Dan Chapa

John Davis’ article "The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine" outlines the thought around perseverance and assurance through certain key theologians and churches through the history of the Christianity. Davis starts with Augustine who held that not everyone who is regenerated and justified receives the gift of final perseverance and a person cannot know if they will preserver until the end. Aquinas held a similar view to Augustine. Luther held a similar view as well, but he added that while a person cannot know if they will preserver until the end, they may know that the are currently saved. Calvin’s view was quite different than Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. The elect alone are regenerated and justified and they will preserver until the end. Not only can a person know they are currently saved, but they can also know they will preserver until the end. Further, perseverance is not only grounded in God’s eternal election, but also the nature of regeneratio...

William Rowe's book asks the question: Can God be Free ? First, he gives an interesting historical introduction to the subject covering the views of Gottfried Leibniz, Samuel Clarke, Thomas Aquinas, and Jonathan Edwards; meanwhile he chimes in with his critique of their views from time to time. Then he discusses more recent treatments, such as Adams, Kretzmann, Howard-Snyder, Morris, Hasker, Wainwright, Langtry, Menssen, Wierenga, Flint, Swinburne, and Talbott. Rowe seems to hold that libertarian freedom is necessary for responsibility and he dismisses compatiblism as 'language gone on holiday'. Based on Leibniz's argument that God must have created the best of all possible worlds, Rowe argues a forking maneuver: either creation was necessary and God is not praiseworthy or God doesn't exist. Historic Overview Leibniz articulated two ideas that vital to the discussion. The first is the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR), which states: there ought to be a reason why...

Scripture is authoritative, meaning it is worthy of us believing its teachings and obeying its commands. Its authority comes from its Author: God, based on His truth, power and sovereignty. What the scripture teaches comes with all the authority of “thus saith the Lord”. Denying the authority of scripture is denying God’s authority, because the scripture is God’s Word. Catholics, in my opinion, indirectly undermine the authority of scripture, because: They teach errors, and claim exemption from the scrutiny of scripture. People are not allowed to look in scripture to find out if submission to the Pope is necessary for salvation. They subject scripture to another authority, the church. In practice they are not equivalent authorities. If you think scripture is telling you to do X and the church says do Y, you must do Y (and also unthink that the scripture said to do X). They use and teach the use of eisegesis (as opposed to exegesis). Instead of turning to scripture for the meanin...

Man’s faith and Freedom is a collection of 5 essays and a sermon presented at the 1960 Arminius Symposium in Holland in 1960. Instead of giving the overall volume mixed reviews, I will review each essay separately. The Life and Struggles of Arminius in the Dutch Republic by Gerrit Jan Hoenderdall presents a succinct and accurate summary of the life and times of James Arminius. Arminius' theological training and pastoral experiences in Amsterdam prepared him for professorship at Leiden, where his disagreements with Calvinistic predestination came to a head. Hoenderdall does a good job capturing the political undercurrents involved in the theological debates in Holland. The topic of debate was predestination but what were the rules and more importantly who was to preside over the debate? Arminius enjoyed some limited, hard-fought progress, but shortly after his death the Calvinists would prevail. The irony in Arminius’ life was his quarreling to gain peace. From Arminius to Armin...

Today was reformation day, a good day to remember the work of men like Wycliffe, professor at Oxford, who was kicked out for challenging Catholic Church's views of indulgences, authority, and mass, only to spend the rest of his days translating the scripture from Latin to English. We remember men like Hus, who sang hymns while He was burned at the stake for holding scripture higher than the Catholic Church. We of course remember Luther, who detested indulgences, championed justification by faith and translated the bible into German. We remember Tyndale, who was martyred for translating, printing and smuggling bibles into England. We even remember Calvin, who's lectures on scripture transformed Geneva into a protestant pastor factory. The theme here is the word of God, and if you wish your life to transform as well, read your bible.

When Cecilia was martyred (approx 180 AD) she extended three fingers on one hand, and one finger on her other hand, indicating her belief in one God in three persons. It's an essential belief of Christianity; you're either in our you're out.

Here's my opinion of the top 10 most influential post-apostolic theologians of all time: Athanasius – Defended the church from the most serious heresy it faced: Arianism. Martin Luther – Champion of justification by faith and sola scriptura. Augustine – Defended the church from the Manichean and Pelagian heresies, even if he took predestination too far. Basil – Defender of the doctrine of the Trinity. Thomas Aquinas – Reconciled faith and reason. John Calvin – His historical/grammatical approach to scripture paved the way for most of us, even if he took predestination way too far. James Arminius – Athanasius understood God, Augustine understood man, and Arminius understood the relationship between God and man. Anselm – His satisfaction of justice theory of the atonement is almost universally held among evangelicals. Jonathan Edwards – One of the founding revivalists of the first great awakenings and influential American philosopher. Jerome – His translation of the scripture into La...

Interesting article on a Puritan who held to Universal Atonement. http://peterlumpkins.typepad.com/peter_lumpkins/2007/12/john-goodwin-a.html

second half A PROLOG, B GOD, C CREATION, D PROVIDENCE, E PREDESTINATION, F THE LAW, G THE GOSPEL, H SOTERIOLOGY, H.1 Conditional Election, H.2 Depravity, H.3 Christ's death, H.4 Resistible Grace, H.5 Perseverance, I THE CHURCH, W HISTORY, X DEBATES, Y COWBOYS, Z ABOUT ME

An Arminian ( strictly defined) is one who holds to the 5 points of the Remonstrants (Arminius' followers). More broadly defined Arminians are non-Calvinist Protestants . Here's a link to the 5 points of the Remonstrants. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc09/htm/iv.vii.cliii.htm I intend to go through the points and look at each one.

Simon Bisscop (better known by his Latinized last name, Episcopius) was James Arminius’ student and close friend. He attended the University of Leiden when the hot debates between Arminius and Gomarus were going on. He visited Arminius on his death bed and after Arminius died, Episcopius experienced persicution, being excluded from the Lord’s table and blocked from the pastorate. Episcopius was one of the authors and 43 signers of the 5 points of the Remonstrants. http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc09/htm/iv.vii.cliii.htm After that Episcopius became a professor of theology at Leiden, but there he experience the same controversy that Amrinius did. Only now the conflict had gotten too hot and had moved from verbal to physical. Arminians were being attached in the streets. They needed protection. Episcopius saw only one answer, a national synod. Wtnbogaert, the leader of the Reomstrants, feared for his life and fled the country, leaving Episcopius as the Arminian leader going into t...