peterlumpkins.com

Calvinists and Pelagius agreed on the status of infants dying in infancy?

It appears some modern day Calvinists express a similar agnosticism toward infants dying in infancy as did Pelagius. When pushed by Augustine, Pelagius said, “Where they are not, I know; where they are, I know not” (//link). While Augustine's nemesis was certain infants were not in hell, he offered no firm answer as to where they were. On the other hand, while some Calvinists do not want to say some infants dying in infancy go to hell, neither will they affirm whether some or all infants go to heaven. They... Read more →

Love Wins by Rob Bell: A Book Note by Peter Lumpkins

I finally finished my copy of Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived by Rob Bell (hereafter, Love Wins, HarperOne 2011, $22.99). Some wondered why I have not already written a review. Others questioned my motives for posting a Reformed scholar’s review, while one blogger even strangely implicated me in surfing the internet looking for positive reviews of Bell’s book to post. Two quick points: a) I did not sense the urgency in critiquing Bell’s position before I actually read Bell’s... Read more →

Love Wins by Rob Bell: A Reformed Scholar's Review by Dr. Paul Owen

SBC Tomorrow welcomes Dr. Paul Owen as guest contributor* Having heard all of the internet buzz about Rob Bell’s new book, I decided to stop in at the local bookstore and pick up a copy. It’s an extremely short book, and only takes a couple of hours to read. It has a relaxing and engaging tone and writing style, and I’m sure it will sell well, given all the publicity it has received on Morning Joe and other news venues. But what of the content?>>> Let me just start out... Read more →

On Hell: A Helpful Bibliography by Peter Lumpkins

James Davidson Hunter noted in his 1987 landmark study, Evangelicalism: The Coming Generation (University of Chicago,1987, 38), "…it is clear that there is a measurable degree of uneasiness within this generation of Evangelicals with the notion of an eternal damnation” while Richard Bauckham had already lamented a decade before--since 1800 “no traditional Christian doctrine has been so widely abandoned as that of eternal punishment” (Universalism: A Historical Survey,” Themelios 4 (1979) 48). Indeed Bauckham quotes H.R. Macintosh from 1914>>> “If at this moment a frank and confidential plebiscite of the... Read more →

Clark Pinnock on Eternal Torment & Millard Erickson on Clark Pinnock by Peter Lumpkins

The late Clark Pinnock was one of the more provocative evangelical theologians.* His firey literary style riled his many (and just) critics about as much as some of his theological heterodoxy>>> Note how Pinnock framed the doctrine of eternal punishment: "Let me say at the outset that I consider the concept of hell as endless torment in body and mind an outrageous doctrine, a theological and moral enormity, a bad doctrine of the tradition which needs to be changed. How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and... Read more →