Keith D. Stanglin Jacob Arminius served for 15 years as Pastor at The Old Church in Amsterdam In my previous blog post , I raised the old theological and practical challenge of the assurance of salvation, an issue that was central to the Protestant reformers in general and to Jacob Arminius (1559–1609) in particular.  He identified two opposite problems related to assurance.  Previously, I discussed his treatment of the first problem—despair or hopelessness about salvation, which is...

Keith D. Stanglin * Part 2 of this post is available here . Assurance of salvation was a central and motivating concern of the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther sought assurance in the sacrament of penance, but to no avail.  He found it finally in his discovery of justification by grace alone through faith alone.  This concern for assurance continued among the Reformed (Calvinists).  To pick one example among many, notice the presence of assurance in the opening Question and Answer of...

Keith D. Stanglin “Can Christianity overcome its dogmatism without losing its identity?” A former colleague of mine once posed this question to our mutual students. It is provocative; “dogma” has been a nasty word for a long time. And the assumption among many—including many Christians—is that dogmatism is something that must be overcome. Though never put in these exact words, the underlying concern or logic apparently runs something like this: “Dogmatism is obviously evil; it would be...