Other "Evangelical" Humanists
Listed below are indeterminists who are uncomfortable with rejecting their so-called sovereignty of God. Consequently, their arguments always seem to straddle the fence--the "balanced approach." One moment they testify of God's sovereignty, and in the next breath the absolute freedom of God's creatures. Yet by definition, both creature and Creator cannot be sovereign. These individuals suffer from a form of theological and philosophical schizophrenia.
HENRY C. THIESSEN - Dr. Thiessen's Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans, 1959) is THE standard Arminian dispensational view.
"By election we mean that sovereign act of God in grace whereby He chose in Christ Jesus for salvation all those whom He foreknew would accept Him."
SAMUEL FISK - Mr. Fisk was a Baptist pastor, teacher, and missionary with influence primarily along the west coast of the United States and in Fundamentalist, Baptist, and non-denominational Arminian circles. In 1973, he wrote Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom (Loizeaux) and later Calvinistic Paths Retraced (BEP) in 1985. Both books are convoluted attempts to provide support for 4-point Arminianism (inconsistently clinging to "eternal security") in contrast to their nemesis--hyper-Calvinism. Fisk viewed God's sovereignty and human autonomy as "complementary truths" simultaneously held by "well known men of God." This is incoherent nonsense.
DAVE HUNT - Dave Hunt is a charismatic. His testimony is documented in the book On The Brink (formerly Confessions of a Heretic), Logos Int'l, 1972. Hunt's thinking is similar to the highly confused and erroneous writings of Samuel Fisk, and the Arminian Open Brethren author William MacDonald. To read Hunt in his newsletters, there is an uncanny similarity to Fisk. The February 2001 cover article for THE BEREAN CALL is entitled "What a Sovereign God Cannot Do". Dave argues against the hard determinist (hyper-Calvinist) position, but fails to recognize the possibility of soft determinism--i.e. compatibilism. With regard to the sinner's "free will", he repetitively uses phrases like "freedom of genuine moral choice", "real choice" "genuine, independent choice", without clearly explaining what he means by genuine, real, or independent. His passion against all things Calvin is accompanied by much obfuscation.
Hunt writes:
"Believing firmly in God's foreknowledge, [Martin] Luther wrote THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL to prove that the very idea of man's free will is a fallacy and an illusion. In fact, BONDAGE is full of fallacies, both logical and biblical, which I point out in Sovereignty, Mercy, and Love, my book in defense of God's character, currently in process of publication." Feb. 2001
It gets far worse...
"Once it is admitted that man has a will, it is impossible to maintain either that it is in bondage or to explain how it was delivered except by it own choice. No one is made willing against his will but must have been willing to be made willing." Mar. 2001
Like so many, Dave Hunt blurs the distinction between volition and free will. However, when his writings are taken as a whole, the evidence overwhelmingly points in the direction of indeterminism and humanistic heresy. Tragically, a very large percentage of the current-day Open Plymouth Brethren (Dave's realm of fellowship) would be in agreement with his doctrinal errors.
In 2002, Dave Hunt published his pathetic, humanistic diatribe--What Love Is This? Calvinism's Misrepresentation of God. He would have salvaged his ministry had he been receptive to Miles Stanford's concerns more than a decade ago (see, DAVID HUNT & Dispensationalism) and had he taken Dr. Chafer's poignant admonishment to heart:
"It is thus demonstrated that the erroneous exaltation of the human ability in the beginning becomes man's effectual undoing in the end. Over against this, the man who is totally incompetent, falling into the hands of God, who acts in sovereign grace, is saved and safe forever."
Without the Cross for the self-life and Pauline Dispensationalism as its framework, Dave Hunt may inevitably continue his downward slide...right into some form of rationalistic "Open Theism".
Since the end of the '90s, vigorous debates have arisen. Christian humanist Dr. Norm Geisler published Chosen But Free, Reformed Calvinist James White responded with The Potter's Freedom. Dave Hunt then published What Love Is This? and most recently Hunt and White co-authored Debating Calvinism. The Internet is brimming with commentary over the wrestling matches between these two non-dispensationalists. We list a few links below so that readers can get a ring side seat:
For James White and Reformed Calvinism:
For Dave Hunt and Christian Humanism:
Mail this article to a friend