The controversy between Arminianism and Calvinism arose in Holland in the early 1600's. The founder of the Arminian party was Jacob Arminius (1560-1609). He studied under the strict Calvinist Theodore Beza at Geneva and became a professor of theology at the University of Leyden in 1603. Gradually Arminius came to reject certain Calvinist teachings. The controversy spread all over Holland, where the Reformed Church was the overwhelming majority. The Arminians drew up their creed in Five Articles and laid them before the state authorities of Holland in 1610 under the name Remonstrance, signed by forty-six ministers.
When the Calvinists responded to the Remonstrance, they replied to the doctrine of free will with the doctrine of total depravity. In other words, men are born depraved and their depravity is total such that there is no part of man unaffected by the fall – even his will. Hence for a man to willingly choose to repent, believe and treasure Christ is a result of God's work in grace. Thus the saved are so because of God's grace and not because they were willing or seeking to be saved. All their willing and seeking prior to their conversion were all the results of God drawing them towards Him.
Though Arminians agree to the doctrine of total depravity they deny the implications of it. They rather propose that grace is needed to aid a man to choose to believe in the gospel. However the Calvinist view of grace is not as an aid to fallen will, but as God's sufficient work to bring about salvation of His elect. The Arminians believe that God gives this aid to all men to overcome his depraved will and choose the gospel. However they actually in effect deny the depravity of human will by saying that man can resist this divine aid and reject to believe the gospel. So they end up saying that man's free will is more powerful than God's grace.
But if you accept the doctrine of total depravity, then for anyone to be saved, God is needed not to aid his dead will but to give him a new willing heart and then there arises this question - why God does not work likewise in the hearts of all men in the world and get them saved? The answer is God's sovereignty and His election. That God is free to do as He wills and that He has chosen a multitude of sinners that no man can number to salvation and every single one of them and only them will get saved. Hence discussing the doctrine of total depravity and free will is very important to have a clear understanding of the salvation and grace found in the Bible.
Please also note that though historically Arminianism and Wesleyan Arminianism at least accommodated the doctrine of total depravity in their theology, today's Arminians and pop Christianity totally refutes it and wholeheartedly believes in the free will of an unregenerate man to be the decisive factor in salvation. Today the understanding of fallen men means those who are unwilling as opposed to those who are unable or 'dead' men. This debate seems to be an argument on this modern Arminianism which is nothing but Semi - Pelagianism.
2. The Doctrine of Total Depravity
Arminian : Advocates of “total depravity” deny that man has any choice in this matter. They say that sin has so corrupted his will that he is quite incapable of choosing to be saved. The choice is made entirely by God and only when God has decided to save him and begun to do so will he find himself repenting and believing. This understanding comes in part from an interpretation of a passage in Jeremiah 18 in which people are likened to clay in the hands of a potter. Many argue that God is the potter who does what he chooses with the clay, that the clay has no choice. But Jeremiah 18 may actually be making the “opposite” point! For in the parable, the potter had every intention of making the clay into a beautiful vase, but the clay would not run in his hands. So he made it into a lump again and put it back on the wheel and made a crude, thick cooking pot!
God was teaching Jeremiah that “we should choose to cooperate with the potter” and allow him to make something beautiful out of us. The application in Jeremiah's day was that God wanted to make the people of Judah a beautiful vessel holding His mercy, but instead He had to make an ugly vessel holding His judgement because of their stubbornness and disobedience. This parable is showing us something very simple: it shows that if we respond to God, the destiny which he planned for us from the foundation of the world will be ours, and if we resist God, we will miss His best plan for us. But there is nothing to suggest that if God “predestines” us to be something, His will and plan will automatically or surely happen!
Let me put it another way to describe what I mean by “cooperation with God”. It is as if someone threw a rope to a drowning man and the man throwing the rope said, “Grab hold of this, and hold on until I have got you to the shore.” Would the drowning man say when he got to the shore, that he had saved himself by hanging on? Never! He would say that someone had saved him. The idea that you saved yourself because you held on is just not true, but you have your part to play.
