Peter the apostle exhorts us to set apart Christ as Lord and be always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have. and to do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience. In obedience to this exhortation and recognising the pressing need all around me and my dear brethren, I am engaging myself in this debate on the soteriological differences in Calvinism and Arminianism. I hope I will be able to provide ample scriptural proof to defend my Calvinistic convictions. I also hope that I will cover almost all the possible queries and challenges made to Calvinism in this series of writings. I will be using what an Arminian minister wrote to make known what they believe in. At the outset itself, let me inform all my readers that the Arminian minister whose words I quote is a dear brother of mine and an elder whom I respect and love a lot. Please do not think that my motive is to condemn him or prove him wrong, but to prove his theology wrong. Also bear in mind that my dear brother on the other side of the debate is more godly and mature than me. So please do not see this as a matter of conflict between two personalities, but rather a battle for accurate biblical truth.
1. The Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility
Arminian: I believe that just like a coin has two sides and a bird has two wings, biblical truth has two equal angles or dimensions to it. Into this same category comes the truth of “Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility”. With regard to our present discussion, you upheld the first part but has nothing to say about the other, even implying that man has no role whatsoever in the matter of salvation at any stage. I have my reservations on this matter. I''ll tell you why and I'll also tell you what I do believe about this whole issue. God always takes the initiative- He 'sent' His Son into the world so that we may not perish in our sins but receive eternal life (John 3:16); He 'chose' us and appointed us to go and bear fruit (John 15:16). Jesus constantly issued the invitation to people to "Come unto Me" or "Follow Me" (Matthew 4:18-22; 9:9; 11:28; 19:21) and said, "No man can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). This is one side. But there is another equal side to this truth- it is that man has a responsibility to respond to God's initiative. We can either accept the call of God and choose to follow Him or refuse to submit to the Holy Spirit's conviction and reject the Lord. To the Jews who did not follow Him, Jesus had two things to say- “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” AND “You refuse to come to Me” (John 5:40; 6:44). Notice what happened on the Day of Pentecost. People were convicted there and responded positively to the message. But on another occasion when Felix experienced conviction as a result of Paul's preaching, he asked Paul to go away. Two groups of people experiencing the same working of God's Spirit through the Gospel but responding in two different ways! (Acts 2:37; Acts 24:25). So, when I look into the Bible, I see again and again this “twin truth” at work. I see that God works in the heart of man and I see that that is not enough- man needs to make a choice.
If “total depravity” is applied without qualification to the mind, heart and will, it would mean that we are utterly incapable of thinking any wholesome thoughts, feeling any noble desires or choosing to do any good deed. That would seem absurd in the light of human experience. Even Jesus acknowledged that “if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.....”
Again, responsibility is “response-ability”. It is based on the ability to make choices between alternatives, the freedom of the will to make decisions. So, if a person has no choice in their course of action, that person cannot be held responsible! Justice is based on responsibility. The notions of reward for good actions and punishment for bad ones are based on the assumption that right or wrong choices were made. Judgement becomes “morally offensive” if those judged were unable to do otherwise!
How can unbelievers be judged for their sins if they are not responsible for them, since their wills were not free and they had no choice at all? The conscience rebels at such injustice. But that same conscience tells us “we are responsible”, that we had a choice and decided to do the wrong thing. How can believers be judged, either for reward or punishment, unless they are responsible for using or abusing grace?
My Answer:
To begin with, you start with the emphasis of twin truths in Scripture and then assert that God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is one such twin truth. I do agree with you that God is sovereign and man is responsible. But the implications you make of this truth proves that you believe only in the responsibility of man and for you, God being sovereign in salvation means He just responds to man's doings. I disagree with that as I do not see God as a passive responder in heaven. No, He is rather the One who is actively working to bring forth His eternal purposes to His determined end. In that course of divine action, He accomplishes His end without coercing any man. Man is always responsible for his works and each one will be rendered according to his works on judgment day. But even though man is thus responsible, God's eternal decrees and purposes are not ultimately dependent on man's decisions. Retaining man's responsibility, God still accomplishes His will, for He is Sovereign – His plans will always surpass any other's plans.
For eg: God in His plan to discipline His people Israel, used many evil nations without the active commitment of those nations. In other words those nations were not directly and consciously serving God, while attacking Israelites. They were evil men and war mongers, yet God accomplished His purpose using them, without their direct consent or co-operation. God directed their evil towards Israel and regulated their evil until He has finished disciplining them. After disciplining His people, God turned around and judged these very nations He used. Now in that course of action of attacking Israel, the will of those evil nations were not coerced, yet God accomplished His plan. Read Isaiah 10:5-7, where God says how to discipline Israel He used Assyria – an evil nation who has no purpose whatsoever to serve God, but to expand its territory by war. Assyrians never prayed to God to be used by Him. Neither were they peaceful men forced by God to wage war. They were evil men responsible for all their actions, yet God in His sovereignty directed their evil in His way and accomplished His purpose. So the truths - God is sovereign and man is responsible, are not like twin truths which co-operate to make God's purposes fruitful. God is always sovereign and thus all His eternal plans are fruitful. Yet man is also responsible for all his deeds and whether He does good or bad, the purposes of God do not find its efficacy or possibility in man's deeds. When we affirm God is thus sovereign to see all His purposes accomplished, we are also affirming His efficacy to bring forth every human deed that is His means to bring forth His desired end. This He is able to do without any coercing or violation of human responsibility.
What God is revealing is that, even if man be fallen and all hell break lose its demonic evil power, none of God's plan will fail. He is the sovereign active one whose decrees will always come to pass. What a mighty God we serve. His plans are ultimately not dependent on anything outside of Him. Through divine restraint and unrestraint on fallen men who are responsible for their evil, God accomplishes His plans. The truth about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is not one that promotes a synergistic approach towards God's purposes – the understanding that God's plans come to pass when God and man co-operates. There is no such co-operation needed for God to accomplish His sovereign plans. None of His plans will fail if man stops co-operating. None of God's plans has ever succeeded decisively because man co-operated with Him.
The best illustration of this truth is the one which the Holy Spirit used in the book of proverbs “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” (Proverbs 21:1). When we direct water to flow in a direction, we are not forcing it but directing it. In a similar yet far more exceeding way, God directs the evil fallen world to accomplish His divine plans. Praise be to Him who is Almighty, for He reigns and even though man is fallen and this world is under the dominion of darkness, He is victorious in that all His plans come to pass and all His purposes shall meet its end, as determined by Him. Oh what matter of great joy it is know that the Lord Almighty reigns!
It is of no joy and quite insulting to say that the Lord reigns – because some men are cooperating with Him. To make the Lord and His plans dependent on sinful humanity is to make God nothing but a puny little earthly king, who is somehow managing to retain his throne. No there is no leg of the throne of God that is held by man. The throne of God is intact and the Lord reigns. Blessed be the Lord forever amen.
Next you take this truth of divine-human co-operation and assert that in salvation, God's part is to initiate the work and man's part is to respond to it. Also saying that the outcome will always be dependent on man's choice. On the day of Pentecost, men chose positively but Felix upon Paul's preaching chose negatively. So based on men's choice the outcome changes. You even dare to say “God's work in the heart of man is not enough and man needs to make a choice.” Now it is true that based on men's choice, the outcome changes. If someone repents and believes in Jesus Christ, they shall be saved and if they reject the gospel, they shall be doomed. We agree on that. However to take that as a premise to charge God's sovereignty to so decisively depend on man's choice is not theologically sound.
For it is making two assumptions. First, it assumes that reprobation is not the purpose of God. To say that when someone rejects the gospel, the purpose of God has been failed is an affirmation of this assumption. This assumption can only hold good, if one believes in universal salvation. However if one is not an universalist, then it is perfectly sound to say that when reprobates deny the gospel they are not violating any purpose of God, rather the sovereign purposes of God are being fulfilled. See Romans 9:17 where God declares what His purpose regarding Pharaoh was. This truth is hard to digest for us, however we need to recognize that salvation is not a divine obligation. Secondly, your soteriology assumes an equivalence between human responsibility and human ability. Your whole understanding is based on a notion that all men have been given ability which if they responsibly use would result in their salvation. Though I believe in human responsibility, I deny any human innate ability. For if we humans had innate ability, then there would be no need for any grace or even a savior. All we wanted was a teacher who taught and led us to use that ability in a responsible way.
