JBTM 11.1 Spring 2014

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

JBTM 11.1 Spring 2014 SPRING 2014 • VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1 Spring 2014 • Vol. 11, No. 1 The Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Editor-in-Chief 2014 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Charles S. Kelley, Th.D. Bart Barber, Ph.D. Executive Editor First Baptist Church of Farmersville, TX Steve W. Lemke, Ph.D. Rex Butler, Ph.D. Editor & BCTM Director New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Adam Harwood, Ph.D. Managing Editor Nathan Finn, Ph.D. Suzanne Davis Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Research Assistant Eric Hankins, Ph.D. Patrick Cochran First Baptist Church, Oxford, MS Book Review Editors Archie England, Ph.D. Malcolm Yarnell, Ph.D. Dennis Phelps, Ph.D. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary The Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry is a research institute of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary is located at 3939 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70126. BCTM exists to provide theological and ministerial resources to enrich and energize ministry in Baptist churches. Our goal is to bring together professor and practitioner to produce and apply these resources to Baptist life, polity, and ministry. The mission of the BCTM is to develop, preserve, and communicate the distinctive theological identity of Baptists. The Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry is published semiannually by the Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry. Copyright ©2014 The Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. All Rights Reserved. CONTACT BCTM (800) 662-8701, ext. 8074 [email protected] www.baptistcenter.com SUBMISSIONS Visit the Baptist Center web site for submission guidelines. TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial Introduction 1 Adam Harwood Justification in Marius Victorinus’ Pauline Commentaries: Sola Fide, Solo Christo, and Sola Gratia Dei 3 Dongsun Cho John Smyth and Thomas Helwys: Theological Differences 26 Joe Early Toward a Non-Deterministic Theology of Divine Providence 38 Robert E. Picirilli Calvinism vs. Molinism: Paul Helm & William Lane Craig 62 Paul Helm and William Lane Craig Articles of Religious Belief: The Confession Authored by the Founders of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary 78 Steve W. Lemke Book Reviews 100 Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry Vol. 11, No. 1 © 2014 Editorial Introduction Adam Harwood, Ph.D. Adam Harwood is Associate Professor of Theology, occupying the McFarland Chair of Theology; Director of the Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry; Editor,Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. his issue of the journal features five articles from the fields of historical and systematic Ttheology, and sixteen book reviews from the fields of apologetics, world religions, biblical studies, biblical theology, and systematic theology. The first article was written by Dongsun Cho, Assistant Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His publications include “Ambrosiaster on Justification by Faith Alone in His Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles,” The Westminster Theological Journal 74.2 (Fall 2012): 277-90. In the present article, Cho argues that fourth-century theologian Marius Victorinus is the first Latin father who identified in Paul’s writings the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Joe Early is Associate Professor of Theology at Campbellsville University. Among his many publications, he is the author of The Life and Writings of Thomas Helwys: The First English Baptist (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2009). In the second article in this issue, Early compares the theology of the earliest progenitors of the Baptist movement, John Smyth (1570–1612) and Thomas Helwys (1575–1612). Robert E. Picirilli served as Academic Dean and Professor of Greek and New Testament at Free Will Baptist Bible College (now Welch College) in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as General Editor of the Randall House Bible Commentary and contributed five commentaries to the series. Also, he is the author of several books, including Grace, Faith, Free Will (Nashville: Randall House, 2002). In this issue’s third article, Picirilli interacts with traditional, systematic treatments of the doctrine of providence in order to offer a non-deterministic construction of the doctrine. The fourth article is a transcript of a conversation between Paul Helm and William Lane Craig on Calvinism and Molinism which was recorded by “Unbelievable?” with Justin Brierley (Premier Christian Radio) on January 4, 2014. Helm, Teaching Fellow at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, has authored several books on Calvinism, including Calvin and the Calvinists (Banner of Truth, 1982) and John Calvin’s Ideas (Oxford University Press, 2005). Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California, JBTM Adam Harwood 2 and Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas. His publications include an extended case for middle knowledge, also known as Molinism, in The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge & Human Freedom (Baker, 1987). The article includes colloquialisms because it is a conversation rather than an academic presentation. Both men are respected advocates of their respective views, and it is a delight to publish this conversation for a wider audience. In the fifth article, Steve W. Lemke, Provost at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, examines the historical-theological background of the seminary’s first confession of faith, the Articles of Religious Belief (1918). A version of this article was delivered as the Founder’s Day Address at the NOBTS Chapel in October of 2013. Lemke has made a significant contribution to the field of Baptist studies; I am unaware of another article which traces the historical-theological roots of this important confessional statement. May God be glorified by these articles and reviews, and may they enrich your knowledge of and service to God. JBTM 3 Justification in Marius Victorinus’ Pauline Commentaries: Sola Fide, Solo Christo, and Sola Gratia Dei Dongsun Cho, Ph.D. Dongsun Cho is Assistant Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Introduction lister McGrath claims in his magnum opus, Iustitia Dei, “Justification was simply not a Atheological issue in the pre-Augustinian tradition …. To be sure, he [Paul] is honoured and quoted, but—in the theological perspective of the west—it seems that Paul’s great insight into justification by faith was forgotten.”1 For McGrath, Augustine is the first Latin theologian who presents a meaningful doctrine of justification, although Augustine’s doctrine of justification is similar to the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification and does not anticipate the Reformers’ instantaneous and declarative justification based on imputed and alien righteousness.2 According to McGrath, no one can find an antecedent of the Reformational understanding of justification among the church fathers prior to and even in Augustine. Recently, however, some Protestant scholars have attested to a meaningful development of a patristic doctrine of justification by faith prior to Augustine. Thomas Oden, inThe Justification Reader; Nick Needham, in “Justification in the Early Church Fathers”; and Daniel H. Williams, in “Justification by Faith: A Patristic Doctrine” and “Hilary of Poitiers and Justification by Faith,” show that some patristic exegetes indeed held to justification by faith apart from human, meritorious works.3 Williams attributes McGrath and other Protestants’ failure to recognize an early, patristic 1Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 3rd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 34. Iustitia Dei has become a classical monograph on the historical development of the doctrine of justification. Despite some disagreements with McGrath, N. T. Wright, Jus- tification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009), 79, recommends Iustitia Dei as “required reading for anyone who wants seriously to engage with” the history of the doctrine of justification. 2McGrath, Iustitia Dei, 38–39, “Augustine’s doctrine of justification is the first discussion of the matter of major significance to emerge from the twilight of the western theological tradition.” For McGrath’s evalu- ation of Augustine’s doctrine of justification, see ibid., 43–49. 3Thomas Oden, The Justification Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006); Daniel H. Williams, “Justi- fication by Faith: A Patristic Doctrine,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 57.4 (2006): 649–67, idem, “Hilary of Poitiers and Justification by Faith According to the Gospel of Matthew,” Pro Ecclessia 16 (2007): 445–61; JBTM Dongsun Cho 4 doctrine of justification by faith to their “outmoded view that post-apostolic Christianity was corrupted by the vagaries of Hellenism.”4 The three scholars’ common observation of the ancient writers’ teaching of sola fide does not necessarily indicate their agreement concerning how much theological affinity may exist between the ancient writers and the Reformers on justification. Oden proposes a provocative thesis that there is substantial textual evidence of the theological “consensus” with regard to sola fide between patristic writers and the Reformers.5 The popular assumption that the early church quickly departed from the doctrine of justification by faith alone is “an intemperate idea,” which is “neglectful
Recommended publications
  • Russell, Infinity, and the Tristram Shandy Paradox
    RUSSELL, INFINITY, AND THE TRISTRAM SHANDY PARADOX by Shandon Guthrie INTRODUCTION Mathematicians have puzzled for centuries what precisely we mean when we refer to the concept of infinity . Some have suggested that infinity is merely something that exists in the mind. Yet others maintain that infinity possesses some ontological status in the real world. In an attempt to demonstrate the difference between the reality of an infinite and the idea of an infinite, Aristotle had suggested the terms actual infinite (the completed whole value of infinity) and potential infinite (susceptible to infinite addition). (1) Analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell believed that an actual infinite could be achieved as long as the counter possessed an actually infinite number of years to do it. In the example given in Sterne's novel, we have the example of Tristram Shandy. (2) Sterne writes about Tristram Shandy as an individual committed to writing an autobiography. However, he is so slow that it takes him one year in order to complete only one day. This means that the most recent event that could be recorded is the day that occurred one year ago. As Shandy writes an additional day, it takes him an additional year to complete the events of that day. Russell uses this example and believes that an actual infinite can be achieved through successive addition only if Shandy has an infinite number of days to complete it. RUSSELL'S ASSESSMENT OF THE TRISTRAM SHANDY PARADOX Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) suspects that the Tristram Shandy paradox can be solved. For Russell, it is the individual who possesses an infinite number of days.
