Calvinism vs. Arminianism

The view of salvation that makes most sense to me travels past both roads to Calvinism and Arminianism. I believe both views are too narrow thus neglect the true context of salvation history. Both paint God's plan from a human perspective, limiting God to the way humans experience salvation from our inside perspective bound by time looking out towards God's ability to save man. Rather, they should be looking at salvation from eternity inside to our history as God intended it. God's specific plan to save mankind while destroying all sin in both heaven and earth for good, begins in salvation's history with a seed in Genesis 3:15 and ends with a harvest which is a number no man can number Revelations 7:9. The correct view of God's salvific plan is not found within the confines of either the Calvinistic View or the Arminian view, but, it lies outside of human perspective, taking in account His original eternal plan to save mankind through His Son, while bringing judgment upon the earth.

Predestination and Salvation's Plan

God chose not to destroy the earth immediately without first retaining a remnant. And he uses His remnant as seed. This pattern has been repeated throughout the history of earth in the bible. From the Garden of Eden through the flood in Noah's day, through Sodom and Gomorrah, electing the children of Israel and finally to the present church, we can see that God always elects the few to be a seed for a greater harvest of believers. God's plan of salvation chooses to use the way he created earth to operate as a sign of His work in the earth over time. Every way that the father intervenes into earth's history has been in this pattern. It helps believers to identify His work in the earth. So, yes, God elected some to be saved. But, the proper context to view this fact is that he elected a few to be a seed to harvest a multitude of people that could not be numbered by man. More specifically, God intervened many times in history, by choosing individuals to carry out His will within the earth according to His plan to save mankind. Yes some are lost and some are blinded but all according to His plan.

Predestination and Choice

I don't look at predestination from the defense of Arminians who believe that God would be unfair to predestinate some and damn others. Nor do I choose to look at it from the Calvinistic viewpoint that God because both predestinates those he saves and knows which ones who are going to be save at the end, that those who are predestinated have to choose to be saved. That argument seems to me to be a logical fallacy.

Being predestinated neither takes away your choice to accept God's invitation of salvation, as Armenians choose to view, nor does it mean that being predestinated means that you are automatically saved. For example, I could predestinate my friend to go to Las Vegas on New Year's Eve 2010. I equip her with a ticket headed for Las Vegas to arrive December 30th, 2009, in time for the celebration. Not only can she choose not to go, but she can also choose to go after rejecting the offer at first. She could, change her mind and arrive in Vegas and turn around and come back. She can even change the ticket to another destination altogether. Her choice not to follow the original plan, in no way negates the fact that she is predestinated to arrive in Vegas at the appointed time. If she follows the plan of action, she also does so because she is predestinated.

More specifically, predestination means that God chose to show you the truth of His salvation plan, giving you the privileged choice of life with him in eternity or eternal damnation. If you choose eternal life through Christ Jesus, it was your destiny all along. If you choose to stay bound after being presented the truth, you simply did not follow your destiny.

This leads me to double predestination. Predestination in my definition, is not the mechanism the damns people to hell. It is the Judgment of Christ that determines your qualification for damnation (John 12:44).

Predestination and Free Will

The choice that you make once enlightened to the truth is a choice that you previously did not have. He does not trample a free choice that you innately have. Instead, He offers you a choice that you otherwise would be oblivious to. I think that this view would fall in favor of the Calvinistic view point. Although I do not agree with the "Total Depravity" stance, I do also deny the Arminian "free will." The rationale is that at the time of the fall Adam had a true free will. A choice to obey the Father or relinquish His will to Satan. After that all mankind inherited a will in bondage to sin. The truth is that salvation frees you from that bondage. For, Christ came to set the captives free from the bondage of sin according to John 8:36. There is freedom in the Word of the Lord. If you abide in the word and the word abide in you then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). In sin you are bound, you are lost, you are dead, in Christ there is liberty. It is the love of God that shows mercy on your soul. And His loving kindness that predestinated you to be saved.