Am I teaching a salvation that is automatic, that which happens just like that? No, salvation is not automatic. Man has to repent and have faith in Christ Jesus to receive his salvation. But those acts of man is the result of “God working in the heart of man”. The reason why people – that too not all- but some who were at Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost – repented and believed is because God in His grace worked in their hearts and the reason Felix did not respond positively is because God did not work in His heart to repent and believe the gospel. Since salvation is not a divine obligation and men are fallen and responsible for their sins, reprobates like Felix would be punished on the last day, not because God did not work in them, but because they are hell deserving sinners. However men are saved precisely because God worked in them. Concerning the conversion of Lydia, Acts 16:14 says "the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." and in Acts 18:27, Luke calls believers as "those by grace had believed". You yourselves know that both repentance and faith are gifts of God (2Timothy 2:25; Romans 2:4; 2Corinthians 7:10; I Timothy 1:14 ;Philippians 1:29). Just because they are acts required of man does not mean that man is able to do it apart from God. It is God who requires that man should repent of his sins and believe in the finished work of His Christ. It is the same God who grants repentance and faith. It is all God all the way.
Now the question comes then why does some believe and some don't. Is it because of something in man that determines why some are saved and some don't. All “free will” theologians will say – yes, it is in man we find the ultimate reason why some are saved and some are not. Now in our present discussion, we are dealing with the ultimate and not the immediate reasons why some are saved and some are not. It is true that those who are not saved, did reject the gospel. However is that the ultimate reason or not? Now both you and I affirm the truth, that the means of salvation, namely repentance and faith are both gifts of God. If that be the case, then freewill theologians are saying that God gifted these gifts of repentance and faith to some, because they qualified to receive them, while some did not. So then in essence, they are saying that these - repentance and faith, are not gifts but wages for once doings or works. Then I submit – salvation is no longer of grace. When the Bible says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no-one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)
If the reason for the reception of grace by some and the rejection by the rest is ultimately found in man, then in essence we are saying that, there are different kinds of sinners- some who are better than the others. These better sinners are paid by God with repentance and faith and they are saved. But the other group being an inferior group of sinners are punished by God by not giving them repentance and faith, and so they are not saved. Does the Bible at any place present any such degrees of sinfulness in sinners? Where in the Bible do you find any truth stating that there are some who are better sinners than the rest. Haven't “we all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” ?
Having shown that God is sovereign – that His purposes and plans need no help or co-operation from man and that “free will” theology cannot explain why some are saved and some are not, let me share the truth in love. It is again God's sovereignty that explains why some are saved and some are not. It is not in man that we find the reason. It is in God who is free to gift in grace- repentance and faith to some and not to some. It is His free will to do so. There is no further explanation needed. For God is God and who are we to question Him about His ways. The ones whom He gives grace, are equally sinful like the rest and it is not because of anything they did or any inherent quality in them that forced God to give them grace. If it were so then it is no longer grace. As it is written “And if by grace,then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” God grants some the gifts of repentance and faith, purely because it is His purpose to save them. He does not gift the others with these purely because it is His purpose to not save them. Those whom are thus chosen by God to be saved by His grace are the elect of God and the rest are the reprobate.
Another argument of yours against total depravity is as follows
If “total depravity” is applied without qualification to the mind, heart and will, it would mean that we are utterly incapable of thinking any wholesome thoughts, feeling any noble desires or choosing to do any good deed. That would seem absurd in the light of human experience. Even Jesus acknowledged that “if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.....”
Here again you are assuming the definition of total depravity. We do not deny that man can think or feel or choose. But by the doctrine of total depravity, we mean that man through any amount of his thinking and feeling or choosing is unable to bring about his salvation. It is not merely an unwillingness as you believe, but rather an incapacitated nature as declared in Roman 8:7 as “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so”. His will though free and not coerced is bound by this nature and thus unwilling to any work that accompanies his salvation.
Thus we have total or radical depravity – a fallen nature and a bound will. This necessitates the need for regeneration in salvation. What about the above quoted statement of Jesus? Please note that Jesus did not say that though they are evil, they are capable of bringing forth their salvation. He was referring to the choosing of good gifts for their children, which like mentioned above we do not deny that man cannot. We deny the fact that man being free and able in such things not pertaining to salvation must also be considered to be free and able concerning salvation.
