I know hypotheticals bring a whole set of problems to disagreements over ideology, but they can serve a purpose.  Calvinism starts to crumble once it steps away from abstract talk of the sinfulness of man and how every human deserves hell, and into hypotheticals representing millions of actual souls. Recently I offered a Calvinist stranger online the hypothetical about a 7 year old Haitian girl dying of cholera after a short lifetime of absolute hunger and misery. If not part of the elect, isn’t she off to hell in their systematic theology? And won’t she spend eternity in conscious torment…

I was at a gathering of ministers the other day, planning a community Thanksgiving service. All willing local churches will gather together under one roof the week of Thanksgiving to express gratitude to our God.  It’s an idea I am all for. At one point in the meeting, a pastor asked the others what translations were permissible for the evening. Another asked him, “Well, what do you usually use on Sunday mornings?” The man refused to answer, saying, “I don’t want to offend anyone.” The group reassured this brother that nobody at the service would be offended by the use…

I don’t just sit around criticizing Calvinists – certainly not as a whole. I think most Calvinists are honest people who are not aware they are captive to a flawed ideology.  (Now the leaders who have studied these things and still teach the flawed ideology – most often with incredible confidence – they are a different story. They are answerable to God.) Like I said, I don’t want to just criticize. I want to help. So I devote some thought to ways to cure Calvinists. To get them to “snap out of it”.  Some people say the cure is to…

This evening as Melissa and I were walking, I noticed a minivan with an eye-catching window decal. It said: Pro GodPro LifePro Gun I don’t know what to make of this. Is “Pro God” meant to equal “believer” or “Christian” or “follower of Christ”? Seems like it is at least one step removed from this. It’s like saying, “I am one of God’s biggest fans.”  It definitely seems to put faith on the same level as political beliefs – holding propositional statements as convictions and as a means of identifying which group you belong to. This is a form of…

I just submitted an 11 page exegesis paper, completing one of my two final classes in my doctorate program through Wesley Biblical Seminary. In the next 10 days or so, I will finish a project and paper for the second class and this semester will be over. Thank God! (It’s been a long semester.) This will put me two-thirds of the way toward forcing everyone I know to address me as “Dr. Gross”.  I am joking, of course.  I plan to require only my brothers and my wife to call me Dr. Gross.  These past two years of classes have…

I am working this week with Philippians 2:5-11, one of Paul’s most famous Christological statements: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest…

As I have been looking into the “penal substitutionary atonement” as an explanation of how the death of Jesus functions to bring reconciliation between God and humanity, one of my biggest face palm moments has come with the realization that there is no single model of the atonement that every orthodox Christian agrees on. In fact, most Christians are pretty OK with mixing and matching the various models. How did I get to be 55 – having grown up in church, a Christian since college, a graduate of seminary, and now two-thirds of the way through a doctorate of ministry…

If you have ever googled questions about faith or the Bible, you might have noticed that one of the top returns is always gotquestions.org.  They have an answer for every question, delivered with confidence and conviction. And the stink of Calvinism. There should be a warning label. But there isn’t.  Anyway, I looked up their description of penal substitutionary atonement. Their case for PSA is enlightening, for what you don’t find. Their description of PSA begins: “In the simplest possible terms, the biblical doctrine of penal substitution holds that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment…