I, Jacob Arminius

My name is William, and I came to faith in Christ in 1995, thereafter developing interests in theology and Church history. I have a degree in English, and a degree in Christian and Biblical Studies, from The College at Southeastern in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church. I investigated Pentecostalism for a few years, as well as Presbyterianism (PCA), and Anglicanism. I worship at a local Southern Baptist church in my hometown in Virginia.

Though I am attracted to my own gender, I have a biblical conviction to remain single. Wrestling with this issue is a daily battle, and only by the strength of God am I able to win the battles.

In the late 1990s I became convinced of Calvinism but later abandoned it. Not until I read the Works of Arminius in college, in 2006 at Southeastern, did I become an Arminian -- one who holds to the theology of Arminius and the Remonstrants, his colleagues. "How could I hold to Arminianism, given its condemnation at the Synod of Dordt in 1618-19?" you ask. That local Synod, even with relatively widespread (Calvinistic) ecclesiastical affiliation, was in no sense a viable representation of the holy, catholic and apostolic Church, and thus has no bearing on Arminian orthodoxy.

My interests are in Church history and the early Church fathers (97-350), including medieval and scholastic theology and history (430-1600). I am also interested in Jacob Arminius (1559-1609) and the Remonstrants, including the controversies surrounding the Dutch Reformed churches during the era between 1580-1660, including the tragic proceedings and outcome of the Synod of Dort (1618-19).

I blog daily at I, Jacob Arminius.