God is sovereign. He
controls everything – big and small. Proverbs
16:33 says, “The lot is cast
into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.”
A
bird does not fly, a leaf does not fall, and a man does not take a
step except that it should be the will of God. However, this begs
the question: if our every action is subject to God's will, how then
can we be held accountable for our sins? Does that mean a lost
person was ordained to be lost or a saved person ordained to be
saved? This is not a new question but one that has raged for
centuries. I guess there are a lot of different nuances concerning
the idea of predestination but there are basically two schools of
thought: Calvinism and Arminianism.
Calvinism
is named for John Calvin, a 16th
century, French theologian. He argued that people are “pre-destined”
to be either saved or lost. Actually, the idea of predestination
preceded Calvin by centuries but he codified the idea into five,
succinct points, often referred to by the acronym, “TULIP.” He
argued so successfully that his name has become synonymous with
predestination.
Almost
immediately after Calvin lived, a Dutch theologian named Jacob
Arminius began arguing that man, though sinful, still has a free will
and can choose to accept or reject Christ. His idea of “free will”
is identified by the term, Arminianism. His views became very
popular but still remained the minority view in the church until the
time of John Wesley in the 18th
century. Today, most protestant churches would identify themselves
as believing in free will or Arminianism.
There
are certain matters of doctrine that are critical to orthodoxy. For
example, I do not believe anyone can be a Christian unless he
believes in a literal, physical resurrection. Other matters are
trivial, like whether or not the wine Jesus made at the wedding in
Cana (John, chapter 2) was alcoholic or not. In my opinion, the
difference between Calvinism or Arminianism falls into the trivial
category. If a person confesses Jesus as his Savior, what difference
does it truly make if he did it of his own free will or if he had
been predestined to do it? I'm certainly not going to challenge his
profession of faith over it. Unfortunately, many churches do argue
over it.
I
thought it would be interesting to have a short series discussing the
issue. I don't intend to endorse one view over the other (though I
do have my personal opinions). Instead, I want to simply present the
Scriptural arguments for and against the five points of Calvinism. I
want it to be more informative in nature rather than persuasive.
Perhaps the only thing I would like to persuade people of is that
they may see the issue in the same, non-constroversial light that I
see it.
Please
check back.
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