Predestination is the
decision of God choosing who will be saved and who will be lost.
Arminianism
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Calvinism
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Moderate Calvinism
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Definition
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Prevenient grace (which
is given to all indiscriminately) is universal and essential for conversion. The
conditional choice of God by which he determined who would believe based on
his foreknowledge of who will exercise faith. It is the result of Man’s
faith. Grace is not irresistible.[1]
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The unconditional and
loving choice of God by which he determines who must believe. It is the cause
of man’s faith.
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The unconditional and
loving choice of God by which he determines who will believe. It is the cause
of man’s faith.
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Scriptural evidence
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1Timothy 2:3-4
This is good, and
pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a
knowledge of the truth.
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Romans 9:6-24
Ephesians 1:3-6
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Total Depravity
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Although human nature
was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total
spiritual helplessness. God does not interfere with man’s freedom. Each
sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses
it. Faith is the sinner’s gift to God.
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Because of the fall,
the sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God. He cannot choose
good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently it takes much more than
the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. It takes regeneration by
which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Salvation
is God’s gift to the sinner.
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Being “dead” in sin
does not mean that unsaved people cannot understand and receive the truth of
the gospel as the Spirit of God works on their hearts.[2]
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Unconditional Election
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God’s choice of certain
individuals to salvation before the foundation of the world was based on his
foreseeing that they would respond to his call. The faith God foresaw
resulted from man’s free will, cooperating the Spirit’s working.
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God’s choice of certain
individuals to salvation rested solely in his own sovereign will, not based
on any foreseen response or obedience on their part, such as faith, repentance
etc. Thus God’s choice of the sinner, not the sinner’s choice of Christ, is
the ultimate cause of salvation.
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It is unconditional
from the standpoint of the Giver, even though there is one condition for the
receiver – faith.[3]
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Limited Atonement
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Christ’s redeeming work
made it possible for everyone to be saved but did not secure the salvation of
anyone. Only those who believe in him are saved.
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Christ’s redeeming work
was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them.
The gift of faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ
died, therefore guaranteeing their salvation.
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Extremist view is limited
in extent (only for elect), while moderate view is limited in result (but for
all men). Another words, although redemption was purchased for all and available
to all, it will only be applied to those whom God chose from all eternity – the
elect. [4]
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Irresistible Grace
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Man is free and can
successfully resist the Spirit’s call.
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In addition to the
outward general call to salvation, which is made to everyone who hears the
Gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special inward call that
inevitably brings them to salvation. God’s grace, therefore, is invincible.
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Extreme Calvinism:
irresistible grace happens in a compulsive sense (against man’s will). Moderate
Calvinism: in a persuasive sense (in accordance with man’s will).[5]
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Perseverance of the
Saints
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Those who believe and
are truly saved can lose their salvation by failing to keep up their faith.
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All who are chosen by
God are eternally saved.
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Extreme Calvinism: no
saint will die in sin. Moderate Calvinism: No saint will ever be lost (even
if he dies in sin).[6]
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Salvation “once saved,
always saved”
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Possible for the saved to
lose salvation. Colossian 1:23 is often used in connection with this: “if you
continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held
out in the gospel.”
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Strong scriptural
evidence, eg. John 10:27-28. However weakened by sin, true believers endure
in their faith to the end.[7]
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The seemingly endless
debate between Calvinism and Arminianism continues on today, and polarised
beliefs have created division in the church.
If God is in control of
everything, then why should we be blamed for anything? Some believers have been
known to excuse their sin, claiming: “The devil made me do it!” But the problem
here is even greater, because logically one cannot stop at this point. For if
God is in sovereign control of all things, then instead it would appear that,
ultimately, “God made me do it!”[8]
And who made the devil do it? God cannot be good and not good. He cannot be for
His own essential good and be against it by giving Lucifer the desire to sin
against him![9] The
bible affirms that God made only good creatures. After almost every day of
Creation it says, “and it was good”. But God gave free choice to good
creatures, as God said to Adam: “You are free…” (Genesis 2:16). The power of
moral free choice entails the ability either to choose the good God designed
for us or to reject it. The latter is called evil. It is good to be free, but
freedom makes evil possible. Free will is good in itself, but entailed in that
good is the ability to choose the opposite of good, which then makes evil
possible. Then the origin of evil is in the misuse of freedom.[10]
Staunch Calvinist
Jonathan Edwards “solved” the problem of predestination and free will by
claiming that, 1) free will is doing
what we desire; 2) but God gives us the desire to do good. What about the
desire to do evil? That comes from our fallen nature, which desires only evil.
