Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism

First I have a confession to make. I am not a theologian, nor am I trained in any kind of official academic sense. I come reluctantly to the table, because I seek truth and in the real world truth must be culled out and defended against the opinions of men and certain false ideas of history. On the other hand, scripture is of no private interpretation. Please understand that I write this with a sense of fear and humility as one compelled to think through and test things out. I have studied Paul’s writings, the gospels, and most of the rest of the Bible for many years, and I have read many other books about various aspects of the faith. However, I want to delve into how I have worked out certain issues, and I think it is important given some of my forceful views on grace, to spell this out for those who are interested or who would like to discredit my views.

Calvinism and Arminianism are fancy words for two opposing theologies. The way they see it, you are either one or the other. Calvinism has to do with the idea that God predestines things, foreknows things, that He not only knows what will happen in the future but also orchestrates future events. If He is God, it must be so! Arminianism basically says that God has cut the strings, we have full autonomous decision and control over our actions. The one says predestination, the other says free will.

Here is why this matters. Calvinism links its idea of grace to this notion that God chooses us, by His foreknowledge, and predestines us to salvation. More than forgiveness, God chooses us to be saved completely regardless even of our faith. Faith itself is a gift, so that everything about our salvation is based on the sovereignty of God completely. We really literally have no human agency, it is completely the decision of God that some are saved and some are not.

Arminians believe that there is human agency – faith. Grace may be offered, and is offered to all men, but can be rejected as an act of free will. Believers are not beyond falling from grace, in the some circles of the Arminian mindset. Other Arminians are not so clear that one can fall from grace, having been saved. If, as the Calvinists say, we cannot choose, then how is there sin, how does God hold anyone accountable? If God judges then God is evil, because there would be no choice to do right or wrong.

We can prove that Calvinism is correct from passages such as the following:

“What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?'” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:14-21, NIV.

We see that it is by God’s sovereign decision that Pharaoh was hardened, that Moses was chosen. We ought not even ask.

On the other hand, we can prove that Arminianism is true from passages such as this:

“I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” Romans 11:13-22, NIV.

Obviously there is a rich and varied thread throughout the whole of scripture that could support either of these diametrically opposed viewpoints. I am certain that I have not even chosen the best ones! However, these are interesting because they are part of the same stream of thought by Paul in the book of Romans, where he brings up both positions and argues them both with equal force. Apparently, Paul was a Calvinist AND an Arminian! In the same stream of thought!

Clearly there is another way to view this. Paul says, “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”, and later in Romans 11, he says the following:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.” Romans 11:33-36, NIV.

I believe this is our cue. The real truth about predestination and free will is a deep mystery of God, an unsearchable judgment. It is a path which is beyond tracing out. It is the utter height of foolishness to base our ideas about grace and our foundational thinking about how we relate to God upon a human one-sided opinion concerning something that we absolutely know is beyond our comprehension. Our actions are at once completely autonomous and at the same time completely predestined. Both are completely true, Calvinism must be true AND Arminianism must be true. They are both simultaneously true. Since this is a deep and unknowable mystery of God, we are constrained by the first 3 commandments to avoid making idols and false images, to stop making flippant and arrogant comments about how this works simply because we have taken some classes or read some books, and leave such things up to the sovereign mind of God.

Thus, we come to grace. Grace is that love of God which He intends for us to know and experience. Grace is not and cannot be tied to a perfection of understanding about the relationship between predestination and free will. To make this the condition is to set up the most terrible and unattainable law that was ever conceived. The fact that preachers are taught to tie ideas about the beautiful grace and love of God to such unknowable things is the very height of pharisaical devilry. Our understanding of grace was never meant to be tied to Calvinism or Arminianism. This has got to be something that no one would dispute, because Calvinists would say you are predestined anyway and could not stop God’s redemption, while Arminians would say that it depends on human agency in expressing faith. Do you get it? In a practical sense, and in a profound theological sense, we are not to know, and it does not matter because either way it would come out in the wash in the exact same manner.

So, grace is not bound to predestination or free will. It is something else. For us it is entering into the belief that we are tremendously loved. Faith is childlike, and for my part, this is not optional. I will press on in my ignorance of these issues, leaving things that are too great for me to others, secure in the knowledge that I am the pearl He sold all to procure. Love is greater than the petty machinations of unknowable theology and that is the sandbox I want to play in!

Posted in Scandalous Grace and tagged , .

6 Comments

  1. Glad to see you addressing this. Myself, I would say not that both Calvinism and Arminianism are correct, but rather that neither is correct. Whenever I say I’m not a Calvinist, people assume I’m Arminian, which isn’t true. C.S. Lewis says that error often comes in pairs–pairs of opposites. People get used to the dichotomy and are unable to conceive of a third option.

    As you say, these are high matters. I rejoice, as you do, that neither my salvation nor my experience of grace is linked to my understanding of the subject!

  2. Jim,

    You sound a Calvary Chapel guy. I used to be a Calvary Chapel guy too. I wanted to believe that this was the better way, but inevitably and reluctantly succumbed to the Reformed teaching (Calvinism). Allow me to offer a kind of common sense way of understanding the problem of other positions. This also demonstrates the relationship between God’s sovereignty and the free-will of man to choose as he pleases.

    Let’s assume the Arminian position of redemption. Let’s say we have two people (equally wooed), and one says yes to God’s offer, and the other says no. You would have to agree that there would have to be “some” reason why one says yes and the other says no. The alternative would be to accept the idea of “no reason.”

    The reason(s) would have to be something along the lines of (say) better mental faculties, a more sound psychological condition, general disposition at birth, or perhaps it was due to the family they were born into and all the experiences they had growing up. Likewise, these things can and do produce pride, stubborness, arrogance, etc.

