Theological Term of the Week

prevenient grace
The synergistic (or Arminian or Wesleyan) doctrine that there is a universal grace of God that counteracts the universal spiritual death that resulted from the fall, sufficiently restoring lost human freedom so that every person is able to choose to cooperate with saving grace; also called preventing grace.

• Proof texts used to support prevenient grace:

  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:9 ESV) 

  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32 ESV)
  

• From On Working Out Our Own Salvation by John Wesley:

  For allowing that all the souls of men are dead in sin by nature, this excuses none, seeing there is no man that is in a state of mere nature; there is no man, unless he has quenched the Spirit, that is wholly void of the grace of God. No man living is entirely destitute of what is vulgarly called natural conscience. But this is not natural: It is more properly termed preventing grace. Every man has a greater or less measure of this, which waiteth not for the call of man. Every one has, sooner or later, good desires; although the generality of men stifle them before they can strike deep root, or produce any considerable fruit. Everyone has some measure of that light, some faint glimmering ray, which, sooner or later, more or less, enlightens every man that cometh into the world. And every one, unless he be one of the small number whose conscience is seared as with a hot iron, feels more or less uneasy when he acts contrary to the light of his own conscience. So that no man sins because he has not grace, but because he does not use the grace which he hath.

Learn more:

1. Ra McLaughlin: What is “prevenient grace”?
2. R. C. Sproul: Does the Bible Teach Prevenient Grace?
3. Thomas Schreiner: Does the Bible Teach Prevenient Grace in the Wesleyan Sense?
4. Sam Storms: Arminians and Prevenient Grace
5. C. Michael Patton: Why I Reject the Arminian Doctrine of Prevenient Grace
6. Fred Butler: Examining the Arminian Doctrine of Prevenient Grace (mp3)

Related terms:

• monergism
• regeneration
• synergism

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Round the Sphere Again: When Life Is Not Easy

God’s Word for the Worrier
John Piper on How to Battle Anxiety with the Promises of God (Justin Taylor).

God’s Purposes in Pain
10 Reasons God Allows Suffering (The Gospel-Driven Church).

Book Review: 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible

Click image to buy at Monergism Books by Robert L. Plummer.

Last week I mentioned that I’d be adding one more book to the list of excellent books that I judge to be both accessible and valuable for every believer, and 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible is it. I don’t know of any other introductory book on interpreting scripture that would be as useful for any Christian who desires to better understand the Bible.

Robert Plummer wrote this book with a college or seminary Bible course in mind. “Ideally,” he writes, “it would serve as a textbook…” but would also “be beneficial to any curious Christian.” His goal

was to be accessible without being simplistic and scholarly without being pedantic, while always keeping an eye to practical questions and real-life application by the Christian reader.

It sounds almost as if he had my list in mind when he wrote the book, doesn’t it?

40 Questions has 326 pages, which might sound long, but it’s made up of 40 short stand-alone chapters. It’d be perfectly fine for you to look at the list of questions and jump right in to those that interest you most and skip (but hopefully not forever) those you’re less interested in. And there are plenty of charts and lists to keep things uncomplicated and enough humour and stories to keep things unstuffy. (I started reading this book while traveling and the format  makes it perfect for that.)

Click to read more ...