Jesus answered them, 'I told you,
and you do not believe.
The works that I do
in My Father's name,
they bear witness of Me.
But you do not believe,
because you are not of My sheep,
as I said to you.
My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them,
and they follow Me.
And I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish;
neither shall anyone snatch
them out of
My Father's hand.
John 10:25-29
This Scripture is nothing less than Good News for all who are sheep of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and cannot be "snatched" out of His hand for He gives to His sheep, eternal life. This Good News should make your day, as one of God's children, your eternal life with Him began the day you put your faith in Him, and your belief fueled by that faith is a sure hope of your future, and is present with you today. I do not want to pour cold water on this Good News, but, there have been and are those who hold to a doctrine that is opposed to certain doctrines long held by the Church. Yet, many, if not most Christians, do not know much, or even nothing, about this raging debate that has caused a division within the Church. You may not know of it, but you do not know if this debate is one of the tenets of your Church. That is, your Church holds to one or the other theological view. A question is: How has either view affected the Church, meaning you a congregant. You may have heard of this doctrine, and even have an opinion on this doctrine, but I ask, is your opinion yours by studying God's word, or is it an opinion that your Church has taught, even silently teaching it as truth without ever presenting the other viewpoint? Do you want to know that what you are learning is from the Bible, the very truth of the Bible? Is so, then, join me in this study, a difficult study in some aspects because of the division within the Church, a division that points to past theologians who held a high regard by the people of their day. I will hold these blogs on this subject to two men who have influenced the Church, and even by their theological views have created a division in the Church, a division that affects you and me.
The two main theological positions of the Christian Church and the two men responsible for these theologies that stand in opposition to one another are Jacobus Arminius, and John Calvin, along with the fact that their adherents caused their theologies to become the thrust of their religious thought, that one or the other is what Jesus Christ taught, what the early Church Fathers taught, and hold to either as truth. We must have more understanding as to why these men were important and why there was a need for new understanding of the Christian faith. Both men are associated with and for some are the determining factors for what is called the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately in the Church today most congregants hear little of Protestantism, nor have much, if any information about the Reformation. The question that looms large in the mind of many people is why there was a need for a Reformation in the first place and how did this Reformation come about; was it something new, or was there a long development of opposition to the Roman Catholic Church in particular, and what effect did the Reformation have upon the Eastern Church? This essay is not designed to give each and every reason for the Reformation, rather it is to give some highlights, or events, reasons, for the need for the Reformation to occur; therefore to aid our understanding as to why there has become two main religious thoughts or theories that Churches today have as their foundation for salvation and in regards to man and God. This overview of the Reformation will enlighten us not only to the need for such reform, but also to help understand the men and their possible reasons to be so different in their beliefs and writings.
In the formation of any debate, or apologetic, it is most important that there be an understanding of terms that are used, and furthermore, that both sides of the debate are understood and clearly presented. The historical aspects of thought are the generational ideas that have formed a particular position and personal understanding, therefore, there is need to examine any historicity that pertains to this debate. Careful scrutiny of the foremost scholars or theologians will aid to understand how they may have come to their position; in fact this scrutiny may give insight as to why they will not change their views. In this apologetic, in regards to this important debate that has divided the church and some theologians, there is then a necessity to examine and present who are the founders or theologians that have come to different understanding and have taught their understanding to the church, leading the Christian to believe in one theological position and to avoid the position of another. The first theologian that I present is that of Jacobus Arminius who was a Dutch Reformed theologian. His Dutch name was Jacob Harenszoon and was known as the founder of the school that opposed the school of Calvinistic Reformed Protestant theology. The movement of Arminius resisted some of the tenets of Calvinism and his followers were known as the Remonstrants (1610) after they had issued a document that in five points outlined their disagreement with Calvinism. Jacobus Arminius became a professor of theology at Leiden university founded in 1775, a town located in the Dutch province of South Holland. Arminianism, as is so often named after the propagator has died, was not fully developed as an Arminian theology, yet the system that the Remonstrants had formed (1610) were outlined in the Five articles of the Remonstrants. The Synod of Dordrecht (the Synod of Dort, (1818-1610), judged the theology of Jacobus Arminius and his adherents and published the five points of Calvinism known as T.U.L.P. a five point response to the Arminian Remonstrants and called them to be anathema.
