Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed: Black Holes, Love, and a Journey In and Out of Calvinism

by Austin Fischer

The God of Romans 9–11 finds ways to show mercy, even when the facts clamor for judgment. This doesn’t sound much like Calvinism to me, but it does sound a whole lot like Jesus.

—William Klein, The New Chosen People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990). —Ben Witherington III and Darla Hyatt, Paul’s Commentary to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004). —N. T. Wright, “Romans,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 10 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994).

While far from perfect, free-will theism has the gravitas to hold sovereignty, glory, grace, and love together.

At the center of the universe, I think there’s a Creator with holes in his hands, drenching the cosmos in a gratuitous downpour of love. He doesn’t have to—he just wants to. It’s who he is.