Now coming to the matter of responsibility and judgment. Your notion is that if God is sovereign then men cannot be held accountable for the sins they do or be rewarded with rewards. It sounds very reasonable, but then it can be proved wrong. This logic of your argument comes out of a wrong perception of the sovereignty of God – that He is a dictator ruling robots like humans. In the beginning of my reply, I mentioned the nature of God's sovereignty and how that includes man's responsibility also, yet man remains not coerced and responsible for his actions. Concerning judgment of evil men who will be found in their sins on the last day, it is perfectly just of God to send a fallen God hating child of Adam to hell. There is no dispute over it. God should be praised that He restrained the evil in them that they did not become monsters of hell as they ought to. Like He restrained Abimelech from committing adultery with Sarah, He restrains the evil of the wicked. But still they are sinners worthy of judgment. Since God in His sovereignty, did not grant them grace does not excuse them from their sins.
For to say that God is sovereign does not mean that man is irresponsible. But rather man being fallen and free to sin does not stop or spoil any plan of God. His eternal purposes are immutable and no matter what, they will be accomplished by Him – retaining the responsibility of man. Like the illustration of guiding the watercourse, the water is responsible for flowing, yet God directs its direction. In salvation, not only is the course set by God, but the very source of the flow of water – viz. those acts of man like repentance and faith, are also found in God. Then the question comes about how in this monergistic view can eternal rewards be given to God's people? Here again, we need to consider the truth about God's sovereignty in salvation and how it includes man's responsibility also.
Jesus told a parable in Matthew 20 about a vineyard owner hiring labourers. This is a parable which speaks about “the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first” meaning many things like the partial hardening of Jews and the calling in of Gentiles in the gospel dispensation, that staring out early in Christianity does not make us 'senior' brothers to others etc. But it also speaks about the equal reward of God – all who are saved shall receive the same reward – which is eternal fellowship with Christ. Paul told Timothy that the crown of righteousness which he will get from God, will also be given to all who love the appearing of Christ, meaning all saints of God. Coming back to the parable of Jesus, it is noteworthy to note the context in which Jesus told this parable. The rich young ruler has just walked away from Jesus rejecting the call to follow. Seeing it, Jesus remarked on how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Hearing it, Peter exclaimed at the difficulty of salvation. To which Jesus said “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” When Peter heard that, he boasted about his following of the Lord. To this statement of Peter, Jesus started his teaching on the equality of reward for all saints, whether they started early in life or like the Apostles early in the history of the church. Whatever be the case the reward is the same.
Now the question is why the reward is the same? Well that can only be answered if we understand the sovereignty of God in salvation. It is God who saves, for with man salvation is impossible. It is God who sanctifies, it is God who causes His saints under the New Covenant to obey Him. Listen to these verses in Ezekiel where He declares His sovereign working among His saints through grace -
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them.”
There is no mention of any free will or dependence on man's cooperation in these verses. God is quite confident in His work that His people shall walk in obedience before Him. Seeing that all is done by God and whatever acts worthy of reward found in His saints are the outcome of His work, the question we rather ask is why should the saints be rewarded? Should not God alone be rewarded. It is His mercy that He chooses to reward His saints, who are His workmanship in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which He prepared in advance for them to do. If in addition to the basic and common reward of eternal fellowship with Christ, God gives special rewards for His people, based on what they did for His Name, then also no ground can be made for such good deeds that is not ultimately founded upon the Sovereign working of God in them. For the good works of the saints were foreordained by God (Ephesians 2:10) and it is quite amazing that He rewards us for these good works. No wonder the saints in heaven throw their crowns at the feet of the Lord and worship Him.
Paul says in Romans 2:7,8 “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” Simply reading these verses may make us think that Paul is a proponent of work salvation. But we know he was the greatest proponent of grace in his day. So these verses should be seen in light of grace. How does the saints persist in doing good and seek glory, honour and immortality from God? Well the answer is because of God working in them through grace. How does the rest do all that is displeasing to God? Well because they are fallen beings. Like I said earlier, just because God did not give them grace does not excuse them from their sins. Through grace salvation is given to the elect and hence there is no boasting for them. Also since salvation is by grace, those who are the reprobates have no grounds for murmuring – for grace to be grace is to be freely given and not demanded.
