8 – The Contrast
Between Calvinism & Arminianism – The Providence of God – Predestination
(Part Two)
The Providence of God – Predestination (Part Two)
It is the view of Arminians that God makes
pre-decisions on one’s salvation and that pre-decision is conditioned on that
specific person’s act or work of repentance and belief.
Arminianism teaches
predestination that the ‘pre-decision on God’s part is to save the ones who
repent and believe.’ Thus this view is
called conditional predestination, since the predetermination of the destiny of
individuals is based on God’s foreknowledge of the way in which they will
either freely reject Christ or freely accept him. Walter A. Elwell, Ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition, p. 97
Arminius also
believed that the sublapsarian unconditional predestination view of Augustine
and Luther was unscriptural. This is the
view that Adam’s sin was freely chosen but that, after Adam’s fall, the eternal
destiny of each person was determined by the absolutely sovereign God. Ibid.
As a part of the
Arminian view of conditional predestination, is the emphasis on human
freedom. Here Arminius believed ‘in
original sin, understanding that the will of the natural fallen humans is not
only maimed and wounded, but that it is entirely unable, apart from prevenient
grace, to do any good thing. Ibid.
Next we’ll look at “The Providence of God – Election”
Doug
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