Calvinism vs. Arminianism

I'm Neither a Calvinist Nor an Arminian

7/17/2019

I'm neither a Calvinist nor an Arminian. I am a Christian who Believes exactly what the Bible says.

I believe that God is changeless, eternal, and irresistible, and I believe that God can change His mind (repent) and be resisted, it just depends on how you look at it in any given situation. I believe these two realities do logically coexist in Scripture, though not in our capacity of thought or reasoning. I oppose the divisive nature of Theological Circles that break apart what God has united as one in the body of Christ.

To my Calvinist or Arminian Friends, I plead for a thorough study of the following Biblical Facts.

Calvinists Assert: God cannot CHANGE His MIND or WORD, & by the Nature of Godhood He is CHANGELESS (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Hebrews 6:17-18, Titus 1:2, Romans 11:29); God’s WILL or DESIRE cannot be RESISTED (Revelation 17:16-17, Deuteronomy 2:30, Isaiah 14:24-27, Isaiah 46:10-11, Job 23:13, Acts 4:28, Ephesians 1:11, Jude 1:4, Romans 9:1-23).

Arminians Assert: God can CHANGE His MIND or WORD, & God’s WILL or DESIRE can be RESISTED (Exodus 32:10, 14; Num. 14:11-12, 30, 34; Num. 16:21-22, Num. 16:45,Ezek. 20:8-9, Ezek. 20:13-14, Ezek. 20:21-22, Deut. 32:26-27, Deut. 9:4-8, Jer. 15:6, Jer. 6:11, Micah 7:18-19, Exodus 33:5, Hosea 11:8, Jeremiah 36:3,36:7, Ezekiel 12:3, Zephaniah 3:5-7, Isaiah 5:1-5, Ezekiel 18:32, 18:23, Lamentations 3:33, 36, Luke 20:13, Luke 19:41-44, Luke 13:34-35, Luke 13:6-9,Matthew 21:37, Luke 20:13, Isaiah 63:8, Psalm 81:10-16, Zephaniah 3:7).

Various Divine Repentances | Lesser Matters: Moses called alone & then with Aaron (Ex. 4:1-14); Divine claim of the firstborn & then the Levites (Ex. 13:2, 15-16, Num. 3:12).

Critical Divine Repentances | Weightier Matters (Life/Death): Moses’ life (Ex. 4:24); Jonah’s life (Jonah 1:3, 12; Ps. 88:7, 16-17; Jonah 2:2-3, 9); Nineveh’s livelihood (Jonah 3:4, 9-10, 4:2); Hezekiah’s life (Isa. 38:1-6); Ahab’s posterity (1 Kings 21:19-21, 27-29); a Priestly Covenant (Ex. 29:9, 40:15, 1 Sam. 2:29-36, 1 Kings 2:27); a Kingly Covenant (1 Sam. 9:16, 10:1-10, 11:6, 15, Heb. 11:33-34, 1 Sam. 12:14-15, 20-25, 13:1, 13-14, 14:47-48, 15:1, 11, 23, 28-29, 35, 16:1, 13-14); Nations & Kingdoms (Jer. 18:7-11).

The Abrahamic Covenant | The Salvation of the Exodus Generation: Spoken to Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16, 18-21); Remembered (Ex. 2:24, 3:8); the Word (Ex. 3:17); the Promise (Ex. 12:25); the Oath (Ex. 13:5, 13:11); Sonship (Hos. 11:1); the Church (Acts 7:38, Ex. 19:17, Amos 4:12, Ex. 6:7-8 [2 Cor. 6:16], Ex. 19:4-5 [1 Pet. 2:9], Ps. 114:1-7, Ps. 68:15-20 [Eph. 4:8]); Belief (Ex. 4:29-31, 12:23-28); Note: those things called “the Gospel” are those which are explicitly named in identification with Christ in the New Testament. Faith in Passover (the Gospel of Sacrifice): Ex. 12:23-28, Heb. 11:28, 1 Cor. 5:7; Faith in the Red Sea Crossing (the Gospel of the Spirit’s Baptism): Ex. 14:30-31, 15:1-2, 13, Ps. 106:8-12, 1 Cor. 10:1-2, Heb. 11:29; the Manna (the Gospel of the Imperishable Life of Christ): Jn. 6:32-33, 35, 1 Cor. 10:3, Neh. 9:20; Water from the Rock (the Gospel of Living Water): Ps. 78:15-16, 105:41, 107:35, Ex. 17:6, Deut. 8:15 Neh. 9:15 (Isa. 48:21, 41:18; Rev. 21:6), 1 Cor. 10:4, John 4:10, 13-14, 7:38, Jer. 2:13; Saved (Ps. 106:8, 10, Ex. 15:1-2, 13, Isa. 63:7-14, Jude 1:5); Bride/Holiness (Jer. 2:2-3); Wholly Right Seed (Jer. 1:2, 21-22, 2:21, 11:16-17); People/Portion/Inheritance/No-Strange-god (Deut. 32:7-14); Indwelt & Among-dwelt by the Spirit (Lev. 26:12, Deut. 23:14, Isa. 63:15, Hag. 2:5, 2 Cor. 6:16, 1 Cor. 10:3-4, 9, 1 Pet. 1:11); Forgiven (Num. 14:19, Ps. 78:38).

The Fall of the Exodus Generation: Broken Promise/Oath (Num. 14:34, Num. 14:30, Heb. 4:1; Principle: Ezek. 16:59, 17:18-19).

Progressive Provocations Leading to a Reprobation: When God thought, decided, or moved to annihilate and then repented...until reprobation (Exodus 32:10-14, Ex. 33:11-34:9, Deut. 9:6-29 [Ex. 17:8-16]; Psalm 106:23 [Num. 11:1-3, 33-35, 12:13]; Numbers 14:11-21; Num. 16:21-22; Num. 16:45-50).

Explicit Applications of the Exodus Generation to NT Christians: What happened to them can happen to us (1 Cor. 10:1-13, Jude 1:5, Heb. 2:1-4, 3:1-4:11, 10:26-31, 12:18-29). Remember, only those with whom God was not well-pleased perished in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:5-6): the lustful (1 Cor. 10:6), the idolaters (1 Cor. 10:7), the fornicators (1 Cor. 10:8), the tempters (1 Cor. 10:9), the murmurers (1 Cor. 10:10), and such like men. The Judgments that “the Glory of God” executed by divine plague to the vanquishing of idolaters (Ex. 32:25-29), complainers (Num. 11:1-3), lustful men (Num. 11:33-35), rebels (Num. 14:26-35), proud men (Num. 16-17), and such like, were the same judgments that were in operation from thenceforth in every generation of Israel that was keeping God’s instituted rules of holiness. In the Wilderness, only those who didn’t continue to savingly believe in God suffered death at the judgment of God (1 Cor. 10:5, Jude 1:5, Hebrews 4:1 [see the wider context in Hebrews 3:7-4:11])! Even so, approaching the prospect of inheriting the Promised Land so as to become the Church in the Civilization, only those who were not perfect (seeking and serving God with wholeness of heart) were to be slain (they were forbidden inheritance in the Promised Land: Num. 32:12, 14:24, Deut. 1:36, Heb. 4:1, Prov. 2:21, Deut. 4:1-10, Num. 15:22-31). Hereby, the doctrine of inheriting and inhabiting the Promised Land unfolds!

The Argument of the Book of Hebrews: Greater Salvation & therefore Greater Condemnation, rather than the Impossibility of Condemnation (Heb. 2:1-4, Heb. 3:1-4:11, Heb. 5:11-6:12, Heb. 10:19-39, Heb. 12:15-29).

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The Calvinist's Fallacious Reasoning - John Wesley

12/15/2016

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Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost, reason on the subject in a marvelous way.

