Table of Contents


Click on the chapter titles to go to that chapter. You can then scroll to find the subsections within that chapter. I am continually working to make this table more user-friendly. For example, some have clickable links, allowing the subsections to be accessed from this table and also within the chapters. You may also use this “Search” feature.


Summary of the Issues


Chapter 1 – The Main Thesis: The Hermeneutical Divide


Chapter 2 – Sovereignty and Salvation: A Summary of the Non-Calvinist View

PART 1 – ASSESSING CALVINIST DOCTRINE AND THOUGHT


Chapter 3 – The Calvinist Theological and Soteriological Doctrines

A Brief Summary of Calvinist Theology and Soteriology

God’s Eternal Decree and Sovereignty

Predestination, Unconditional Election, and Effectual Calling

The Calvinist’s TULIP Soteriology

A Preliminary Critique of Calvinist Determinism

Conclusions


Chapter 4 – Why the Calvinist Views of Sovereignty and Salvation Are Certainly False

William Lane Craig’s Five-Fold Critique of Calvinist Determinism


Chapter 5 – The Nature and Scope of the Calvinist Difficulties

Introductory Remarks

Logical Concerns

Theological Concerns

Ethical and Moral Concerns

Existential and Epistemological Concerns

Ministry Concerns

Hermeneutical & Interpretive Concerns

Conclusions


Chapter 6 – What is at Stake? The Character of God and the Truth of the Gospel

Introduction

The Character of God

Walls, Dongell, and Allen on the Importance of the Controversy

The Gospel is at Stake

Calvinists Claim Calvinism is the Biblical Gospel

Two Mutually Exclusive Gospels

Moody and Bryson on What is at Stake in This Controversy: The Gospel

The Evangelical Church in Intellectual, Soteriological, and Gospel Denial

The Full Revelation of God’s Thoughts and Saving Will for Us “In Christ”

The Spirit as the Spirit of Truth Affirms the True Gospel

The Theological and Hermeneutical Divides

Critical Hermeneutical Concerns for Reformed Calvinists

References and Endnotes

PART 2 – INTERPRETATION AND HERMENEUTICS


Chapter 7 – The Indispensability of Reason and Logic in Biblical Interpretation


Chapter 8 – Calvinist Attempts to Justify Sovereignty as Theistic Determinism

Introduction

Determinism: The Fundamental Problem in Calvinist Thought

William G. MacDonald on Eph. 1:11, Personhood, and Grace

Calvinist James Montgomery Boice on God’s Sovereignty

The Implications of Being Created in God’s Image

Incoherence Equals Misinterpretation

Bruce Little Critiques Calvinist Gordon Clark as Incoherent

Calvinists Dismiss Coherence as Necessary to Proper Interpretation and a Sound Hermeneutic

Crucial Questions for Calvinists on Interpretive Coherence

A Non-Deterministic Understanding of God’s Sovereignty

A. W. Tozer and William MacDonald on God’s Sovereignty

Calvinists Maintain Their Determinism Regardless of Its Negative Implications

A Case in Point: The Atonement

How Can a Text Have Two Incompatible Meanings?

Compatibilism

John Feinberg on Compatibilism

Three Observations on Agency and Will

Compatibilism: Agency, Personhood and a Free, Individuated Will

C. S. Lewis on God Altering People’s Characters

Calvinist Compatibilism: Divine Preemption of the Human Will

William Lane Craig on Compatibilism’s Denial of Indeterminacy and Contingency

Jerry Walls: Compatibilism is a Real Contradiction

“The Huge Implication,” with Insights from C. S. Lewis

“The Calvinist Conundrum”

“Consistent Calvinists” – A. W. Pink, ‘God Does Not Love Everybody.’

“Inconsistent Calvinists” – J. I. Packer

What is a Real Contradiction?

