"Barely Christian" – R.C. Sproul on Arminianism
I first encountered the term “High Calvinism” when I read Lewis Chafer’s systematic theology. This term is a bit old-fashioned now, of course. If someone is a “High Calvinist,” it means he’s very Reformed in his soteriology. This surely described R.C. Sproul!
In a book entitled Willing to Believe: Understanding the Role of the Human Will in Salvation, Sproul provided a short historical theology of this topic by examining nine different theologians and their soteriological positions. In this excerpt, Sproul frames one part of this important issue:1
This classic issue between Augustinian theology and all forms of semi-Pelagianism focuses on one aspect of the order of salvation (ordo salutis): What is the relationship between regeneration and faith? Is regeneration a monergistic or synergistic work? Must a person first exercise faith in order to be born again? Or must rebirth occur before a person is able to exercise faith? Another way to state the question is this: Is the grace of regeneration operative or cooperative?
Monergistic regeneration means regeneration is accomplished by a single actor, God. It means literally a “one working.” Synergism, on the other hand, refers to a work that involves the actions of two or more parties. It is a co-working. All forms of semi-Pelagianism assert some form of synergism in the work of regeneration. Usually God’s assisting grace is seen as a necessary ingredient, but it is usually dependent on human cooperation for its efficacy.
The Reformers taught not only that regeneration does precede faith but also that it must precede faith. Because of the moral bondage of the unregenerate sinner, he cannot have faith until he is changed internally by the operative, monergistic work of the Holy Spirit. Faith is regeneration’s fruit, not its cause.
According to semi-Pelagianism regeneration is wrought by God but only in those who have first responded in faith to him. Faith is seen not as the fruit of regeneration, but as an act of the will cooperating with God’s offer of grace.
Evangelicals are so called because of their commitment to the biblical and historical doctrine of justification by faith alone. Because the Reformers saw sola fide as central and essential to the biblical gospel, the term evangelical was applied to them. Modern evangelicals in great numbers embrace the sola fide of the Reformation, but have jettisoned the sola gratia that undergirded it …
I agree with Packer and Johnston2 that Arminianism contains un-Christian elements in it and that their view of the relationship between faith and regeneration is fundamentally un-Christian. Is this error so egregious that it is fatal to salvation? People often ask if I believe Arminians are Christians. I usually answer, “Yes, barely.” They are Christians by what we call a felicitous inconsistency.
What is this inconsistency? Arminians affirm the doctrine of regeneration by faith alone. They agree that we have no meritorious work that counts towards our justification, that our justification rests solely on the righteousness and merits of Christ, that sola fide means justification is by Christ alone, and that we must trust not in our own works, but in Christ’s work for our salvation. In all this they differ from Rome on crucial points.
Packer and Johnston note that later Reformed theology, however, condemned Arminianism as a betrayal of the Reformation and in principle as a return to Rome. They point out that Arminianism “in effect turned faith into a meritorious work.”
We notice that this charge is qualified by the words “in effect.” Usually Arminians deny that their faith is a meritorious work. If they were to insist that faith is a meritorious work, they would explicitly be denying justification by faith alone. The Arminian acknowledges that faith is something a person does. It is a work, though not a meritorious one. Is it a good work? Certainly it is not a bad work. It is good for a person to trust in Christ and Christ alone for his or her salvation. Since God commands us to trust in Christ, when we do so we are obeying this command.
But all Christians agree that faith is something we do. God does not do the believing for us. We also agree that our justification is by faith insofar as faith is the instrumental cause of our salvation. All the Arminian wants and intends to assert is that man has the ability to exert the instrumental cause of faith without first being regenerated. This position clearly negates sola gratia, but not necessarily sola fide.
Then why say that Arminianism “in effect” makes faith a meritorious work? Because the good response people make to the gospel becomes the ultimate determining factor in salvation. I often ask my Arminian friends why they are Christians and other people are not. They say it is because they believe in Christ while others do not. They I inquire why they believe and others do not. “Is it because you are more righteous than the person who abides in unbelief?” They are quick to say no. “Is it because you are more intelligent?” Again the answer is negative. They say that God is gracious enough to offer salvation to all who believe and that one cannot be saved without that grace.
But this grace is cooperative grace. Man in his fallen state must reach out and grasp this grace by an act of the will, which is free to accept or reject this grace. Some exercise the will rightly (or righteously), while others do not. When pressed on this point, the Arminian finds it difficult to escape the conclusion that ultimately his salvation rests on some righteous act of the will he has performed. He has “in effect” merited the merit of Christ, which differs only slightly from the view of Rome.
Notes
1 R.C. Sproul, Willing to Believe: Understanding the Role of the Human Will in Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 22-27.
2 Sproul is referring to an introduction J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson wrote for an unnamed edition of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will, which Sproul quoted in his own book. For sake of space, I removed these quotations for this excerpt.
Tyler Robbins 2016 v2
Tyler Robbins is a bi-vocational pastor at Sleater Kinney Road Baptist Church, in Olympia WA. He also works in State government. He blogs as the Eccentric Fundamentalist.
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This is the key point: ” Some exercise the will rightly (or righteously), while others do not. When pressed on this point, the Arminian finds it difficult to escape the conclusion that ultimately his salvation rests on some righteous act of the will he has performed.”
There is sound logic here, but a problem with premises. Scripture never defines or even hints that believing is a “work.” By definition, “by works” in Scripture is the alternative to faith. So faith, regardless of how one sees the causality question, simply is not a work. It is not a “more righteous” deed of some sort.
