Saturday, November 15, 2014

Roger E. Olson Critiques John Piper's Calvinist Views

All of the comments below are from Olson's blog:

John Piper has been at it again. But there's nothing new in the sermon reported on there. He has been saying this and writing it for decades. According to him, God foreordains sin. He "ordains and governs" it. He stops short of saying Godcauses is [SIC]. But the effect is the same: sin is God's will, even if it grieves him. And he's talking about about every specific sin, not just "sin in general."

Most Calvinists blush at such statements. And there's the line for me between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" Calvinism. I cannot accept, even with chagrin, Calvinism that says God foreordains and renders certain specific sins. That inexorably, ineluctably, inescapably makes God the author of sin and evil. That sullies God’s character OR makes sin not really sin. You have to choose. There’s no way around it.

Arminius was absolutely right when he addressed this Calvinist idea (which he associated especially with supralapsarianism but which is not held only by supras). He said that in that view, then, sin is not sin, or God sins and is really the only sinner.

Please see http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/08/john-piper-gods-sovereignty-and-sin/#disqus_thread

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