“Core Calvinism” and the “Bona Fide” Offer of the Gospel to All Persons

Curious Bedfellows and the Three Insuperable Difficulties for Calvinist Determinism

Os Guinness: “The Bible Teaches Both” and “Use as Needed”

How We Know Os Guinness is Wrong

Os Guinness: Inconsistent Reasoning, Calvinism, and The Gospel

“Apparent Contradiction”: Why This Calvinist Rationalization is Wrong

David Basinger Refutes “Theologians of Paradox” and “Apparent Contradiction”

More on “Apparent” Contradiction and Some Conclusions

“Tension”: The Content of the Gospel, and Lutzer’s Inconsistency

“Mystery”: David Basinger Critiques John Piper

Kenneth Keathley on Legitimate ‘Divine Mystery,’ C. S. Lewis, and R. C. Sproul

“Mystery” Obscures God’s Saving Will and Purposes

“Incomprehensibility”: John Piper, William Lane Craig, and A. W. Tozer

More on the “Incomprehensibility of God”

The Use of Reason is Not An Endorsement of Rationalism

What Does “Faith Seeking Understanding” Mean?

The Taxi-Cab Fallacy

The Futility of “Means” and “Second Causes” to Justify Theistic Determinism

The Futility of “Second Causes”

A “Second Cause” or Human Primary Cause?

The Futility of “God Works through Means”

Calvinist Determinism, God as the Author of Sin, and the Delusion of “Ought To”

Calvinists Can’t Complain

A Summary Outline of the Calvinists’ Interpretive Incoherence and Fallacious Arguments

The Biblical Implausibility of an Inevitable Comprehensive Theistic Determinism

God Predetermined the Way and Means of Salvation, Not Who Would Be Saved

The Nature of God’s Sovereignty

Can Incoherent Interpretations Be Valid Interpretations? The Calvinist Must Justify Their Hermeneutic

Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 9 – Reason as Problematic for Calvinist Interpretation

Schreiner and Ware – Logic or Exegesis: The False Dichotomy

Schriener and Ware Admit Their Logical Difficulties Pose Legitimate and Difficult Questions for Calvinists

Schreiner and Ware Declare Their Hermeneutic

Schreiner and Ware: Their False Dichotomy and Their Faulty Hermeneutic

Exegesis: An Excuse to Avoid the Probative Force of Logical and Moral Reflection

Matthew 28:18-20: Pastor Ronnie Rogers Critiques John Piper on ‘The Great Commission’

John Lennox Refutes Total Inability, Pre-Faith Regeneration, and Faith as Meritorious

John Lennox on Ephesians 2:8-9

John Lennox Critiques E. H. Palmer

Non-Calvinists Critique Calvinism on Philosophical, Moral, and Exegetical Grounds

Competent and Incompetent Exegesis: The Hermeneutical Divide

The Hermeneutical Divide: The Calvinist Tactic of Dismissing Essential Principles of Interpretation

Faith Seeking Understanding or an A Priori Doctrine Seeking Justification?

Schreiner and Ware: Why Their Calvinism is False

Schreiner and Ware Ignore Their Logic and Moral Interpretive Incoherence

Schreiner and Ware: The Excuse of ‘Complexity’

Schreiner and Ware: the Excuse of ‘Mystery’

An Incoherent Claim: Determinism Motivates the Calvinist to Pray

An Incoherent Claim: Determinism is a Bulwark for Suffering

Schreiner and Ware on the Book of Job: Incoherence, Disengenuousness, and Obfuscation

What Is the Purpose of Schreiner and Ware’s Book?

Non-Calvinists Can’t Tolerate Mystery, or Are They Refusing to Tolerate Calvinist Incoherence?

Schreiner and Ware Ignore That Their Interpretations Create Problems

Schreiner and Ware Know They Have Insurmountable Problems

Schreiner, Ware, Baggett, Walls, and Koukl: Philosophy and the Authority of Scripture

The Popular Reactions to Calvinism

Schreiner and Ware, Logic or Exegesis: The False Dichotomy Continued

Piper on James 4: How Exegesis Devoid of Coherence Distorts the Meaning of a Text

The Immediate Context: James 4:13-17

The Broader Context of 4:13-17: The Whole Epistle of James

Piper’s God Causes Sin and Death

The Most Horrific Entailements of Calvinism

James Affirms Genuine Free Will

More Examples of Calvinist Incoherence

Two Concluding Points on Piper on James 4:13-17

Piper’s Four ‘Practical Glimpses’ Into The Difference Theistic Determinism Makes

#1 – Piper on ‘Gospel Joy’

Piper Presupposes He Is Among The Unconditional Elect

Piper’s Ignorance and Pretension on ‘Gospel Joy’

Calvinism’s TULIP: The Anti-Gospel Doctrines

‘Am I Included?’: Piper’s Calvinism Can’t Produce Assurance

Piper’s False Dichotomy: All Things Random or All Things Determined

Acts 4:27-28: Piper’s Grandiose Assumption, His Loss of Assurance, and The Non-Sequitur

What’s So Special About John Piper?

