Calvinism/Extensivism

What about Those Who Never Hear the Gospel: Analyzing the Argument

By Ronnie W. Rogers / July 25, 2022 / Comments Off on What about Those Who Never Hear the Gospel: Analyzing the Argument

This is the first article in a four-part series. In this article, I address the argument given by Calvinists against Extensivists’ (non-Calvinists) claim that God salvationally loves every person, and, therefore, every person can be saved. The second will address this challenge from the Old Testament. The third will address it from the New Testament,…

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Can God Know Man’s Free Acts without Them Being Determinatively Necessary?

By Ronnie W. Rogers / February 9, 2022 / Comments Off on Can God Know Man’s Free Acts without Them Being Determinatively Necessary?

Calvinists 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…

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Calvinism’s Confusion about God

By Ronnie W. Rogers / January 24, 2022 / Comments Off on Calvinism’s Confusion about God

Although 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…

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Calvinism Obscures the Simple Gospel

By Ronnie W. Rogers / January 10, 2022 / Comments Off on Calvinism Obscures the Simple Gospel

I 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…

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Calvinist John Piper’s Confusion about Salvation

By Ronnie W. Rogers / December 13, 2021 / Comments Off on Calvinist John Piper’s Confusion about Salvation

John 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…

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Calvinism’s Compatibilism and the Problem of Choice in Scripture and Life

By Ronnie W. Rogers / November 29, 2021 / Comments Off on Calvinism’s Compatibilism and the Problem of Choice in Scripture and Life

When 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…

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Calvinism and the Problem of Damnation and Hell

By Ronnie W. Rogers / November 8, 2021 / Comments Off on Calvinism and the Problem of Damnation and Hell

Calvinism’s exclusive doctrines position it in an untenable place when it comes to people spending eternity in hell. They offer various responses to allay the indefensible entailments of Calvinism that consign people to hell (the reprobate non-elect class). Here are a few: first, some say they deserve to be there. While that is true, it…

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Calvinists and Compatibilists Fail Again to Make Compatibilism Believable: The Hypothetical Otherwise Choice

By Ronnie W. Rogers / October 25, 2021 / Comments Off on Calvinists and Compatibilists Fail Again to Make Compatibilism Believable: The Hypothetical Otherwise Choice

Some compatibilists seek to temper compatibilism’s determinism by denying the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP) by various means, such as the proposed hypothetical otherwise choice known more technically as the hypothetical analytic.[1]Calvinists are prone to seek refuge in the hypothetical otherwise from the harsh unbiblical determinism entailed in compatibilism but it fails as all other…

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Compatibilists Fail to Make Compatibilism Believable: The Frankfurt Counterexamples

By Ronnie W. Rogers / October 11, 2021 / Comments Off on Compatibilists Fail to Make Compatibilism Believable: The Frankfurt Counterexamples

In considering this article, remember that Compatibilism is the perspective of Calvinism regarding moral freedom and libertarianism is the perspective of Extensivism (non-Calvinism). Many compatibilists argue that what is known as the Frankfurt counterexamples demonstrate the falsehood of the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP) associated with libertarian freedom–that a person, in at least some scenarios,…

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Calvinist Richard Muller Fails to Diminish Calvinism’s Micro-Determinism

By Ronnie W. Rogers / September 13, 2021 / Comments Off on Calvinist Richard Muller Fails to Diminish Calvinism’s Micro-Determinism

To soften the determinism of Calvinism, Calvinists must decrease the unflinching determinism of compatibilism.[1] Richard Muller seeks to do so through what he calls synchronic contingency. He says synchronic contingency “means that for one moment of time, there is a true alternative for the state of affairs that actually occurs.”[2] However, it is important to…

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