I’m quite sympathetic with most of what Sproul has to say on the overall topic, but I don’t think he (and the others before and after him) have much to work with on this particular point.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
To paraphrase an old Gospel song:
“He’s done all He can do.
Now it’s all up to you!
You must open the door!”
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
This sinner was NOT dead in his sins, he was just MOSTLY dead,
I was drifting away on life’s pitiless sea,
And the angry waves threatened my ruin to be,
When away at my side, there I dimly descried,
A stately old vessel, and loudly I cried:
Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!
And loudly I cried: Ship ahoy!
Twas the old ship of Zion, thus sailing along,
All aboard her seemed joyous, I heard their sweet song;
And the captain’s kind ear, ever ready to hear,
Caught my wail of distress, as I cried out in fear:
Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!
As I cried out in fear: Ship ahoy!
The good captain commanded a boat to be low’red,
And with tender compassion He took me on board;
And I’m happy today, all my sins washed away
In the blood of my Savior, and now I can say:
Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord!
From my soul I can say: Bless the Lord!
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Dr. Bruce Compton teaches that Illumination precedes faith which immediately produces regeneration. Illumination here essentially becomes the effectual call.
Pastor Mike Harding
I used to hear that song in the 1970s at Tennessee Temple. Can’t remember who sang it, but it was a favorite. Have not thought about it for years, and had not remembered or even known at the time, what a clearly Arminian song it is.
Bill Combs
Great cookies
Pastor Mike Harding
But all Christians agree that faith is something we do. God does not do the believing for us.
It’s interesting that Sproul maintains that Arminians “in effect” make faith a meritorious work, while at the same time failing to recognise that his own position “in effect” makes faith the work of God, in spite of his claims to the contrary.
I read this book by Sproul a few years back and i have it packed away, but I remember underlining a statement by Sproul in the book. After a lengthy explanation and defense of regeneration preceding faith Sproul admits that, in time, regeneration and faith occur simultaneously. Logically regeneration is first, but in actual occurrence they are simultaneous? Then what is the value of the logic? I just don’t track with Sproul on this.
I agree with Aaron Blummer that true faith is by biblical definition not a work (Eph 2:8-9). And I also agree, as Mike Harding noted was Bruce Compton’s view, that illumination is distinct from regeneration.
God, by grace, illuminates the unregenerate mind (by His Spirit and His Word) to a point where a person comes to belief, and calls on God for salvation, but that salvation has not come until that belief and calling process is complete (Rom 10:10-14), whereas regeneration has not occurred until the moment that salvation has been obtained (Titus 3:5), for after belief is when the Holy Spirit seals a person to obtain the inheritance (Eph 1:13-14).
Having faith before regeneration in no way “negates sola gratia” as Sproul assert in the quotation above. To answer Sproul’s question of “Why [some people] are Christians and other people are not,” it is because God has drawn them to Him (Jn 6:44) and illuminated their hearts and minds against Satan’s lies, opening their eyes and ears to the truth (Lk 8:12, 2 Cor 4:3-6), and thus allowing faith to arise in them in spite of their unregenerate state (this is what the “drawing” to God is, a working in the heart in the unregenerate state).
Scott Smith, Ph.D.
The goal now, the destiny to come, holiness like God—
Gen 1:27, Lev 19:2, 1 Pet 1:15-16
Semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism are at variance. Sproul ought to know this. Anyone who reads Arminius or Wesley or Lenski or Olson (as I have) knows this. I get so fed up with this falsehood, and I’m not even Arminian! See this link
I recall Greg Bahnsen saying that he had spent time with Sproul explaining to him what Van Til’s presuppositionalism taught, only for Sproul to go off and repeat the same falsehoods as before. Some teachers are unteachable.
As far as regeneration preceding faith; not only is that akin to the Judge releasing the prisoner before declaring him innocent, but it contradicts several passages of Scripture like Galatians 3:14
Dr. Paul Henebury
I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.
Olson’s book is very, very good! It clears a lot of the cobwebs away for folks whose knowledge of Arminian soteriology comes from Reformed folks.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
But regeneration is not the same as justification. Regeneration enables one to believe. Faith is followed by justification. The judge pronounces the prisoner innocent when he believes, not when he is regenerated.
G. N. Barkman
There is a problem with this order. Regeneration is the receipt of the new life in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To do this before the person has been declared just is to seriously jump the gun. Furthermore, this flies in the face of Paul’s argument in Galatians 3 where a sinner receives the Spirit (regeneration) by faith (Gal. 3:2), which is analogous to Abraham believing and being justified (Gal. 3:6). Gal. 3:26-27 supports this position. We become sons of God and are baptized into Christ by faith (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). Romans 3:22 shows that we get Christ’s righteousness through faith. But if that is so then logically we are unrighteous until we believe. If regeneration precedes faith then a person is regenerated who has not been declared righteous, hence the illustration of the prisoner. But notice that I said the Judge releases the prisoner before he is declared innocent (not “regenerated” which spoils the analogy). No judge would do that.
Dr. Paul Henebury
I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.
It looks like we are now positing one strand of logic against another. Each will have to decide which logical deduction best squares with the whole of Scripture.
G. N. Barkman
I gave a biblical argument, not just a logical one
Dr. Paul Henebury
I am Founder of Telos Ministries, and Senior Pastor at Agape Bible Church in N. Ca.
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