I don’t know if you’re a Christian or not but if you are you may have had an encounter with a sect called the Calvinists. They’ve been around for about five hundred years and their mentor Jean Calvin was one of the reformers who started a revolution in the Roman Catholic Church. The result of which became the Protestant movement and among other things allowed clergymen to marry and released the bible into the hands of the average person in his or her own language.
Now the folk who call themselves Calvinists believe that a person can do nothing to bring themselves salvation in Jesus Christ. Believers are predestined from the beginning of time to be saved as are the lost predestined to be lost to the fires of hell. In this vein they have mnemonic called TULIP which states that mankind is Totally Depraved; That the believer has Unconditional Election; Christ’s work on the cross is only for the elect not all men. Thus, Limited Atonement; God’s grace is irresistible and therefore the believer cannot resist it. Thus, Irresistible Grace; Perseverance of the Saints. The believer can’t lose their salvation
The folk who are most noted for opposing Calvinism are the followers of a Churchman by the name of Jacob Arminius. Arminius was a contemporary of Jean Calvin and largely opposed Calvin’s teaching on predestination of the believer and in particular the believer’s lack of choice in receiving God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
There are acronym’s for Arminianism as well. One of which is ROSES which is described as follows: Radical Depravity. Man is damaged by the entrance of sin at the Fall but we are made in God’s image and are not totally evil; Overcoming Grace. God accomplishes Salvation of the believer but not in a mechanical or deterministic way. Grace allows the believer to respond to God’s calling / choosing; Sovereign Election. Those He foreknew he predestined. God Sovereignly elects those he knows will accept his call; Eternal Life. This is rather than Perseverance of the Saints through personal ongoing works; Singular Redemption. Christ Jesus’s redemptive work was sufficient for all but is efficient for those who repent and believe.
For most of the last five hundred years there has been a wide-ranging debate, which has at times become a running battle, over the Predestination theological issue. It is fair to say that people have died for believing one way or the other. Calvinism is also intrinsically wound into a greater theology called the Reformed Tradition and so disputes over issues like baptism have also been prominent in the debate. For instance, Anabaptists who believed in immersion baptism of adults were put to death by Calvin’s followers back in the day. The Puritan’s persecuted Arminian faiths in the early colonisation of North America.
Today the battle is showing no signs of abating with theologians on both sides writing lengthy tombs to put forward their perspectives. Barely concealed abuse is not uncommon and with the advent of Social Media curses and death threats against opponents are sadly not unusual. If this state of affairs continues then Christian’s may soon be back in the unenviable position in which the Reformers found themselves. Once again being persecuted by the Church. In this case for their views on Calvinism.
Personally, I find this all patently ridiculous. The arguments are now so contrived that even to say “This dispute over Calvinism is irrelevant because the Christian needs only to be a bible believing Christian,” is not a tenable defence. Calvinists call people who use this defence “Believists” and decry them as members of congregations under Arminian statute.
The reality is that when you begin to write one thousand-page books about how to interpret the bible from a particular perspective then you are in a bad place. As the Pharisee’s were in Jesus time so are these Calvinists and Armenian theologians of our time. They know a lot about the Bible and Christianity but they have lost sight of God and the life of the Spirit Filled Believer.
The irony of this argument is that you are looking at the mechanism of Salvation not the attainment of Salvation. A person has still attained Salvation regardless of which camp they are in regarding the mechanism. Most Calvinists believe that the Arminian is still a believer and vica versa. What they get so hot under the collar about is the idea that Grace entails God making a decision for the believer or the believer making a decision for themselves as to whether to accept Christ’s Redemptive Work on the Cross.
Don’t get me wrong it matters. Not least because if you
believe that God makes the decision then it doesn’t matter if you obey the
Great Commission of Matthew chapter twenty-eight. It won’t make a difference to
how many people get saved because those who will are predestined. Conversely,
if you believe the sinner has a choice then you need to obey the Great Commission
because there is a need to convince people to make that decision.
However, the argument is highly theological and tends to generate more heat
than light. Many believers have lived their lives in ignorance of Calvinism and
Arminianism and haven’t missed them. As Jesus said in Matthew 9 verse 37
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…” NASB so we need to
get on with getting the gospel out to all of those folks who need to hear it
whether they are predestined or foreknown.
Reference List
Roses (An Alternative to TULIP) Gibbons T. https://nleaven.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/roses-alternative-to-tulip-by-timothy-george/ 18/11/2020
Laurence M. Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism (2007: Vance Publications). Washington. USA
