Andy Naselli — Blog — Dr. Tim White

My mom heard a pastor preach on the subject of double predestination or reprobation, that God predestined or ordained some people to salvation and God ordained others to hell. The manner in which this preacher taught this subject left my mom in total despair over the salvation of some of her loved ones. The Scriptures do not leave believers in despair. God was not teasing in his Word when he declared, “Whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (Jo 3:16).

I agree with John Calvin that the doctrine of double predestination or reprobation is a “dreadful” doctrine. Calvin, in his The Institutes of the Christian Religion, wrote: “The decree, I admit, is dreadful.” [1] However, I disagree with John Calvin that this “dreadful” doctrine is biblical.

Theological Method answers the question, “How do you do theology?”

This post will utilize the type of systematic theology described by Erickson, in his chapter “The Method of Theology” where Erickson discusses “the process of doing theology.”[1] That process generally moves from exegesis to biblical theology to systematic theology.[2] After discussing biblical theology, Erickson added that he places historical theology after biblical theology: “While the utilization of history may take place at any one of several stages in the methodological process, this seems to be a particularly appropriate point.”[3] Erickson instructed that the process of doing theology is to move from exegesis to biblical theology to historical theology to systemic theology.