Arminianism

Arminius and the Remonstrants

Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) was a Reformed pastor who had studied at Geneva under Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor, and from 1603 taught theology at the University of Leiden. He debated predestination with his colleague Franciscus Gomarus, and in his Declaration of Sentiments (1608) before the States of Holland he taught that God elects in Christ those he foreknows will believe. He also ascribed to grace the beginning, the continuance and the completion of every good Arminius, Declaration of Sentiments. In 1610, the year after his death, his followers presented five articles, the Remonstrance The Five Articles of Remonstrance. God has decreed to save in Christ those who believe and persevere in faith; Christ died for all, though only believers enjoy forgiveness; no one can do good of himself, but must be born again by the Spirit; yet that grace can be resisted. Whether true believers can fall away they left for further study of Scripture.

The word they held to was God's sincere desire for all:

who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:4

God takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11), and Paul says that "those God foreknew, He also predestined" (Romans 8:29). From such texts they concluded that God's choosing takes account of who will believe.

Wesley and after

The Synod of Dort (1619) rejected the Remonstrant teaching, and Remonstrant ministers were deposed or exiled. The view did not die. In the eighteenth century John Wesley stood so firmly in this tradition that he named his magazine The Arminian Magazine. Because sinners cannot turn to God by themselves, he taught, God gives everyone prevenient grace that enables them to respond Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. On 1 Timothy 2:4 he wrote that God wills seriously all men to be saved, "Not a part only, much less the smallest part" Wesley. Methodist and Holiness churches, many Pentecostals and some Baptists stand in this tradition today.

Other views and misunderstandings

Calvinism teaches that God chooses not on the basis of foreseen faith but by his good pleasure, gives faith itself to the elect, and by his grace so renews their wills that they surely come. Calvinists point to Paul's words that "it does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (Romans 9:16). Evangelicals still differ here, and each view defends itself from Scripture.

Arminianism is sometimes charged with Semi-Pelagianism, as if the sinner made the first move. But Arminius and Wesley taught that grace comes before every good desire. The two traditions part not over whether grace comes first but over whether it can be refused. On whether believers can fall from grace, the Wesleyan tradition teaches that they can turn away and, repenting, be restored, while the Reformed confess the perseverance of the saints. Wesley and the Calvinist George Whitefield divided over these questions but kept their friendship, and when Whitefield died in 1770, Wesley, by Whitefield's own wish as the story is told, preached his memorial sermon. The controversy is told in the lesson Protestant orthodoxy and the Puritans; on perseverance, see Can salvation be lost?