C
Crissy1967
Guest
Hi just wondering what the Orthodox Church thinks of calvinism and arminianism.
yeah, from my understanding we are not Armenian, but we don't have problems with that as much as with Calvinism. Calvinism is just awful.
Arminianism and Calvinism both start from the vantage point that the chief problem with sin is that it makes us guilty (making God infinitely angry), and guilt deserves punishment; sin MUST be punished, otherwise God is not God. God still loves us, but is "bound" to punish our sin one way or another. So Christ comes and takes the punishment for our sin so that we don't have to bear it. Jesus gives us His righteousness in exchange for taking our guilt and having it punished. Now our sin has been punished and God is able to forgive our sins and is no longer eternally angry at us.
For the Orthodox, the chief problem with sin is NOT that it makes us guilty and God infinitely angry. The chief problem with sin, rather, is that it kills us and separates us from communion with God. Thus, from the start, we're painting an entirely different picture.
Arminianism and Calvinism, although disagreeing on what color to paint the walls and whether or not to include a fire place, are both dealing with the same foundation and basic floor plan. The Orthodox have a completely different framework.
We are neither Arminian nor Calvinist. We are Orthodox. God's chief attribute is not His holiness. Rather, it is that He is Love. "If you have seen me you have seen the Father," Christ tells us. His heart and character are that of the Father. His sacrificial and self-emptying Love is that of the Father. From all eternity God has been in an eternal and self-emptying relationship of Love within the Trinity. That is who and what God is. He is self-emptying, not self-indulging. His chief concern is not to be glorified. His chief concern is that of Christ's - to lay down His life for His friends. And not because He is infinitely enraged by our sin, but because He infinitely loves us and wants to commune with us unceasingly.