Dan Chapa

I recently enjoyed the article “ Neither Calvinist nor Arminians but Baptists ” by the authors of Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism. To an extent, I see myself in this category as well. The authors teach Eternal Security and reject Open Theism and therefore distance themselves with Arminianism. I also hold to Eternal Security and Molinism and I think Arminianism is perfectly consistent with these views, but to the extent Arminianism is associated with falling from grace, my accepting the label Arminian could confuse people. But I think this just gives me the opportunity to clarify Arminianism, rather than just reject an otherwise helpful label. Besides, I suspect the authors of the article represent a broad group in which some of the members do truly fall outside the Arminian camp, but are still not 5-point Calvinists, so the motivations for the group may be different for me as an individual. I also like the point that the Calvinism/Arminianism i...

The QBs were flying off the board early, so I had to pick from the best of the rest in that area.  Once Big Ben gets to play, I should be OK, but for the first four games I am going to have to go with match-ups and use the best of the rest. The league is standard scoring and is QB, RB, RB, Flex, TE, DEF, K.  Here are my picks.

I gave Arminian Chronicles a new look.  I hope you like it.

I logged in to the SEA site recently and noted that today marks the two year anniversary of my membership with the Society of Evangelical Arminians. Much progress has been made in the past two years and I am happy to have been able to do my part. The key thing about SEA is the bringing together of Arminians from various geographic regions and walks of life. SEA’s membership has theology professors to new converts, liberals to conservatives, charismatics to cessationalists, Freewill Baptists, Southern Baptists, Methodists, AoG and a host of church groups. Yet we are all united in Christ and in Evangelical Arminian views. So we come together to learn from each other, share ideas, fellowship, support each other. I count it quite a privilege to be a part. The public website has quickly and quietly become the best resource for Arminian Theology (scriptures excepted) ever. There, readers may find substantially all the classical Arminian works and articles from modern scholarship as well. The...

Geocities is kaput. Sadly , I was unaware they were shutting down the site and don't have backups to all the files out I had out there. For the stuff I do have, I will try to reformat them and run them through this site. I the mean time I apologize for any dead links.

RGMPilgrim’s recent comments challenged me to think about the purpose of this blog. Here’s the comment: I think that Calvinism is as diabolical as it was for Calvin to have a man killed in the name of religious convictions.The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men was not Calvin's motto I do not think. On the other hand Jude made clear that there is something which we must "earnestly contend" for. It is the faith that JESUS Christ presented to us, and that faith did NOT include an option at thinking that God has not revealed whom he would elect, does it? Jesus is the revelation of the Father and Jesus was a first class gentleman, until he met up with the temple priest/businessmen.Further does not that faith for which we "agonizo" preclude that those who call God's wisdom arbitriness and God's justice, non-justice are to be viewed as "un-godly" and as servants of the Enemy?Perhaps you should beware being too "harmle...

Just took the family to Busch Gardens. Not my youtube clip, but this is my favorite ride in the park.

When I first started learning about Arminianism , I didn't know who I should read. There wasn't much out there at that time and I didn't know where to go, so I just read Arminius himself. That was hard. He's very good, but I could have used an introduction first. Here's a few books I have read over the years, and if I had to do it over again, I would have read them in this order: Intro to Arminianism - Just Getting Started 1. Arminian Theology - Myths and Realities by Rodger Olsen Great at explaining what Arminians believe and don't believe. 2. Life in the Son by Robert Shank Excellent Exegeses of most passages dealing with falling from grace. 3. Free Grace a sermon by John Wesley Gives a short critique of Calvinism. Intermediate Arminianism - Putting the Pieces Together 4. Why I am not a Calvinist by Jerry Walls and Joe Dongell Strong systematic approach and solid Arminian reasoning. 5. Elect in the Son by Robert Shank A case for corporate election....

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

I grew up in a Christian home and God saved me when I was very young. When I was 5 years old I went foreword one night at the service and the pastor expressed concern because I was young. We went back to his office and after we talked for a while and he asked me some questions he permitted me to be baptized. So I was baptized when I was 5. To be honest, I don't recall a time in my life when I wasn't trusting in Christ for my salvation. I realize this isn't much of a dramatic testimony. Some people can go on and on about how God saved them out of this or that sinful lifestyle and can talk about a drastic change in there life. I was a bit young for that. So that's a cool story they have to tell. But I get to say how God has been with me all along, and I have had a relationship with Christ for most of my life. The Gospel really is quite simple. I am a sinner, Christ is the Son of God and the only Savior, heaven is sweet, hell is hot, and by what Christ did through His deat...

This is my first entry so I figured I would start with why I am an Arminian. I grew up in a conservative Baptist church, which unbeknownst to me, was more Calvinist then Arminian. They taught both predestination and freewill and said it was all a mystery. When I was in high school a friend challenged my views. I hadn't really thought about any of the issues and he was strong in the word. I couldn't answer his questions but was leery of some of his interpretations of scripture. But after a while I broke down. The first point of Calvinism that I agreed with was Total Depravity. I read Luther's Bondage of the Will and that was it. To this day, I have never question that view. At that time, I called myself a Calvinists. But one night while I was reading scripture I came across Hebrews 10:26-29. I was shocked. Why hadn't this passage ever been talked about in Church. Up till this point, I had never questioned eternal security. I decided not to decided anything. I spent the n...