#2 – ‘Sacrificial Love’

#3 – ‘Fearless Witness’

#4 – ‘Confident Planning’

What Piper Failed to Address: The Dark Side of Calvinism and God Author’s Confusion

The Calvinist’s Best Bet: Ultimately Ignore Their Incoherence

John Lennox on Exegesis, Theistic Determinism, and Interpretive Consistency

John Lennox: Human Freedom Fundamental to the Biblical Narrative, Logic, and Experience

John Lennox: Determinism, the Gospel, and the God of the Bible

John Lennox: Is Calvinism Even Remotely Christian

John Lennox on Tim Keller’s Doctrine of Unconditional Election

John Lennox: Martyn Lloyd-Jones Exegestes Nonsense from Romans 9

John Lennox and Chesterton: Calvinism’s Demonization of God

John Lennox: Calvinism is ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Completely Unacceptable to the Morally Sensitive Person’

Lennox v. Carson: What Calvinists Fear Most – The Scrutiny of Logical Reflection and Moral Intuition

Reason is Problematic for Calvinist Interpretation

Sola Scriptura or Interpretive Relativism

Schreiner and Ware: Accept Our Incoherence

Why People Are and Remain Non-Calvinists

A Brief Challenge to the Evangelical Church

The Calvinist Hermeneutic of Incoherence Results in Interpretive and Theological Relativism

Why Should We Even Have to Talk About This?

A Sad State of Affairs for the Evangelical Church

Philosophy as the Handmaid of Exegesis

J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig on the Importance of Philosophical Reflection

The Utility of Philosophy

Where is the Evangelical Philosophical Society?

Can Calvinism Survive?: Essential Issues and Questions for Calvinists


Chapter 10 – The Calvinist Suppression of Logical Reasoning, Moral Intuition, and Common Sense

Introduction

Calvin and the Suppression of Reason

J. I. Packer and the Suppression of Reason

The Crucial Hermeneutical Questions

Packer Asserts That We Cannot See His Obvious Interpretive Contradiction

Packer and Calvinists are Wrong Because of the Law of Non-Contradiction

Packer Argues for ‘Antinomy’

More Problems with Packer’s Approach

Packer’s ‘Antinomy’ Defense and Interpretation of Divine Sovereignty are Not Credible or Valid

Packer Must Reorient People’s Thinking: Here’s How He Does It

John Piper Doesn’t Find Free Will in the Bible

Is Piper and Packer’s Incoherence Hermeneutically Significant: The Hermeneutical Divide

An Extremely Serious Matter: Calvinists Teach People to Disregard God’s Good Gifts

J. I. Packer on Prayer: Why Every Christian Believes in Calvinist Determinism and Some Just Don’t Know It

Packer on Prayers of Petition and Thanksgiving

Packer Rejects ‘Human Logic’ and Exemplifies the Suppression of Reason

Packer Credits Non-Calvinists With More Than They Deserve

Packer on Prayer For One’s Salvation

J. D. Greear and the Suppression of Reason

J. D. Greear: “If You’re Dumb…This Totally Makes Sense”

Kevin DeYoung and the Suppression of Reason

Kevin DeYoung on Logical and Moral Reeducation

Predestination: True and Good, But “Barbaric,” “Horrible,” “Iniquitous and Cruel,” and “Despairing”

Excursus: John Piper’s Mental and Emotional Torment

Excursus: Austin Fischer Records Piper’s Struggle With Calvinism

Back to the Kevin DeYoung Interview

The Implications of Calvinism for the Content of the Gospel and Evangelism

R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and Ligon Duncan and the Suppression of Reason

MacArthur’s Suppression of Reason

Peterson and Williams and the Suppression of Reason

Facts and Logical Entailments are Stubborn Things: Ammend the Dilemma

The Suppression of Reason: When Calvinism is Most Cult-Like

Piper, Fatalism, and the Suppression of Reason

Piper and the Suppression of Moral Intuition

Piper Avoids the Objector’s Explanatory Power That Undermines Piper’s Doctrine of Predestination

