Society of Evangelical Arminians: What is Arminianism?
The following is by Dan Chapa of the Society of Evangelical Arminians (SEA). Since theologically serious alternatives to Calvinism seem to be in short supply these days, SharperIron contacted SEA recently about the possibility of representing classical Arminianism for the SI audience. To learn more about the SEA, see their About Us page.
Arminianism is a summary of our understanding of the Scripture’s teaching on salvation. The name comes from Jacob Arminius, who led 17th century opposition to Calvinism, but the idea stems from Scripture and has deep roots in the early church fathers. Many non-Arminians have mistaken notions about Arminianism—as do many Arminians. This post will define and defend the essential aspects of Arminianism (total depravity, resistible grace, unlimited atonement and conditional election), without critiquing Calvinism.
Total Depravity
Both Calvinists and Arminians believe in total depravity—the idea that fallen man requires God’s grace through the beginning, middle and end of the salvation process. Adam’s fall left us unable, of our own strength, to repent and believe or live a life pleasing to God. But total depravity is not utter depravity; the lost don’t commit the worst sins possible on every occasion. Still without God’s grace, sin impacts every aspect of life and we cannot seek God on our own. Rather, He seeks us and enables us to believe.
Resistible Grace
Arminians may vary on exactly how God’s grace works; but all Arminians hold to the necessity of prevenient grace (grace that comes before conversion that enables us to believe). When God’s grace starts drawing us to conversion, we can choose to say no and reject Christ. God hasn’t predetermined repentance and faith; nothing causes these such that rejection is impossible and we cannot choose otherwise. But believing does not earn or cause salvation; God chooses to have mercy on believers.
Arminians find resistible grace in passages speaking of God’s grace and man’s rejection of it. God is seeking, drawing and inviting mankind to Himself (John 1:9, 4:23, 7:17, 12:32, 16:8; Rom. 2:4, Titus 2:11, Rev. 22:17). In Isaiah 5:4, God asks what more He could have done (showing the sufficiency of His grace) and He invites Israel to judge itself (showing the reasonableness of His requirements). The reasonableness of God’s commands and invitations shows that God treats us as if we can obey Him, which implies that we can, and this harmonizes with our moral intuitions.
In Matthew 11:21, Christ says Tyre and Sidon would have repented if the same works He had done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done there. Tyre and Sidon were bywords for sinfulness, so they were neither elect nor regenerate. Yet the same divine works would have brought about repentance in them, showing the fitness of God’s works to bring about repentance and placing the difference in man’s response.
Also, the divine lament passages strongly affirm the resistibility of grace (Ps. 81:13; Luke 13:33-34, 19:41). Some passages plainly say people reject and resist God’s efforts to bring them to Him (Gen. 6:3, Jer. 13:11, Ezek. 24:13, Luke 7:30, Acts 7:51). God hardens hearts by turning over people to their own sinful lusts (Rom. 1:18-28). This implies that God’s grace was softening their hearts and restraining their wickedness. Additionally, the highly controversial Hebrews warning passages (however interpreted) indicate that God’s grace is resistible (Heb. 2:1-3, 3:6-14, 6:4-6, 10:26-29, 12:15). (Most self-identified “Arminians” have held that true believers can forsake Christ and perish as unbelievers, but the earliest formal statement of Arminian theology—the 5 points of the Remonstrants—expressed uncertainty about the point and, conceptually, it is not an essential tenet of Arminian theology.)
Resistible grace often leads to the controversial question of whether faith or regeneration comes first. Some disagreement stems from defining regeneration. Does regeneration include God’s imparting eternal life to us? Does regeneration include God’s enabling belief? Arminians typically answer yes to the first question and no to the second, so naturally we see faith as preceding regeneration. Ephesians 1:13, John 1:12-13, John 5:24-28, Romans 6:2-6, Galatians 3:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 support this order. Notice the issue is which grace enables man to believe (prevenient grace or regeneration) not the depth of man’s depravity without grace.
Scriptures say we have wills and choose (Deut. 30:19, Josh. 24:15, 1 Cor. 7:37). “Choose” is normally defined as “to select from a number of possible alternatives” and we reject imposing on Scripture definitions of “choose” that either remove essential elements or are stipulated philosophical definitions. God tests us—whether we will obey or not—which implies that at least sometimes obedience is up to us (Exod. 16:4). God promises that we will not be tempted beyond our abilities (1 Cor. 10:13), which implies that we can choose to obey or not. God’s desire to have a relationship with free creatures magnifies His love, and His ability to providentially govern and rule a world with free creatures magnifies His sovereignty.
Unlimited Atonement
Christ died for everyone. This is not universalism; the benefits of Christ’s death are conditionally applied, not automatically or necessarily applied. Just as the Passover Lamb was slain and the blood applied, so also we distinguish between Christ’s death and the application of His blood to believers. Christ’s death makes salvation possible for all, and God desires all to believe and be saved through His blood, but only believers are actually cleansed by Christ’s blood.
We see conditionality in the application of Christ’s blood because justification is by faith (Rom. 3:21-26) and because Christ died for some who ultimately perish. Christ said to all the apostles, including Judas, my blood is “shed for you” (Luke 22:21-22). The apostates in Hebrews 10:26-29 were sanctified by Christ’s blood. The false prophets in 2 Peter 2:1 denied the Lord that bought them. 1 John 1:7 and Colossians 1:22-23 plainly teach conditionality in the application of Christ’s blood.
The many passages saying Christ died for the world or all men ground our belief that Christ died for everyone (John 1:29, 3:16-17, 4:42, 6:33, 6:51, 12:47; 1 John 2:1-2, 4:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-19; Heb. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:4-6, 4:10). While “world” has a broad range of meanings, that range does not include any definition that would avoid the conclusion that Christ died for everyone, nor do we see validity in inventing a specially plead definition of world to avoid unlimited atonement. We see Christ’s sacrifice for all as the foundation of the sincere offer of the gospel to all in that everyone can be saved through what Christ accomplished on the cross.
Conditional Election
God gave pre-fallen Adam the ability to obey Him—He wanted Adam to be free to have a relationship with Him. God did not causally determine Adam’s sin such that he couldn’t obey and necessarily fell—such would be inconsistent with God’s holiness and hatred of sin (James 1:13, Jer. 7:31, Ps. 45:7). Thus, Arminians insist that God is not the author of sin, and free will is essential to Arminian theodicy. Our freedom lies between God and sin; otherwise God is ultimately responsible for sin.
In election, God considered man as fallen sinners. God chooses to have mercy (Rom. 9:16). Scripture calls the non-elect vessels of wrath, or appointed to wrath (Rom. 9:22, 1 Thess. 5:9). Now mercy on the one hand, and wrath on the other, presuppose sin. So Arminians view election as fixing the sin problem, rather than seeing the fall as something God planned in order to accomplish His goal of sending His chosen to heaven and the rest to hell.
Election automatically excluded unbelievers. So we see symmetry in some essential respects between election and non-election. Hellfire is a punishment for sins, so rejection is conditional on unbelief and impenitence.
Freely fallen sinners is one starting point in explaining election—God’s amazing love is another. He does not desire the death of the wicked, nor is He willing that any should perish, but rather He wills all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. (Ezek. 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim. 2:4-6). God’s love of the world moved Him to send His Son so that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17). Given man’s fall, the Father chose His Son as the basis and foundation for salvation, and our election is in Him (Matt. 12:18; 1 Pet. 1:20, 2:4; Eph. 1:4).
Just as rejection is conditional, based on sin and impenitence, election to salvation is likewise conditional, not based on works or merit, but based on God’s choice to have mercy on believers. Scripture describes predestination as God’s choosing to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21, 2:7); election is said to be in sanctification and in belief in the truth (1 Pet. 1:2, 2 Thess. 2:13). Conditional election includes God’s plan from before time to save through the gospel. Before the foundation of the world, God, in Christ, chose to glorify Himself by saving believers out of fallen mankind.
While all Arminians agree that election is Christocentric and conditional, Arminians may disagree on whether election is primarily corporate (election of the Church as a group with individuals sharing in the group’s election by faith) or primarily based on God’s foreknowledge of each individual’s faith.
Closing Thoughts
When I was first challenged by a Calvinist friend regarding Romans 9, I couldn’t explain the passage. And since his explanation made sense, I reluctantly accepted Calvinism. Then one night, I was shocked by the warning in Hebrews 10 and decided to devote time to digging into Scripture on the issues. I studied for years and came out of that process an Arminian. It was difficult; Arminian resources were scarce and Arminians scarcer still. SEA fixes all of that, giving us resources and a community in which to build each other up. Space hasn’t permitted a detailed exegesis of each of the passages cited, but much more detail is available on the SEA website.
danchapa Bio
Dan Chapa was saved at an early age and Christ is the most important part of his life. He has attended independent or Southern Baptists Churches his entire life. His main ministries have been evangelism and teaching Sunday school, but he has also enjoyed discussing Calvinism/Arminianism over the years. He is a member of SEA and blogs at arminianchronicles.com. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two boys.
- 424 views
Since this particular essay doesn’t aim to critique Calvinism, it might also be helpful if the discussion focuses more on clarifying understanding of the Arminian view and not so much on critiquing it.