In Romans 9, we find the illustration of “the potter and the clay” again with regard to Pharaoh. This passage admittedly seems, at first sight, to support a completely arbitrary decision of the potter, independent of any character in the clay. “Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” But let's go back to Pharaoh. The record says that his heart was “hardened” ten times. But of these, the “first seven hardenings” are attributed to “his own refusal to listen to God”. The “last three hardenings” were “the work of God”. This is the general pattern of God's dealings throughout Scripture. If we choose to be holy, He is with us all the way. If we choose to be sinful, there comes a point where He helps us on our way, both fixing and furthering our chosen course. If we will not let Him make us a vessel of mercy, He will make us a vessel of judgement. This can be seen in the first chapter of Romans, where men give God up and so God gives men up, to the ugly and obscene desires of their fallen nature. And it is also confirmed in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 where God sends a powerful delusion to people such that they believe the lie of the Enemy all because they refused to love the truth but delighted in wickedness when there was the opportunity to be saved.
My Reply:
To begin with what does the doctrine of total depravity mean? Well it means that the depravity of man after the fall is total and that there is nothing in him – even his will, which is not depraved. Thus man is incapable to save himself and is in need of a Saviour outside of him, who should not merely aid him, but resurrect him from his spiritual death. This is what all Reformed Christians mean by the doctrine of total depravity. But somehow modern Arminian theology presents a man who is sinful but somehow his will is in some mysterious fashion is not that sinful, which lacks a divine aid to choose the gospel. Hence they have the basis for a synergistic theology of conversion. To show the condition of man as God declares in His Scriptures, please consider the following verses in Genesis before and after the flood :
“ The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
“The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.'...”
Ever since the fall of man, his nature is utterly sinful and his will bound by his evil nature is also depraved. Thus he is utterly incapable of any initiation or co-operation in things that accompany salvation. His will is free to choose what to wear, where to spend his money etc., but all he does is in the realm of sin, for he is bound by his fallen nature, captive to the spirit of disobedience which is at work in him. The Bible presents only two kinds of men – they that are controlled by God's Spirit and they that are under the control of the devil. They that are in the Kingdom of the Son and they that are under the dominion of darkness. There is no neutral group. Every sinner to whom the gospel is preached is a servant of the devil. There is no picture of any 'free willed' men in the Bible. Your will is either being worked upon by the Spirit of God or by the prince of the air. Also there is no point in God aiding this dead will of man, but rather should regenerate man - give him a new heart and praise Him for this is what He does in conversion.
Let me consider all those passages you used to refute this doctrine.
You quote Jeremiah 18 to prove synergism and refute the utter incapability of man to bring about repentance or faith apart from God. First of all it is not using Jeremiah 18, that we get the doctrine of total depravity. The illustration of the potter and the clay that Paul uses in Romans 9 to explain the Sovereignty of God comes from Isaiah 29:16; 45:9. A careful exegesis of this chapter in Jeremiah also will prove that the understanding of total depravity is not contradicted by it and moreover is a wonderful passage leading us to realize the absolute necessity of monergistic salvation. In this passage the Lord sends the prophet to the potter's house to receive the word of the Lord. There he sees how the potter is free to mould a lump of clay into whichever fashion he likes. He is under no obligation to the clay, but free to mould it to make any kind of vessel out of it. The clay cannot dictate the potter to make it a vessel for noble use or ignoble use. It is the potter's freedom to do whatever He pleases to do with it.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the absolute authority of God to do as He wills according to His purpose. But then he declares that His ways are just in His dealings. It is for sin that He sends judgement and repentance alone will cause Him to relent. This shows the mercy of God in that though His creation -whether nations or individuals who have sinned are perfectly worthy of His wrath, He withholds it for their repentance. He does not send His judgement as soon as sin is found, but is forbearing. Now at this point, you might say that this proves that man is able to repent and by doing so he should co-operate with God. Well please continue reading the chapter.
“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
Even before the prophet is send to the people to preach the message, God tells him about the response of His people. He foresees their obstinacy and tells Jeremiah that this message of repentance will be rejected. Now most reasonably we might ask, if God knows this is something we cannot do, why does He require it in the first place? Well when Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus, He said something we know that Lazarus cannot do, but still it happened. Now the question is for what purpose did Jesus say those words - “Lazarus,come out!”. Was it because Lazarus was able to do it and Jesus was requiring him to do that which is in his power to do. Well certainly we know dead people cannot raise themselves. Then Jesus said those not for Lazarus to do something which he can do apart from Christ. For then it is no miracle of Jesus. But then it is also noteworthy that for Lazarus to be raised up, should not Lazarus get up and walk out of the tomb. Yes for sure. Here we have an act required of a man, who is absolutely utterly unable to do it. But it does come forth as a miraculous working of God in him. Thus Lazarus did come out, but as a result of the miraculous power of Christ working in Him. Also note Christ was not aiding dead Lazarus to come out of His tomb, but rather He resurrected Him. What a great picture of the inability of man and the monergistic salvation wrought by God. Thus the message of repentance is one that is to be obeyed by man and God requires it for salvation. But then man is incapable to do it. Note the word I use is incapability and not unwillingness. For Lazarus was not hiding in the tomb, but dead and buried in the tomb.