Piper Leads Us Into the Fog of Inscrutability and Mystery

Calvinists Cannot Reason Themselves Out of Their Incoherence

Piper and the Suppression of Reason

Martin Luther and the Suppression of Reason

More on Luther and the Suppression of Common Sense and Natural Reason

The ‘Good News’ v. Calvinism

Why People are Calvinists

Bryson, Feinberg, and Palmer on Accepting the Nonsense of Calvinism

Richard Mayhue and John MacArthur and the Suppression of Reason

The Problematic Nature of MacArthur and Mayhue’s Interpretive Perspective

Romans 9-11: MacArthur and Mayhue Ignore the Non-Calvinists’ Interpretations

Martin Luther’s Despair

John Calvin: Subduing the Pride of the Human Spirit

The Lack of Assurance of Salvation: Martha Hazel’s Obituary

Calvinism: A Post-Arminian Conversion Theology

Chris Date: What Gospel Message Did He Initially Hear to be Saved

Ephesians 1: Homer A Kent, Jr. – The Suppression of Reason and the Erosion of the Gospel

Calvinist Theological Proclivities vs. a Hermeneutic of Coherence

Schreiner, Ware, and Luther: The Suppression of Reason

Tough Questions Calvinists Refuse to Answer

How to Discern a True Biblical Theology From a False Theology

“Faith Seeking Understanding” With Input From C. S. Lewis

Hermeneutics, the Evangelical Church, and the Gospel

Final Conclusions


Chapter 11 – Examples of Calvinist Interpretive Incoherence

Introduction to Chapter 11

Example 1 – David Allen and John Owen on John 3:16

Example 2 – Jeremy Evans’ Intellectual Movement Away From Calvinist Thought

Example 3 – Millard Erickson: A Moderate Calvinist Assesses Limited Atonement

Example 4 – Practical Ministry: Ecclesial Incoherence, Impact Prayer Cards and the Sanctity of Life

Calvary Church: Doctrinal and Ecclesial Inconsistency and the Bible Teaches Both

Practical Implications: Impact Prayer, Evangelism, and Moderate Calvinism

Impact Prayer: The Plan of Salvation and Evangelism

Impact Prayer: God’s Sovereignty and Petitionary Prayer

Moderate Calvinism and the Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

Some Practical Implications: Doctrinal and Theological Indifference

Example 5 – D. A. Carson’s Bad Advice to Young Reformed Preachers

Calvinism and Hermeneutical Relativism

Calvinism and the Problem of Truth Correspondence

Example 6 – D. A. Carson’s “In The Last Analysis” A Priori Commitment to Unconditional Election

Example 7 – D. A. Carson: ‘Response’ Determines Destiny

Example 8 – James Ayers Cannot Come to Terms with Calvinist Predestination

Example 9 – Erwin Lutzer’s Inconsistency on Election and Predestination

Lutzer’s Definition of the Doctrine of Election

Assessing the Validity of Lutzer’s Exposition of Ephesians 1:1-4

Lutzer’s Sermon on ‘Jesus, The Gift of Freedom’

Lutzer’s Sermon on ‘The Gift of Predestination’

Lutzer’s Attempt at Reconciliation: Robots, Puppets, and Calvinist Compatibilism

Why Compatibilism Fails at Reconciliation: Robots and Puppets

Lutzer’s Sermon: ‘Miles Apart in the Same House’

If Compatibilism is the Answer, Why the ‘Tension?’