(I have to say I really like Jacobus’ haircut)
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.
Dan, I really enjoyed your article. Thank you for keeping it warmly factual. I have a religious background grounded in Arminianism, (though I didn’t hear that term until later) but I have since become to believe in parts of Calvinism. I appreciate the rare opportunity to ask a question from a fellow believer with a different viewpoint without the baggage or the same presuppositions.
This article comes at welcome time in my family’s lives because we recently had our previous pastor and his family come and stay with us for a week—he teaches at an IFB college. We had a wonderful time—they are lovely Christians and continue to love us dearly. We benefited greatly from their ministry and their stay with us in our home. As expected, discussions of our current understanding of Scripture took place and my husband did a good job of explaining our current position while graciously receiving a different viewpoint. Our previous pastor did likewise and so it was a discussion grounded in love and grace for one another and never ended up heated or really cold. God is good!
One area touched on was Rom. 9:12-13, and our p.p. stated that the verses had to do with serving and not salvation. If possible, do you mind expounding on that specific topic, if it’s something that’s part of the Arminian defense from Scripture? Or was that specific to a personal viewpoint? We were interrupted and never had a chance to revisit it.
Thank you,
Kim :)
So I appreciate a classic Arminian voice. Still, in the end, I found the SEA folks’ exegesis of John 6 and Romans 9 unpersuasive, just as I find limited atonement poorly supported by the totality of Scripture. So I am a contented “four-pointer.”
I do think the issues are important, however, and that is why a certain vehemence often arises from the discussion of God’s sovereignty in salvation. I think the complexity of the matter adds to the tension. It is hard to have a short conversation between a committed Calvinist and a committed Arminian. It’s even harder with the folks that say “Both are true.” :~
God be with you,
Dan
Sounds like a great with some good friends. As for Romans 9:12-13, Arminians have a number of slightly different views – there is no one official position.
If you look at the OT testament texts cited by Paul (both Genesis 25:23 and Malachi 1:2), clearly they were speaking of Jacob and Esau as the heads of nations. Further, Esau never served Jacob in his life, but his descendents did. However, Paul does seem to be using Jacob and Esau as an analogy to make some broader point than just blessings given to Nations. But analogies are flexible and that’s why there is some variety in the way the passage is explained.
For my part, all I think Paul is saying via the analogy of God’s election of Jacob and rejection of Esau is that God planned all along to save by grace rather than nationality or the works of the law. In other words, it’s about how God saves, not who He saves. However, other Arminians have suggested:
1) God chose to bless the Nation of Israel with a special but non-saving grace, -this is Robert Hamilton’s view ( http://evangelicalarminians.org/node/263] link )
2) God chose to save through the Gospel, and - this is Arminius’ view ( http://evangelicalarminians.org/files/Arminius.%20ANALYSIS%20OF%20THE%2…] link )
3) God’s election here is primarily corporate rather than individual. – here is Keith Schooley’s presentation on this ( http://evangelicalarminians.org/node/286] link )
Hope that helps.
God be with you,
Dan
Thanks for your efforts to bring this stuff forward. I support these efforts.
Two years ago, I addressed the topic of Calvinist / Arminian relations at the Standpoint Conference. I think both sides have been too swift to a). use straw man arguments, b). point to the rabid extremes of both camps in attacking the other side, and c). arrogantly assume that their tradition holds all the answers.
The fact that the discussion/debate/war has gone on so long suggests that neither system is sufficient to fully explain everything that is going on in the Scriptures with regard to soteriology.
The logic of both sides in debate seems to be “I have this system that explains so many verses I have examined. It all makes sense. So now, I will hammer into compliance these few verses that don’t quite fit my system.”
Give me permission to examine any system, accepting the evidence that supports a thesis and explaining away the evidence that does not, and I can prove anything!
Mike D
I agree with you overall assessment but I did want to point out why I also tend to focus on ‘extreme Calvinists’ (not hyper Calvinists but ones either strongly critique Arminianism or those holding to supra-lapsarianism or double predestination or those clearly denials of free will). If you looked at Calvinism and Arminianism as overlapping circles, the overlapping portion would be huge. And if time is spent on the outer edge, it may seem like hair-splitting, but really you somewhat have to because 1) in contrast there is clarity and 2) the ‘proof’ of one system or the other is in the outer- edge.
On the other hand, if someone only bringing up Servetus, you could be in for a rough ride. :-)
God be with you,
Dan
Or have I misunderstood the Arminian view?
Thanks for posting this article. It is helpful to see these positions spelled out and discussed.