    Again, you would have to agree that it is for “some” reason rather than none at all. It would have to be because of something along these lines. What else is there?

    This begs the question: What out of the totality of your entire existence, including mental faculties, psychological wholeness, disposition, family, experiences, and even the very reality you find yourself in, do you not owe to an act of God’s grace in your life somewhere along the way. The answer is obvious: nothing.

    As you can see, even if you want to assume this position you still end up at the same place. You still end up with one having received something by way of an act of God’s grace that the other didn’t receive. According to God’s purposes, some receive the grace that overcomes every obstacle and others simply don’t.

  3. Hi Roger,

    I greatly appreciate the dialog, particularly on this post. I’m not worried about what camp I’m in. My point here stems from the idea that God has constructed humanity so that we DO have autonomy, that we are not puppets. He made sure in the garden that there was a forbidden tree, which represented a choice. Maybe He did predestine that Adam and Eve would sin, but that is a little weird is it not? Actually, the important thing is that the true depths of that are beyond us, but from our point of view there IS choice.

    Consider the nature of the fall:

    “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6, NKJV.

    You see that prior to this, they never had a division between moral good and aesthetic good. Everything that was desirable had also been moral. There was this choice which existed to do something which no one wanted to do. This is not really a choice. But now, it became a choice. Now we are fallen, we have this Adamic nature, which at its root is this division between the moral good and the aesthetic good. This is the rift, the disease, which God is seeking to heal.

    We are now surrounded with the forbidden which is desirable. Holiness is universally seen to be a struggle. The finer points of the sermon on the mount (don’t even look, ever!) seem almost a joke. But Jesus seeks to fashion us back into people who are unified – we desire what is holy. If you want to go down the rabbit hole I have written much on this – click the ‘desire’ category and read some of the older ones.

    God has brought down that choice, just as in the garden, to one single point. We can choose Christ. We can choose grace. Just as in the garden, it is a one time thing that sticks forever. God may predestine everything, and I believe that, but He does not construct it so that we have no choice in the matter. It is paramount that we CHOOSE Him. Similar to Lot in Sodom, if He can find that one little shred of choice for good in us, He will zoom in and rescue us from the moral mayhem of ourselves.

    In Ephesians 1-3, which is the mountain-top pinnacle of the message of predestination, we have a ringing endorsement of the full-bore foreknowledge and grace of God. Even our works are prepared beforehand for us. Calvinists rightly sieze upon this, it is complete foolishness to ignore this critical passage. Don’t think I say what I am saying in ignorance of this. I have led studies through this book numerous times, and one of the main points is the observation that there is not a single command or imperative statement in the entire first half of the letter. It is ALL about our identity in Christ. Everything in Eph 4-6 is all supposed to happen in light of this – “walk in a manner worth of the calling”. Honestly, this is exciting stuff.

    That being said, we still have this one choice which God has put in our court. God may have predestined it, but he still intends it to be OUR CHOICE. IN Romans 10, right in the heart of a discussion of this nature, Paul says:

    “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or,” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”” Romans 10:4-11, NKJV.

    We see this idea of belief and faith being the agents by which one enters into grace rampant through Romans. Consider this:

    “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1, 2, NASB.

    So, I submit that history has handed us a false dichotomy – calvinism / arminianism. Arminianism isn’t even on the table for me. It carries the idea that your salvation is tied to a moral repentance which is untrue; our salvation is tied to faith, and our moral development, our ‘sanctification’ if you will, is a fruit of right belief. It also says that due to some mysterious line of moral failure, we can lose our salvation. I don’t believe any of that.

    Calvinism tends to strip away the idea that we have a very human choice to make, that God has constructed our place such that we have a choice, a decision, a desire for grace. It is by faith that we are introduced into this grace in which we stand. It is possible to look back and see God’s hand in things, but we must be careful lest we put ourselves in the place of God when we analyze how these things work.

    Predestination is fully true, and free will choice is fully true. This is a mystery of God, and should be left there. Otherwise it is a short slippery slope to hyper-calvinism, that says that God creates people whom He predestines for eternal hell, making God evil. If we truly have no choice, then how does God judge? For our part, we have free will, and in Christ our free will says, Christ saved me!

  4. I am late to this party! I found this site after delving into the “radical” grace (as if grace could be anything but radical!) of Gerhard Forde. Guess I’ll weigh in on this topic.

    The apparent contradictions cited in the article lead one to the crux theologorum. Scripture, as you point out, cites evidence for both the Calvinist/Reformed doctrine of double-predestination and irresistible grace AND for the Arminian free-will/choice doctrine. Rather than attempt to address this apparent contradiction, we Lutherans (we proud Lutherans!) confess that we cannot answer it!

    For a really nice breakdown of the crux, check out the following:
    http://www.stpaulslutheranchurch.net/cruxtheologorum.html

    Or read the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the LCMS:
    (see the “Of Conversion” section)
    http://www.lcms.org/doctrine/doctrinalposition

    Cheers, and thanks for preaching pure, un-distilled grace!

    • Thanks for the thoughtful response and the great resources that you linked to. Once again, I find myself in theological alignment with the Lutherans. Blessings – Jim McNeely

      • Thanks for the kind response. And I want to encourage you. Keep doing what you are doing on this site. For too many of us in the modern church, grace is not being properly preached. I look to the writings of people like you, Tullian Tchividjian, Gerhard Forde, and others, to help me realize the full beauty of the Gospel! As Tullian says, let’s keep the symbol of Christianity a cross and stop trying to make it into a ladder.

        Peace and blessings,
        Jason

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *