This is the third in a series of articles on Calvinism and Arminianism, The previous articles in the series were on the doctrine of eternal security, a key doctrine for Calvinism that is rejected by Arminianism, and on TULIP, a set of key Calvinistic doctrines—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance.
Arminianism is “a theological movement in Christianity, a liberal reaction to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. The movement began early in the 17th century and asserted that God’s sovereignty and man’s free will are compatible. The movement was named for Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch Reformed theologian of the University of Leiden (1603–09), who became involved in a highly publicized debate with his colleague Franciscus Gomarus, a rigid Calvinist, concerning the Calvinist interpretation of the divine decrees respecting election and reprobation. For Arminius, God’s will as unceasing love was the determinative initiator and arbiter of human destiny. The movement that became known as Arminianism, however, tended to be more liberal than Arminius.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974, volume I, page 526; https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arminianism)
In 1610 the followers of Arminius set forth in a remonstrance their views on doctrines with which they disagreed with the interpretation of the teaching of Calvin then held by the Dutch Reformed Church. The document that they issued is known as the Five Articles of Remonstrance and reads as follows:
Article I — That God, by an eternal, unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ, his Son, before the foundation of the world, hath determined, out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save in Christ, for Christ’s sake, and through Christ, those who, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, shall believe on this his Son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace, even to the end; and, on the other hand, to leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath, and to condemn them as alienate from Christ, according to the word of the Gospel in John iii. 36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” and according to other passages of Scripture also.
Article II — That, agreeably thereto, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemption, and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins, except the believer, according to the word of the Gospel of John iii. 16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; and in the First Epistle of John ii. 2: “And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Article III — That man has not saving grace of himself, nor of the energy of his free will, inasmuch as he, in the state of apostasy and sin, can of and by himself neither think, will, nor do anything that is truly good (such as having faith eminently is); but that it is needful that he be born again of God in Christ, through his Holy Spirit, and renewed in understanding, inclination, or will, and all his powers, in order that he may rightly understand, think, will, and effect what is truly good, according to the word of Christ, John xv. 5: “Without me ye can do nothing.”
Article IV — That this grace of God is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of a good, even to this extent, that the regenerate man himself, without that prevenient or assisting, awakening, following, and co-operative grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil; so that all good deeds or movements, that can be conceived, must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. But, as respects the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible, in as much as it is written concerning many that they have resisted the Holy Ghost,—Acts vii, and elsewhere in many places.
Article V — That those who are incorporated into Christ by a true faith, and have thereby become partakers of his life-giving Spirit, have thereby full power to strive against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and to win the victory, it being well understood that it is ever through the assisting grace of the Holy Ghost; and that Jesus Christ assists them through his Spirit in all temptations, extends to them his hand, and if only they are ready for the conflict, and desire his help, and are not inactive, keeps them from falling, so that they, by no craft or power of Satan, can be misled, nor plucked out of Christ’s hands, according to the word of Christ, John x. 28: “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” But whether they are capable, through negligence, of forsaking again the first beginnings of their life in Christ, of again returning to this present evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of losing a good conscience, of becoming devoid of grace, that must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scriptures before they can teach it with the full persuasion of their minds [OR before we ourselves can teach it with the full confidence of our mind].
The Synod of Dort (1618-19) opposed the Five Articles of Remonstrance with Five Heads of Doctrine on which is based the Five Points of Calvinism or TULIP which I considered in my last article (https://opentheism.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/calvinism/). Below is a chart comparing the Calvinist doctrines expressed in TULIP and the Arminian doctrines expressed in the Five Articles of Remonstrance. Under the chart are the explanations of the Arminian doctrines given by Brian Abasciano and Martin Glynn in their “An Outline of the FACTS of Arminianism vs. the TULIP of Calvinism” at http://evangelicalarminians.org/an-outline-of-the-facts-of-arminianism-vs-the-tulip-of-calvinism/. I also consulted Frederick Platt’s “Arminianism” (Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908, volume 1, pages 807-816) and various Internet articles comparing Arminianism and Calvinism.
| Five Points of Calvinism |
Five Articles of Remonstrance |
| Total Depravity |
Total Depravity (Article III) |
| Unconditional Election |
Conditional Election (Article I) |
| Limited Atonement |
Unlimited Atonement (Article II) |
| Irresistible Grace |
Resistible Grace (Article IV) |
| Perseverance |
Security in Christ (Article V) |
Article I
● God has sovereignly decided to choose only those who have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation and his eternal blessing.
