big idea

so i have a big idea. one big idea. if any of you are at all familiar with puritan books, you may know of john gill. this guy wrote The Cause of God and Truth which was a response to Discourses on the Five Points [of Calvinism] by a Dr. Whitby. Gill basically answers all of Whitby's points against Calvinism, verse by verse, and then doctrine by doctrine, finally using the early church fathers to show that Calvinism is not only biblically but historically supported.

well

i want to write a similar book. there are roughly seven places where calvinism differs significantly from arminianism:

the view of scripture vs human philosophy
the sovereignty of God
the depravity of man
the love of God
divine election
regeneration
perseverance

irresistible grace and limited atonement may follow logically from these first few points, but the scripture support isn't as extensive or explicit, so i don't think their exclusion will damage the main thesis of the book.

sources will include
arminian: jacobus arminius, john wesley, norman geisler, why i am not a calvinist, roger olson (possibly), charles finney, clark pinnock, possibly charles ryrie (i think he's arminian)
calvinist: john calvin, thomas watson, jonathan edwards, charles hodge, millard erickson, john macarthur, arthur pink, stephen charnock, john owen

i also want to compare arminian theology to catholic theology. they bear many similarities to each other.

in the introduction i want to explore the concept of God as "other," meaning we should expect, as we learn more of him, that he will confound us, possibly even terrify us, especially those who do not believe. a common objection to calvinism is that "God is not a monster." what is a monster? God is powerful, incomprehensible, invisible, like nothing else we know or can imagine... possibly he is a "monster" in some sense.

i will examine assumptions, underlying philosophies, approaches to scripture, and conclusions and finally compare conclusions to the writings of the early fathers. the fathers bear no greater credibility than any other writings outside of scripture, but arminians often claim that calvinism is relatively "new" and therefore suspect.

i have a lot of reading to do.