Hi,
I'm trying to understand the philosophical differences between various Protestant denominations. I'm also a fan of The Babylon Bee, and one of the big splits they routinely mention is the one between Calvinists and Arminians. However, they never really explain the main differences.
If I do a web search for "Calvinist and Arminian", I get lots of articles comparing and explaining their differences. However, the explanations use terminology I still don't understand.
For example, one guide explains:
Man's Will
The free will of man versus God's sovereign will is linked to many points in the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate.
Calvinism: All men are totally depraved, and this depravity extends to the entire person, including the will. Except for God's irresistible grace, men are entirely incapable of responding to God on their own.
Arminianism: Because prevenient grace is given to all men by the Holy Spirit, and this grace extends to the entire person, all people have free will.
I'm interpreting this to mean that Calvinists don't believe mankind has freewill, and that their salvation has been predetermined by God, whereas Arminians believe mankind have a choice in whether or not they accept God. Is that correct?
Correct.
Classic five point Calvinism holds that human beings do not have the freewill to be righteous or do anything to affect their salvation, and thus salvation can only come by God's grace, through faith, which God gives those whom He predestined to salvation as His elect, those whom God predestined to salvation cannot resist His grace, they cannot choose not to believe, they believe because God wills that they believe, and thus the saved cannot fall away.
This is demonstrated in the traditional dive points of Calvinism (often called TULIP) that was put forward by the Synod of Dordt in the 17th century as a response against Arminianism.
Total Depravity - man is totally sinful, even his will and reason is held in bondage to sin, and therefore can accomplish nothing to affect his own salvation.
Unconditional Election - God chose who would be saved, and predestined them, not based on anything they would do, but unconditionally according to His own sovereign will.
Limited Atonement - Since only those whom God has predestined to salvation can and will be saved, Christ only died for the elect, not for anyone else. Christ's atoning work is limited only to the elect.
Irresistible Grace - The calling of God through the Gospel is irresistible, the elect hear and believe, and they cannot choose otherwise. God's grace and call cannot be resisted by those whom He predestined to be saved. Even as those whom God has not predestined can in no way ever believe it it, and such grace is not for them anyway.
Perseverance of the Saints - Since by God's predestining of the elect and His irresistible grace and call means the elect will believe, and cannot ever not believe, it is impossible for the elect to ever fall away, but will persevere until the end for God has willed it to be so. Therefore anyone who falls away was never a believer in the first place.
All of this is in contrast to the views of Jacob Arminius, and the five articles of Remonstrance (Remonstrant was the original term applied to the Arminians):
1. Conditional Election - God by His foreknowledge knows who will come to Him, and has therefore predestined that those who come to Him shall be saved, election is conditional upon the choices men make in this life to believe.
2. Unlimited Atonement - Christ died for all, at least in potential, salvation is freely available to anyone who would choose to believe in Christ.
3. Total Depravity - Man is, by his own power and unassisted by God's grace to accomplish anything for his own salvation.
4. Prevenient Grace - God has given a measure of common grace to all, thus while man in his fallen condition cannot operate his will to affect his own salvation, there is a common grace which exists for all men that assists them in making a choice to believe in Christ and thus be saved.
5. Conditional Perseverance - Those who have put their faith in Christ shall endure to the end if they continue to place their faith and hope in Jesus Christ, if they fall away and reject the faith, they have become apostate. Such a person who was a believer, but turns away, has become a non-believer.
Just as a quick aside, I'm neither an Arminian nor a Calvinist, but a Lutheran. Sometimes people think Lutheranism is a kind of combination of both Calvinism and Arminianism, but the reality is that both Calvinism and Arminianism represent one major branch of the Protestant tree, the Reformed tradition; while Lutheranism is its own thing, independent of the Reformed tradition. That said, there are definitely things which we agree with Calvinists on, and there are some things we agree with Arminians on; but even in these cases we would point out that what we mean isn't always the same thing that a Calvinist or Arminian means.
As an example of what I mean here, Calvinists have Limited Atonement, Arminians have Unlimited Atonement; Lutherans reject both, and insist on Universal Atonement. Calvinists believe in unconditional election, and Lutherans also believe in an unconditional election--but for the Calvinist this means some have been chosen for salvation and others haven't; for Lutherans this means that God has chosen us in Christ to be saved, and that this will of God to save is for everyone, not just some. Thus election is not an esoteric thing that only exists in God's inscrutable will, but is plainly seen and observed through the visible and public work of God in bringing men to faith through the power of His word in the preaching of the Gospel and in the Sacraments.
-CryptoLutheran