    [Show full text]
  • Harmonising God's Sovereignty and Man's Free Will
    Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion An Introduction to Molinism Harmonising God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Free Will Wessel Venter http://www.siyach.org/ 2016-06-07 Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion Introduction Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion Mysteries of the Christian Faith 1. How can God be One, but Three Persons? 2. How can Jesus simultaneously be fully man and fully God? 3. How can God be sovereign over our lives, yet people still have free will? Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion Mysteries of the Christian Faith 1. How can God be One, but Three Persons? 2. How can Jesus simultaneously be fully man and fully God? 3. How can God be sovereign over our lives, yet people still have free will? Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion Table of Contents 4 Molinism 1 Introduction Definition of Molinism Preliminary Definitions Counterfactuals 2 Historical Overview Middle Knowledge Pelagian Controversy 5 Objections and Criticisms Thomas Aquinas Miscellaneous The Reformation Thinly Veiled Open Theism The Counter-Reformation The Truth/Existence of Further History CCFs Secular Debate Divine Voodoo Worlds 3 Arminianism and Calvinism Grounding Problem Arminianism Not Biblical Calvinism 6 Applications and Conclusion Arminianism vs Calvinism Applications Introduction Historical Overview Arminianism & Calvinism Molinism Criticisms Conclusion Definitions Preliminary DefinitionsI Definition (Soteriology[9]) “The study of salvation.” In Christianity this includes topics such as regeneration, election, predestination, repentance, sanctification, justification, glorification, etc. Definition (Possible World) A world that could have been, if history had progressed differently. E.g., if there was not a traffic jam, I would not have been late for work on Monday.
    [Show full text]
  • . . by the Lighthouse Beam . . . by the Lighthouse Beam
    Worshipful Master Gary Mosmeyer - Editor John "Corky" Daut The November 2012 Issue . By The Lighthouse Beam Right Angles, Horizontals and Perpendiculars From Hiram's Lighthouse Newsletter It appears to me that there has been some confu- sion among Masons about the Lights in a Lodge, as relates to the Three Lesser Lights, The Three Great Lights, and The Three Lights, (of the lodge,) and also about the one light above the altar that is turned on when the Three Great Lights are displayed upon the Altar. I will attempt to shed some light on the questions about these lights as relates to a Lodge Room as well as to some of the other “Threes” we find in Freema- sonry. In Freemasonry, we are encouraged to tell our Brothers what we want, and that is Knowledge, in Freemasonry Light means Knowledge. So when we talk about the three Triads of lights that are in a Lodge the symbolism behind the lights is knowledge. The Three Lesser Lights and the Three Lights have often been confused, thinking that the Third Section of the Lecture of the First Degree stating that a Lodge has Three Lights which are situated in the East West and South refer to the Three Lesser Lights, which they do not. In the Webb-Preston work, which much of the ritual of the Grand Lodges of the United States is based it says; the Lights of the Lodge are three, situated in the East, West, and South. There is none in the North be- cause King Solomon’s Temple was situated so far north of the ecliptic that neither the Sun nor Moon at Me- ridian height could dart their rays into the north part of the building.
    [Show full text]
  • God and Universal Value Commensurability Yujin Nagasawa
    God and Universal Value Commensurability Yujin Nagasawa Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, UK [email protected] A first draft. Please do not quote. 1. Introduction In the eleventh century Anselm introduced a concept of God that is now widely accepted among Judaeo-Christian-Islamic theists: that than which no greater can be thought.1 Anselm presented primarily two applications of this concept: (i) We can construct the ontological argument for the existence of God from this concept; (ii) we can derive from this concept the proposition that God has such individual attributes as omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. Over the last nine hundred years philosophers have concentrated on these applications of the Anselmian concept of God. As to (i), they have tried to examine the cogency of the ontological argument. Some have attempted, in particular, to construct objections to the argument and some have tried to defend or improve on it. As to (ii), philosophers have tried to analyse the concepts of omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. Some have tried, in particular, to provide proper formulations of these attributes and some have tried to show the incoherence of and inconsistency between these attributes. Ironically, however, philosophers have rarely examined in detail the Anselmian concept of God itself. In exactly what sense is God that than which no greater can be thought? The most intuitive response to this question is to say that God is that than which no greater can be thought by virtue of occupying the top link in the ‘great chain of being’, a 1 Anselm, Proslogion, in M.J.
    [Show full text]
  • On God's Existence
    Scholars Crossing SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations Summer 2001 On God's Existence W. David Beck Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Epistemology Commons, Esthetics Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Beck, W. David, "On God's Existence" (2001). SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations. 167. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/167 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. W. DAVID BECK 49 compared to the energy involved in the entire act of, say, raising one's hand to vote. When an engineer throws a switch to release the water behind Hoover Dam, the vast amount of potential energy unleashed by the moving water is overwhelmingly greater than that involved in the engineer throwing the switch. It may be the same with libeliarian acts. Perhaps the energy released in the exercise of active power is miniscule compared to the poten­ tial energy released in the body as part of the relevant causal pathway. I just don't lmow. Second, even if one opts for this second option (the release of energy is virtually undetectable), it doesn't follow that the resulting gap would not be detectable, since the effects of a libertarian act could still be quite different in a "gappy" way from what would have followed in the absence of that act.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Aquinas' Argument from Motion & the Kalām Cosmological
    University of Central Florida STARS Honors Undergraduate Theses UCF Theses and Dissertations 2020 Rethinking Causality: Thomas Aquinas' Argument From Motion & the Kalām Cosmological Argument Derwin Sánchez Jr. University of Central Florida Part of the Philosophy Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the UCF Theses and Dissertations at STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Undergraduate Theses by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Sánchez, Derwin Jr., "Rethinking Causality: Thomas Aquinas' Argument From Motion & the Kalām Cosmological Argument" (2020). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 858. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses/858 RETHINKING CAUSALITY: THOMAS AQUINAS’ ARGUMENT FROM MOTION & THE KALĀM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT by DERWIN SANCHEZ, JR. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Philosophy in the College of Arts and Humanities and in the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2020 Thesis Chair: Dr. Cyrus Zargar i ABSTRACT Ever since they were formulated in the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas’ famous Five Ways to demonstrate the existence of God have been frequently debated. During this process there have been several misconceptions of what Aquinas actually meant, especially when discussing his cosmological arguments. While previous researchers have managed to tease out why Aquinas accepts some infinite regresses and rejects others, I attempt to add on to this by demonstrating the centrality of his metaphysics in his argument from motion.
