Calvinism/Extensivism

At times, I post actual interactions that I have with Calvinists in order to allow others to consider both sides of an issue. This is what I have done in this article. The following is a response that I interacted with regarding my article, “Why Some Non-Calvinists Identify as Calvinist” that appeared on SBC Today.…

A Comparison of Calvinism’s compatible view of moral freedom and Extensivism’s libertarian freedom In order to understand the actual contrast between Calvinism’s view of the nature of God, His sovereign rule over His creation, and His salvation plan, with that of Extensivism’s view of the same, one must understand the two position’s vastly different views…

I use the term Extensivism to encapsulate my soteriological (salvational) understanding. I gave considerable thought in choosing the term. Although only used by me (hence, the need to continuously define for others), it does seem to be free of negative connotations and appears to me to be a suitable parallel for discussing soteriology within this…

I was a Calvinist for over thirty-three years and was unabashedly so for the first twenty. I spent the last thirteen years questioning and evaluating the harmony between Calvinism and Scripture and only doffed the label Calvinist in the final months of that journey. A respondent to one of my blogs on SBC Today commented…

Calvinists take solace in the claim that they believe salvation is totally a work of God (unconditional election, man’s passiveness until selective regeneration, regeneration prompting faith, etc.), while oftentimes either implying or explicitly accusing those who make salvation conditioned upon man exercising faith (exercising faith in response to hearing the gospel prior to regeneration or…

Millard Erickson holds to a compatibilist view of moral freedom, as do virtually all Calvinists. Compatibilism is the perspective that determinism and moral freedom are compatible; hence, the name. To wit, man makes a free choice when he chooses according to his greatest desire; however, what is often overlooked is that the desire from which…

To be a consistent Calvinist, a person must believe that the Bible teaches God limits His redemptive love toward His creation and that limited love is more reflective of God being the sum of perfect love than God extending His salvational love to all of His creation. Of course, the perennial problem with the Calvinist’s…

“Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction” (Romans 3:22). Romans chapter three is crystal clear in declaring the universal sinfulness of man. Although the Jews have advantages compared to the Greeks, such as having the oracles of God (vs. 1-2), they do…

Calvinism teaches a compatible freedom. This means that a person is free to follow a predetermined choosing without making a choice between two accessible options. That is to say, no real choice exists in compatibilism because man can only choose an act or belief that is the result of predetermined antecedents. This means that Adam…

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Because of man’s sin, man is separated from God and destined to eternal hell. Because God is love and loving (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8), He provides man with the real opportunity to…