Objections to Calvinism as It Is

by Randolph Sinks Foster

The subject of Predestination has, for many ages, engaged the attention of theologians and philosophers. That the world is governed by fixed and permanent laws, is evident, even to the casual observer. But by whom those laws are established, and how far they extend, have been matters of controversy. In the Christian world, all admit that the will of God is the great source of law. In the arrangements of the vast systems of worlds, as well as in the formation of the earth, with all its varied tribes, we recognize the hand of Him who doeth "his will in the heavens above and in the earth beneath." All acknowledge the existence of a Divine decree; but the questions arise, Do all things thus come to pass? Are human actions the result of laws as fixed and unalterable as those which govern the movements of the planets? Is the destiny of every human being unchangeably determined before his birth, without reference to foreseen conduct? Or has the mind a power of choice? can it move freely within certain specified limits? and will the nature of its movements and choice influence its eternal happiness? These are questions which, in some form, have exercised the highest powers of the human intellect.

216 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2010

About the author

Randolph Sinks Foster (February 22, 1820 – May 1, 1903) was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1872.

Born on 22 February 1820 at Williamsburg, Ohio, U.S., the son of Israel Foster and Mary "Polly" Kain, he attended Augusta College in Kentucky, but left to become a Preacher in the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church when he was only seventeen. He was ordained to the Traveling Ministry by Bishops Waugh and Hedding. He went on to become the Pastor of the Mulberry Street M.E. Church in New York City, where he met Daniel Drew, the financier who provided the original funding for the Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey.

Prior to his election to the Episcopacy, Foster served in pastoral appointments and in educational work. He was President of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1857-1860. He also accepted John McClintock's invitation to become Professor of Systematic Theology at Drew. After the death of Drew's first President in 1870, Foster was elected to that post, remaining there until becoming a Bishop in 1872, when he was assigned to the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

He died at Newton Centre, Massachusetts on 1 May 1903. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.