Category Archives: Blogging Through a Book

Blogging through Grace for All: Universal Grace

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The second article in Grace For All is written by Vernon C. Grounds, the former president of Denver Seminary (cf. Olson’s tribute). In his essay, Grounds explores God’s universal grace that offers salvation to all.

415xXkjORGLThe universal offer of salvation is rooted in our Creator being a God of love who “desires the salvation of everyone” and “redemptively acts” to make that possible.

For in that corpus of writings we call the Holy Scriptures and which we hold to be God’s medium of self-revelation, [God-the ultimate reality] … defines himself as love. … [and is] the embodiment of unending beatitude.

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We believe, moreover, that because he is love, God freely chooses to expand the orbit of beatitude by creating persons who are centers of consciousness and choice whom he wills to share his own eternal fellowship of love through the convicting, drawing, and salvation of God’s grace.

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Blogging through Grace for All: The God at the Center

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The first article in Grace For All is written by Roger Olson (blog), one of the most vocal theologians representing an Arminian view of God’s sovereignty and soteriology. Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (amazon) and Against Calvinism (amazon) are two of the many books he has authored.

415xXkjORGLIn this essay, Roger Olson directly confronts the charge that Arminianism is a “man-centered” theology. He starts by quoting several Calvinist writers (including Michael Horton, James Boice, Al Mohler, and indirectly B.B. Warfield and Charles Spurgeon) that assert that Arminianism is focused on “human freedom” over “God’s absolute sovereignty”.

Then he asks the question:

What do these and other critics mean when they accuse Arminianism of being “man-centered”?

Olson presents three things that critics mean when they use the term “man-centered”:

  • Arminianism doesn’t take “human depravity” seriously
  • Arminianism doesn’t take God’s sovereignty seriously
  • Arminianism teaches that God’s “chief end is to make people happy”

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Blogging through Grace for All: Defining your Terms

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415xXkjORGLWe are reading and blogging through the book Grace for All: The Arminian Dynamics of Salvation (Amazon). Originally the plan was to start with chapter 1, but some SEA members suggested that we start with the Forward, so we will open up the discussion there.

John Wagner, the editor, opens the book describing one of the primary theological underpinnings that drives Arminian thought and thus the articles that are presented in the book. God wants everyone to repent and be saved. Several of the passages that describe this idea are presented throughout the forward (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9; Matt 11:28; John 3:17; 6:51; 2 Cor 5:14-15,18-19; 1 John 2:2). Continue reading →