BRUCE A. WARE, academician, theologian, and author (Contemporary)
Dr. Bruce Ware is a distinguished conservative "Reformed" scholar* currently teaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has written or co-authored a number of books strongly arguing on behalf of compatibilist human freedom and the sovereignty of God, in contrast to libertarian freedom and a God who is less than sovereignty.
"...our understanding of God must take priority over what we say next about the nature of human life and our relationships with God and others.
"But from the very outset, those in the broad Arminian tradition take a different fork in the road, and by this they pursue a very different path. Whether they acknowledge this explicitly or not, their clear tendency is to begin with understanding the nature and significance of human life. We need to see, they argue, that human persons are created as free beings, whose freedom consists precisely in their God-given power of contrary choice. 'Libertarian freedom,' as it is often called, proposes that at the very moment of choice, we are free in making that choice if (and only if) in choosing what we do, we could have chosen otherwise. So we are free when choosing A if, at the moment of this choice, we could instead have chosen not-A, or B. And if this is not the case, then we are not genuinely free. Therefore, they assert, we must begin with the nonnegotiable "truth" [really satanic illusion and lie] about human life that asserts 1) that we are free, and 2) that our freedom is libertarian--lest we have no freedom at all [are "puppets"]. p.63
[More to come.]
* While Reformed theologians correctly understand "freedom of inclination," they fail to see clearly the Pauline truths of identification and the believer's two natures. The best they can offer is "renewal" of that which is un-renewable. Dr. Ware confusingly writes, "But the very reason that we are called to work at the transformation of our minds (Rom. 12:1-2) and the renewal of our character (Col. 3:8-10) is precisely that as we become more like Christ, we choose and act more like Christ. In other words, we still act out of our natures, even as believers. It's just that now our natures have been regenerated and they are in the process of renewal. But if we fail to grow and fail to be more and more transformed, we will continue to choose and act out of natures still strongly inclined toward sin. We will do what we want most, and because we are not as transformed as we ought to be, we will want most to sin. But as we submit to the disciplines of the Spirit (e.g. Bible meditation, prayer, corporate worship, preaching, teaching), and as our characters undergo increasing transformation, our 'want to's' change." p.94 [Bold emphasis added] Herein is the crippling effect of Reformed theology.
GOD'S GREATER GLORY: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith.
GOD'S LESSER GLORY: The Diminished God of Open Theism
THEIR GOD IS TOO SMALL: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God
STILL SOVEREIGN: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace
THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL: Biblical and Practical Perspectives on Calvinism, Volumes 1 & 2
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