However, this does not solve the issue of where Lucifer and Adam got the desire
for their first sin, as 1) God cannot give anyone the desire to sin; 2) originally
neither Lucifer nor Adam had a sinful nature; 3) the will does not move unless
given a desire by God or by its own nature.[11]
Then here’s the unmistakable conclusion: both Lucifer Adam sinned because God
gave them the desire to sin!![12]
If neither the devil nor God made me do it, then who did? I did! Extreme
Calvinists object to this reasoning, claiming that every event has a cause,
even our actions. And to claim that God did not cause our actions would mean
there is an effect without a cause, which is absurd.[13]
However, several things should be noted. First, every event does have a
cause, but not every cause has a cause. Every painting has a painter, but every
painter is not painted. Further, if every cause had a cause, then God could not
be the first Uncaused Cause that He is. “Who made God?” Likewise, if the
creature, by means of the good power of free choice, is the first cause of
evil, then no cause of evil action should be sought other than the person who
caused it. Secondly, if evil actions have no cause, then no one can be held
responsible for them. But both good moral reason and Scripture inform us that
free creatures are held morally responsible for their choices. Lucifer, Adam
and Eve were condemned for their actions. If our actions are not uncaused, then
is not the extreme Calvinist’s view correct that they must be cause by another?
There are three possibilities: My actions are 1) uncaused; 2) caused by someone
(or something) else; or 3) caused by my Self.[14]
A self-caused being is impossible but this is not true for a self-caused
action. It is true that we cannot exist before we exists or be before we have
being. But we can and must be before we can do. That is, we must exist before
we can act. Therefore, self-caused actions are not impossible. If they were,
then even God, who cannot do what is impossible, would not have been able to create
the world.[15]
Contrary to the extreme Calvinist view, faith is not a gift that God
offers only to some. All are responsible to believe and “whoever” decides to
believe can believe (John 3:16). While all truly free acts are self-determined
and could have been otherwise, nonetheless, it is also true that no free human
act can move toward God or do any spiritual good without the aid of God’s
grace, as evident from the scriptures: “No one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).
Sovereignty and free will. Is it one or the other, or is it both one and
the other? The Bible says both. God is sovereign over all things, including
human events and free choices. Nothing catches God by surprise. But human
beings, even in their fallen state, have the God-given power of free choice, as
the Scriptures stresses that moral responsibility for moral actions rest
squarely with free moral agents and not with God. This applies to many earthly
things here “below” as it does to heavenly things from “above,” namely, with
regard to receiving God’s gift of salvation. Unfortunately, the extreme
Calvinists have sacrificed human responsibility in order to preserve divine
sovereignty, and the extreme Arminians have sacrificed God’s sovereignty in
order to hold on to man’s free will. I believe both of these alternatives are
wrong and lead to inordinately extreme actions.[16]
One of the most powerful indications that the Bible sees no
contradiction between God’s predetermination and human free choice is found in
Acts 2:23. On the one hand, it declares that Jesus’ death was determined “by
God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.”[17]
Nonetheless, Jesus says He did it freely: “I lay down my life, only to take it
up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John
10:17-18).[18]
One final illustration of the congruency between predetermination and
free choice is found in the shipwreck recorded by Luke in Acts 27. Paul assured
his fellow travelers in advance that “not one of you will be lost; only the
ship will be destroyed”. Yet he warned them, “Unless these men stay with the
ship, you cannot be saved”. Both are true. God knew in advance and had revealed
to Paul that none would drown. But He also knew it would be through their free
choice to stay on the ship that this would be accomplished.[19]
Extreme Calvinist view: It involves a denial of human free choice. But there
are a few problems with this view. Free choice is supported by both Scripture
and reason. “Irresistible grace” on the unwilling is a violation of free
choice. For God is love (1John 4:16), and true love is persuasive but never
coercive.[20] John
Calvin faced honestly the biblical teaching that the Holy Spirit can be
resisted. He recognized that Stephen said of the Jews, “You stiff-necked
people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You
always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:51). Calvin remarked, “Finally, they
are said to be resisting the Spirit, when they stubbornly reject what He says
by the prophets.” But if God’s grace can be resisted, then it is not irresistible![21]
Arminianism: The conditional choice of God by which he determined who
would believe based on his foreknowledge of who will exercise faith. It is the
result of man’s faith. Prevenient grace is universal and essential for
conversion. The fallen human will is free and able to choose to repent and
believe in response to the call of the gospel. Grace is not irresistible.[22]
In terms of the role of foreknowledge, God unconditionally willed that
salvation would be received on the condition of faith. Consequently, on the basis
of their foreknown free choice of accept Christ, God chooses (elects) to save
them. However, the difficulty with the Arminian view is that scriptures seem to
say more than God simply knew what was going to happen. It appears God actually
determined what would happen. God’s sovereignty means He is in control of all
that happens, even the free acts of human beings. Another problem is, if God’s
choice to save was based on those who choose Him, then it would not be based on
divine grace but would be based on human decisions.[23]
In fact, it would suggest that God’s
foreknowledge is dependent on our free choices. Finally, the whole idea of
there being a chronological or even logical sequence in God’s thoughts is
highly problematic for evangelical theology. God’s attention does not pass form
thought to thought, for His knowledge embraces everything in a single spiritual
co-intuition.[24]
Moderate Calvinism: The unconditional and loving choice of God by which
he determines who will believe. It is the cause of man’s faith. Thus God works
His sovereign will through the will of the elect.
Another illustration of the harmony of predetermination and free choice:
Suppose you cannot watch your favourite sports event live on TV, so you
videotape it. When you watch it later, the entire game and every play in it are
absolutely determined and can never changed. No matter how many times you rerun
it, it will always be the same. Yet when the game happened, every event was
freely chosen. One may object that this is so only because the event has
already occurred. In response, we only need to point out that if God is all
knowing (omniscient), then from the standpoint of His foreknowledge the game
was predetermined, for He knew eternally exactly how it was going to turn out,
even though we did not. Therefore, God knew how we are going to use our
freedom.[25]
Geisler concludes that there is no contradiction in God knowingly
predetermining and predeterminately knowing from all eternity precisely what we
would do with our free acts. He did not determine that they would be forced to
perform free acts. What is forced is not free, and what is free is not forced.
In brief, we are chosen but free.[26]
Calvinism
Strengths/ arguments
for
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Weaknesses/ arguments
against
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Romans 9:20-21. God is sovereign
in all He does.
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Limited atonement
necessarily means God has limited His love only to some. He loves only the
elect, and does not really love all sinners and desire them to be saved.[27]
Extreme Calvinism is in practice a denial of the omnibenevolence of God. God
cannot be all-loving if He does not love all.[28]
And it would not be fair to choose only some to eternal life and passing over
others. We see from the scriptures God desires everyone to be saved (1Timothy
2:3-4).
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John 6. The whole human
race is lost in sin. God has chosen certain people for his special grace,
irrespective of their physical descent, character, or good deeds.
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Matthew 13:10-16: God has
selected some to be saved, not all; and he even chosen not to reveal some
truths to some people.
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There is the possibility that those who have come to faith may fall
from grace and lose their salvation.
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References:
Clifford, Ross. “Grace
and Order of Salvation.” Lecture Notes, Morling College, May 5, 2015.
Erickson, Millard J.
Christian Theology. Grand Rapids:
Baker Academic, 2013.
Geisler, Norman. Chosen but free: A balanced view of divine
election. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2001.
[1] Ross Clifford, “Grace and Order of Salvation,” (Lecture Notes,
Morling College, May 5, 2015), 6.
[2] Norman Geisler, Chosen but
free: A balanced view of divine election, (Minneapolis: Bethany House
Publishers, 2001), 120.
[3] Geisler, Chosen but free,
120.
[4] Geisler, Chosen but free,
121.
[5] Geisler, Chosen but free,
121.
[6] Geisler, Chosen but free,
120.
[7] Geisler, Chosen but free,
125.
[8] Geisler, Chosen but free,
19.
[9] Geisler, Chosen but free,
21.
[10] Geisler, Chosen but free,
22.
[23] Geisler, Chosen but free,
51.
[24] Geisler, Chosen but free,
52.
[26] Geisler, Chosen but free,
55.
[27] Geisler, Chosen but free,
88.
[28] Geisler, Chosen but free,
89.
[30] Geisler, Chosen but free,
100.
Calvinism... a false doctrine.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.insearchoftruth.org/articles/romans_9.html
God simply doesn't predestinate one’s salvation or damnation.