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Calvinism Versus Arminianism (1)
by Samson Hutagalung

Introduction

Calvinism and Arminianism are two theological systems which contradict each other. Despite of their contradiction these two systems are basically embraced by the reformed churches or theologians, though in the last century the teaching of Arminianism is also adopted by the charismatic churches. These two different systems have lasted for more than 300 years and the differences apparently cannot be resolved. The differences of the two systems above can be compared to the debate of Baptist and Presbyterian churches or theologians in the area of mode of baptism. The issue of Arminianism and Calvinism has caused many people especially outside of these two camps to speak and present the two systems as unbiblical and placing their own view as followers of the Word of God, whereas the two camps presented as if two theological systems which do not have biblical supports.[1] The reason for discrediting Arminianism and Calvinism as unbiblical because both Armenians and Calvinism are frequent presented only the content of the article without any reference or footnote to the Word of God. It is an attempt of this paper to discuss the background and to present the right understanding of the Word of God and to see the two systems in the light of the Word of God.

 Background

John Calvin was one of the reformers in 16th century. At the age of 25 he started work on his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1534 and was published in 1536.[2] Through this book and together with his polemical and pastoral works, Calvin had greatly influenced the protestant churches. Although Calvin had his contemporary in different countries,[3] yet Calvin was the most pre-eminent. Because of the fame of John Calvin and his teaching, soon was attached to the Reformed churches. The whole body of doctrine of Calvin became called Calvinism.[4]

Although Calvin was originated from Geneva, the publications of his ideas had spread to many parts of the European countries such Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, France, Romania and Poland.[5] The spreading of Calvinism was largely by the Calvinist communions who sent missionaries to various countries around the globe.

The rise of Arminianism system of theology began when James (Jacobus) Arminus (1560-1609) who studied four years under Theodore Beza, in the University of Geneva.[6] Though Arminus studied under the successor of John Calvin, he was against the doctrine of Calvinism. Nonetheless he was not the one formulated the theological system of Arminianism but it was done by his disciples shortly after he died.[7] His disciples named the five points of Arminianism[8] after the name of Arminius. As a response to the controversy of Arminianism system of theology, the National Synod of Holland held the synod meeting to resolve the matter at the Synod of Dort on November 13, 1618, until May 9, 1619.[9] As a result, the five point of Arminianism were rejected and the five point of Calvinism adopted.[10] It is clear that Calvin did not formulate the Five Point of Calvinism[11] though these teachings were in his writings. Calvin did not only write five points of theology but rather many points of theology. He was the most outstanding writer during the reformation in which its impact is still intact till today.  

 Human Ability Or Total Depravity

 On the matter of man’s condition after the fall, Arminians sees that the sinful of man is not totally depraved, though it is admitted that man is sinful before God.[12] The Arminians sees that man has still some merits in himself in which if he uses it, he can still please God even to the extent to save himself from the eternal punishment because man still has the ability to choose what is best for him. In other words, within the nature of man there is still value which is not corrupted by the fall. For this reason, man still has a free will or an ability to choose good or evil in spiritual matters. Because man has an ability to choose what is good, therefore when man chooses God the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, this becomes man’s contribution unto his salvation.

On the contrary the Calvinism looks at man as totally depraved, inability to choose what is good.[13] The very nature of man is corrupted and there is nothing in man that pleases God. Whatever man does, and thinks is always against the will of God. This does not mean that man can not choose to do good things in their lives, community, environment and plan but whatever good things that man chooses it is according to human standard of selfish merits because “man’s nature is corrupt, perverse, and sinful throughout. . . . The corruption extends to every part of man, his body, soul; sin has affected all (the totality) of man’s faculties – his mind, his will etc.”[14] Often man does something good with selfish motives (cf. Jer. 17:9). By nature man cannot do anything good spiritually according to the standard of God’s perfect merits.[15] The apostle Paul quoted Psalms 14 and 53 when he wrote, “there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. . . . there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).