Eternal Security vs. Conditional Security

Why does the security have to be labeled with such constraints- eternal or conditional? The bible makes it clear that you are saved upon very specific criteria. I agree with the Arminian whose viewpoint says that one sin cannot get you out, and that the only way to get out is denying the way you got in. I also recognize the severity of falling into a pattern of specific sin whose spiritual consequences, in relationship relative to spiritual warfare; can lead you dangerously towards denying Christ. God's way to salvation is so perfect, so simplistic. It only involves your belief. Even the smallest measure of faith with in the minimal understanding of the Truth can obtain it according to John3:16. The, "Once saved always saved" of the Calvinist is a blanket belief that does not take into account the obvious possibility that you can lose your salvation in a way specifically spelled out in scripture- to deny the one who saved you. The security of your salvation lies within the Father's infallible plan. It is infallible because he is infallible and that no one can snatch you out of His hand once you have made the decision. His criteria are not going to all of a sudden change, and really have never change from the beginning of time. And His plan is so flawless that just so happened that all that he gave to Jesus did not fall away, excluding the son of perdition who followed God's plan that Christ be crucified. So, we can be secure in knowing that he equips us with what we need to endure until the end.

Two aspects of both viewpoints that I resent are, the way in Calvinism, God's is painted as an unfair by picking and choosing who he wants to save, using only His unrelenting sovereignty without regard to the choices of mankind. The other viewpoint I resent are Arminians whose teachings places on the children of God the extra burden of constantly being fearful of losing their salvation to every sin that is left unrepented, on a moment to moment basis. I John 2:1-2says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." The correct stance is that God really does not want anyone to perish, and those who do without the knowledge of Truth are the casualties of evil, ugly sin not the fault of the savior's perfect plan.

So, why do we need to endure if our salvation is secure? Because once we choose to receive the Father's gift of the Son, we will be tested by God and attacked by the adversary. We are equipped with gifts and the Holy Spirit as a guide to all truth, to overcome the world, the way Christ overcame the world. We can use His example of yielding His will to the will of the father every time He was tested.

I choose the view the difficult passages that speak towards the eternal security argument as a confirmation that you are equip with everything you need to succeed in God's predestination for your life. The one's that speak in favor of the Arminian view may serve as a measure of the caliber of Christian he is. For instance, Jesus speaks of the Kingdom as person's representing three types of soil. All three soils are in the kingdom but some receive the truth according to their soil. Rocky, Good or thorny are the soils that received the revelation of truth. In other words these passes can be a warning that says you think that you are saved, if this is how you are acting then this is the type of Christian you are. You never received it, you received it and lost it or you rejected it.

Unconditional Election

As far as unconditional election, I do believe that God chooses who He wills out of His Sovereign will accord His salvific plan. The elect did not earn it by any merit. God knows why and we are assured that His plan works for the good of those who are called… (Romans 8:28). I do agree with the Armenians that your election is not against your will. But, not that that will is free, it is only yours. To be elected is to be chosen, purposed in His plan, to hear His call, and to be enlightened to the truth. So, if when we hear, we receive and if we accept, His gifts, His power, we are equipped by His Spirit, and we are rewarded with eternal life. If we hear His call and we choose, to reject, or to be led astray we were part of the elect but now we are lost. He knows what your choice is going to be, but you don't.

That is why we must spread the gospel so that every man should have a choice. Christ will return when the gospel message reaches the ends of the earth (Matthew 24:14). The bible frequently speaks to the idea that he who sows will be overtaken by the reaper. In John 4, Jesus tells His disciples that the Harvest is ripe and the laborers are going to reap what they have not sown and enter into the labors of others. He also says that when you reap the fruit of eternal life.

God's predestination was necessary within His plan to save many. And it is the reason he is able to save any. This works to our advantage also, that if he is able to save any it is through His mercy that he predestinates some in order to win all. His way of seeding and harvesting is consistent throughout earth's history. His knowledge of who will be saved is merely a natural result of His omniscience and should not be entered as a matter of fact into His selection of the elect. Nor should it disqualify His fairness in judgment. Furthermore, the amount saved will be sufficient to ultimately demonstrate God's love, mercy and fairness in His judgment of the world. When God sows, He reaps exponentially. For the bible says that John saw a number that no man can number having the harps of God; and they sang "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and marvelous [are] Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true [are] your ways, O King of the saints (Revelations 15:3)!"

 

Boyd, Gregory A. and Paul R. Eddy. Accross the Spectrum; Understanding the Issues in Evangelical Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007.