Just because he is incapable does not mean that we should not proclaim it. But rather we should proclaim it. For then the Lord who saves will work upon men and enable them to do that which is impossible for men. It is not God doing His part – dying on the cross, and men doing their part – repenting and believing. No it is all God all the way. Certainly repentance and faith are acts of man, but wrought by God. The response of man to the gospel is very much important but is made possible by God.
“But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:21
Listen to the conversion of Lydia in Acts 16:14
“One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
Your interpretation of Jeremiah 18 is that we should co-operate with the Lord, as you point out that it was because the clay was unwilling to co-operate with the potter to make it into a beautiful vase, that he made it into a cooking pot. In the first place there is no mention of any vase in the passage and the potter changing his mind to make it a crude thick cooking pot. Those are your imaginations. The Bible says that he was trying to make it into a pot, “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” Now you call the clay being marred as an unwillingness to co-operate. That is a common argument against radical depravity. To call sin as a mere unwillingness and not an inability, is to fail in seeing the utter sinfulness of sin. It is to say that our nature is not that dead to God and that we can if we want change our unwillingness to willingness any moment we decide. There again going by your argument, if the clay was willing then the potter would have accomplished his plan, is to say that there are different types of clay and synonymously there are different types of sinners – some who are better than other, better because they co-operate while others do not. This as mentioned earlier is unscriptural. The truth rather is that all clay is marred. There is no clay which is not marred. But the potter is gracious enough and powerful enough to make some into vessels of honour.
Again your illustration of a drowning man saved from a pit has a characteristic Arminian flaw. In your illustration the man is drowning – meaning he is unable to save himself because he is in a pit. But the Bible gives us a different picture of unregenerate sinners – they are dead in their trespasses and sins. So the sinner is unable to save himself not just because he is in a bad spot, but that he is dead. So the illustration should rather be like this: I am dead and drowning in a pit. Then comes my Saviour – not because I called Him, but it is His desire to save me and thereby declare His goodness and glory. So He first resurrects me and then throws the rope and asks me to grab it tightly. Because I am alive through the life He gave me, I am able to grab tightly. He thus saves me. I sure had a part to play but even that was made possible because of the glorious grace of my blessed Saviour . How dare we call it our co-operation?
Now coming to the actual passage in Isaiah from where the illustration of potter and clay comes into this discussion of the absolute sovereignty of God.
Isaiah 29:16:
“You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?”
Isaiah 45:9:
“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, `What are you making?’ Does your work say, `He has no hands’?”
I am not going to give you my interpretation of these passages, but rather listen to the apostolic interpretation of it from Romans 9 :
“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?’“ [Isaiah 29:16; 45:9] 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? What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory — even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”
Here we have the clear word on unconditional election of God and the reprobation of God. Now in your understanding election and especially hardening are responses of God to our conduct. To prove that you even pointed out that the first seven hardenings of the heart of Pharaoh was a result of his own refusal to listen to God and only the last three hardenings were the work of God. Let us verify your arithmetic. If you read Exodus chapter 4, even before Moses did any miracles or proclaimed the word of the Lord to Pharaoh, listen to what God says in verse 21 :
“The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”
Hence it is noteworthy to say that it has always been the plan of God to harden the heart of Pharaoh, to display His power and for the proclamation of His Name among all the earth. Praise and glory be to Him who uses even the wicked for the glory of His Name, a privilege that Pharaoh was most unworthy of.
Like pointed earlier, the elect are the elect only because of God as it is written in I Corinthians “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus”. The scripture knows nothing of any free willed co-operation of us by which we are in Christ Jesus, but God who sovereignly chooses the subjects of His salvation and the good shepherd who chooses His sheep. For men are born radically deparaved and are dead in their sins. Let me repeat, it is not merely an unwillingness requiring a divine aid as you pointed out, but rather an incapacitated nature requiring spiritual resurrection 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 uncoerced is bound by this nature and thus unwilling and incapable to do 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.