The question is raised, what has happened to human kind that man cannot choose anything good except for his own selfish purpose and glory? The answer is found in the first book of the Bible. When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect and sinless and having a free will to choose good or evil, yet they were not having eternal life. Being the first parents of human being, Adam and Eve, were the representative of all human being. In order for them to have eternal life, they were placed under a test in the Garden of Eden. The test was that God placed two special trees in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge and (Gen. 2:8). And the Lord commanded, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam had a free will to choose to follow God’s commandment or to disobey God. The Bible said that Adam chose to disobey God by partaking of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1-7). This was the beginning of the corruption of human nature because from this time onwards man became sinful and separated from God. Man is totally depraved and whatever man does is sinful before God. Sinfulness has become the very nature and character of man because of the fall of Adam. Sin was passed from Adam to his children and from his children to the next generation and so on.

Because of the corruption of human nature, man cannot do anything good in order to save his own life because “the natural man is enslaved to sin; he is a child of Satan, rebellious toward God, blind to truth, corrupt, and unable to save himself or to prepare himself for salvation.”[16] The desire of natural man is to do evil and to please his own lusty flesh and ambitions. Man does not have a free will anymore. By nature man is enslaved to do evil. For that reason in order for man to obtain salvation, man needs the grace of God. As Paul said, “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). In another occasion Paul also said, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit. 3:5). This was the basis of Calvinism to say that “Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation – it is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.” But the Arminianism on the other hand said, “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 the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.” This first point of Calvinism is the most important point of the five points because the rest of the points are subordinate to this point.

 Conditional Election Or Unconditional Election

To speak about predestination is something that many people think that man is under the control of luck and man cannot do any thing for it. This is the wrong concept of predestination because in their view God is unfair and cruel who predestined some to be saved and others to be lost in hell. Whatever people’s view may be, predestination is taught in the Bible. Man cannot question God for the things God has said in His Word but in humility submit himself before Him, taking His Word as it is written.

The failure of Arminianism to understand the doctrine of Predestination has resulted in a different understanding on how God elected some people to be saved before the foundation of the world.[17] To the Arminianism, God’s choice for certain individuals unto salvation was based upon the foreseeing that they would be responding to His call through the preaching of the Gospel. Because of the human ability to contribute to his own salvation, God chose certain individual based on the condition what man would do. God chose certain individual because He knew that that person would respond to the preaching of the gospel and choose Christ of his own free will. If God had chosen certain individual unto salvation, to the Arminianism means that man does not have any freedom and responsibility.[18] The doctrine of election is misunderstood. Steel rightly commented that, “Election is not salvation but is unto salvation.”[19]

On the other hand, the Calvinism states that God chose certain individual to be saved[20] before the foundation of the world was based on His own sovereign will.[21] This view is the opposite of the Arminianism because God chose particular sinner not because He foresaw that person to respond to the preaching of the gospel.[22] Those whom God chose He gives faith and repentance and brings them through the power of the Holy Spirit to a willing acceptance of Christ. God was the One who chose sinners for salvation and not the other way around. Man does not contribute any virtuous quality for this salvation but rather solely the gift of God. If all men have become totally depraved and if any man selected unto salvation from among them, truly it is not the work of man but absolutely the sovereign work of God. Steel rightly said, “God would have chosen to save all men (for He had the power and authority to do so) or He could have chosen to save none (for He was under no obligation to show mercy to any) – but He did neither. Instead He chose to save some and to exclude others.”[23]

God did show this truth through the example of Jacob and Esau. God chose Jacob and not Esau. Paul said, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth” (Rom. 9:11). Paul also said, “For by grace are ye saved though faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph. 1:4-5). In another occasion Paul also wrote, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:15-16).

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[1]Church Smith, Calvinism, “Arminianism & The Word of God: A Calvary Chapel Perspective.” Available from http://www.lifegoeson.net/InTruth/chuchcom.htm. Accessed on 10 October 2006.

