Theological Term of the Week

I was surprised to find that in the six years or so that I’ve been posting weekly theological term posts, I’ve never defined this term. 

Arminianism
A system of belief based on the teachings of Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius regarding salvation, developed as a reaction against Calvinism, and summed up by his followers in the Five Articles of Remonstrance, which deny the unconditionality of election and the particularity of redemption.

• As evidence that election is conditioned on foreseen faith, the Articles of Remonstrance uses this verse:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36, ESV)

• As evidence that redemption was universally obtained, these two verses are included:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, ESV)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2, ESV)

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Doubting the Obvious

Quoting K. Scott Oliphant:

God is always and everywhere making his character known. He is successful in every case. Those to whom God reveals himself clearly see and understand what God is revealing. It is that clear understanding that renders them without excuse. If God’s revelation were not clear—if it were obscure or ambiguous—then Paul’s argument would be in error. People would have an excuse if God’s truth given through natural revelation did not get through. But it does get through; it gets through to every person. Whenever we think of defending the Christian faith, we must recognize that whoever our audience is, God has already and always been speaking to them.

Even though God is incomprehensible (in the sense that we will never have exhaustive knowledge of him), we can understand—and do understand—what he reveals of himself through natural revelation (or through the sensus divinitatus).

However, 

because of the sinfulness of man that pervades us in Adam, the sensus [see link above] is the one thing that we will diligently work night and day to doubt, even to deny. But this doubting and denial is just an expression of the suppression of the truth that is attached, like a cancerous tumor, on our Adamic status. In Adam we will, even if it kills us, do all that we can to avoid what is patently and clearly made obvious to us by God himself.

From Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practice in Defense of Our Faith.

Heidelberg Catechism

Question 9. Does not God do injustice to man by requiring from him in his law what he is unable to do?

Answer: Not at all; (a) for God created man with the ability to keep the law; but man, at the instigation of the devil, (b) and his own willful disobedience, (c) deprived himself and all his descendants of these gifts.(d)

(Click through to see scriptural proofs.)

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