John Calvin (1509-1564), a French reformer, and theologian was raised in a staunch Roman Catholic family whose father having been employed by the local bishop to be an administrator in the town’s cathedral wanted John to become a priest. John was the son of an influential family who were culturally astute and became influential in John’s early life. At the age of 14 John went to Paris, France to study a the College of de Marche to prepare for his university study. John Calvin studied grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Calvin’s education was paid for, at least in some part, by a couple of small parishes. During this time the writings of such men as Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Jacques Lefevere d’Etaples (c. 1455-1536) who was a French theologian and humanist and was a precursor of the Protestant movement influenced John Calvin; yet John Calvin was tied closely to the Roman Church.
By the year 1527 John Calvin had become friends with certain individuals who were of the reformed mind and set the stage for John Calvin to change his theological position that was tied to the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformed faith. At this time John’s father encouraged John to study law and to forego any theological studies, which he did in the year 1528 in Orleans, France, where he studied civil law. The next few years John Calvin studied under various scholars and received a humanist education. In the year 1532 John had completed his law studies and published his first book, a commentary on De Clementia who was a Roman philosopher, Seneca who in 54 A.D. was the tutor of the emperor Nero. Those individuals who were of the Reformed theology and opposed to the Roman Catholic Church that John Calvin has associated himself with caused him to have need to flee which he did for the next three years, living in various places outside of France. It is noted that John Calvin converted to the Reformed theology and to the Lord Jesus Christ in the year 1533 A.D., and upon that conversion wrote of this in his foreword to his commentary on the Psalms. It was during this time that John Calvin resided outside of France where he studied the Bible on his own and preached, while there he worked on his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion that became an instant best seller. John Calvin in the year 1536 had disassociated himself from the Roman Catholic Church and had made plans to leave France permanently and go to Strasbourg a town located in the Northeast land of France, although at this time this was not yet part of France and was more aligned with Germany. In September 1681 King Louis XIV of France annexed this town for France. This plan of John’s was derailed by war that that begun between Francis I and Charles V, causing John to detour his travels to Geneva, Switzerland. Here in Geneva John Calvin was to stay only one night but His fame in Geneva had preceded him. Farel who was a local reformer, invited him to stay in Geneva and this by a threat that his leaving Geneva would bring down on him God’s anger. John Calvin stayed long in Geneva; a difficult time, yet in time had produced fruit. As a lecture and a preacher difficulties arose causing him in 1538 to leave the city due to theological conflicts so he went to Strasbourg until 1541 A.D. While in Strasbourg the French refugees became happy and peaceful so that when the leaders of Geneva asked him to return, he was emotionally torn between the two cities. While desiring to stay in Strasbourg he had the feelings of responsibility towards Geneva, and this he did and remained in Geneva until his death 1564 A.D. During his stay in Geneva John Calvin wrote several commentaries, treatises, and various editions of the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
A certain fact must be illuminated so that no one will assume that the Reformation occurred by just these men who were just dissatisfied with the norm and personally held to ideas that could be assigned to them even though those ideas affected people of the Church, and caused a great schism in the Church. This fact is: nothing occurs in a vacuum! Starting with the times of the Apostles we can see they wrote against false teachings and heresy that attempted to invade the Church. Men, called the Church Fathers, also wrote and discussed these various teachings by men who seemed to speak differently than the Apostles, things that at times seemed plausible but upon inspection and examination were found to be false, even heretical. Yet, some of those Church Fathers were influenced by some of those teachings, even the teachings of men such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, and they succumbed to a belief in part or at times in whole the teachings that after examination were found to be false. Yet, the fact is that the Church was being influenced by false teachings, and there were men who after examination wrote against such false teachings, and even pointed out that some of those teachings had become part of the Church, especially the formation of a central authority as can be seen by there being a Pope who had been determined to be the leader of the Church had and has been taught to be the vicar of Christ. Yet, along with these teachings there were many problems with the leadership of the Church and men attempted to address those problems. Throughout the centuries that followed the death of Jesus Christ, the death of the Apostles, the Church had need to readdress what was being taught and being done in the name of Christianity. This was done by many, but not always were they open in the protest, for is so, they would have had the condemnation of the Church come upon them, even to the point of their death; but their teachings, their writings, had an effect among men who sought the truth and could see the problems with the Church. There was no vacuum in which these teaching were hidden or hard to find, for scholars, and theologians would read them, hear them, and in time their thoughts would converge as from a pyramid by which one would start at the wide bottom and climb to the apex where from that height and viewpoint the scene underneath and around them could be seen clearly, a converging of thought. This and other things brought about the need for a Reformation that is to reform that which was no longer in the form that Christ and His apostles taught, a need to return to Biblical principles, and to teach the Bible. The apex of thought whereby men from the past and now in the present were conjoined occurred by men such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestants, a name that became associated with those who protested against the Roman Catholic Church. This apex of thought can be seen to have happened when Martin Luther, a Augustinian monk, (1483–1546), posted his 95 theses on the door of the University of Wittenberg so that there would be a discussion in regards to those points in his theses, points that objected to the ecclesiastical structure, rituals, and doctrines, of the Roman Catholic Church, this led to a creation of new national Protestant Churches. This sparked a change, a change in thought about the Roman Catholic Church and solidified the thinking of many people who were subjected to the Church but were afraid to protest, but the teachings of Martin Luther gave impetus to the people and the Reformation had begun, it would not be squelched, others joined in the change, the Reformation, but not all agreed on what changes were needed and exactly what the Bible taught, but the new effort would cause men to write their thoughts, and an examination can be made with the Bible as the guide and final authority. The Reformation was a return to the Bible, a reforming what had been lost over the years, caused in a large part by the Roman Catholic Church. There were forces outside the Church that also caused a need for a change, society would be changed due to those forces, some of which will be described; i.e., the Black Death, the Western Schism within the Roman Catholic Church, wars, the change in governmental operations, where by the feudal system was giving was to a government by the people, or at the very least by a group of people now aligning themselves as one people of one country; i.e., Germanic tribes becoming the nation of Germany, the Franks of Germanic descent that developed into the Carolingian empire that dominated most of Western Europe. This empire eventually became France and the Holy Roman Empire. At times there were three men claiming to be the Pope simultaneously and this confrontation eroded the people’s faith in the Catholic Church, and the Papacy that governed the Church. One important invention that turn the world then existing, a world where the common people often did not read, or have books, that the Roman Catholic Church was keeping from them, keeping them in their ignorance, was the printing press, now books could be made and dispensed among the people, schools now have textbooks, which was the Bible for the most part, even here in the early days of the United States the Bible was the main textbook, a new beginning of history as this change in the secular world was also a change in the ecclesiastical world, the beginning of what we have come to know as the modern era, all of which contributed to the creation of the Reformation and to Protestantism. The Roman Catholic Church did not let this go without a fight, and this they did with a counter–Reformation, advanced by the Council of Trent, an ecumenical council and considered to be one of the Church’s most important councils. This Council met in Trent, Italy between December 13, 1545–December 4, 1563, and held 25 sessions for three periods, in three other cities and under three different Popes. This council issued statements of condemnation on these Reformed theological positions and called them heretical; in areas that defined the Church teachings on Scripture and tradition, original sin, justification, sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass, and the veneration of saints, and other numerous reformed decrees. This Council of Trent gave authority to the Pope and entrusted to him the implementation of its work and from that entrustment came what has become known as the Tridentine Mass, and issued a revised edition of the Vulgate a 4th century Latin translation of the Bible, largely the work of St. Jerome in 382 A.D. The Vulgate is the most commonly used translation by the Roman Catholic Church, as it became the official Latin Version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church, and by its adoption earlier Latin translations were eclipsed. The precepts of the Council of Trent are the position of the Roman Catholic Church and were reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI, (1897–1978.
