Roger E. Olson

So, John Piper has now responded to Austin Fischer's book "Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed" (Wipf & Stock, 2013). (For those of you who don't know, Austin is Teaching Pastor at The Vista Community in Belton/Temple, Texas and his book is a run-away seller about his spiritual and theological journey in and out of Calvinism.) Of course, you should read Austin's book before making up your own mind whose right in the current debate about it--John or Austin. But see their very differing … [Read more...]

I simply don't have time to moderate scores of messages every day. Whenever I touch on "gay" issues people who normally never come here flood my comment box with arguments pro and con. It's obviously a very controversial issue. But what bothers me is that even when I BEG people to stick to the issue I raised they don't. The issue was the free exercise of religious conscience based on membership in a church that has a clear doctrinal standard about a certain behavior (not identity). Most … [Read more...]

Many people have asked me to listen to and respond to John Piper's comments about me and about Arminianism on his episode 238 (of his podcast "AskPastorJohn") entitled "Where's the Arminian John Piper?" You can find it by Googling it or going to Piper's web site.  Many of you heard it and asked me to respond. That was months ago now. I finally got around to listening to it. Here's my response. John (he calls me Roger so I'll call him John, we know each other personally) was  kind in his … [Read more...]

Thoughts about the "Gay Marriage" Debate and Christians' Rights             I have already stated here and elsewhere how I think the "gay marriage" debate should be settled. Get government out of the business of decided who's "married" and let government decide who may enjoy the privileges of "civil union." My suggestion is that any two people should be permitted to enter into that arrangement which would have only to do with matters such as property sharing, privileges of making … [Read more...]

Lately I've been thinking about the nature of history. Not "history" as in "what happened in the past" but "history" as in the "study of the past. " My thoughts about this were sparked by reading a book that purports to be a "history" of a certain denomination. I opened it with interest as it is about the denomination I grew up in. (It was published some years ago and I read it then but just recently re-read it.) When I closed the book after re-reading it I wondered if this book really … [Read more...]

One of the questions I'm asked most often is about God's providence in Arminian theology. Most people know that Arminians do not believe that God micromanages history or human lives--especially not in terms of evil. That is, Arminians do not believe that God designs, foreordains or renders certain sinful acts. Sin and evil are included in God's consequent will, not God's antecedent will. God governs them but does not design, foreordain or render them certain. I have expressed my own overall view … [Read more...]

Is Arminianism "Reformed?" A minor controversy exists among Arminian scholars (and some non-Arminian Reformed scholars have chimed in) about whether classical Arminianism can legitimately lay claim to being part of the Reformed theological tradition. The question is this: Was and is Arminianism such a deviation from classical Reformed theology that it ought to be considered something entirely other than Reformed (historically-theologically) or was and is it simply one branch of the larger … [Read more...]

A Good New Book: A Missional Orthodoxy: Theology And Ministry in a Post-Christian Context by Gary Tyra (InterVarsity Press, 2013). This book is hefty but it packs a good and needed "punch." For evangelicals interested in being both missional and orthodox at the same time, it's a breath of fresh air. One of the book's central theses, maybe its main thesis, is that too many especially younger evangelicals think they have to choose between being either missional or orthodox. Tyra is associate … [Read more...]

The "God of the Gaps": Right Use, Wrong Use One recurring theme here and in other evangelical engagements with science is the idea of the "God of the gaps." I'm not sure who coined the phrase; I've heard it attributed to Bonhoeffer (from Letters and Papers from Prison), but I don't remember him specifically using that phrase. He certainly criticized the idea of a "deus ex machine" brought in to fill the gaps—holes in the natural order science cannot (so far) explain. Generally speaking, … [Read more...]

A Problem in Evangelicalism: Narcissistic Leaders Guest post by electrical engineer Stephen Berger I want to thank Dr. Olson for this opportunity to provide a guest blog.  It is an honor given in grace and kindness. During the time I was drafting this blog, my wife and I visited some long time friends. I received an unintended rebuke from their daughter-in-law as she answered my question about their future plans.  She and her husband, a law school student, are equipping themselves to … [Read more...]