Arminianism and Calvinism – what’s the difference?

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J.I. Packer writes:

‘The basic difference between the two positions is not, as is sometimes thought, that

  • Arminanism follows Scripture while Calvinism follows logic, nor that
  • Arminianism knows the love of God while Calvinism knows only his power, nor that
  • Arminianism affirms a connection between believing and obeying as a means and eternal life as an end which Calvinism denies, nor that
  • Arminianism discerns a bona fide “free offer” of Christ in the gospel which Calvinism does not discern, nor that
  • Arminianism acknowledtes human responsibility before God and requires endeavour in the Christian life while Calvinism does not.
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Grace underpins every aspect of redemption

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Grace undergirds

(1) the doctrine of election to life. Paul wrote concerning the core of believing Jews, “there is a remnant chosen by grace” (kat eklogen charitos, Rom 11:5; cf. Eph 1:4–6).

(2) The doctrine of effectual calling. Concerning his life-transforming encounter with Christ near Damascus, the apostle wrote, “God … called me by his grace” (Gal 1:15).

(3) The doctrine of faith. Luke described disciples in Achaia as “those who by grace had believed” (Acts 18:27).…

Free will – a short bibliography

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A short bibliography focussing particularly on works dealing with the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (Article X of which is entitled, ‘Of Free Will’)

Boice, James Montgomery, Foundations of the Christian Faith, IVP, 1986.

Calvin, John, Institutes

Davie, Martin, Our Inheritance of Faith A Commentary on the Thirty Nine Articles, Gilead Books, 2013.

Demarest, Bruce, The Cross and Salvation

Edwards, Jonathan, On the Freedom of the Will

Gatiss, Lee, The Manifesto of the Reformation — Luther vs.…

Compatibilism

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‘Compatibilism’ refers to the view that divine sovereignty and human responsibility, being both taught in Scripture, must be compatible with each other, even if we cannot see exactly how.

A key conviction of semi-Pelagian and Arminian thinking is that the will must be free, otherwise we could not be held responsible for our actions:

‘Unless man is really free, he cannot be justly held responsible for his actions, any more than for the date of his birth or the color of his eyes.

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What is meant by ‘free will’?

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Do we have free will?

An answer to this question should not be attempted until we have defined the term.

J.I. Packer maintains that discussion of free will requires that certain distinctions be made:

1. If the phrase ‘free will’ be taken morally and psychologically, as meaning the power of unconstrained, spontaneous, voluntary, and therefore responsible, choice, the Bible everywhere assumes that all men, as such, possess it, unregenerate and regenerate alike.
2. If the phrase be taken metaphysically, as implying that men’s future actions are indeterminate and therefore in principle unpredictable, the Bible seems neither to assert nor to deny an indeterminacy of future action relative to the agent’s own moral or physical constitution, but it does seem to imply that no future event is indeterminate relative to God, for he foreknows and in some sense foreordains all things.…

Article X – On Free Will

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According to Article X of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England:

‘The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.’

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Free will – a spectrum of views

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What different accounts has the Christian tradition given of the human ability to love, please and serve God?

(a) I am able to choose what is right without anyone’s help (Pelagianism)

‘My effort, from beginning to end.’

A simple moralism, pre-dating Pelagius, is in works such as the Shepherd of Hermas:

‘Believe in [God], therefore, and fear him, and fearing him, be self-controlled. Keep these things, and you will cast off all evil from yourself and will put on every virtue of righteousness and will live to God, if you keep this commandment’ (Cited by Peterson)

This view has come to be associated with the name of the British monk Pelagius, who died in 419. …

Christians are not fatalists

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D.A. Carson writes:

‘The central line of Christian tradition neither sacrifices the utter sovereignty of God nor reduces the responsibility of his image-bearers. In the realm of philosophical theology, this position is sometimes called compatibilism. It simply means that God’s unconditioned sovereignty and the responsibility of human beings are mutually compatible. It does not claim to show you how they are compatible. It claims only that we can get far enough in the evidence and the arguments to show how they are not necessarily incompatible, and that it is therefore entirely reasonable to think they are compatible if there is good evidence for them.

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Is freedom of choice a delusion?

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In The Christian View of Man, J. Gresham Machen deals with one of the objections often made against the reformed doctrine of divine sovereignty.  The objection comes in two forms.  In the first, Machen anticipates one of the tenets of Open Theism.  In the second, he discussion the objected is it is often conceptualised by Arminians.

Machen writes:

Is not man’s freedom of choice a delusion if all is fixed in God’s eternal plan?

There are those who have been impressed by this objection and have actually regarded the personal choices of persons, especially man, as lying outside the range of the things fixed in God’s eternal purpose.

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Simeon and Wesley

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Charles Simeon recalls a conversation with John Wesley:

Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers.  But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions.  Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?…