Why the Bible Doesn’t Teach Lutzer’s Determinism

Lutzer’s Incoherent and Contradictory Phrases

The Nature of Free Will

We Must Push Back on Calvinists When They Are Incoherent

Lutzer’s Bad Hermeneutic and Disingenuous Use of ‘Voluntarily’

The Nature of the Human Will

Lutzer’s Determinism and the Gospel Message

Lutzer Lies About the Scope of Salvation, Misrepresents God, and Contradicts His Theistic Determinism

Lutzer Exemplifies the Suppression of Reason and Moral Intuition and a Hermeneutic of Incoherence

The Word of God and the Responsibilities of Preachers and Teachers

Lutzer Tells Us How We Can Know If We Are Elect or Not

Lutzer Continues with His Erosion of the Gospel

Beware of Veiled Nuances to Calvinist Doctrine in Their Evangelism and Preaching

Losing Your Mind and Soul: Intimidation, Confusion and the Suppression of Reason

How Calvinism Limits God’s Love and Human Value and Dignity

Lutzer Attempts to Answer the Arbitrariness Question

Lutzer’s Incoherence Regarding Natural Disasters: We Escape Judgment by Repentance

Proving Your Unconditional Election

Testing Deterministic Unconditional Election by Contingent Conditional Faith

What We Learn From Lutzer’s Sermons

Example 10 – Erwin Lutzer on How You Can Know You Are Among the Elect

Come to Christ and Know You’re a Member of the Elect

The Gospel Irrelevance of Unconditional Election

Hermeneutical Conclusions

Example 11 – Erwin Lutzer’s Blatant Contradiction

Example 12 – Erwin Lutzer: How His Calvinism Expunges His Good News

Example 13 – J. I. Packer’s ‘Double-Talk’ and the Insincerity of the Gospel

Example 14 – Kenneth O. Gangel on 2 Peter 1:10 and 3:9

Example 15 – Greg Koukl on How He Became a Christian

Example 16 – Greg Koukl on Why Jesus Spoke in Parables

Example 17 – John S. Feinberg on Determinism vs. Fatalism: A Distinction without a Difference

Example 18 – Fred H. Klooster on the Sovereignty of God

Example 19 – J. D. Greear’s Gospel Inconsistency

Greear on Ephesians 1

Back to Greear’s Book: Gospel and Calvinist Soteriological Incoherence

J. D. Greear on a Gospel-Centered Church

Example 20 – Greg Gilbert’s Book “What is the Gospel?” and Theological Inconsistency

What Is the Gospel?

Conclusions

Example 21 – John Piper on the Gospel and the “Royal Decree” of “Your Sovereign”

Example 22 – Os Guinness: Both Are True, Use Them As Needed

Example 23 – Mohler on Naturalistic Determinism and Theistic Determinism: A Distinction without a Difference

Example 24 – John MacArthur on Victimization: How He Defeats His Own Calvinism

Example 25 – Josh Moody: An Examination of “No Other Gospel”

Calvinists Hide Their Calvinism: The Ethical Problem and Double-Talk

Example 26 – Ryken v. Ryken: Calvinist Inconsistency In Light of Billy Graham’s Gospel

Billy Graham’s Message of “Good News”

Dr. Ryken and the Billy Graham Center Dedication

The Wheaton Challenge


Chapter 12 – A Hermeneutic of Coherence: Principles and Issues in Exegesis and Interpretation

Inspired Scripture as Our Common Ground and Authority

The Matter of Validation

The Hermeneutical Divide, Coherence, Context, the False Dichotomy, and the Thesis Being Defended

The Westminster Confession on Coherence, Perspicuity, and Scripture Interprets Scripture

Hermeneutics and Exegesis Defined

Coherence as Integral to Authorial Intent, Context, and Comprehensiveness

Authorial Intent

Authorial Intent and Coherence

Context and Coherence

The Error Lies in the Calvinist Hermeneutic

The Gospel is at Stake

Comprehensiveness, Consistency, and Coherence

The Hermeneutical Circle or the Hermeneutical Spiral?

E. D. Hirsch

E. D. Hirsch and Certainty

E. D. Hirsch on the Hermeneutical Circle and Interpretive Responsibility

E. D. Hirsch on Genre and the Hermeneutical Circle

E. D. Hirsch on Exegesis, Context, Plausibility, and Coherence

E. D. Hirsch on Validation, Probability, and Plausibility

E. D. Hirsch and a Logic of Validation

E. D. Hirsch on Particular Exegesis, Interpretation of the Whole, and Probability

Grant Osborne

The Hermeneutical Spiral and Interpretive Coherence

An Example of the Demand for Interpretive Coherence: B. A. Milne on Matthew 25: 13-46

Grant Osborne on the Science, Art, and Spiritual Act of Interpretation

Grant Osborne: Coherence and the Role of Philosophy in Theology

Calvinism: A Hermeneutical and Theological Failure

Grant Osborne: On Coherence, Comprehensiveness, Consistency, and Non-Contradiction

Philosophical and Gospel Implications

Carson, Osborne, and Hirsch: Preunderstanding, Coherence, Adequacy, and Comprehensiveness

An Example of Calvinist Incoherence: Are Our Eternal Destinies Fixed or Unfixed?

