The Debate Is On!

The Great debate of 2010 is on!

Here are the two sides:

1. Salvation is accomplished by God alone.

2. salvation is accomplished by man's decision alone.

Side 1 will defend the position that God is the sole catalyst in salvation and that man has no part in accepting or denying God's will for who is to be saved. This is the classic Reformed view of the doctrines of Election and Predestination.

Side 2 will defend the position that God offers the gift of salvation to man and man decides whether to accept it or not. this is the classic Armenian view of salvation.

Your book "Charts of Doctrine and Theology" will be a big help here. You can use "Systematic Theology" as well.The book we recommend for class is written by Wayne Grudem, who is Reformed, but can be helpful to either side. I have a few Systematic theology books that detail the Armenian position if anyone would like to use them. I am also willing to pull together some resources for either team.

Here are the teams:

1. Darren Gazes, John Davis, Scottie James, Mike Lowery, Walter Phillips

2. John Crater, Mike Richey, Ron Spencer, Charles Orndorff, Wayne Johnson,

You will have to work together but, on the day of the Debate, there will be only three speakers from each team. So, you'll have to decide among yourselves who will represent the team. We will alternate sides with Team 1 starting out first. When the first person from Team 1 is done with his presentation, then we will hear from the first person from Team 2. We'll follow that pattern until both teams are done. Each presentation should be no longer than 7 minutes.

One suggestion for the structure would be: The first person gives the position and explains it, the second provides Scriptural substantiation and the third ties it all together, making a conclusion. This is not the only way and teams are free to think outside the box and develop their own method of defending their position.

We have a specific reason for asking teams to defend the opposite side of what they believe so we want to encourage you to work diligently to defend your position, in spite of your convictions. Let's all let God teach us something here!