12
votes
Accepted
How do various traditions define the term "sufficient grace"?
If you do research on Calvinism, Jansenism, Pelagianism, etc., you might find the term "sufficient grace" bandied about. The trouble is, depending on who's using it, it's defined differently, which ...
- 15.2k
11
votes
Accepted
How do "once saved, always saved" advocates explain the Parable of the Sower?
As expected, "once saved, always saved" advocates (I'll use "reformed" as shorthand for this) generally agree that both the second and third types of soil represent people who were ...
- 42.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Did the authors of the Westminster Standards accept Roman Catholic baptisms as valid?
There is nothing absolutely specific in the Westminster Confession about Roman Catholic baptism. What there is supports its validity. However there was a long-established acceptance of baptism by ...
- 7,852
10
votes
Accepted
How do Calvinists explain God's wanting no one to perish and electing some to judgement?
The typical Calvinist response to this question is captured well by Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology:
[1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9] speak of God's revealed will (telling us what we should do)...
- 42.3k
10
votes
Accepted
According to Reformed churches, is the trinity a finalized doctrine?
Yes and no. That is, in simple terms:
No, the doctrine of the Trinity is not "finalized" or "completed" – Reformed theologians regularly debate the intricacies of this doctrine
Yes, the doctrine of ...
- 42.3k
10
votes
Accepted
How can there be Five Sola's (Solae) in Reformed theology?
I can see how this would look confusing and logically incoherent, but the reason that 5 statements, each about "something alone" can co-exist is that each of them achieves something different "alone". ...
- 420
10
votes
Accepted
Is the choice, or decision, to accept Salvation through Jesus Christ a Work?
You've fallen into a common trap of examining a single piece of a theological system by importing that piece into your own construct rather than seeing how it fits into its own context. A Reformed ...
- 37.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Do Reformed theologians understand the Catholic Church and the Papacy to have been true heirs of Peter until the Reformation?
It is clear from John Knox's words, recorded at his meeting with Queen Mary at Holyrood in 1561 (accompanied by Lord James Stewart) that the reformer regarded the Papacy to be an intrusion and the ...
- 23.6k
10
votes
How does a Baptist church handle a believer who was already baptized as an infant and confirmed as a youth?
I was batized into the Church of Scotland at the age of five (in 1956), which I vividly remember, but later I left the Church of Scotland, on grounds of conscience, and joined with a Baptist assembly ...
- 23.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Is God's sovereignty a term associated with Reformed theology?
While the idea of God's sovereignty is closely associated with Reformed theology, other traditions also deal with it. Here are a few examples from prominent authors from various traditions.
Lutheran: ...
- 42.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Ephesians 2:2, which one comes first in the Calvinist view?
From Calvin's commentary on Ephesians 2:2 :
We may now draw from it also this inference, that ungodly men have no excuse in being driven by Satan to commit all sorts of crimes. Whence comes it that ...
- 3,650
9
votes
Accepted
What is the appeal of John Piper (Desiring God Ministries)?
I can understand your question. I may not agree with John Piper all the time, but when I would like a 21st century Reformed position on an issue or a Bible verse interpretation, especially when there ...
- 22.2k
8
votes
What did Calvin think about Knox's "Monstrous Regiment"?
The summary in Mike's answer seems accurate. I would like to add some further background and primary sources.
Evidently, Calvin felt it necessary to write to Sir William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I's ...
- 15.2k
8
votes
Why must God reach the fullness of Glory (reformed theology)?
Let me answer a few of your side-concerns before I get to your main question.
Reformed theology stresses that God created the universe for one purpose: to glorify him fully
I'm not certain how ...
- 573
8
votes
Accepted
Who first said, "We are all born Pelagians?"
Roger Nicole was certainly not the first to say this. The quote can be traced to two 17th-century English authors, Thomas Manton and Nathaniel Culverwell.
Culverwell's version of the quote appears ...
- 42.3k
8
votes
Accepted
According to Reformed theology, where is the Scriptural evidence for homoousion?
Before we get into the weeds, here are the main points that I intend to impart:
Reformed theology generally accepts the church fathers' wisdom on the homoousion.
The concept of homoousion, not the ...
- 15.2k
8
votes
What hard evidence is there that Charles Wesley was Arminian?
Yes, there are claims that both John and Charles Wesley were Arminians, but more often than not it is the theology of John that is under discussion. “And can it be” is a wonderful example of how ...
- 29.7k
8
votes
According to Calvinists, does God command the non-elect to do what is for them impossible?
Monstrous surely is the madness of the human mind, that it is more disposed to charge God with unrighteousness than to blame itself for blindness.
Before answering positively, allow me to object to ...
- 8,051
8
votes
How does a Baptist church handle a believer who was already baptized as an infant and confirmed as a youth?
Baptist churches do not consider baptisms done as infants to be valid. They will treat you the same as someone who has not been baptized. The issue of confirmation is not relevant to their theology.
...
- 31.5k
7
votes
Accepted
How can God be Sovereign (in the Reformed sense) if a man can ignore His call to repentance?
To understand the Reformed approach to this challenging question, we should begin with the concept of the "wills" of God. Reformed theologians typically refer to the relevant ones as the ...
- 42.3k
7
votes
How does Reformed Theology consider passages that may imply that God is the "subject of sufferings"?
The point Edwards makes here is that since God accomplishes his purposes in all things, even evil things, he cannot be said to be carried away by emotions and thus experience involuntary ecstasy or ...
- 42.3k
7
votes
Accepted
How does Reformed Theology reconcile Jesus' meaningful temptation and impeccability?
This is admittedly a difficult problem that Reformed theologians have addressed in several different, though related, ways. Louis Berkhof mentions several approches to reconcile the "reality of the ...
- 42.3k
7
votes
Accepted
What is an overview of Reformed beliefs about hell?
Like most labels, Reformed theology defies clean boundaries, especially on a divisive topic like this one. But if we consider the term broadly, we will notice that the positions tend to follow those ...
- 42.3k
7
votes
According to Calvinists, is each person "dead in sin" at birth, or only after committing a sin?
Reformed catechisms make it clear that all of Adam's (ordinary) descendants are conceived and born spiritually dead. First, a translation of Q&A 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. Then where does ...
- 42.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Calvinism: limited atonement and the negative inference fallacy
This question comes from two false premises.
That the claim that Calvinists depend on a logical fallacy when they point to the particularized language of the Bible.
That the Calvinist argument for "...
- 4,926
7
votes
According to Reformed Theology, why did the 70 Jewish translators include the Apocrypha?
It is true that the Jews ultimately did not accept the apocryphal books you listed in their canon, in a gradual process over several centuries at least spanning 1st century BC and 1st century AD. ...
- 22.2k
7
votes
Do the reformed theology adherents believe that a believer should not "converse with" or "pray to" or worship the Holy Spirit?
Reformed theology maintains the full deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, so that there is no inferiority attached to the Holy Spirit that would result in the kind of subordination that the ‘...
- 26.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Do the reformed theology adherents believe that a believer should not "converse with" or "pray to" or worship the Holy Spirit?
Anne's answer covered the reason WHY the Holy Spirit is full Deity in accordance with the Trinitarian doctrine, thus showing that the Holy Spirit is worthy of worship, which the true Reformed ...
- 22.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible