The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Hatred of Calvinism and Calvinists

And you won't be accused of being unsaved for not holding to Calvinism. We know there are those who espouse Calvinism who aren't saved either. What is sometimes true is that someone will hold something to be true in their head but their heart says something else totally opposite.

Not likely, hehe.

Semi-Pelagianism is what most evangelical churches are teaching and what most professing Christians are embracing today. The difference, to make it very simple, between Arminianism and semi-Pelagianism is that the latter holds that man is capable to desiring after God naturally, i.e., in and of himself. There is a natural ability for man to 'choose' (believe) without any intervention from God. Put another way, semi-Pelagianism holds that man is endowed with a free-will which has not been affected by sin so that choosing either good or evil are equally possible. Real Arminianism holds that man due to the fall is incapable of desiring or choosing God unless God gives what they call "prevenient grace"; the ability to overcome man's natural depravity but without removing that depravity, i.e., regeneration. This was what the Remonstrants in 1610 brought forth against the Reformed Churches and which precipitated the great Synod of Dordt in 1618 out of which came the now infamous "Five Points" of Calvinism, which were rebuttals to the five points of the Arminians.

For a succinct description and evaluation of semi-Pelagianism, R.C. Sproul wrote this: The Pelagian Captivity of the Church.

1. Biblically, if God isn't 100% sovereign in both power and authority, i.e., if God doesn't have the ability/power AND the right to determine all things, then what one is left with is basically Atheism, for something other than God does the determining of which God simply agrees to. For example, using your mention of election, either God elects who WILL believe (PRE-destination) or God elects who He 'sees' as having believed (POST-destination). And the latter opens a gigantic can of worms.

2. What is often misunderstood by non-Calvinists is that even though God has foreordained/decreed ALL THINGS, man is still responsible and remains a 'free-agent', i.e., he has the ability to choose that which is in accord with his nature. Thus an unregenerate man, a natural man, a sinner is totally free to choose everything and anything which is most desirous to his sinful nature... sin. The natural man hates God and all that is good and thus he will never choose either since he hates God by nature. (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Jer 17:9; Rom 3:10-18; Eph 2:1-5; 4:17-19; etc.) See, for example, HERE and HERE and HERE.

I would certainly agree that there are some theologians who delve into matters which are deliberately hidden but which they think they can discover. However, there is a great text which I think sheds some light on this matter: Deuteronomy 29:29 (ASV) "The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

God has condescended to REVEAL to us much about Himself, ourselves and what is required of us. Those things are written in Scripture. But, there are things which are not revealed in Scripture and those are the things which we cannot know and to spend time trying to speculate on them is both an exercise in futility but an affront to God for it implies that either God has tried to keep things from us that we need to know or that we can know things by sheer reason without divine revelation. Of course, this shouldn't be too surprising, should it? Wasn't this exactly what the serpent promised Eve in the Garden?... Genesis 3:4-5 (ASV) "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil."

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