by Jacob Ninan
What is Calvinism vs. Arminianism?
Christians are divided among themselves on many counts, and one of the strongest contentions is known as Calvinism vs. Arminianism. John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of leading men involved in the Protestant Reformation movement started by Martin Luther that led to separation from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. His teachings are given in a book called Institutes of Christian Religion. Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) was a professor of theology trained in the 'reformed' tradition of Calvin. He was also the pastor of a reformed church at Amsterdam for a period. However, when a controversy arose among some people on the teachings of Calvin, Arminius began to study the Bible more earnestly. Over a period of time he understood that there were some extreme positions being taken by the followers of Calvin and he became involved in many debates about them. After Arminius' death his followers brought out a 'Remonstrance of 1610' in which they stated the Five Points of Arminianism. These were later declared to be heretical by the National Synod of the church and many of the disciples of Arminius were imprisoned or banished. However, John Wesley took up some of the teachings of Arminius and they began to gain popularity. (This led to conflicts between Wesley and George Whitfield.) The followers of Calvin took up the challenge of the Arminians and formulated the Five Points of Calvinism as a rebuttal. Later on some Calvinist leaders have expanded on these points and identified seven points to describe their faith.Five Points of Arminianism
- Free will. The fall of man was not total, and there was enough good left in man for him to will to accept Jesus Christ unto salvation.
- Conditional election. Election is based on the foreknowledge of God as to who would believe. Man's decision to believe is the condition of his being elected to eternal life, since God has foreseen him exercising his free will in response to Jesus Christ.
- Universal atonement. Redemption is based on the fact that God loves everybody, that Christ died for everyone, and that the Father is not willing that any should perish. The death of Christ provided the grounds for all men to be saved, but each must exercise his own free will in order to be saved.
- Obstructable grace. Since God wants all men to be saved, He has sent the Holy Spirit to win all men to Christ, but since man has free will, he is able to resist God's will for his life. God's will to save all men can be frustrated by the will of man. Man has to exercise his own will first, and then God causes him to be born again.
- Falling from grace. If man has to exercise his will to accept God's will for his life, he also has to exercise his will to remain in the will of God. Man cannot continue in salvation unless he chooses to do so.
Five Points of Calvinism (TULIP)
- "T" = Total depravity. Man is in absolute bondage to sin and Satan, and unable to do anything good without the help of God.
- "U" = Unconditional election. God has predetermined and elected some people to be saved, which is entirely based upon the sovereign plan and purpose of God.
- "L" = Limited atonement. Jesus Christ died to save those who were elected by the Father through predetermination. All such will be saved, and all others will be lost.
- "I" = Irresistible grace. When God gives someone grace to be saved, the Holy Spirit first regenerates his spirit, and then he puts his faith in Jesus. Man cannot resist God's sovereign grace.
- "P" = Perseverance of the saints. Salvation is entirely the work of the Lord, and man has absolutely nothing to do with the process. The saints will persevere because God will finish the work He has begun.
Why I don't agree with the five points of Calvinism
Some Calvinists explain why they believe these five points (that are obviously extreme when we start thinking about them) by saying that recognising the absolute sovereignty of God honours Him most by giving Him all the praise and nothing to man. I don't see how it can glorify God when He is presented as one who is really responsible for everything that happens--the salvation of some and the eternal punishment of a terribly larger number of people, all the things that go wrong in the world (because God is absolutely in control and whatever happens is because He has willed it), who elects some people and chooses some others for hell all because He has willed it and not because of anything anybody does (unconditional election), etc. What a caricature of God! Is this a God we would fall in love with or someone we should be scared of? Others have raised questions such as, if God has already decided who should be saved and He will save them no matter what they do, what need is there for evangelism; if we cannot resist God's will in our lives and God will anyway complete our salvation once we are among the elect why we should be careful about how we live; etc. I actually find that many Calvinists are busy trying to find plausible-looking explanations for what they believe because neither are they comfortable with it themselves and nor are they confident about being able to convince others to love such a God!Before I address the different points of Calvinism, let me explain how I understand God, His sovereignty, His love for me, His plans for man, and why things are as they are in the world. This is written in a plain manner for every Christian to be able to understand, rather than for theologians.
God is almighty and all knowing (including everything in the past, present and future--foreknowledge), and He is also absolutely sovereign. His character is described as full of goodness (light without any darkness), all-loving, merciful, compassionate, righteous, just and impartial. Since this is His nature, everything that He does is also loving, good, righteous and fair. His sovereignty means that He is in a position to do whatever pleases Him and He is not answerable to anyone else about what He does. Since He is also almighty He has the ability to do whatever He wills. He has existed without beginning as a triune God with three Persons in the godhead as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and we can imagine that everything was perfect at that time.
But at some point in time God decided to create other beings somewhat like Him. When He created the angels as spirit beings, one of the qualities that they had was free will. This free will was limited because they had so many limitations in terms of capabilities so that they could not do whatever they wanted. But they could decide for themselves what they wanted to do within their limitations. God knew very well the implications of creating someone with free will because they might choose to do wrong. But as Sovereign God He decided how much freedom they could have, and He made sure that He would accomplish His purposes in spite of 'small' disturbances some angels might cause. One third of the angels, under the leadership of Lucifer, turned away from God and became demons. But God keeps them under control and has already decided their final destiny.
