Calvinists as Armenians? Weren't Armenians an unorthdox Cult in the Ancient World?
That is a good question. As far as I know, the Arminian debate goes back to St. Augustine and his responses to Pelagius and the semi-pelagians.
Here's a helpful quote from Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology:
"Predestination does not form an important subject of discussion in history until the time of Augustine. Earlier Church Fathers allude to it, but do not as yet seem to have a very clear conception of it. On the whole they regard it as the prescience of God with reference to human deeds, on the basis of which He determines their future destiny. Hence it was possible for Pelagius to appeal to some of those early Fathers. According to Pelagius, says Wiggers, foreordination to salvation or to damnation, is founded on prescience. Consequently he did not admit an absolute predestination, but in every respect a conditional predestination.[Augustinism and Pelagianism, p. 252.] At first, Augustine himself was inclined to this view, but deeper reflection on the sovereign character of the good pleasure of God led him to see that predestination was in no way dependent on Gods foreknowledge of human actions, but was rather the basis of the divine foreknowledge. His representation of reprobation is not as unambiguous as it might be. Some of his statements are to the effect that in predestination God foreknows what He will Himself do, while He is also able to foreknow what He will not do, as all sins; and speak of the elect as subjects of predestination, and of the reprobate as subjects of the divine foreknowledge.[Cf. Wiggers, ibid., p. 239; Dijk. Omt Eeuwig Welbehagen, pp. 39f.; Polman, De Praedestinatieleer van Augustinus, Thomas van Aquino, en Calvijn, pp. 149ff.] In other passages, however, he also speaks of the reprobate as subjects of predestination, so that there can be no doubt about it that he taught a double predestination. However, he recognized their difference, consisting in this that God did not predestinate unto damnation and the means unto it in the same way as He did to salvation, and that predestination unto life is purely sovereign, while predestination unto eternal death is also judicial and takes account of mans sin.[Cf. Dyk, ibid., p. 40; Polman, ibid., p. 158.]
Augustines view found a great deal of opposition, particularly in France, where the semi-Pelagians, while admitting the need of divine grace unto salvation, reasserted the doctrine of a predestination based on foreknowledge. And they who took up the defense of Augustine felt constrained to yield on some important points. They failed to do justice to the doctrine of a double predestination. Only Gottschalk and a few of his friends maintained this, but his voice was soon silenced, and Semi-Pelagianism gained the upper hand at least among the leaders of the Church. Toward the end of the Middle Ages it became quite apparent that the Roman Catholic Church would allow a great deal of latitude in the doctrine of predestination. As long as its teachers maintained that God willed the salvation of all men, and not merely of the elect, they could with Thomas Aquinas move in the direction of Augustinianism in the doctrine of predestination, or with Molina follow the course of Semi-Pelagianism, as they thought best. This means that even in the case of those who, like Thomas Aquinas, believed in an absolute and double predestination, this doctrine could not be carried through consistently, and could not be made determinative of the rest of their theology."
I find it ironic that a great deal of the semi-Pelagian opposition in Augustine's time came from France.
In the ancient world, what is called Arminianism today, was declared heresy, but it crept back into the Church, and today is associated with the heretical Calvinist "James Arminius" who taught his brand of "Arminianism" privately to students. For reason unknown to me, his Calvinism was shaken to the core from a debate over predestination.
I've often heard that JWs are considered Armenians.
I cannot say with certainty because counter cult apologetics is not my cup o tea, but I suspect most cults incorporate forms of Arminianism into their interpretation and expositions.