    [Show full text]
  • “Grounding and Omniscience” (PDF)
    Grounding and Omniscience Abstract I’m going to argue that omniscience is impossible and therefore that there is no God.1 The argument turns on the notion of grounding. After illustrating and clarifying that notion, I’ll start the argument in earnest. The first step will be to lay out five claims, one of which is the claim that there is an omniscient being, and the other four of which are claims about grounding. I’ll prove that these five claims are inconsistent. Then I’ll argue for the truth of each of them except the claim that there is an omniscient being. From these arguments it follows that there are no omniscient beings and thus that there is no God. §1. Stage Setting The best way to get a grip on the notion of grounding – or more exactly, for our purposes, the notion of partial grounding - is by considering examples. (By “partial grounding” I mean “at-least-partial grounding”, just as mereologists mean “at-least-part of” by “part of”.) The first example hearkens back to Plato’s Euthyphro. Suppose that a theorist claims that as a matter of metaphysical necessity, a given act is morally right if and only if it is approved of by God. At first blush at least, it is plausible that this theorist owes us an answer to following question: when acts are right, are they right because God approves of them, or does he approve of them because they are right? We all understand this question right away, right when we first hear it.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Transforming Views of Baptist Ecclesiology: Baptists And
    ABSTRACT Transforming Views of Baptist Ecclesiology: Baptists and the New Christendom Model of Political Engagement Jason D. Whitt, Ph.D. Mentor: Barry A. Harvey, Ph.D. While most twentieth century commentators on Baptist distinctives note well the commitment to religious liberty, the context of the discussion typically treats religious liberty as a natural right secured through the emergence of the modern liberal democratic state. This view tends to interpret the concept of “religious liberty” as a univocal term throughout Baptist history, assuming that the meaning of this idea has been consistent during four centuries of Baptist presence within the Western world. Religious liberty has thus come to be understood as the securing of a natural right dependent for its preservation upon a form of liberal democratic polity. In this dissertation, however, I will argue first that Baptist conceptions of religious liberty and their concomitant views on the relationship between Christians and the state have not been univocal throughout Baptist history. In particular, I will suggest that contemporary Baptist models share significant foundational theological presuppositions concerning the realms of the secular and the religious with the New Christendom model of twentieth century Roman Catholicism. Second, having argued for the shared convictions between both models, I will then note the challenges from within Catholic theology to the New Christendom model and its failures, and by correspondence, suggest that similar shortcomings may be present in Baptist models. As a response to the critiques offered, it will be suggested that the church should instead imagine itself as an alternative body politic to the liberal democratic nation-state.
    [Show full text]
  • Eye of Provide Eye of Providence Eye of Providence
    Eye of Providence The Trinity represented in a Christian version of the Eye of Providence . The Eye of Providence (or the all-seeing eye of God) is a symbol showing an eye often surrounded by rays of light or a glory and usually enclosed by a triangle . It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God watching over humankind (or divine providence ). In the modern era, the most notable depiction o f the eye is the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States , which appears on the United States one-dollar bill . Contents 1 Religious use 2 United States 3 Freemasonry 4 Other uses : 4.1 Coats of arms and seals 4.2 Currency 4.3 Other contexts Religious use Jacopo Pontormo painting year 1525, using the Eye of Providence in a triangle as a symbol of the Christian Trinity . Imagery of an all-seeing eye can be traced back to Egyptian mythology and the Eye of Horus . Buddhist texts like the Mahaparinibbana Sutta also refer to Buddha as the "Eye of the World" (although no imagery is used). It is frequently used to depict the image of God in Caodaism (the doctrines of an Indochinese religion, especially an amalgamation of features from Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Christianity .) In Medieval and Renaissance European iconography, the Eye (often with the addition of an enclosing triangle) was an explicit image of the C hristian Trinity . Seventeenth-century depictions of the Eye of Providence sometimes show it surrounded by clouds or sunbursts . In United States 1782, the Eye of Providence was adopted as part of the symbolism on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States .
    [Show full text]
  • Norman Geisler on Molinism
    Norman Geisler on Molinism http://normangeisler.com What did Norm Geisler say about the Middle-Knowledge, Molinism, and the thought of Luis de Molina? Several people have asked about this by email. This blogpost attempts to provide an answer based on six sources of Norm’s comments on Molinism: 1) Geisler, Norman L. “Molinism,” in Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999) pp. 493–495. 2) Geisler, Norman L. Chosen but Free: A Balanced View of Divine Election, 2nd edition (Bethany House, 1999) pp. 51-55 3) Geisler, Norman L. Systematic Theology, Volume II: God, Creation (Bethany House, 2003) pp. 206-207 4) Geisler, Norman L. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (Baker Books, 1995), p. 450-446 5) Classroom lectures by Norm Geisler on God’s Immutability in the course TH540 (“God and Creation”) at Veritas International University, circa 2013. Class #3 - https://vimeo.com/72793620 6) Four private emails answered by Norm Although some paragraphs have been reworded slightly in the attempt to avoid copyright infringement, and the sources have been blended together in a somewhat repetitive and less-than-seamless way, this compilation remains faithful to what Norm wrote and said. The reader is encouraged to acquire the four books cited above to read this material in its original contexts. Apologies are offered in advance for the somewhat hurried and patchwork-nature of this compilation. LUIS DE MOLINA (A.D. 1535–1600) was born in Cuenca, New Castile, Spain. He joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and became a theologian. The theology that bears his name claims to protect the integrity of human free will better than any other system.
