Unconditional election vs Conditional election PREDESTINATION Lutheranism: Single Predestination - while God in eternity past did indeed elect a people for himself whom he would actively save in the outworking of history, he did not decree that the rest of mankind would be lost. Calvinism: Double Predestination or Unconditional Election - from eternity God has chosen some to be saved and he has chosen others to be damned. Arminianism: Conditional Predestination or Conditional Election - predestination is based on God’s foreknowledge. God’s election is conditional on faith in Jesus. God does not arbitrarily consign some people to eternal damnation; their wilful rejection of God’s salvation makes them responsible. BIBLICAL PREDESTINATION The fact that because of his foreknowledge God already knows an outcome, does not in any way imply that he causes the outcome. Scripture clearly teaches that man has a free will and can choose to serve God or not. (Joshua 24:15) “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” Arminius taught that God gave humans free will to choose or reject salvation and that God elects or rejects on the basis of foreseen faith or unbelief. 1 1 He writes that “though the understanding of God be certain and infallible, that does not impose any necessity in things, nay, rather it establishes in them a contingency.” (i.e. a future event which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty). THE IMAGE OF GOD The Calvinist view of predestination does not regard man as the highest order of God’s creative work, truly capable of independent choice. Man is simply doing what God has already predetermined will happen. This reduces man to the level of an animal responding to its basic instincts. But man is made in God’s image with the capability of making independent choices. BIBLICAL PREDESTINATION The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him! (Luke 22:22 - NIV) In speaking of Judas, Jesus taught both the sovereignty of God (“the Son of Man will go as it has been decreed”) and the responsibility of man (“woe to that man who betrays him!”). THE NETHERLANDS Harsh persecution of Protestants in the Netherlands by the Spanish government of Phillip II led to the Eighty Years’ War and eventually, the separation of the largely Protestant Dutch Republic from the Catholic-dominated Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium). 1 While the Anabaptist movement enjoyed popularity in the region in the early decades of the Reformation, Calvinism, in the form of the Dutch Reformed Church, became the dominant Protestant faith in the country from the 1560s onward. 2 1 http://www.thefullwiki.org/History_of_Protestantism 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation Phillip II (1527-1598) SUPRALAPSARIANISM Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor, made the Calvinistic position even more extreme by teaching what is called supralapsarianism – that the decrees of election and damnation came prior to the decree to create man, implying that God created some people specifically to damn them. In contrast infralapsarianism asserts that God’s decrees of election and reprobation succeeded the decree of the Theodore Beza fall. (1519-1605) COORNHERT Dirck Coornhert was a Dutch writer, translator, politician and theologian, often considered the Father of Dutch Renaissance scholarship. 1 2 Coornhert rejected these extreme notions of Beza about predestination and wrote against him, demanding also a revision of the Belgic Confession (the Netherlands’ own reformed confession). 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirck_Coornhert 2 Coornhert entered into controversy with Catholics and Reformers alike. Reformers, he said, were sadly wanted, but those who called themselves such were not the kind that the church required; what was needed was apostles directly inspired from heaven. Coornhert also wrote and strove in favour of Dirck Coornhert tolerance, opposing capital punishment for heretics. (1522–1590) ARMINIUS Jacobus Hermanszoon (aka Jacob Arminius in Latin) had studied theology under Theodore Beza. He was ordained as a pastor at Amsterdam in 1588, gaining a reputation as a faithful pastor, 1 good preacher and an excellent scholar. 1 Arminius was commissioned to organize the educational system of Amsterdam, and is said to have done it well. He greatly distinguished himself by faithfulness to his duties in 1602 during a plague that swept through Amsterdam, going into infected houses that others did not dare to enter in order to give them water, and supplying their neighbours with funds to care for them. - Jacob Arminius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Arminius (1560-1609) ARMINIUS As a former student of Beza, Arminius was asked by Ecclesiastical Court of Amsterdam to defend his teacher by refuting the teachings of Coornhert. Two ministers at Delft had also written a document which contradicted both Beza and Coornhert. They proposed that although God’s decree to save only some was indeed absolute and unconditional, it had occurred after the fall (proposing infralapsarianism rather than Beza’s supralapsarianism). 1 Arminius, who was known as a strict Calvinist and an apt scholar, was to defend the supralapsarian position by refuting both Coornhert and infralapsarianism theology. 1 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Arminius ARMINIUS He readily agreed to the task, but after greater study found himself in conflict over the matter. He determined to spend greater time in study before continuing his refutation. 1 In attempting to defend Calvinistic predestination, Arminius began to doubt aspects of Calvinism and modified some parts of his own view. He attempted to reform Calvinism, and lent his name to a movement—Arminianism— which resisted some of the Calvinist tenets (unconditional election, the nature of the limitation of the atonement, and irresistible grace). 1 The essential dispute that Arminius had with Calvinism was regarding the doctrine of predestination. He did not deny predestination altogether, but denied that predestination was unconditional. 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Arminius OBJECTIONS Let’s consider some of the objections Calvinists bring against Arminianism, specifically those from Romans 9. 1. Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? 2. Why did God love Jacob but hate Esau? 3. Does the picture of God as the potter speak of him shaping our destiny against our will? 4. Did Jesus tell parables to prevent the non-elect from repenting? PHARAOH’S HARD HEART Doesn’t God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart show that he was destined to damnation? But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. (Ex 7:3) Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” PHARAOH’S HARD HEART However this account in Exodus (with God speaking) is shown from God’s perspective and we must remember that God has foreknowledge. But note the chronological sequence in Exodus, which is the way it happened in history from man’s perspective. 1. Plague 2 (Frogs) - Ex 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen… 2. Plague 4 (Flies) – Ex 8:32 But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. PHARAOH’S HARD HEART 3. Plague 6 (Boils) - Ex 9:12 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron… So after Pharaoh first hardened his heart (twice), God hardened Pharaoh’s heart based on the choice Pharaoh made to disregard God’s mercy (after each plague ended). Pharaoh made a choice to harden his heart and came under God’s righteous judgment. Thus it is always men who will initially choose to either respond to God’s working in their lives or to harden their hearts. PHARAOH’S HARD HEART That is why we are cautioned against unbelief. Heb 3:7-12 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert”… See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Why would we be warned against hardening our hearts if indeed it was God who did the initial hardening? CHURCH FATHERS Calvin, by his own admission was influenced by Augustine in his views. But until Augustine in the 5th century, the early church fathers all taught a view consistent with Arminian teaching i.e. that men have free will and that predestination is based on God’s foreknowledge (see Appendix). The much respected 2nd century Church Father, Irenaeus says that an interpretation of Romans 9 which makes God the arbitrary hardener of Pharaoh’s heart was a view held by Gnostic heretics (Marcionites). 1 He refutes the arguments of these Marcionites, who attempted to show that the Old Testament God was the author of sin, because he blinded Pharaoh and his servants. 1 Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 29) 1 CHURCH FATHERS Like modern Arminians, Irenaeus attributes God’s hardening of Pharaoh to his foreknowledge, based on the future choices he knew Pharaoh would make. He writes: But, say they, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants… If, therefore, in the present time also, God, knowing the number of those who will not believe, since He foreknows all things, has given them over to unbelief, and turned away His face from men of this stamp, leaving them in the darkness which they have themselves chosen for themselves, what is there wonderful if He did also at that time give over to their unbelief, Pharaoh, who never would have believed, along with those who were with him? 1 1 Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 29) 1 & 2 CHURCH FATHERS The Eastern father John Chrysostom (c.