Interesting Links - 12/19/09

Ben Witherington has Handel's Messiah, the Story Behind the Classic. He notes that, "John Wesley was one of the ones who saw an early performance of this work. In his Journal he commented "there were some parts that were affecting, but I doubt it has staying power"."

The history of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The original lyrics were written by Charles Wesley and then modified by George Whitefield (which reportedly made Charles furious). "Hark! how all the welkin ring", I think Whitefield was right on this one. It's good to see that a combined Arminian / Calvinist effort turned out a great classic Christmas song, even if Charles was displeased.

Check out the newly updated Wikipedia article: Conditional Perseverance of the Saints. Arminian Steve Witzki has spent time expanding the entry and adding primary sources references for everything.

Dan from Arminian Chronicles is doing a series on Romans 9, 10, and 11. For our Calvinist friends, Romans 10 and 11 are the chapters after Romans 9. ;)

A youtuber named by the name of Providential1611 has done a pretty funny presentation called FREE WILL Answering silly Calvinist challenges. HT: James Brown