It was a similar thing that God did when He created man, also with a limited free will. Adam and Eve were innocent when they were created, and they had the ability to make choices for themselves. God gave them a test in the Garden of Eden and explained to them the consequences of making a wrong choice. But they did make a wrong choice and the whole world is now suffering the consequences. All the suffering that we go through in this life came from there (See "Why did You do this to me, God? A short answer"). God is still sovereign, and accomplishes His plans. He sent His Son to die to make atonement possible for the whole world, but left that choice to each man whether he wanted to receive that salvation or not. God does not arbitrarily send people to hell out of His sovereign will, but men receive that consequence for all the choices they make to go against God's will.
In my understanding this view provides a plausible explanation for God's dealings with man and makes sense of the story told in the Bible, while TULIP makes a mockery of God, makes Him look arbitrary, unpredictable, dictatorial and without any sense of fair play. The Calvinist God does not come through as lovable and in whom we can trust, but like a power into whose hands we have fallen and who is playing with us according to his whims and fancies. That is a caricature of the God of the Bible.
Disproving Calvinism, point by point
If the Bible makes a statement that seems to tell us something, and then we come across another statement that is contrary to what the first statement said, then we have to put them both together to understand the real meaning. We cannot throw off one statement in preference for another. I know Calvinists have come to TULIP from their understanding of certain portions of the Bible. Here I shall try to show that their understanding of the Bible is not right on those five points.1. Total depravity. If man was totally depraved after the Fall, there should be nothing in unconverted people that would enable them to do anything good, especially in terms of coming to God. Calvinists get this idea from verses such as Eph.2:1 that says, "And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins," interpreting that one who is dead in sin cannot have any 'life' in him. But then we have to also look at Rom.2:14,15 where it says, "For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them." This means that unbelievers are not exactly dead in the way the Calvinists say, because they have a conscience that tells them what is right or wrong, which can help them to respond to the gospel when they hear it. According to the Calvinist explanation, God will have to regenerate them first (to be born again) before they can respond to the gospel. What happens in practise is that when one hears the gospel the Holy Spirit works in his heart to bring conviction of sin. Some people reject this conviction, but those who accept that conviction may go on to believe in Jesus as the One who has come as their Saviour. The Holy Spirit causes those who believe to be born again (Jn.1:12). So this happens in such a way that there is God presenting the gospel and man responding or not responding, which decides his destiny.
2. Unconditional election. Calvinists mean by this that God selects some people for salvation and others to punishment. Doesn't this go entirely against the nature of God as being righteous and just, and instead make Him out as being capricious? How do you love a God who puts people into hell for no reason other than that He did not elect them to salvation? How can He punish people for things which were not within their responsibility? Calvinists believe this because they misunderstand the words predetermination, election, sovereignty, etc. Actually everything that happens is not God's will! That is why Jesus taught us to pray that His will would get done on earth. This prayer is required because men on earth are not always doing God's will, but their own will, and that results in a lot of problems. We can say then that God's will is His desire, and as far as it concerns man it is up to man whether it gets done or not. God's will or desire is that all men should get saved (2Pet.3:9), but it is also up to man whether he would believe in Jesus and be saved. He has predetermined that those who are elected should be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom.8:29), but this also can happen only when people choose God's will in daily life. God's sovereignty does not mean that everything that happens is according to His will, because we cannot attribute evil to a good God. When we read in Amos 3:6, "If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?" shouldn't we understand that it falls within the permissible will of God, or that He does that sometimes to punish that city. He is not an evil God.
3. Limited atonement. It is ridiculous to say that Jesus actually died only for the elect because the Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life," (Jn.3:16), "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1Tim.2:3,4), and "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2Pet.3:9). God's will (desire) is for everyone to be saved and none to be lost, but some men choose this and some the other.
4. Irresistible grace. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Rom.9:16). "So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires" (Rom.9:18). Does it make sense to believe that a righteous and just God arbitrarily decides to pick someone for salvation and someone for hell? Actually the apostle Paul is not saying (if we read the whole context of Romans 9-11) anything about election of individuals for salvation but trying to illustrate that God chose Israel from among the nations of the world to be His special people, and now He was bringing in the Gentiles. To believe in an irresistible grace from God we have to believe that we are like mechanical toys that cannot do anything other than what its maker has programmed in. If God's grace is irresistible and only those who receive it can do good, then God is not justified in punishing those who disobey nor rewarding those who obey.
5. Perseverance of saints. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us that God will not let go of His people, nor allow anyone or anything to take them away from Him. But if this means that no matter how a child of God lives on earth he would be automatically kept safe by God to the end, then so many warnings in the Bible would become meaningless. "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God" (Heb.3:12). Obviously this is talking about those who are 'brothers' in Christ who then have a risk of falling away from God. "Christ was faithful as a Son over His house--whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end" (Heb.3:6). "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1Tim.4:1). Etc. We are safe if we stay with Christ, but if we choose to walk away He will not stop us, as in the case of the rich young ruler who loved money more than God.
Conclusion
The sovereign God has granted to us some amount of free will. Both exist simultaneously--God's sovereignty and man's free will. To negate either of them is to be unfair to the truth. I know many Calvinists are godly people. Many of them are Calvinists because of their reverence for the word of God by which they give literal value to every word in the Bible. But in the process of holding on to certain parts of the Bible, they are forcing themselves to either ignore or misinterpret other parts of the Bible which seem to go against their pet passages. Thankfully God is not going to check whether we are Calvinists or Arminians to decide on our eligibility for heaven. If we love the Lord with all our heart, we would be welcome there.