In a blog post entitled, “Warning Passages Ahead: Brief Response,” (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2012/01/16/warning-passages-ahea...) top notch Arminian-ish New Testament scholar Scot McKnight has responded to the view of top notch Calvinist New Testament scholar Peter O’Brien on O’Brien’s view of the warning passages in Hebrews (O'Brien has written a major commentary on Hebrews). In the comment section on the post, McKnight also responds very briefly but incisively to the view of Calvinist New Testament scholars Thomas Schreiner and Ardel Caneday (see comment numbers 5 and 8).

Follow the link to view part 6 of distinguished New Testament scholar Scot McKnight's personal testimony of coming out of Calvinism for a more biblical evangelical view and his discussion of the warning passages in Hebrews: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2011/12/16/calvinism-my-history-6/ .

By Brian Abasciano

One of the strongest arguments that true believers in Christ can forsake faith in Christ and so perish is that Scripture warns believers against forsaking their faith and the accompanying consequence of perishing. There is no point in warning someone against doing something he knows he cannot do and suffering consequences he knows he cannot possibly experience. But some Calvinists appeal to the shipwreck story of Acts 27 in order to support the claim that it is reasonable to issue warnings or take them seriously when God has already guaranteed that a given action and its threatened consequence will not happen (see, e.g., Thomas R. Schreiner, “Perseverance and Assurance: A Survey and a Proposal,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 2 (1998) 32–62 [55]). The argument is basically that in the situation described by Acts God had promised that all who sailed with Paul would survive, and that Paul’s later warning that the sailors trying to escape must stay in the ship for his companions to survive shows that Paul considered it reasonable to issue a warning when he knew that its threatened consequence could not happen. But this argument is unconvincing.

Follow the link to view part 3 of distinguished New Testament scholar Scot McKnight's personal testimony of coming out of Calvinism for a more biblical evangelical view, and his discussion of the warning passages in Hebrews: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2011/12/09/calvinism-my-history-3/ .