I finally watched the movie “12 Years a Slave.” It was very difficult to watch. Why? Not just the brutality portrayed but the fact that the men (and some women) who carried out the brutalities were human beings. (The movie is based on a book written by the protagonist, victim, and is generally considered true.) These things, like the holocaust and all that surrounded it, were done by people–not monsters from outer space or demons or viruses. Here is the... Read more

Is the “Arminian God” Good? Several times I have argued here that a main reason high Calvinism (double predestinarianism) must be wrong is that if it were true God would not be good in any meaningful sense. If it were true, we would have no idea what we mean when we say “God is good” other than “God is God.” The adjective “good” would add nothing explanatory to “God.” That’s because there is no analogy between “good” attributed to the... Read more

Off the Usual Topics: Gender Double Standards We hear and see a lot decrying cultural double standards that harm girls and women. Most recently I saw a campaign by several organizations to stop referring to girls and women as “bossy” when they are simply being assertive in the same way boys and men can be assertive. I agree that this is a double standard that pervades American culture and we need to speak out against it. Girls and women should... Read more

“Belong, Believe, Behave?” Or “Believe, Behave, Belong?” I’m not sure who first suggested the idea, but some years ago someone associated with the “emerging church” movement said that churches need to move from a policy of requiring right belief and right living for belonging to offering belonging followed by believing and behaving. For some postevangelical Christians this has become a hallmark of the difference between emerging (or emergent) churches and traditional evangelical churches. While I sympathize with the impulse behind... Read more

Something that dismays me is the common confusion between “Christian orthodoxy” and “fundamentalism.” There are probably many reasons for it, but I think the common one (among Christians, anyway) is that people “burned” by fundamentalism run from orthodoxy due to an over reaction. Some people I know almost break out in hives when they hear “orthodoxy” used in a positive, prescriptive way–as in “There are certain beliefs that are normative for all Christians.” They can only hear that as fundamentalism.... Read more

Suppose someone said “God is sovereign but God’s sovereignty is different from our ideas of sovereignty. God is sovereign but possesses only the power of persuasion.” Someone else objects saying “But wait. There is no meaning of ‘sovereignty’ known to man that is compatible with having only the power of persuasion.” The first person responds, “Oh, but you are assuming a human idea of sovereignty; God’s sovereignty is higher and better than any human idea of sovereignty. We can’t project... Read more

Why (High) Calvinism Is Impossible By “impossible” I don’t mean, of course, “doesn’t exist.” I mean “exists but doesn’t work.” By “doesn’t work” I mean “cannot be believed consistently and coherently.” In brief, my argument is that belief in the Bible as God’s Word and motivation to engage in its exegesis presupposes belief that God is trustworthy, that God cannot deceive. But this assumes that God has a stable, enduring, eternal character that is “good” in a way analogous to... Read more

What Attracts People into the Young, Restless, Reformed Movement? That is probably the question I’m asked most often when I talk about the “new Calvinism” that has swept up thousands of Christian young people in the last twenty to thirty years. There’s no doubt this has been and is a religious phenomenon. Most recently even the New York Times has taken notice; a few years ago Time magazine mentioned it as one of ten great ideas changing the world. Everyone... Read more

When Jesus Said “Follow Me” Did He Mean “On Twitter?” Ethics and Social Networking The Knudsen Lecture in Ethics, March 10, 2014, University of Sioux Falls Roger E. Olson Foy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics George W. Truett Theological Seminary “Our on line relationships are totally manageable and therefore shallow.”   Many years ago, when I was a child, I was fascinated by the cartoon character Dick Tracy—a fictional detective who wore a tiny watch-like, two-way television on... Read more

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... Read more