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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Burning heretics

William Watson Birch said...

"I swear, if Owen had the authority, he would have burned every Arminian in England."

http://classicalarminianism.blogspot.com/2009/12/display-of-arminianism.html#comment-4692573665897331359

Actually, I think the Arminian prelate Archbishop Laud would probably furnish a more viable candidate for burning all theological opponents if he could get away with it.
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7 comments:

  1. Viisaus12/31/2009 6:11 AM

    Wasn't one thing that really poisoned the early Calvinist-Arminian relations the factor that high-church royalists tended to support Arminianism against low-church Puritans?

    I suspect that this political element made the Protestant schism more virulent (on both sides) than it would have otherwise been.

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  2. Anonymous12/31/2009 6:14 AM

    Is this really a valid inference?

    P1. S is prone to use powerful rhetoric in polemical works
    C1. ∴ S would kill his enemies if given the chance

    It seems WWB hasn't read any John Owen before. Maybe this is just a bit of an overreaction? Perhaps he didn't know what to expect?

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  3. Peter Pike12/31/2009 9:43 AM

    Steven,

    WWB has already informed us that he's an Owens expert. Sorta like Dave Hunt is a Reformed expert, I guess.

    I wonder what he would do with Luther's treatment of Erasmus in "The Bondage of the Will" (especially if you get the version where they don't censor him by translating certain phrases in a "softer" manner).

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  4. donsands12/31/2009 11:21 AM

    John Owen did live in a different era and culture where they took the Gospel very serious.

    But to say, and even swear, that John Owen would burned alive every Arminian in England, is very telling of this man arrogance, which he says he used to have as a Calvinist.

    He's the pot calling the kettle black methinks.

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  5. Anonymous12/31/2009 11:51 AM

    The "I swear" was slang, but not an oath.

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  6. Anonymous12/31/2009 11:53 AM

    WWB has already informed us that he's an Owens expert. Sorta like Dave Hunt is a Reformed expert, I guess. -Pike

    This was my first time reading Owen. It will most likely be my last! -Birch

    https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8219000910622577728&postID=5255661007323605905

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  7. Peter Pike12/31/2009 5:06 PM

    Yup, exactly the same type of scholar as Dave Hunt.

    ReplyDelete