The Roman Catholic Church with their Counter–Reformation, put into motion by the Council of Trent, spearheaded by the Society of Jesus and in general northern Europe, with the exceptions of Ireland and Britain turned Protestant. Southern Europe remained aligned with the Roman Catholic Church. Many battles over the Reformation placing the Protestants in war with the Roman Catholics, many died, the inquisition still martyred many. Yet, the movement of Reformation could not be stopped and new Churches became established such as the Lutherans, and the Reformed Churches, in Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Scotland, along with smaller bodies of Reformed people and Churches. This attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church must not go unnoticed that the Reformation was an attempt to change the Church and not necessarily to invent a new Church. Yet, the Reformation opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastical malpractice, i.e., the sale of indulgences, simony, and what they saw as the Church having fallen prey to systemic corruption within the Church hierarchy, that included the Pope. The Reformation became a new trend for the Church with the excommunication of Martin Luther, yet we must not forget that this Reformation began before Martin Luther especially with men such as John Wycliffe (1328–1384), and Jan Hus (1369–1415), both men being executed by the Roman Catholic Church over their theology and their vision that the Roman Catholic Church needed to reform. Other men such as Ulrich Zwingli 1484–1531), and a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland who soon followed the Martin Luther; all are men who were the founders of the Reformation and the Protestant movement, a movement that took to being earnest and powerful, influential, to many people and is the historicity of the Christian Church today that is not aligned with the Roman Catholic Church. Here is where we find Jacobus Arminius and John Calvin the subject of this essay for they have had much influence upon the Christian Church, some good and some bad, and we must separate the good from the bad.
Before we begin our essay on the subject proposed we must look further back into history and note a person who has had much influence upon some theologians and has had a great influence upon the liberalization of the Christian Church and upon some cults. That person is Pelagius (c.a. 354–418?), a monk, although the is not clear views that this is so, one who held views on original sin, grace and predestination, views that St. Augustine opposed vehemently, this is known as Pelagianism. St. Augustine referred to him as a ‘holy man’ even though he opposed him, for Pelagius was a well–educated man who had a tremendous knowledge of the Scriptures and with many of the classics, a man trained in exposition, and with this he was to be a formidable enemy of orthodoxy. The views of Pelagius has influenced several men and several theological views, and one such view is in regards to the free–will of man, and original sin, views that will be seen to have influenced Arminianism. The view in regards to predestination is confounded with the theory of free–will, so to understand one view is to aid the understanding of the other, and all viewpoints must be examined in the light of Scripture. While as sentient individuals and are able to use rationale in our thinking process, we must not succumb to rationalization according to our presuppositions, and the only way to exempt a person from this problem of rationalization according to our mind–set is to use the Bible properly, that is, to not use isogesis in translation, or in interpreting, rather to allow the Bible through the process of exegesis to give us the answer, the answer within the Bible.
This long blog was necessary to set the scene, so to speak, to give a beginning so that you may understand this debate. In the next blogs I will discuss their viewpoints, and give what the Bible actually says to those viewpoints. I ask that you read the Bible, look into commentaries, take the time to study this for it is an important, yet silent debate within the Church and has and is keeping Christians apart. Some will not associate with the others and this opposition is not according to God's word, and even the world knows that this division occurs and points to that division as a reason for not believing, whether we like it or not, we are part of the problem if we do not know what the Bible actually states, and then live by that truth: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of god; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1John 4:1). I am not preaching ecumenism, I speak that we as Christians have a responsibility to one another, and to the world in which we live, therefore: "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; fro he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen" (1John 4:20)?
Beloved, if God
so love us,
we also ought to
love one another.
1John 4:11
Give Honor To Our God And Savior
Richard L. Crumb
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