Arminianism Has Flooded the Reformed Churches

Our opposition to the offer of the gospel is not academic. Through the teaching and practice of the offer, Arminianism has flooded the Reformed churches. Today, a Reformed man cries out: "O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps" (Ps. 79:1). The revivalistic, "soul-winning" mentality of free will has taken over among many Reformed people. The altar call, that johnny-come-lately innovation of Finney, an abomination before God and man, is widely practiced in Reformed churches. The evangelism of Billy Graham is revered, so that if one dares to call the message of Graham "the doctrine of Pelagius out of hell," as the Canons of Dordt do indeed call it, he is likely to be stoned as a blasphemer in the streets of Reformed Jerusalem. The children of the covenant are more and more viewed, not as covenant children to be reared in the truth but as potential converts who must make the decision for Christ. Reformed churches are wide open to the most blatant Arminian, "free willist," evangelistic societies, e.g., Campus Crusade for Christ. They are ravaged by ecumenical endeavors based on Arminian universalism., e.g., Key '73 and "Here's Life, America." Loosened from their moorings by Arminianism, they are swept by every wind of doctrine that finds salvation in man's feeling and experience, e.g., neo-Pentecostalism. Even the Holy Scriptures are defiled. Reformed people, schools, and churches gladly receive, eagerly use, and enthusiastically distribute as the Bible a book that is nothing other than a man's revision of the Scriptures along the lines of Arminian theology. Kenneth Taylor's The Living Bible, in all its myriad forms, is the bible of Arminianism. Systematically, it corrupts those passages of Scripture which teach the sovereignty of God in salvation and damnation, so that they will teach the sovereignty of the will of man. With this book, the Remonstrants had routed the Synod of Dordt. If a Reformed man had done to the sacred Scriptures in the interest of the Reformed faith only one tenth of that which The Living Bible has done in the interest of Arminianism, he would have been drawn and quartered in every pulpit and religious paper in the land, and his bible would have been scorned at the book stores. As for The Living Bible, it is lavished with praise, and its sales are booming. Why? Because the spiritual leaders delude the people, so that they no longer know that salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God Who showeth mercy, and the people love their delusion. 

There is only one hope for Reformed men and Reformed churches, and only the sovereign grace of God can realize it-- back to Calvinism: the old Calvinism of Dordt, of Calvin, of Augustine, of Paul. And this means the rooting out of the well-meant offer of the gospel. 

David J. Engelsma 

Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of the Gospel, pp. 63-65

Can Arminians be Saved?

Our question for this issue is: "Can someone who is theologically Arminian be truly saved?" This is not an easy question.

We want to emphasize at the beginning that Arminianism is another gospel that is no gospel (Gal. 1:6-7). Its teaching denies the sovereignty of God in salvation and the power and effectualness of Christ's death on the cross (by teaching that Christ died for all it teaches that His death actually saves no one). It also denies that salvation is by grace alone with its teaching concerning the sovereignty of the human will. These are fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

Not only that, but we believe that Arminianism has crept into the teaching of many Reformed churches under the guise of a love of God for all men, a desire on God's part that all men without exception be saved, and the teaching that there are gifts of grace and benefits of the cross for all. This poses a deadly danger to Reformed churches.

We agree, therefore, with the following quote: "False doctrine is worse when it goes under the cover of the truth, and when it quotes Scripture, and sings Amazing Grace. Satan is always at his best in opposing the truth when he does it in the name of Christ. There has never been a more subtle expression of false doctrine than which affirms all the 'truths' of the Christian faith on the basis of human effort, merit of works, foreseen faith, or 'free will.' To affirm grace on the condition of works is the ultimate perversion. It is The Lie" (John K. Pederson, Sincerity Meets the Truth, pp. v, vi).

But does this mean that those who hold to free will and other teachings of Arminianism cannot be and are not saved? We do not believe that. Even here, however, we wish to be very careful in our answer. We would insist that a person who truly and consistently believes that he is saved by his own willing and running, contrary to Rom. 9:16, cannot be saved; he has denied the very heart of the gospel.

The teaching that man is saved by his own running is Rome's, the teaching that he is saved by his own willing is that of apostate Protestantism, but really they are no different. That teaching, according to Romans 10:1-4, is ignorance of and refusal to submit to the righteousness of God, and leaves a person in need of salvation. By his emphasis on will and works a consistent Arminian sets himself outside Christ (Gal. 5:4).

Nevertheless, many people inconsistently confess both grace and works. They ascribe their salvation wholly to God's grace, and yet speak of having chosen Christ, of having free will, and of God being dependent in salvation on their own free will choice. They thank GOD for their salvation and yet speak as though they were the ones who made the decisive choices.

Usually this is the fault of the teaching they have received - teaching which speaks along two lines. It is a teaching that affirms grace on the basis of works and free will. Those who teach such things have the greater fault. Nevertheless, those who think along these lines, though they may be saved, also need to realize that what they believe is not the truth, and need to repent of it.

So too, as the author quoted above says: "We need rather to be greatly ashamed of ourselves for our tolerant friendship with the doctrine of human sovereignty which lies at the rotten core of evangelicalism, and which, on account it, of our sleepy indifference to is a testimony to our own cowardice." Grace saves, not free will and works.

Ronald Hanko
http://www.prca.org/resources/publications/cr-news/item/731-can-arminians-be-saved 
http://www.prca.org/

Perseverance of the Saints and its Relation to the other Four Points

 

The doctrine of perseverance is inseparably connected with the other Four Points of Calvinism. The elect are preserved, but they are preserved because God has chosen them and because Christ died for them. They need that preserving grace because in themselves they are totally depraved and can do no good, certainly not the great good of finding and obtaining life everlasting. The grace that God gives them is powerful and irresistible, so that not only their own sins, but even the devil and the whole wicked world, cannot prevent them from being saved with an everlasting salvation.

To deny the doctrine of perseverance is to say that God’s counsel can be changed, that God Himself can change. It is to say that Christ groaned and bled and died on Calvary for nothing, that God’s promise can fail, and that the gifts and calling of God can be revoked, and that by weak, sinful man himself. God forbid that it should be so. Thanks be to Him for the work of grace, sovereignly begun, sovereignly brought forward, and sovereignly finished.

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, pp. 174-175

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

Irresistible Grace and Its Relation to the other Four Points

 

Certainly the truth of irresistible grace establishes the truth of the sovereignty of God. If God is sovereign, and He is, the grace of God must be an irresistible grace. To deny the irresistible grace is really to deny the sovereignty of God. Then God and God’s will are dependent on man and man’s will. Then Christ is reduced to a beggar. The Holy Spirit is a weakling. God is put in the position of Darius who earnestly desired to save Daniel from lion’s den, but could not (Dan. 6). Because God is God, the almighty God, His grace is irresistible grace.
Irresistible grace is necessitated by man’s total depravity.
Exactly because man is a sinner, unworthy of salvation, his salvation must be by grace. And since man is such a sinner that there is no good in him, no ability for good, no desire even for good, the grace of salvation must be an irresistible grace.
Unconditional election establishes the basis for irresistible grace. As God’s salvation of men eternally did not rest on any worth or works in those men, and was completely unconditional, so His salvation of them in time does not rest on any of their worth or works. And that is exactly the teaching of irresistible grace.
Irresistible grace preserves the truth of limited atonement.
If free will and resistible grace are true, it would be possible that Christ died in vain. Then, although Christ died for a man and wants to save that man, He would be frustrated because of the unwillingness of the sinner to be saved.
Irresistible grace also guarantees the preservation of the saints. Since the grace of God that brings salvation to a man is sovereign, almighty grace, the grace of God that continues to abide in a man is a sovereign, almighty grace also. Just as it cannot be frustrated in its initial operations, neither can it be frustrated ultimately. Those who are brought to salvation by the irresistible grace of God are, by the power of that grace, preserved in the salvation unto the end.

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, p. 144

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

Irresistible Grace

 

It is plain that the power of grace must be a great power. Man is the sinner; God must be the Savior. Man is incapable; God must be able. Main is powerless; God must be omnipotent. Man is weak; God must be sovereign.

The saving of the sinner DEMANDS great power. The devil must be defeated; a rebel must be subdued; a heart of stone must be made a heart of flesh; a new creature must be brought forth; the dead must be raised. This work calls for great power, power that is beyond the power of a mere creature: miraculous power, supernatural power, divine power.
On the part of God, GREAT power is required. Mere begging, pleading, or coaxing of men will not do. There must be the exercise of almighty power, such power as was exhibited in the creation of the world. Really every child of God is living evidence of the almighty power of God. On the part of anyone who has been the object of the saving grace of God, there can be no question of the sovereignty of God. Anyone who by God’s grace knows himself, KNOWS the sovereignty of God.
Granted that the power of grace is a great power, the question remains whether or not it is IRRESISTIBLE power. Granted that the sinner is dead, granted that God must work in salvation, granted that His work is powerful, could it not yet be that this work can be resisted and frustrated by the sinner? Could it not be that God works to give all men the ability to come to Christ if they choose to do so? Might not grace only enable men to come to Christ, always conditioned on their free will, so that man could very well choose not to come to Christ, and to resist His grace? The crucial question remains this: Is the grace of God IRRESISTIBLE?

The answer of the Scriptures and the Reformed faith is , Yes!
Grace, if it be grace, must be irresistible grace. Because God is an irresistible, all powerful, totally sovereign God, His grace is irresistible, powerful, and sovereign. God and God’s grace cannot effectively and ultimately be resisted by the most obstinate of sinners. When God’s grace operates to save the sinner, that grace will triumph in the salvation of that sinner. He will be saved. God will have the victory. Not the power of the devil, not the power of the wicked world, not the power of the sinner himself, shall be able to prevent, overthrow, or frustrate the work of God’s grace. The God of the Scriptures is the God of whom Isaiah says in Isaiah 46:10, 11, “I am God, and there is none like ME, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” He is the God before whom Daniel says in Daniel 4:35, “All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?”

The god of resistible grace is not the God of the Scriptures. The former is a weak god, an ineffective god, a powerless god. In reality, he is no god at all, but an idol. This is the seriousness of the denial of God’s irresistible grace!

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, pp. 126-128

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

Limited Atonement and Its Relation to the other Four Points

 

The doctrine of limited atonement, as we have already to some extent seen, is inseparably related to the other four points of Calvinism. It is, therefore, really impossible to be a three- or four-point Calvinist and reject this doctrine while maintaining all or most of the others.

The connection between unconditional election and limited atonement is clear. Unconditional election explains what it is that limits the atonement, that is, the sovereign will and choice of God Himself. Universal atonement says that not God’s will, but man’s, limits the atonement and almost always, therefore, denies unconditional election, teaching instead a conditional election that God only foresees and then selects who will choose Christ and who will profit from Christ’s death.
Election is in vain if salvation and the cross still depend on a man’s freewill choice. Whether or not God chose anyone would make no difference. All would still hinge on man’s decision to accept or reject Christ.
As far as total depravity is concerned, that doctrine is the reason why the atonement must be efficacious for all those whom God has given to Christ, for the doctrine of total depravity teaches us that man has of himself no power to accept Christ or to believe in the cross. If the power of the cross really depended on our acceptance of Christ, and if men are totally depraved, no one at all could possibly be saved by the cross.
Likewise, the doctrines of irresistible grace and perseverance follow from limited atonement. The doctrine of limited atonement means that Christ purchased everything by His death, including the grace that brings us to salvation and preserves us in salvation to the end. It also means that those for whom Christ died are saved and must be saved. It demands, therefore, a grace that is powerful and irresistible and that never fails.

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, pp. 122-123

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback

Limited Atonement and Preaching

 

Whether or not one believes in limited atonement makes a tremendous difference in the way one preaches the gospel. If the cross is indeed the power of God unto salvation, as the Scriptures tell us it is, then the preaching will be the proclamation of the cross and of Christ’s death on the cross. Then the power by which sinners believe will be the power of God speaking to them through that proclamation and by His Spirit working in their hearts.
If, however, the power of the cross depends on man’s accepting or believing it, the preaching will degenerate into a kind of “sales pitch,” as in many cases it does. One need only witness the various revival meetings that are so popular, the advent of the altar call, and the begging and pleading with sinners that is introduced into the worship of the church and into evangelism. In them one sees what the preaching becomes when the truth of limited, efficacious atonement is denied. It becomes, in the words of another writer, a “hawking” of Jesus Christ and of the cross on the order of, and very much like, what goes on at carnival.
This is not to deny that there must also go forth as part of the preaching of the cross the call to repent and believe, but if one truly believes in limited atonement, that will indeed be a call in the sense of a command and not a thinly disguised offer of salvation to all, or a vain attempt to “sell” Christ by begging sinners. The charisma and oratorical skill of the preacher are not the main thing in preaching, as so many seem to think today, but the fact that the preacher preaches nothing but Christ crucified as the power of God unto salvation. What one believes about the atonement, therefore, has a profound effect on the very nature and manner of gospel preaching.

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, p. 119

http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

Unconditional Election and its Relation to the other Four Points

The truth of total depravity necessitates unconditional election. By nature man is dead in sin, capable neither of saving himself nor desiring to be saved. He is in no position to accomplish or to cooperate in his salvation. If man is really totally depraved—we must do justice to this truth—the cause of salvation must be in God, as the truth of election teaches that it is.
The truth of election also limits the scope of the death of Christ. Here there is perfect agreement between the will of the Father and the work of the Son. If some only are chosen to salvation and Christ has died only for those whom God has chosen, Christ’s death must be limited to some men only. His redemption is a particular redemption. He has not died, neither did He intend to die, for all men but for some only, for the elect.
If God has chosen us to salvation, so that the almighty will of God Himself rather than the fickle will of man stands behind our election, we may be certain that we shall be saved. No power of the devil, of the wicked world, or of ourselves is able to withstand the power of the almighty God. Hence, the truth of sovereign election implies the irresistibility of grace.
The doctrine of election also gives us confidence of our perseverance in faith and salvation. If my salvation depended on my will, my decision, my choice, then I could never have the assurance of perseverance. Always I would be in doubt whether the same will that brought me into salvation , might take me out of salvation. However, since the cause of my salvation does not rest in my own will but in the almighty will of an unchangeable God, I can rest assured that I will persevere to the end. WE may be confident that the good work He has begun in us shall by the power of His grace be fully accomplished (Phil. 1:6).

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, p. 96
http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

Total Depravity

 

When we describe man’s sinfulness as depravity, we are not just saying that he is bad or wicked, but that he is rebelliously and deliberately evil, that he loves and delights in wickedness of every kind. He is not just passively overcome by sin but actively and willingly uses his strength, ability, and gifts to sin.
The truth, then, is that men are very wicked, much more wicked than they themselves would ever admit. Nor is this wickedness incidental, but deeply imbedded in what a man is, what we call his “nature.” In other words, his depravity is not something he has learned or that is the result of his environment, but he is by nature wicked. He does not just do evil but IS evil. He is conceived and born a sinner.

Gen. 5:5: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Notice the emphasis on the totality of man’s depravity. When Scripture says that man’s wickedness is “great,” it explains this to mean “total” (“every imagination… only evil continually”). This is God’s own judgment of man’s condition (“God saw”). It may not be our judgment, and we may not agree with it, but that makes no difference.

Jeremiah 13:23: “”Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

It is as impossible for man, in his own strength, to do any good as it is for him to change the color of his skin. That is the truth of total depravity—not just that man does not do good, but that he cannot. Thus, the passage teaches us that man’s depravity is NATURAL to him. He is born depraved in the same way that a leopard is born spotted, and an Ethiopian black.

Jeremiah 17: 9, 10: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD searcheth the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

With these words God asserts His right as judge and gives His judgment, telling us that our depravity does not merely consist in outwardly wicked actions, but that is a matter of our hearts. Because our hearts are the fountain of all our life (Prov. 4:23), and because that fountain itself is impure, it is impossible that anything clean or good should come forth from it. Because man’s heart is “desperately wicked,” his “ways” and his “fruits” will also be found wicked.

Galatians 3:22: “But the Scripture hath concluded ALL under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

This is New Testament proof that sin is slavery, that depravity is total in the sense that it is true of all men, and that this is not our judgment of ourselves and others, but Scripture’s judgment.

…The doctrine of total depravity is never preached apart from the other doctrines of grace. Those doctrines of grace and salvation are God’s remedy for our depravity and bring us all joy.
The divine “diagnosis” of total depravity must precede the application of the proper remedy to the sinner. Without such a correct diagnosis, the remedy will never be recognized or received. The Scriptures themselves show this. In Luke 5:32 Jesus says, “I came not to call the righteous [that is, those who think that they are righteous], but sinners [that is, those who know themselves to be sinners] to repentance. The parable of the Pharisee and the publican was specifically addressed to “certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others” (Luke 18:9). In that parable the man who acknowledged himself a sinner went home justified. The Pharisee, who did know himself to be totally depraved, did not.

A close relationship exists between this first point and the other four points. There are those who call themselves three- or four-point Calvinists and even hold to some degree to these truths, but in the end, because these five truths are so closely interwoven with each other, it is impossible to maintain any of them consistently without maintaining them all.
The relationship is this: the doctrine of total depravity makes sovereign grace the only possible way of salvation. It requires an ELECTION that is unconditional, not depending on man’s work or worthiness; an ATONEMENT that does not just make salvation possible for all men, but actually saves those whom God has chosen; and a GRACE that is so powerful as to be utterly irresistible and that saves to the uttermost those who receive it, so that they are preserved and do PERSEVERE to the end.

Ronald Cammenga
Ronald Hanko
Saved By Grace, pp. 29-30, 33, 35, 39, 46, 56
http://rfpa.org/collections/books-by-ronald-cammenga/products/saved-by-grace-paperback 

'All Men', 'All' and 'World'- The Biblical Meaning

One of the greatest arguments against the Reformed Faith (or "Calvinism") is that God loves the world or all men, but what do these terms mean in the Bible?

The following was given as a handout at the public lecture on 'God is Love' .  It sets forth, according to the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture, the biblical (and natural) meaning of phrases such as 'all', 'all men' and 'world'.
You can download the original handout here.




Does the word “world” (Greek: kosmos) mean “the entire human race”?

“If thou do these things show thyself to the world” (John 7:4). 
“I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him” (John 8:26).
“Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold the world is gone after Him” (John 12:19).
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).
“I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).
“Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).
“I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple whither the Jews always resort” (John 18:20).
“I thank God […] that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8).
“We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men” (I Cor. 4:9).
“Which [the gospel] is come unto you as it is in all the world …” (Col. 1:6).
“They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them” 
( I John 4:5).
“And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness” 
(I John 5:19).

Do the words “all” or “all men” refer to the entire human race without exception?

“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him” (Matt. 2:3).
“Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of him” (Matt. 3:5-6).
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Matt. 10:22).
“If we shall say, Of men; we fear the people for all hold John as a prophet” (Matt. 21:26).
“And all the city was gathered together at the door” (Mark 1:33).
“When they had found Him they said unto Him. All men seek for thee” (Mark 1:37).
“[And he] began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20).
“All men mused in their hearts of John whether he were the Christ or not” (Luke 3:15).
“Behold the same baptizeth and all men come to Him” (John 3:26). 
“If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48).
“Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men” (Acts 19:19).
“This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people” (Acts 21:28).
“Thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” (Acts 22:15).
“For your obedience is come abroad unto all men” (Rom. 16:19).

Do the words “every man” (in context) refer to the entire human race without exception? 

“After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored and saw every man clearly” 
(Mark 8:25).
“The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached; and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16).
“Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine […] but thou hast kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10).
“And every man went unto his own house” (John 7:53).
“And [they] sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need” (Acts 2:45).
“For I say, through the grace of God given unto me, to every man that is among you […] to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3).
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (I Cor. 12:7).
“But all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will” (I Cor. 12:11).
“Whom [Christ] we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28).
“They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” (Heb. 8:11). 

Is this interpretation of all, every, anyone, and world really so radical, or is it simply the normal way in which we use language? 

“The whole world looked in horror as the Twin Towers crumbled to the ground.”
The world mourned the death of Marilyn Monroe.”
“The world stood still the remember the tragedy which occurred last week.”
“Everyone is invited to the youth center for pizza after the meeting.”
“All are reminded to clear away the chairs after supper.”
“After the visit to the museum, everyone is asked to be on the bus no later than 1 PM.”
“Does everyone have a pen and a notepad?”
“Everyone! Get in the car!”
“Can anyone recommend a good butcher?”
“Is anyone interested in going to the park?”

Rev. Martyn McGeown
http://limerickreformed.com/articles/by-author/rev-martyn-mcgeown/item/105-all-men-all-and-world-the-biblical-meaning