Symeon the New Theologian was born in Galatia in the year 949. He was educated in Constantinople, and became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas. He reposed on March 12, 1022. In his second Ethical Discourse, he discusses a number of topics, including St. Paul’s doctrine of predestination and following the consensus of the […]
Calvinism
On Foreknowledge and Freewill
Calvinists suggest that God’s foreknowledge is based on His decretal plan and/or knowledge of causal relations rather then based on the future. The Early Church Fathers disagree. (H/T SEA) Diodore of Tarsus (circa 390) This text [Romans 8:29-30] does not take away our free will. It uses the word foreknew before predestined. Now it is […]
On Perseverance
by Derek Ouellette The earliest Christians understood salvation differently than many today do. While the Church Father’s did not agree on everything, when they speak with one voice on any particular subject I think wisdom dictates that we should listen and give their voice a great deal of weight. Such is the subject of this […]
On God’s Love
“Is God’s Love Limited to the Elect? Rebutting a Calvinist Challenge to the Gospel” By Roger E. Olson [source] The doctrine of limited atonement is probably the most hotly debated of the five points of Calvinism among evangelicals. It is also Calvinism’s Achilles’ heel; without it the other points fall. The recent renaissance of Calvinism […]