Confessions: What They Are and Why We Need Them
Free Will Baptist can sound a bit odd to those who have never heard the name before. When I announce that I’m a Free Will Baptist to Calvinist Baptists at Southern Seminary, I often receive questions such as, “What exactly is a Free Will Baptist?” or, “Do you all believe in Perfectionism like Wesleyans, or that Man’s will is totally free like Semi-Pelagians?” I do my best to quickly calm my classmates’ fears that a heretic, having...
Overthrowing the Serpent: Gregory of Nazianzus & Philanthropy
Christian philanthropy is no modern Christian invention or conviction. For early church theologian Gregory of Nazianzus (329/30–390/91), the eternal welfare of one’s body and soul hinges upon one’s loving care for the poor and oppressed.[1] Gregory is convinced that loving care for another’s physical needs, be they paupers or lepers, is a binding obligation on the believer. A failure to care for the oppressed is to have lost “sight of...
Where Grace Abounded Sin Abounded More?
In his 1611 work A Short and Plaine Proofe, Thomas Helwys argued against unconditional election and limited atonement. Helwys was convinced that these doctrines were not only unbiblical, but actually implicated God in man’s sin. What follows is a quite intriguing portion of his argument: Yet those of this opinion that hold God has decreed some to reprobation say he would not have all, but some to repent. If they would speak...
Reformed Arminianism & the Death of the Holiness Movement
Through a friend’s recommendation, I recently read a blog entitled, “The Death of the Holiness Movement and The Imminent Collapse of Arminianism” by Jeff Paton.[1] I know very little about the author, but the blog was intriguing for a couple of reasons. First, Paton rightly understands that various forms of Arminianism exist. For many, only one form of Arminianism exists, and it is Wesleyan Arminianism. Paton is aware that...
Autonomous But United
I grew up in Free Will Baptist churches, occasionally attended local association meetings with my father, and regularly attended the annual National Association Free Will Baptists. Even from a young age I knew that all Free Will Baptists didn’t share identical philosophies of ministry, nor did they agree on Bible translations, or what men and women ought (or ought not) to wear. But from what I could tell, we were a lot alike. I knew...
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