{"id":1780,"date":"2006-10-09T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-09T07:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/09\/do-calvinists-understand-arminianism-6\/"},"modified":"2006-10-09T02:20:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-09T07:20:00","slug":"do-calvinists-understand-arminianism-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/10\/09\/do-calvinists-understand-arminianism-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Calvinists understand Arminianism? 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Myth #5: Arminian theology denies the sovereignty of God. The fundamental expression Roger Olson uses, in his book Arminian Theology<\/em><\/a>, is that \u201cGod is in charge of everything without controlling everything.\u201d
\nIt may surprise to hear one say this, but the distinction between Calvinists and Arminians is not as great as one might think. The singular issue is that Calvinists \u2014 or at least most of them \u2014 believe in exhaustive determination, or meticulous determination \u2014 that God predestines everything. If sovereignty means determinism, then Arminians don\u2019t agree; but if it involves preservation, concurrence, and governance, then Arminians completely affirm God\u2019s sovereignty.
\nThe only thing Arminians exclude from the sovereignty of God is the authorship of evil and sin. God, in his sovereignty, gave humans freedom of choice \u2014 and it is in that gracious gift and in God\u2019s desire to sustain that right, that God self-limited his sovereignty. He cannot be and will not be charged with being the author of sin and evil.
\nOlson goes through Arminius extensively \u2014 and shows that Arminius himself \u2014 and every Arminian of the heart \u2014 believed in God\u2019s sovereignty and extended it to everything, except the authorship of evil. And Calvinists have always had a hard time avoiding the charge of God\u2019s authorship of evil in God\u2019s predestination.
\nAn issue here is \u201cconcurrence\u201d \u2014 that God permits and cooperates with human freedom \u2014 in God\u2019s sovereignty. God chooses to turn evil into good rather than not to permit evil to exist.
\nHe concludes with this:<\/p>\n

If God is the all-determining reality and creatures have no incompatibilist (libertarian) freedom, then where did that first evil motive or intent come from? If the Calvinist says from God, which is logically consistent with divine determinism, then God is most certainly the author of sin and evil. If the Calvinist says from autonomous creatures, then this opens up a hole in divine determinism so large it consumes it (135).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Myth #5: Arminian theology denies the sovereignty of God. The fundamental expression Roger Olson uses, in his book Arminian Theology, is that \u201cGod is in charge of everything without controlling everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nDo Calvinists understand Arminianism? 6<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Myth #5: Arminian theology denies the sovereignty of God. 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