    [Show full text]
  • Anselm on Freedom: a Defense of Rogers’S Project, a Critique of Her Reconciliation of Libertarian Freedom with God the Creator Omnium
    Anselm on Freedom: A Defense of Rogers’s Project, A Critique of her Reconciliation of Libertarian Freedom with God the Creator Omnium W. Matthews Grant University of St. Thomas, St. Paul After emphasizing the importance of Rogers’s book and defending its methodology, I critique Rogers’s strategy for reconciling libertarian creaturely freedom with the doctrine that God is the cause of all being apart from Himself. I maintain that Rogers’s denial that creaturely choices are caused by God is problematic as an interpretation of Anselm; furthermore, this denial means she must also deny either that creaturely choices have being, or that God is the cause of all being apart from Himself. The former denial is untenable; the latter constitutes rejecting God as creator omnium, not reconciling that doctrine with libertarian creaturely freedom. Introduction to and Defense of the Project Within the world of contemporary philosophy of religion, the theist who holds a libertarian account of human freedom is commonly thought to have two options: She can be a Molinist or she can be an Open Theist. The Molinist promises to reconcile libertarian freedom with divine foreknowledge and God’s providential control over history. To be a Molinist, however, one has to hold that there are truths of an arguably fantastic sort, truths about what merely possible creatures would freely do in merely possible circumstances in which they might find themselves.1 Open Theists promise to combine theism and libertarian freedom without commitment to such peculiar truths. Yet, being an Open Theist means settling for a relatively weak conception of divine sovereignty, subjecting God to a life marked by time and change, and denying that God has knowledge of free creaturely acts that take place in the future.2 The publication of Katherin Rogers’s Anselm on Freedom is a significant event3 not only because it constitutes the first book-length treatment of Anselm’s views on freedom in over twenty-five years, but also because it presents a third, comprehensive option for the libertarian theist.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rochdale Baptists
    THE ROCHDALE BAPTISTS 1773 - 1973 A SHORT HISTORY Written in 1973 to commemorate the Bi-centenary of the West Street Baptist Church Rochdale. (RE-PUBLISHED: ON THE OCCASION OF THE 225TH ANNIVERSARY IN 1998.) By: A. Whitehead. “On 18th September 1773 friends at Rochdale asked at an Ebenezer (Bacup) Church meeting exemption from supporting the ministry there any longer in consequence of the expense attaching to the infant cause at Rochdale. Their prayer was granted by the famous Rev. John Hirst and his people without demur.” Page 1 of 47 That part of the Christian Church known as the Baptists is less than 400 years old, although in earlier times sections were in existence whose fundamental principle was that of the immediate and direct accountancy of God of each individual; that between God and the individual there was no mediator save Jesus Christ. These were the Anabaptists who rejected the priestly notions of Christian ministry and all forms of State support. They maintained their preachers by free-will offerings; whose one qualification must be a divine call to such service. Anabaptism in England was never organised and lacked leadership, for this reason it cannot be regarded as the seed-bed of the English Baptists. John Smyth was the first English Baptist. He first took orders of the Church of England, then became a Puritan Separatist and finally a Baptist Separatist, eventually fleeing to Holland and becoming the pastor of a Church of English Separatist there. In 1609 he first baptised himself and then baptised Thomas Helwys, a gentleman of Basford in Nottingham, who financed the emigration of a Gainsborough Separatist Church to Amsterdam, and others.
    [Show full text]