Illinois Theological Seminary is "not accredited by any governmental agency or otherwise." Why do they need both a BD (144 credits) and an MDiv (108 credits)? Why are both the MDiv and ThM 108 credits? Why are both the MA and MPhil 72 credits? Are we dealing in semester credits or quarter credits? Okay, I see under "Course Structure" that we are talking quarters. Interesting degree titles: Master of Ancient Civilizations, Master of Christianity, Master of Christian Communication, Master of Latino Theology, Master of Western Civilization. And why would a seminary need to offer some secular degrees? Oh, dear! Their Master of Ancient Civilizations says nothing whatsoever about the Greeks! (Gasp!)
Check out its accreditor. http://www.occm.org/ They claim as members such diverse groups as Falwell's Liberty University and, believe it or not, Uncle Davey, an accountant working in Eastern Europe who posts evangelical articles on Usenet. I emailed Liberty about their alleged membership. They also claim that the Billy Graham's ministry, among others, is an affiliate. I emailed them also. Arminius One of the elect...
According to my Calvinist friends, while living you can only hope you are one of the elect. After you are dead, then you find out if you are one of the arbitrarily chosen that live eternally in heavenly bliss in order to satisfy God's need to show mercy, or if you are one of those arbitrarily chosen for eternal punishment in order to satisfy God's need to show justice. It's a wonderfully contrived system. All you have to do is wait and see what happens. God makes all your choices for you. Arminius One of the elect... (I hope)
Just wondering. I figure, being the schmuck that I am, that God will probably hit the eject button on me just for shits and grins and watch me take a flying leap into hell.
It is more important that God knows you are saved. I have known individuals who "knew" that they were saved then, they left the faith. I guess if they were correct in their knowing of their salvation, then there must not be such a thing as "once saved, always saved" since they were able to leave their salvation. It's all about the wheat and the tares.
In the Calvinist scheme of salvation, God chose, before you were created, whether or not the eject button will be pushed. The choice has already been made. In the Arminian (I use the term loosely) scheme of things, we choose, during our lifetime, whether or not the eject button will be pushed. I prefer the Arminian method. I just like to push the buttons of my Calvinist friends (no pun intended). Arminius
I would agree. "Once saved, always saved" seems to have emanated, at least partially, from Calvinism. Arminius
Arminius, Didn't the more famous Arminius believe in "once saved, always saved"? Also, didn't he believe that eventually everyone would be saved?
Yes to the first, though he felt like the subject needed further study, as he saw passages in the Bible that “seemed” to disprove the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. You can read about this in the Works of Arminius and in the fifth article of the Remonstrance of 1610. The answer to your second question is no. He believed in universal atonement, not universal salvation. You must remember, Arminius was Reformed, as are all true Arminians. The Arminians, however, do not believe all of the teachings of the "Calvinist" (aka Augustinian) wing of the Reformed churches. Unfortunately for us all, The Reformation (so the word Reformed) was not a return to a more biblical Christianity, it was just a poorly done regurgitation of Augustinianism. The Arminians were not able to digest some of these regurgitations, and were branded as heretics. I am not Arminian, just anti-Calvinist. Arminus
