It's all THIS GUY'S FAULT:
http://home.flash.net/~thinkman/
I was a nice happy, Geisler-like Arminian Apologist till about 98. I had picked up Thomas and Steele's book (first edition) in 95-96 when my now-future-wife was in bible college and had to do a paper on Calvinism. I found myself agreeing with much of the 'Calvinists' viewpoints, with a few exceptions here and there. NEver gave it a thought after that, until I was challenged on the 'T' on my apologetics list by Bill Kilgore in 98.
In fact, much of the process of my 'conversion' is still online somewhere or another. My apologetics list has all of the posts back to 98, and the Internet Archive has old versions of my web pages as I gradually matured in my understanding of the doctrines of grace.
Quote:
http://www.theologicallycorrect.com/...log/72700.html
In my personal studies, I'm undergoing yet another theological paradigm shift. Over the past two years, I've been slowly moving from the Arminian soteriological framework to the Reformed viewpoint. As an Arminian, I found certain scriptures incompatible with supposed 'free-will' (or complete human autonomy, which is what most folks mean by 'free-will'). If God truly is Sovereign,then He does control *everything* - including salvation, as the scriptures clearly dictate (John 6:37,44,65). My current reading material (The Potter's Freedom by James White) is giving me an even deeper view. I've revised my *personal* doctrinal statement of what I believe on my personal page.
The site doctrinal statement has already been leaning toward the reformed camp for over a year now- so I added a few 'final touches' to it today with this update. I am also once again, in the process of an eschatalogical study (study of end times). While my conviction remains that premillennialism (specifically dispensational premillennialism) seems to be the natural outcome of a consistent literal (historical-grammatical) interpretation of scripture, I'm finding (much like John MacArthur did) that much of the 'hardline' distinctions that many dispensationalists made in the past only serve to confuse those outside of the dispensational camp of interpretation. I'm still ticked at most of the covenant community for the way they continue to misrepresent dispensationalists and the system, but the Lord will judge them for their misrepresentations.
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Then a few months later:
Quote:
http://www.theologicallycorrect.com/...log/12900.html
3. Theological shift. As many of you who keep regular contact with me know (or have been reading my personal website), my soteriological position (doctrine of salvation) has shifted from moderate Arminian (which is what most believers are today including some of you reading this) two years ago, to four point Calvinist (early last year), to 4.5/4.75 point Calvinist (mid-2000) and eventually to full 5 point Calvinist as of 12/00 this year. I've come to this point not as a result of the commentaries and authors I've read, but because upon examination of scripture, I believe this is what it teaches. I mentioned it in a previous epistle, but looks like I'm 'there' now.
My brain is still settling on everything, so keep me in prayer. Reformed theology tends to turn a lot of folks off because it is hostile to the unregenerate man (and in believers, it is hostile to the remaining bits of unregenerate man still inside). The flesh is religious- it likes hearing a 'man' centered message and what man can do to gain/earn/keep salvation, even some of the same people talk about God being 'in complete control' out the other side of their mouths. In the interests of honoring God and preaching the truth from this site, I cannot do other than bend my will to the Word of God. To this end, I've revised a few dozen things on-site. If I find any of my old articles to be at odds with my current doctrinal stance, I'll be revising them too (if you see anything, let me know).
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It was an interesting trip.
James White's
The Potter's Freedom and Arthur Custance's
The Sovereignty of Grace were heavily influential.