What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks;
but the the elect have obtained it,
and the rest were blinded.
Just as it is written:
"God has given them a spirit
of stupor, eyes that they should
not see and ears that they
should not hear, to this very day."
Romans 11: 7-8
This examination on this doctrine is so important for what a person believes determines his theology, and his theology determines his religion, and his religion determines his character, and his character determines his actions. The foundation is our beliefs that have determined who and what we are, but these beliefs are not set in concrete, they are scratched into clay and are able to be remoulded if need be, therefore our study should be helping us to determine our beliefs.
Jacobus Arminius states:
3. Nor is it the foundation of the
certainty of salvation:
For that
is dependent upon this decree, "they who believe, shall be saved :" I
believe, therefore, I shall be saved. But the doctrine of this Predestination
embraces within itself neither the first nor the second member of the
syllogism. (Let us understand the word “syllogism”: an argument containing a
major premise and a minor premise connected with a middle term and conclusion”
example: All A is C; all Be is A; therefore, all B is C; or deductive
reasoning; or an extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument: my
insertion from Webster’s Dictionary).
This is likewise confessed by some
persons in these words:
"we do not wish to state that
the knowledge of this [Predestination] is the foundation of Christianity or of
salvation, or that it is necessary to salvation in the same manner as the
doctrine of the Gospel," &c.
- My answer:
- Salvation is not determined by Predestination, but it is necessary to exist as a decree for all that God wills, or decrees occurs, and has the ordination of God, and if God was to provide salvation for fallen men, which He does, and God is eternal and Jesus Christ is God, the Wisdom of God, and being Himself eternal, then the decree of Predestination is eternal, and by necessity of that decree that some men would be saved then in that sense salvation is determined by God, and all things that occur are by the decree of God, not by causation, rather that He has decreed and ordained all that occurs, further then, all who are saved are those having been decreed or ordained by God to be saved, therefore, God Predestined those who would be saved, and by that same decree those who would not be saved. Now, if, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ saves a man; then this needed belief begs a question as to how a person who has inherited sin for Adam could believe. For man to be able to believe and be sinful, so sinful that he is totally depraved and cannot save himself due to that total depravity, then the justice of God requires, for salvation a payment for that sin, and that payment is death for the sinner. How then does man have the ability to save himself by believing? This could only be true if man had within himself enough goodness to believe; this is the doctrine of Jacobus Arminius where in his doctrine there can be found Pelagianism; therefore, if this is true then the doctrine of Total Depravity is destroyed. Yet the Scriptures teach that man is totally depraved: “As it is written: “there is none, no, ( the Greek word for “no” is an absolute negative, in comparison to “μη” which word that is a qualified negative) not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God they have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12). Furthermore; if man is so good as to believe and save himself, then why the necessity for Jesus Christ to die on the cross. Why not man just believes that there is a God, even by living a good life? Why the need for propitiation if man, a man to die for another? Why does not that supposed goodness in man be enough for God to save him? What justice was paid, what debt did man owe to God that he could not pay unless man is so depraved and sinful that he could not save himself and needed a Savior. This God provided, and this provision is a Predestined fact, an eternal fact for God did not wait until man sinned and then decide to save him, for God salvation for his children was and is eternal and this by the Son of God providing the payment that man could not pay himself. Predestination is not necessary for salvation, only Jesus Christ’s death, and resurrection from the cross and grave is necessary: Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There is still one more question that needs an answer: if man being totally depraved; how then could he ever have the faith needed to accept the Gospel, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah promised, the one who by His death provides salvation? Faith is needed and man cannot obtain salvation faith from his own being, he is totally depraved. Therefore for man to have faith it must be provided him and God by His election, by His decree, by His ordination, provided this faith for some and not others. This is what Arminius objects too, that only God can provide salvation faith, yet Scripture is plain and clear that all is up to God: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom He will He hardens” (Romans 9:14-18). Arminius speaks as though god is at fault if only He elects some to salvation and not to others; Paul adds: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if god, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make know the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared before hand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles” (Romans 9:19-24). Moses makes it clear when he wrote: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but hose things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
It is plain for
all to see by any simple examination of the works of Jacobus Arminius that he
objects to the doctrine of Predestination that comprises within that doctrine,
the doctrine of election. Arminius does not seem to have a problem with the
fact that God saves, only in the manner by which God saves. The Scriptures are
clear that God’s patience is not His permission for an example all one has to
do is look at the great flood that destroyed the ancient world, yet God in His
mercy saved eight souls, even though they too were totally depraved. It was by
decree that the flood did not destroy these eight souls, and God to by His
predestination had decreed that they be saved and also gave them the means to
be saved, the ark. God has given to man, those to whom he chose, those elected
before the foundation of the world (Romans 8:28-29), the Gospel whereby those
chosen can apply that God given faith to a person who is the propitiation for
their sins, a debt that only can be paid by God.
Therefore we also pray always
for you that our God would count
you worthy of this calling, and fulfill
all the good pleasure of His goodness
and the work of faith with power.
2Thessalonians 1:11
Give Thanks to God
Richard L. Crumb
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