Faith
Mission Possible: A Response to Shai Linne
Submitted by WilliamBirch on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 7:48amThe following is an edited response to Shai Linne's Limited Atonement rap
song, "Mission Accomplished." The original version was posted by "Murray" in the comments at the Gadgetry, Thoughts, Unleashed! blog. What is in brackets has been re-written or re-worded for this posting on SEA.
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Well excuse me Mr. Linne, but I think you’re confused.
And there are one or two verses which you have misused.
It’s true – God only saves the group He’s elected.
But that doesn’t mean we’re born preselected.
The "children of promise" He’s chosen to save;
All who seek God through works remain in the grave.
And God truly desires all men to believe;
His words in The Book weren’t meant to deceive.
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And the elect themselves were just like all others,
Once children of wrath, just like their brothers.
So even if His death was selective,
Ben Witherington - “Christian Apostasy and Hebrews 6”
On Wed, February 13, 2008, Dr. Ben Witherington posted “Christian Apostasy and Hebrews 6” on his blog. It is an excerpt from a book he would later publish entitled The Indelible Image. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary.
(Click on PDF to view article, PDF compiled by Steve Witzki)
Messianic Jew David Stern and the Security of the Believer
Article compiled by Steve Witzki. Below is the intro, click on the PDF link for the complete article.
"David Stern is a Messianic Jew who believes that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. He has written The Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) and The Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNTC). He provides a number of insightful translations in the CJB and comments in the JNTC. One of the things I found interesting was his comments on passages that Arminians typically use in support of conditional security and the possibility of apostasy (i.e., believers becoming unbelievers through unbelief manifested in sin and disobedience toward God and His Word). He clearly falls on the side of Arminianism. I have put his CJB translations in bold to offset his comments in the JNTC."
Joshua Ratliff, "Ephesians 1:3-4: An Explanation of the Corporate and Christocentric Nature of Election"
Please click on the attachment to view Joshua Ratliff, "Ephesians 1:3-4: An Explanation of the Corporate and Christocentric Nature of Election"
Some Basic Thoughts on "Decisional Regeneration" From an Arminian Perspective
Submitted by Ben Henshaw on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 11:03amSomeone asked a while back in the comments thread to one of my blog posts what I thought of “Decisional Regeneration”. Since this is a rather new label being thrown around mostly by Calvinists in a seeming attempt to mock a view of salvation conditioned by faith, it is important to address. Rather than write a new post I will just quote my initial response to the question below:
- I think “decisional regeneration” is a hard phrase to pin down and is just thrown around as a slander by Calvinists towards those who do not believe that regeneration precedes faith or that regeneration is irresistibly and unconditionally given to the “elect” alone. But there can be much more to it and so I wanted to be clear as to what your specific concern was.
Glen Shellrude, “The Freedom of God in Mercy and Judgment: A Libertarian Reading of Romans 9:6-29”
Please click on the attachment to view Glen Shellrude, “The Freedom of God in Mercy and Judgment: A Libertarian Reading of Romans 9:6-29”, Evangelical Quarterly 81.4 (2009), 306–318.
Here is the author's abstract:
Romans 9:6-26 is commonly interpreted to mean that Jewish unbelief and Gentile
responsiveness to the Gospel was something ordained or predestined by
God. This article identifies elements in the whole context of 9 – 11 which call this
approach in question. It then proposes that Paul’s intent is to rebut the claim
that God was under obligation to ensure that Israel recognize the time of fulfillment.
Paul argues that God: 1. is free to define his people on the basis of who
responds to his gracious initiative; 2. is free to respond to Israel’s unbelief with
a judgment of hardening rather than turning up the heat of irresistible grace; 3.
is free to use the occasion of a hardened Israel for a broader proclamation of the
Introducing Dr. Brian Abasciano's "Clearing Up Misconceptions About Corporate Election"
Submitted by Ben Henshaw on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 12:01pmSEA is excited to announce the addition to our site of Dr. Brian Abasciano’s recently published article Clearing Up Misconceptions About Corporate Election which argues forcefully and compellingly for the corporate view of election. The theological concept of corporate election has been gaining force in modern scholarship for quite some time. It is widely held among scholars that a primarily corporate election is the election described in the OT. It is on this basis that Dr. Abasciano and others argue that this corporate view of election is the view that Paul and the other apostles would naturally carry over into the NT. This is not just speculation but is strongly supported by the language of election used especially by Paul, not least in Romans and Ephesians.
Brian Abasciano, "Clearing Up Misconceptions about Corporate Election"
This article defends the concept of corporate election against the criticisms that have been leveled against it, showing that they arise mostly from misunderstanding of the concept. It argues that corporate election is the biblical view of election unto salvation, which means that election unto salvation is conditional on faith in Christ. This version of the article has different page numbers and may have some other slight differences from the published version.
Please click on one of the attachments to view Brian J. Abasciano, "Clearing Up Misconceptions about Corporate Election", Ashland Theological Journal 41 (2009) 67-102. The first attachment has footnotes with 12 point font and double spaced. The second attachment is simply the same article with footnotes that are 10 point font and single spaced .
Scholarly Resources Added - Steve Witzki
Submitted by Kevin Jackson on Sun, 01/03/2010 - 10:00amWe have added several new scholarly resources on the topics of faith and perseverance. These have been written and / or compiled by Arminian Steve Witzki. Be sure to check them out!
Arminianism--The Conditional Preservation of the Saints or Conditional Security (Wikipedia Article)
James Arminius: The Security of the Believer and the Possibility of Apostasy
The Opinions of the Remonstrants (1618)
John Wesley: "Serious Thoughts Upon the Perseverance of the Saints" (1751)