They tell us, that...

no virgin's lamp can go out; [Matt. 25:1-13]
no promising harvest be choked with thorns; [Mk. 4:18-19]
no branch in Christ can ever be cut off from unfruitfulness; [Jn. 15:1-6]
no pardon can ever be forfeited, [Num. 14:34, Isa. 63:8-10]
and no name blotted out of God's book! [Rev. 3:5]

They insist that...

no salt can ever lose its savor; [Matt. 5:13]
nobody can ever "receive the grace of God in vain"; [2 Cor. 6:1, Gal. 2:21, 5:4]
"bury his talents"; [Matt. 25:24-30]
"neglect such great salvation"; [Heb. 2:3]
trifle away "a day of grace"; [2 Cor. 6:2, Heb. 3:7-15]
"look back" after putting his hand to the gospel plow. [Lk. 9:62]
Nobody can "grieve the Spirit" till He is "quenched," and strives no more, nor "deny the Lord that bought them"; nor "bring upon themselves swift destruction." [1 Thess. 5:19, Gen. 6:3, 2 Pet. 2:1]
Nobody, or body of believers, can ever get so lukewarm that Jesus will spew them out of His mouth. [Rev. 3:16]

They use reams of paper to argue that...

if one ever got lost he was never found. John 17:12;
that if one falls, he never stood. Rom. 11:16-22 and Heb. 6:4-6;
if one was ever "cast forth," he was never in, and "if one ever withered," he was never green. John 15:1-6;
and that "if any man draws back," it proves that he never had anything to draw back from. Heb. 10:38,39;
that if one ever "falls away into spiritual darkness," he was never enlightened. Heb. 6:4-6;
that if you "again get entangled in the pollutions of the world," it shows that you never escaped. 2 Pet. 2:20;
that if you "put salvation away" you never had it to put away, and if you make shipwreck of faith, there was no ship of faith there!! [1 Tim. 1:19]

In short they say: If you get it, you can't lose it; and if you lose it you never had it.
May God save us from accepting a doctrine, that must be defended by such fallacious reasoning!

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The Gospel = The Quintessential Expression of Sovereignty

10/17/2013

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When Spurgeon defended Calvinism, he defended the gospel. When he took up an argument to defend the TULIP, he was impassioned to focus upon the gospel. The following quote represents how, to him, the two were intertwined and inseparable.

"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."—C. H. Spurgeon

On many points, as Spurgeon does so eloquently argue, I feel as though I can scarce keep myself from shouting AMEN! I too, with Spurgeon, believe that the gospel is affectionately connected to God's absolute sovereignty. I am persuaded that there - on Calvary's Hill - God's sovereignty was never so clear! Please, my reader, let me explain.

Let us consider, firstly, what God did in the life of Joseph. Then let us briefly look at the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, only let it be at the same noteworthy angles in which we just viewed the life of Joseph.

1) The Life of Joseph
2) The Life of Jesus Christ

Genesis 50:20
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."

It was the sin of Joseph’s brethren that they betrayed and sold Joseph to Egypt, even so, but God takes OWNERSHIP of it because it was God’s plan. What sin was in the heart of Joseph’s brethren? How did this come to pass? His brethren began to hate Joseph in their heart, and from this horrid and bitter hatred they conspired to sell him to Egypt. They indeed made a plan in their own wicked heart, nevertheless, read how it was the plan of Joseph’s brothers, while simultaneously, it was the Lord’s plan. Beginning with Genesis 37:4...

Genesis 37:4
"And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him."

Thus they (Joseph's brethren) did plan and conspire...

Genesis 37:18-20
"And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. 19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams."

If God is absolutely sovereign as the Calvinists do affirm, one must believe that God was in control of their hearts (Joseph's brethren) even while they were bent crooked in this wretched conspiracy. Shockingly, Joseph freely and unashamedly confessed to this! Read how all of this was God’s plan as well, yet He is innocent of any unrighteousness, altogether lovely, and pure!

Genesis 45:5-8
"Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."

Joseph was able to confess this, but can you? Please do not harden your heart against the scriptures simply because they cannot be logically digested. Likewise to Joseph’s confession, the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmist of Psalm 105 to give credit to God in the same way. Again God was in complete, sovereign control!

Psalm 105:16-22
"Moreover He called for a famine upon the land: He brake the whole staff of bread. 17 HE SENT a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: 19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. 20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom."

