I might have to put this year’s Desiring God conference on the “might do it” list. Any BHTers interested at this point?

See boys and girls….I told you that Dennis is a CAMPBELLITE. I know what that means :) He makes fun of Calvinists!! (And in Ky, Baptists!)

The typical Calvinistic explanation of “choice” is one of the weakest parts of popular Calvinism. (Thanks Paul O.) I have Macarthurite friends who go on and on about the fact that they have “no choice” and “no free will,” etc. They sound like they are celebrating determinism with glee.

A few thoughts from my own process of working through this.

1) The Bible talks to us in a variety of perspectives. Be cautious about throwing texts together. The Bible is unashamedly affirmative about the sovereignty of God and the reality/responsibility of choice.

2) The Bible is also affirmative on the context of both these emphasis. The sovereignty of God exists within his goodness, wisdom, love, etc. The reality of choice exists within the context of creation, fall, biology, social systems, etc. There is never a war or even a tension over these points. The WCF is on track to say that God ordains secondary causes all without damage to the will of the creature. That’s important.

3. Capon brilliantly deals with this in a number of books, especially Genesis: the Movie. He says that God runs the world by “Holy Luck.” I won’t explain it, because you should have to do the work, but I think it puts together the whole Biblical picture of HUMAN EXPERIENCE quite well.

4. We are as free as we can be. God is a sovereign as He can be. Isn’t that exactly what we have in Acts 4 with the death of Christ credited both to God’s sovereignty and human choice?

5. Posted by: TommyMertonHead @ 12:54 pm | Trackback |