By Jacob Bender THE SUMMER BEFORE grad school, I worked installing security systems. I didn’t mean to. I’d been put off by home security companies while a missionary in Puerto Rico, where I met RMs who’d once testified of Christ but who were now shilling for shoddy systems no one really needed. In Rexburg, recruiters …
Tag: Calvinism
It’s All In Arminius: Mormonism As A Form Of Hyper-Arminianism
LDS scholars have frequently asserted that the Mormon understanding of salvation is very much akin to the Armenian Protestant tradition in a number of points. This is essentially correct. In fact, I believe Mormonism can be seen as a very radical form of Arminianism (or as “hyper”-Armenian) and that the most important theological dividing line …
A THEOLOGY OF COLLECTIVE SIN AND GRACE
The traditional theologies of sin and grace, Pelagianism, Arminianism, and Calvinism, all make one assumption about the nature of sin that I believe is incorrect. They assume that sin is primarily an action carried out by an individual and for which that individual is alone responsible. I argue that individual sin is the exception and …
A Calvinist Compares Mormonism and Calvinism
There are both striking similarities and large-scale differences between the culture and beliefs of Calvinism, a form of Evangelicalism, and Mormonism, many of which have not been adequately explored. How do these traditions view the importance of covenant in the relationship between God and his people? The importance of family? Work and holiness in Christian …
A Calvinist Compares Mormonism and Calvinism
The men who have led the LDS and RLDS churches have the dual and often contradictory roles of “prophet” and “president.” W. Grant McMurray, RLDS (now Community of Christ) president since 1996, has suggested that his denomination should think of itself as a “prophetic church” and not merely a “church with a prophet.” This paper …