By the hands of Joseph’s brethren God sent Joseph; even in their sinful thoughts God was Lord, and He was working a mighty plan of salvation! As God did with the hands of Joseph’s brethren, He did the same thing with Judas, the Jews, and the Romans when they betrayed Jesus Christ, that it might rightly be said that God sacrificed His own Son. The Lord takes OWNERSHIP of this sinful plan of the Jews in a multitude of places throughout scripture. If the Lord did not send Joseph by the hands of his brethren, then He did not crucify His own Son, both would have been the happening of the free will of man. If it was the happening of the free will of man and God merely orchestrated and allowed the circumstances and scenarios to transpire, then it would have been the foreknowledge of God alone that was active in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and that was God’s full part in the matter. It was not singly the foreknowledge of God only but it was the determinate counsel of God as well!

Acts 2:23
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain"

God appointed the men to their disobedient, wicked conspiracy so that God was able to take sure ownership of Christ’s death. In 1 Peter 2:8 it is written that the disobedient were appointed instead of freely choosing, and mind you, we could have known this already by the previous scripture that revealed God’s relationship to the heart of all men (Prov. 16:1, 9, 21:1, 30).

1 Peter 2:8
"And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed."

In Isaiah 53 God takes pleasure in His plan to kill His own Son as an offering for sin, and, He is innocent, again, of all unrighteousness! In Isaiah 53:10, God claims complete ownership and authorship of the plan and its execution; while in Acts 3:13-15 God holds the Jews responsible for this sin, telling them it was their desire of evil, and they will be punished for it if they fail to repent and believe. It is a paradox. Please read carefully – first, Isaiah 53:10, and then Acts 3:13-15:

Isaiah 53:10
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He [God] hath put Him to grief: when Thou [God] shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand."

Acts 3:13-15
"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; Whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15 And killed the Prince of life, Whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses."

Indeed, “whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth” and “it pleased the LORD to bruise” and crucify His Son (Ps. 135:6, Isaiah 53:10)! God took ownership of the most momentous event in all time! God has provided “gates of righteousness,” and Christ is “this Gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter” (Ps. 118:19-20) – praise God! “Every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God,” and “strait is the Gate, and narrow is the Way which leadeth unto life” (Heb. 3:4, Matt. 7:14)! Let everyone praise the LORD as the psalmist says, “I will praise Thee, for Thou has heard me, and art become my salvation” (Psalm 118:21)! Christ has become our salvation by “the LORD’s doing,” when, namely, “the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23)! “This is the day which the LORD hath made!” And will you rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24)? The disciples were offended that Christ was smitten by men, but will you be offended that God smote Christ? God said, “I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” (Matt. 26:31). The Son of Man has gone to the crucifix “as it was determined” of Him, nevertheless God holds men in a simultaneous responsibility, and “woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed” (Lk. 22:22)!

I say again, God took ownership of the most momentous event in all time! This event was the greatest sin of man against God, for they crucified the Lord of glory, but since it was a sovereign work of God it was the greatest display of God’s love to give and kill His Son, likewise the Son willingly laid down Himself under the Father’s death sentence, and more so, this was the greatest display of God’s wrath to require the value of His Own Life as the only capable means to pacify the magnitude of His just anger against sin and sinners. The sovereignty of God behind the crucifixion of Christ is carefully detailed in the book of Romans with much more explanation than Psalm 105, which gave only a snapshot of God’s sovereignty in Joseph’s betrayal, slavery, and rise to power. In Romans, God declares His mysterious purpose behind why He killed His own Son, and how that He did it by blinding His own people. Through the “fall,” “diminishing,” and “casting away” of God’s chosen people Israel (Romans 11:15), the Gentiles are grafted into the Tree of Salvation! God determined that it would be through the “fall” of Israel that the Gentiles would be saved (Rom. 11:11). How can their fall be the casting away of God? Did God cast them away in response to their sin only, or was God the author of this unsearchable plan!? Their fall into sin was that they rejected and crucified Christ, and God was the author and executor of these events through ordination, specifically in that He made them “slumber” in blindness and deafness (Romans 11:8). It was because they were blinded and made deaf that they did reject Christ, thus God’s Sovereign control is the cause and determining factor of sin and righteousness. So when a man is blind or deaf it was God’s election that determined it. In conclusion, my dear reader, there is one single point I am seeking to make clear...

