminian" by Robert. A Peterson and Michael D. Williams.

"The doctrine of divine sovereignty has always posed a problem for Arminianism. It is not too much to say tht historically Aminian theology has tended to pit human freedom against divine sovereignty as if the two are mutually limiting or even mutually exclusive. "

"We believe that incompatibilism, whether determinist or indeterminist, is wrong. It is built upon a false, either-or assumption, an assumption that the Bible everywhere disavows. The contention that human freedom renders God incapable of exercising his kingly sovereignty or that divine ordination of history turns human beings into chess pieces who do not make meaningful choices is patently false from a Biblical perspective. We believe that Scripture assumes compatibilism, the view that divine sovereignty and responsible human freedom are not contradictory at all.

I don't want to write more at any one stretch (copyright stuff) - this is a great book that explains a lot about both reformed theology and Arminian theology in a fair and balanced way.

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I talked to a friend today - she adopted a daughter at birth who had been exposed to many different chemicals in the womb, with a lot of consequences.

One of these consequences is her ability to "say no" to a boy. That inhibition just is not there. She's able to be taught, but she will never have that internal "voice" telling her that she shouldn't do this thing. Will she be held accountable for sexual sin - if her mother's prenatal actions deprived her of the conscience that God wanted her to have?

I believe that the sexual road that she is headed toward (she is not even in middle school), is sin.

In Calvinist terms - she can be "called" to a celibate (or faithful) lifestyle - and regardless of that call, she will not be able to believe in her heart that is the right thing. (yes, I know that my friend is not God, nor can she "elect" the child to obedience - I'm just relating my experience to an understanding of how one can be called and still not understand or believe. I know that anybody that stumbles onto this blog who believes in free will will tell me how the example is wrong.)

But there is another context that this girl could lead me to a different possible understanding.

Homosexuality. Yes, I believe firmly that homosexual intercourse is a sin. However, if there is something that happens before birth (some sort of chemical injury) that causes homosexuality, then the person injured would have no more choice in their same-sex attraction than the girl I know has in her lack of sexual conscience.

If this could be proven (or at least if there were strong indication), I would have to separate the act of being gay from the act of having homosexual intercourse.

Is it possible that homosexuals have the "call" to be "normal", without the ability to choose?

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I grew up in an Arminian church, in an Arminian family, in a largely Arminian town. When I "grew up", I married the son of an Arminian preacher and when my sister "grew up" she married an Arminian preacher.

So, the reaction to my conversion to Calvinism was underwhelming. Nobody criticized me, but nobody encouraged me.

Because I live in an area where Calvinist and Arminians work together on many things, when I wrote of my beliefs on-line, the animosity astounded me - on both sides.

When my friend Phil challenged me to take a good look at Calvinism, it took me a year to decide it was time to change churches and longer to choose which reformed denomination. After that, God led me to the “right” church fairly quickly.

I find a great freedom in just saying that God gets to pick – and there’s a lot I don’t know and there’s a lot I don’t have to know!