[2]Calvinism, “Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism. Internet. Accessed on 10 October 2006.

[3]John Calvin’s contemporary were Martin Luther in Germany, Huldrych Zwingli in Swiss, and John Knox in Scotland.

[4] Calvinism, “Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

[5] Calvinism, “Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

[6]Jeffrey Khoo, Arminianism Examined ( Singapore: Far Eastern Bible College, tract n.d), 2.

[7]Jeffrey Khoo, Arminianism Examined, 2.

[8]Five points of Aarminiansm are (1) Free Will or Human Ability, (2) Conditional Election, (3) Universal Redemption or General Atonement, (4) The Holy Spirit can be Effectually Resisted or Resistible Grace, and (5) Falling from Grace or Insecure Faith.

[9]Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1989), 490. Though the controversy of Arminianism teachings were resolved at the Synod of Dort, yet the basic concepts of each system (Arminianism and Calvinism) were much older than the Synod of Dort. It could be traced to the controversy between Pelagius and Augustine. See also, David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company, 1963), 19.

[10]The resolution of the Synod of Dort was not resulted only the five points of Calvinism. The Synod had also produced a confession called Belgic Confession and a Catechism called Heidlberg Catechism. Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, 490.

[11]The Five Points of Calvinism are (1) Total Depravity, (2) Unconditional Election, (3) Limited Atonement, (4)  Irresistible Grace, and (5) Perseverance of the Saints.

[12]The Arminianism’s Point on Free Will/Human Ability states: “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 so in such a manner as not to 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 or 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 the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.”

[13]The Calvinism’s Point on Total Inability/Total Depravity states: “Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore he will not – indeed 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 take regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation – it is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.

[14]David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, 25.

[15]Labney rightly commented on the sinful nature of man, “Nor do we mean that they have no social virtues towards their fellowmen in which they hare sincere. We do not assert with extremists that because they are natural men, therefore all their friendship, honesty, truth, sympathy, patriotism, domestic love, are pretenses or hypocrisies. What our confession says is, “That they have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.” R. L. Dabney, The Five Points of Calvinism. Available from: http://www.reformed.org/Calvinism/Calvinsmsoteriology.htm. Internet Accessed on 10 October 2006.

[16]David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, 25.

[17]The Arminianism’s point on Conditional Election states: God’s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call. He selected only those whom He knew would of themselves freely believe the gospel. Election therefore was termined by or conditioned upon what man would do. The faith which God foresaw and upon which He based His choice was not given to the sinner by God (it was not created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit) but resulted solely from man’s will. It was left entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore as to who would be selected unto salvation. God chose those whom He knew would, of their own free will, choose Christ. Thus the sinner’s choice of Christ, not God’s choice of the sinner, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

[18]Edwin Palmer, Lima Pokok Calvinisme (Jakarta: Lembaga Reformed Injili Indonesia, 1996), 48.

[19]David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, 38.

[20]Steel said, “Election, therefore, is but one aspect (though an important aspect) of the saving purpose of the Triune God, and thus must not be viewed as salvation. For the act of election itself saved no one; what it did was to mark out certain individuals for salvation.” David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, 31.

[21]The Calvinism’s point on Conditional Election states: God’s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call. He selected only those whom He knew would of themselves freely believe the gospel. Election therefore was termined by or conditioned upon what man would do. The faith which God foresaw and upon which He based His choice was not given to the sinner by God (it was not created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit) but resulted solely from man’s will. It was left entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore as to who would be selected unto salvation. God chose those whom He knew would, of their own free will, choose Christ. Thus the sinner’s choice of Christ, not God’s choice of the sinner, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

[22]One said, “God does not base His election on anything He sees in the individual. He chooses the elect according to the kind intention of His will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of merit within the individual. Nor does God look at into the future to see who would pick Him.” Available from :http://www.calvinistcorner.com/Calvinism.htm. Accessed on 23 October 2006. Internet.

[23]David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, 30.