What is absolutely necessary for so magnificent a victory,
Is that God was not carelessly outwitted to lose His Son at the hands of free-will sinners undone!
The free will of man held no priestly knife in this sovereign, eternal, salvific plan!
The Father was the transcending Great High Priest, and He is the author of every chapter of the plan;
In His hand He held the knife to condemn all sin in One Man.
Every finger may have been the finger of man,
But they gripped the knife of salvation to slay the world’s sin in One Sacrificial Propitiation.
The knife in hand, the final blow, was God’s judgment against sin – let all the world know!
His work, His way, He sacrificed His Son for all in one day!

Do you desire to continue reading? See Chapter 1 of The Condescension of God.

Related Sermons:

"Salvation Is A Miracle" - by Ryan Ringnald (*A message focusing on sovereignty & personal salvation)

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A Kingdom Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

10/14/2013

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Whitefield AGAINST Wesley = Saint AGAINST Saint

"But He, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth." - Luke 11:17

"And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Mark 3:24-25

Calvinists are divided against Arminians as George Whitefield was against John Wesley, and yet, what is so perplexing to the body of Christ is, they were both regenerated, sin-hating, sincere, and soundly saved by grace through faith, and evidently, both were honored by God's Spirit to grant them POWER to preach. If they are both sin-hating, sincere, full of the Spirit, and admirable in their ministries, how is it that they came to be so divided? How is it that they would both be honored by God, and yet divided? Brethren, beloved of God, this is one of the foremost proofs that there is TRUTH on both sides of the division, meaning that, there are articles of doctrine in Calvinism which are biblical and true, and there are articles of doctrine in Arminianism which are biblical and true. If this were not the case, then I do not believe God would have been with them, both Wesley and Whitefield, by blessing their ministries until God's purposes were fulfilled. What is God's purpose which has been Divinely verified? Namely that, through them BOTH, God would bring many sons to glory.

A Calvinist does believe that God is, in His person, and does, in His ways or deeds, just as the scriptures declare.

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Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Hebrews 6:17-18, Titus 1:2, Romans 11:29, Revelation 17:16-17, Deuteronomy 2:30, Isaiah 14:24-27, Isaiah 46:10-11, Job 23:13, Acts 4:28, Ephesians 1:11, Jude 1:4, Romans 9:1-23

An Arminian views this and sees what the Calvinist argues, how that God, in His ways, is absolutely sovereign in every way: eternal, unchanging, all powerful, and irresistible...but they wonder, being offended, thinking, "how can this be true?" They argue, if this is the spectrum by which God relates to man, then how does one explain these passages of scripture which are columned to the right? The Arminian asserts that the passages to the right attest to the existence of God in a contradictory expression to what the Calvinist affirms (the everlasting, unchangeable attributes of God). The Calvinist asserts that God cannot change... but God does change (His mind and His word)!

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Exodus 32:10, Num. 14:11-12, Num. 16:21-22, Num. 16:45, Ezek. 20:8-9, Ezek. 20:13-14, Ezek. 20:21-22, Deut. 32:26-27, Deut. 9:4-8, Jer. 15:6, Jer. 6:11, Micah 7:18-19, Exodus 33:5, Hosea 11:8, Jeremiah 36:3, 36:7, Ezekiel 12:3, Zephaniah 3:5-7, Isaiah 5:1-5, Ezekiel 18:32, 18:23, Lamentations 3:33, 36, Luke 20:13, Luke 19:41-44, Luke 13:34-35, Luke 13:6-9, Matthew 21:37, Luke 20:13, Isaiah 63:8, Psalm 81:10-16, Zephaniah 3:7

For a further examination of such a consequential division, please read Chapter 1 of The Condescension of God. Therein, by God's grace, this matter is addressed at length for the reader to prayerfully and solemnly consider. May God's grace be your guide.

www.TheCondescensionOfGod.com

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I'm Neither a Calvinist Nor an Arminian

The Calvinist's Fallacious Reasoning - John Wesley

The Gospel = The Quintessential Expression of Sovereignty

A Kingdom Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Whitefield AGAINST Wesley = Saint AGAINST Saint

Calvinism vs. Arminianism

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