Ronnie W. Rogers
Although prayer is central to the Christian life, and God promises that some things will turn out differently if we pray than if we do not, prayer does contain some confusing elements. I seek to help us overcome some of the more confusing elements that discourage us from praying as we should. The confusion arises…
Read MoreFrequently, it seems, we think of the New Testament as demonstrative of God’s salvific love for all and the Old Testament as demonstrative of God’s holiness. While the Old Testament does demonstrate God’s holiness, it also demonstrates his heart for all to come to know him as the one true God before it is everlastingly…
Read MoreWe can safely say, prior to the death of Christ on the cross, one was still saved by faith, and God was righteous to forgive one’s sin based upon the merits of the gospel that Christ would die for the sins of the world (even though one could not as yet hear and believe in…
Read MoreCalvinists often argue that defending man as possessing libertarian free will (giving a person a true choice between accessible options such as walking with God or not walking with him and, therefore, the outcomes being conditional) not only places man’s salvation in his own hands, but it also creates uncertainties that would mean that God…
Read MoreAlthough both Calvinism and Extensivism (the belief that God genuinely wants every person to be saved and has made it possible for them to be saved) fall within the parameters of orthodoxy, and I do love my Calvinist brothers and sisters, we embrace very different ideas of God. Since God’s salvation plan is the most…
Read MoreI agree with the Calvinist claim that the gospel is simple and clear, but I contend that Calvinism, by its very nature, complicates and obscures the simple and clear gospel.[1] Yes, someone can be saved when anyone says something like, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” but the difference between what a Calvinist and Extensivist…
Read MoreJohn Piper writes, “My aim here is to show from Scripture that the simultaneous existence of God’s will for ‘all persons to be saved’ (1 Tim. 2:4) and his will to elect unconditionally those who will actually be saved is not a sign of divine schizophrenia or exegetical confusion. A corresponding aim is to show that unconditional…
Read MoreWhen people reject Calvinism and its micro-determinism through compatibilism and decretal theology, some Calvinists retort that we are exalting the free will of man over God’s sovereignty. Of course, that is a straw man. We are exalting God’s Word, thereby exalting God because God’s Word depicts man and woman as having libertarian free will when…
Read MoreThanksgiving, quite contrary to political correctness and revisionist historians, began as an act of faith and worship by the Pilgrims. The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621 in Plymouth, and it was a celebration of God’s bountiful blessing, which the Pilgrims shared with the Indians. The Pilgrims’ lives had been characterized by…
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