Contrary to what some critics say, an Arminian is someone who believes that salvation is all of grace and through faith alone without any merit (except, of course, the merits of Christ).\u00a0 An Arminian is also someone who believes, contrary to Calvinism, that the person being saved is enabled by grace to cooperate in his or her salvation without \u201ccontributing\u201d anything meritorious to it.\u00a0 In other words, God does all the saving but he won\u2019t save without our consent.\u00a0 All this is spelled out so clearly in Arminius and Wesley and other classical Arminians that one has to wonder about those who say otherwise.\u00a0 (For example, Calvinist and some Lutheran critics who argue that Arminianism makes \u201cman\u201d his own savior.\u00a0 One leader of the \u201cyoung, restless, Reformed\u201d movement says that according to Arminianism the cross of Jesus Christ doesn\u2019t actually save anyone but only gives people the opportunity to save themselves.\u00a0 That is, of course, pure hogwash.)<\/p>\n
I have a huge stack of reading notes that I have taken while studying Arminian theology over the past several years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read at least one book by virtually every Arminian of the last few centuries and I\u2019ve read everything written by Arminius that has been translated into English.\u00a0 (What hasn\u2019t been translated is generally not available outside Holland.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, just now, I reached into that pile of reading notes and pulled out one Arminian theologian at random to find what he says about salvation.<\/p>\n
R. Larry Shelton, a Wesleyan theologian writing on \u201cInitial Salvation: The Redemptive Grace of God in Christ\u201d (in the edited volume A Contemporary Wesleyan Theology: Biblical, Systematic and Practical) writes about fallen humanity.\u00a0 His words echo all classical Arminians including Arminius himself: \u201c[m]an who was created to be in fellowship with God has become alienated from Him and enslaved by evil.\u201d (p. 483)\u00a0 This is hardly \u201cPelagian\u201d or \u201csemi-Pelagian\u201d as critics accuse Arminianism of being.\u00a0 With regard to salvation and grace he writes: \u201cEvery aspect of salvation, from the first awareness of moral need to ultimate consummation in glorification is worked through God\u2019s grace. \u2026[t]here is a cooperation, or synergism, between divine grace and the human will.\u00a0 The Spirit of God does not work irresistibly, but through the concurrence of the free will of individuals.\u00a0 Finally, salvation is all of grace.\u00a0 Although the human will must respond to the offer of grace at every level of spiritual development, the will does not initiate or merit grace or salvation.\u201d (p. 485)<\/p>\n
Like all classical Arminians (many are not Wesleyans), Shelton emphasizes the concept of prevenient grace\u2013the supernatural grace of God that overcomes depravity and bondage of the will to sin and makes the sinner encountered by the Word of God able to say \u201cyes\u201d to God\u2019s offer of salvation.\u00a0 Without this supernatural, prevenient grace that convicts, illuminates, calls and enables, no human being would be able or willing to say \u201cyes\u201d to God.\u00a0 On this Arminians and Calvinists agree.\u00a0 Where they disagree is about whether the person encountered by the Word of God and inwardly called by God is able to say \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is much more to Arminianism, of course, but this is the core difference between Calvinism and Arminianism.\u00a0 As one Arminian theologian has said about Calvinism, if it is true, Scripture should say \u201cBy force you were saved through faith\u2026.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch this space for more about Calvinism and Arminianism.\u00a0 My next post will talk about my forthcoming book Against Calvinism: Rescuing God\u2019s Reputation from Radical Reformed Theology (Zondervan).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contrary to what some critics say, an Arminian is someone who believes that salvation is all of grace and through faith alone without any merit (except, of course, the merits of Christ).\u00a0 An Arminian is also someone who believes, contrary to Calvinism, that the person being saved is enabled by grace to cooperate in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n