Distinctive Challenges for “Evangelicals”

A Review of E. D. Hirsch’s Observations and Their Application to the Evangelical Church

Concluding Observations: The Highest Priority for the Evangelical Church


Chapter 13 – The Interpretive Rationale of Non-Calvinists

Leighton Flowers and David Allen: The Extent of the Atonement, Election, Logic, and Consistency

Unlimited Atonement Doesn’t Help the Calvinist: The Problem of Unconditional Election

How Calvinism Perverts and Silences the Gospel

Christ’s Death for “The Many,” “The Sheep” and “The Church”: Unconditional Election or the Negative Inference Fallacy?

John Lennox Assesses Boettner and Sproul on the Divine Decree and Unconditional Election

Donald Lake: 1 John 2:2 – The Atonement, Obvious Meaning, Textual Harmony, and Avoiding Eisegesis

Donald Lake: Louis Berkhof and Limited Atonement

Clark Pinnock: Consistency and “Tension” or Contradiction

John Lennox: The Fall of Adam, “Two-Wills” Theology and Patent Contradiction

I. Howard Marshall’s Critique of “Two Wills” In God

Some Questions for Calvinists

The Non-Calvinists’ Essential Hermeneutical Principle

The Non-Calvinists’ Hermeneutical Advantage

The Gospel is at Stake

Is Calvinism Convincing?

PART 3 – TOWARDS A MORE BIBLICAL SOTERIOLOGY


Chapter 14 – The Nature of Grace in Scripture

Introduction: Interpreting Key Doctrines and Pertinent Texts

The Calvinist Understanding of “Grace”

Exodus 32 – 34: God’s Nature as Gracious

God’s Relational Self-Disclosure as Gracious

A Word About “Free” Grace

The Biblical Concept of Saving Grace: Christological and Universal

The Public Manifestation of God’s Saving Grace in Jesus of Nazareth

God’s Love and Grace

Titus 2:11 and 3:4: The Grace of God Has Appeared

Ephesians 1:8, 9: Grace Lavished Upon Us and the Mystery of His Will Revealed

Grace in Galatians

Grace in 2 Corinthians Chapters 5 and 6

Romans Chapter 5: Access into Grace

Romans 5:6 – Christ Died for the Ungodly

Romans 5:8 and Issues of Assurance and “Manifest Evidences”

Romans 5:17: The Abundance of Grace

Chapter 15 – The Nature of Faith In Scripture

What is Faith?

Abraham: The Father of Faith

Jesus on Faith

Faith in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

What About Ephesians 2:8-9?

John 3:15-18: Whosoever Believes

John 12:39-40: Stubborn Rejection, Hardening, and the Nature of Faith

Summary Findings on the Nature of Faith in Scripture

Calvinist Determinism and Faith

The Calvinist Misunderstanding of Faith As a “Work” or “Meritorious”

Who Does the Believing?

Is Faith the Result of One Person Being More “Virtuous” Than Another?

The Calvinist’s Flawed Christology

Luther on Faith: A Failure of Interpretive Coherence and Truth Correspondence

Luther’s Confusion Regarding the Character of God

The Hermeneutical Implications of Calvinism’s Incoherence

Dr. Philip Ryken: The “Greatest of All Gifts”

Harold Camping: “I Hope God Will Save Me”

Calvinism and Evangelism

Faith and Trust Based On Assurance of Divine Good Intention

Faith in Romans

The Hermeneutical Challenge

Romans Chapter 1: Man’s Sin Nature and Free Will

Romans Chapter 2: Salvation by Grace Through Faith

Romans Chapter 3

Romans 3:21-26 – Salvation: A Gift to Be Received

Romans 3:27-30 – One God Means Salvation by Faith for Both Jew and Gentile

Romans Chapter 4

A Summary of Calvinism, Faith, and The Gospel


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