Cow Tipping Takes On Calvinism vs Arminianism

Yesterday we tackled the 500+ year old debate between Calvinism and Arminianism... I know... I know... Sounds really, really exciting, right?

While the subject matter challenged me, I really feel that studying these historic positions is incredibly important...

Over the next few days, I'll try to post some of the notes from Sunday's message. As always, the mp3 audio download of the message is already available on our website at www.a2church.org or via iTunes.


Are we predestined or free to choose?

Ephesians 1:4-8 (NIV), For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

There are two phrases in those five verses that mess with a lot of people’s minds…

Verse 4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world…”

This verse basically says that when it came to your salvation, God took the initiative… He CHOSE YOU IN CHRIST in eternity past, before the world even began… And because of that, none of us can take any credit for our salvation or relationship with God… In fact, some would go so far as to even say, God was DETERMINED to make us His own before the world even began…

The other phrase that messes with a lot of people shows up in the last two words of Verse 4 and the first part of Verse 5.

"In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons…"

The word “predestined” means, “previously ordained or appointed” to some position… You could even say, “predetermined.” In this case, God “pre-ordained or predetermined” to adopt YOU as a member of his family…

For about the last five hundred years there have been two primary THEOLOGICAL TEAMS when it comes to passages like this…

While I will admit that the description below is a very broad generalization of these positions, and while both of these teams contain people and groups with some pretty nuanced positions on a variety of issues, by and large, these theological teams could be described like this:



In the next two posts we'll describe the core tents of Calvinistic and Arminian theology.

Thanks for dropping by...