Calvin on Luther’s “Trumpet Blast” (Gerrish)

 Albert Pighius, a student of Pope Adrian VI,  lived during the Reformation and opposed both Luther and Calvin on their views of the bondage of the will.  Pighius wrote ten books against the slavery of the unregenerate will and strongly defended the freedom of the will in a semi-Pelagian manner.  Of course, this is one …

The Liberty of the Will (Muller)

  I appreciate how Richard Muller summarizes the Reformed understanding of the human will under his entry "libertas naturae" in Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: "The freedom or liberty of nature; viz., the liberty that is proper to a being given its particular nature.  No being, not even omnipotent God, can act contrary …

Freedom of the Will? (Horton)

The Bible teaches that the human heart is deceitful above all things and that everyone who sins is a slave to sin (Jer. 17:9; John 8:34).  It teaches that apart from grace, a person is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1).  These texts and others like them are where Reformed theology gets the doctrines of total …

Anabaptist Profiles Part II

 In August, I did a sort of "Anabaptist profile" on Conrad Grebel, who hated the early 16th century Papacy and the Reformers equally - both were antichrists to many anabaptists like Grebel.  This "profile" is a brief on Balthasar Hubmaier, living at the same time as Grebel, Munzter, John Denck, and so forth, in the early 16th century.  …