Cordially,
Greg Barkman
G. N. Barkman
There may be an aspect of foreknowledge based election that looks like ‘ratification’ but other aspects do not, so to summarize the whole as ratification would be misleading.
God chose to have mercy on believers. He could have chosen to save via works or baptism or saying the word blue three times in a row. But He chose faith as the condition – and this aspect of election has nothing to do with ratification.
Now choosing faith as the condition means that believers are His people. Thus all He foreknows as believers are elect as a result of God’s choice to have mercy on believers. Could this be called ratification? Maybe, but only in a remote sense.
But what did He choose to do? Have mercy. And merciful gifts (adoption, sanctification…) cannot be viewed as ratification – either in God’s plan to give them or His actually giving them.
God be with you,
Dan
Arminius looked at election from a two fold perspective, one being a sovereign decree before the foundations of the world as scripture teaches and the other conditioned upon faithfulness. There is an eternal foreknowledge element to this, not in the temporal manner of a “peering through the annals of time” perspective as Adrian Rogers was known to suggest, but a foreknowledge that is of an eternal nature. God knows all that is to be known and did not or does not have to “do something” to know it. It is the all encompassing characteristic of omniscience. My Molinist friends might disagree with that perspective but I think Arminius’ reply to the inquiries regarding Election make the matter clearer than I can elucidate. Here is the perspective from Arminius’ Nine Questions presented to the curators of the University of Leyden in 1605.
1. Which is first, Election, or Faith Truly Foreseen, so that God elected his people according to faith foreseen?
2. Is the decree “for bestowing Faith on any one,” previous to that by which is appointed “the Necessity of Faith to salvation?”
ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION
The equivocation in the word “Election,” makes it impossible to answer this question in any other manner, than by distinction. If therefore “Election” denotes “the decree which is according to election concerning the justification and salvation of believers.” I say Election is prior to Faith, as being that by which Faith is appointed as the means of obtaining salvation. But if it signifies “the decree by which God determines to bestow salvation on some one,” then Faith foreseen is prior to Election. For as believers alone are saved, so only believers are predestinated to salvation. But the Scriptures know no Election, by which God precisely and absolutely has determined to save anyone without having first considered him as a believer. For such an Election would be at variance with the decree by which he hath determined to save none but believers. http://wesley.nnu.edu/arminianism/the-works-of-james-arminius/volume-1/…
Of course, this is the Classical or Reformed Arminian perspective. Others might disagree with elements of this but I believe most would agree that the central theme of election is the salvation of believers who persevere to the trump of the LORD.
Kudos to Dan and Aaron for this effort!
[Wayne Wilson] It’s even harder with the folks that say “Both are true.”Wayne,
I agree, and your statement made me realize that I need to clarify my statement that “both sides contribute legitimate perspectives.” I meant that both sides have some perspectives that are worthy of consideration, not that every perspective of each side is equally valid.
“To these succeeds the fourth decree, by which God decreed to save and damn certain
particular persons. This decree has its foundation in the foreknowledge of God, by which he knew
from all eternity those individuals who would, through his preventing grace, believe, and, through
his subsequent grace would persevere, according to the before described administration of those
means which are suitable and proper for conversion and faith; and, by which foreknowledge, he
likewise knew those who would not believe and persevere.”
Arminius apparently is arguing that God’s knowledge/foreknowledge is contingent upon man’s choice. God knows what man will freely (when his will is inclined towards God by prevenient grace) choose. Thus, God’s knowledge is based upon the free choice of man. How then do those who hold an Arminian position maintain the aseity and independence of God?
As pointed out, the essay contains views that are a departure from or modification of classic Arminianism. Additionally, while it may serve as a reference point for many the proprietary views and arguments of others must be observed and not presumed against. So, if one wishes to be called an Arminian then clearly this is what they wish for a tag (and they do appear to have some well thought out proponents of that system). But again, not all non-Calvinists, though possibly appreciating some of these arguments and holding to some in part, should be viewed categorically as de facto Arminians and in fact, reject, for many reasons, identification with Arminianism and particularly due to Arminus’ theology as a whole.
I saw this:
Of course, this is the Classical or Reformed Arminian perspective. Others might disagree with elements of this but I believe most would agree that the central theme of election is the salvation of believers who persevere to the trump of the LORD.My understanding of Arminianism is that all true believers are saved and that the salvation is permanent (John 10:22-30, Romans 8:26-39), but the real problem is discerning between the unsaved who think that they are believers and the true believers who are in fact saved. I would disagree strongly with the idea that believers can be lost or fall away from God’s grace.
There are many passages that I’m thinking of, including many of Christ’s parables, but especially Matthew 25 (the parables of the Ten Virgins, Talents, and the teaching on the final judgment.)
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
Discussion