Arminianism 
The
theological stance of James Arminius and the
movement which stemmed from him. It views Christian doctrine much as the
pre-Augustinian fathers did and as did the later John Wesley, and then later
still, Charles Finney. In several basic ways it differs from the Augustinian
fathers, as did the later John Wesley. In several basic ways it differs from
the Augustine-Luther-Calvin tradition.
This
form of Protestanism arose in the United Netherlands shortly after the
"alteration" from Roman Catholicism had occurred in that country. It
stresses Scripture along as the highest authority for doctrines. And it teaches
that justification is by grace alone, there being no meritoriousness in our
faith that occasions justification, since it is only through prevenient grace
that fallen humanity can exercise that faith.
Arminianism
is a distinct kind of Protestant theology for several reasons. One of its
distinctions is its teaching on predestination. It teaches predestination,
since the Scriptures do, but it understands that this predecision on God's part
is to save the ones who repent and believe. Thus its view is called conditional
predestination, since the predetermination of the destiny of individuals is
based on God's foreknowledge of the way in which they will either freely reject
Christ or freely accept him.
Arminius
defended his view most precisely in his commentary on Romans 9, Examination of
Perkins' Pamphlet, and Declaration of Sentiments. He argued against supralapsarianism, popularized by John Calvin's
son-in-law and Arminius's teacher at Geneva, Theodore Beza, and vigorously
defended at the University of Leiden by Francis Gomarus, a colleague of
Arminius. Their view was that before the fall, indeed before man's creation,
God had already determined what the eternal destiny of each person was to be.
Arminius also believed that the sublapsarian unconditional predestination view
of Augustine and Martin Luther is unscriptural. This is the view that Adam's
sin was freely chosen but that, after Adam's fall, the eternal destiny of each
person was determined by the absolutely sovereign God. In his Declaration of
Sentiments (1608) Arminius gave twenty arguments against supralapsarianism,
which he said applied also (to some degree) to sublapsarianism. These included
such arguments as that the view is void of good news; repugnant to God's wise,
just, and good nature, and to man's free nature; "highly dishonorable to
Jesus Christ"; "hurtful to the salvation of men"; and that it "inverts
the order of the gospel of Jesus Christ" (which is that we are justified
after we believe, not prior to our believing). He said the arguments all boil
down to one, actually: that unconditional predestination makes God "the
author of sin."
Connected
with Arminius's view of conditional predestination are other significant
teachings of "the quiet Dutchman." One is his emphasis on human
freedom. Here he was not Pelagian, as some have
thought. He believed profoundly in original sin, understanding that the will of
natural fallen man is not only maimed and wounded, but that it is entirely
unable, apart from prevenient grace, to do any good thing. Another teaching is
that Christ's atonement is unlimited in its benefits. He understood that such
texts as "he died for all" (II Cor. 5:15; cf. II Cor. 5:14; Titus
2:11; I John 2:2) mean what they say, while Puritans such as John Owen and
other Calvinists have understood that the "all" means only those
previously elected to be saved. A third view is that while God is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (I Tim. 2:4; II
Pet. 3:9; Matt. 18:14), saving grace is not irresistible, as in classical
Calvinism. It can be rejected.
In
Arminius's view believers may lose their salvation and be eternally lost, Look
at what Jesus taught, in Matthew 13:5-9 Some fell upon stony places, where they
had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness
of earth: And when the sun was up, they
were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns
sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth
fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Can
you hear, that while the seed started out in life but the sun scorched it. and
the thorns sprung up, and choked them.
Jesus taught that we can start out in life and then die to Spiritual
things.
Before
we look deeply into this subject we need to define the terms "saved"
and "lost." The Bible teaches
us that Jesus came to "save" us from (pick one of the
following;)
1. Hell
2. The Devil
3. Sin
If
you picked Hell, you would be in the majority, but unfortunately, you would be
wrong! The Bible tells us that Jesus
came to save us from SIN! Read Matthew
1:21 "And she shall bring forth a
son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from
their sins." Now if we are saved
Biblically, we are saved from SIN, if we are not saved from SIN, then we are
lost, and if we don't repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we will be
Eternally lost! To be "Lost"
one would only need to be in the practice of SIN, for we are told in the Bible
that the wages of SIN is death! And
also that Jesus came to "save his people from their sins"
Quoting
as support of this position such passages as I Pet. 1:10, "Therefore,
brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do
this you will never fall," Also
Hebrews 10:26-31. "For if we sin
wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries. He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance
belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall
judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God."
Arminians
seek to nourish and encourage believers so that they might remain in a saved
state (Not go back into a practice of SIN.)
While Arminians have been rather successful in disinclining many
Calvinists from such views as unconditional election, limited atonement, and
irresistible grace, they realize that they have not widely succeeded in the
area of eternal security. R. T. Shank's Life in the Son and H. O. Wiley's
three-volume Christian Theology make a excellent scriptural case against
eternal security, but, one must have
ears to hear! One must read the Bible,
instead of listening to the teachings of men
A spillover from Calvinism into Arminianism
has occurred in recent decades. Thus many Arminians whose theology is not very
precise say that Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Yet such a view is
foreign to Arminianism, which teaches instead that Christ suffered for us.
Arminians teach that what Christ did he did for every person; therefore what he
did could not have been to pay the penalty, since no one would then ever go
into eternal perdition. Arminianism teaches that Christ suffered for everyone
so that the Father could forgive the ones who repent and believe; his death is
such that all will see that forgiveness is costly and will strive to cease from
anarchy in the world God governs. This view is called the governmental theory
of the atonement. Its germinal teachings are in Arminius, but his student, the
lawyer-theologian Hugo Grotius, delineated the view. Methodism's John Miley
best explicated the doctrine in his The Atonement in Christ (1879).
Arminians who know their theology have
problems in such cooperative ministries with Calvinists as the Billy Graham
campaigns because the workers are often taught to counsel people that Christ
paid the penalty for their sins. But it is an important aspect of the Arminian
tradition, from Arminius himself, through John Wesley, Charles Finney, to the
present, to be of tolerant spirit; so they often cooperate in these ministries
without mentioning the matter to the leadership. Arminians base their belief on
the Scripture, for the Scripture always states that Christ suffered.
A
few proofs of that fact;
Acts
17:3; 26:23; Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and
risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is
Christ.
Acts
26:23 That Christ should suffer, and
that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew
light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
II
Cor. 1:5; For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ.
Philippians
3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Hebrews
2:9-10 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God
should taste death for every man. For
it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.
Hebrews 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify
the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
1
Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what
manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow. 1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto
were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that ye should follow his steps:
1
Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit:
1
Peter 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ
hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind:
for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
1
Peter 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye
are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Again
the Scripture always states that Christ suffered, and never that he was
punished, this is because the Christ who was crucified was guiltless because he
was sinless. They believe that God the Father would not be forgiving us at all
if his justice was satisfied by the real thing that justice needs:
punishment. Please understand that there can be only punishment
or forgiveness, not both, realizing, e.g.,
that a child is either punished or forgiven, not forgiven after the
punishment has been meted out.
The
Arminian tradition has been a part of the long Protestant tradition which
Fuller Seminary's Jack Rogers discusses in his Confessions of a Conservative
Evangelical. It is interested in the Bible's authority and infallibility, and
expresses confidence that Scripture is inerrant on matters of faith and
practice, while remaining open on possible mathematical, historical, or
geographical errors. Its scholars in general do not believe that Harold
Lindsell correctly interprets the long Christian tradition on Scripture in such
works as The Battle for the Bible, when he says that until about 150 years ago
Christians in general believed in the total inerrancy of Scripture.
A
considerable problem to Arminians is that they have often been misrepresented.
Some scholars have said that Arminianism is Pelagian. It is true that one wing of Arminianism picked up Arminius's
stress on human freedom and tolerance toward differing theologies, becoming
latitudinarian. Indeed the two
denominations in Holland that issued from Arminius are largely such today. But
Arminians who promote Arminius's actual teachings and those of the great
Arminians John Wesley, and Charles Finney, whose view and movement have
sometimes been called "Arminianism of fire," have disclaimed all
those theologically left associations. Such Arminians largely comprise the
eight million or so Christians who today constitute the Christian Holiness
Association (the Salvation Army, the Church of the Nazarene, the Wesleyan
Church, etc.). This kind of Arminianism strongly defends Christ's virgin birth,
miracles, bodily resurrection, and substitutionary
atonement (his suffering for the punishment believers would have received); the
dynamic inspiration and infallibility of Scripture; justification by grace
alone through faith alone; and the final destinies of heaven and hell. It is
therefore evangelical, but an evangelicalism which is at certain important
points different from Calvinism, How
fortunate!