● God has foreknown from eternity which individuals would believe in Christ.
● Among Arminians, there are two different views of election conditioned on faith:
1. Individual election: The classic view in which God individually chose each believer based upon His foreknowledge of each one’s faith and so predestined each to eternal life
2. Corporate election: Election to salvation is primarily of the Church as a people and embraces individuals only in faith-union with Christ the Chosen One and as members of his people. Since the election of the individual derives from the election of Christ and the corporate people of God, individuals become elect when they believe and remain elect only as long as they believe.
Article II
● God loves the world and desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
● Therefore, God gave his only Son to die for the sins of the whole world so as to provide forgiveness and salvation for all people.
● While God has provided for the salvation of all people by Christ’s sacrificial and substitutionary death for all, the benefits of Christ’s death are received by grace through faith and are only effective for those who believe.
Article III
● Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation.
● Total depravity does not mean that human beings are as bad as they could be, but that sin impacts every part of a person’s being and that people now have a sinful nature with a natural inclination toward sin, making every human being fundamentally corrupt at heart.
● Therefore, human beings are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves, including merit favor from God, save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin, or even believe the gospel.
● If anyone is to be saved, God must take the initiative.
[Although Article III agrees with the Calvinist view that humanity is totally depraved, Arminians subsequently came to view humanity as only partially depraved and having a free will which enables him to accept or reject the Gospel. Here is how S04J (Sold Out For Jesus) describes the Arminian view of depravity: “Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does not interfere with man’s freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man’s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated or resist God’s grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit’s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man’s act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.” (http://www.so4j.com/calvinism-vs-arminianism-compare) ]
Article IV
● Because of Total Depravity and Atonement for All (as described above), God calls all people everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, and graciously enables those who hear the gospel to respond to it positively in faith.
● God regenerates those who believe in Christ (faith logically precedes regeneration).
● God’s saving grace is resistible, which is to say that he dispenses his calling, drawing, and convicting grace (which would bring us to salvation if responded to with faith) in such a way that we may reject it. Those who hear the gospel may either accept it by grace or reject it to their own eternal destruction.
● Apart from the realm of pleasing the Lord and doing spiritual good, people often have free will, which means that, with respect to an action, they can at least either do the action or refrain from doing it. People often have genuine choices and are therefore correspondingly able to make choices.
● God has ultimate and absolute free will. His choice to supernaturally free the will of sinners by his grace to believe in Christ is a matter of the exercise of his own free will and sovereignty.
Article V
● Since salvation comes through faith in Christ, the security of our salvation continues by faith in Christ.
● Just as the Holy Spirit empowered us to believe in Christ, so he empowers us to continue believing in Christ.
● God protects our faith relationship with him from any outside force irresistibly snatching us away from Christ or our faith, and he preserves us in salvation as long as we trust in Christ.
● Arminians have differing views of whether Scripture teaches that believers can forsake faith in Christ and so perish (the traditional view, held by most Arminians), or whether God irresistibly keeps believers from forsaking their faith and therefore entering into eternal condemnation (as unbelievers).
Here is how Got Questions summarizes its consideration of which view, Calvinism or Arminianism, is correct: “Ultimately, it is our view that both systems fail in that they attempt to explain the unexplainable. Human beings are incapable of fully grasping a concept such as this. Yes, God is absolutely sovereign and knows all. Yes, human beings are called to make a genuine decision to place faith in Christ unto salvation. These two facts seem contradictory to us, but in the mind of God they make perfect sense.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Calvinism-vs-Arminianism.html)
Bob's Corner 