Arminianism & the Doctrines of GraceFirst Point & Doctrine :T

Arminianism & the Doctrines of Grace
First Point & Doctrine :T

The Five Points of Arminius

The Five Doctrines of Grace

The First Point

"Free Will"

Arminius taught that Man's depravity (having a nature warped and affected by sin) as a result of the Fall, is not total, but partial. So Man has not lost the faculty of self-determination, nor the ability to freely will that which is good in the sight of God. Man is seen as the author of Repentance and Faith unto salvation. The human will is viewed by the Arminian as one of the (primary) causes of Regeneration (New Birth), if man freely wills to co-operate with the Holy Spirit. So Man has the ability to freely choose to believe and to be saved.

Texts from Scripture quoted to support this view:

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name...

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Acts 2:38 "Repent, and let every one of you be baptised ... for the remission of sins...

Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Romans 10:9,10 ". . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

1 John 3:23 "And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Rev.3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knowck. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me."

Critique:
John 1:12
Arminians see the 'receiving' of Jesus Christ as an active action which preceeds regeneration. But a person who is 'dead in sins' does not have this ability. So the 'receiving' of Christ is passive. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. He regenerates. By Him we are immersed (baptised) into His body.

John 3:16
Without doubt the favourite verse of Arminians and possibly the most misundestood. John is writing in part to those who come from a Jewish background and need to be taught that Christ did not die just for Jews, but to redeem men and women from all the nations of the world (cosmos). If he died savingly for ALL men inclusively and paid the penalty for their sins, then NONE could go to hell. But the Bible insists that there already souls in hell. God so loved ALL KINDS of men from ALL NATIONS that whoever from among them believe in Him have everlasting life.

Rev.3:20
From the context it will be seen that this is adressed to BELIEVERS not to the unsaved. Jesus is speaking about fellowship, not relationship.

The First Doctrine

"Total Depravity"

Man's depravity, as a result of the Fall, is total. That is to say, sin has corrupted him in every aspect of his being. That does not mean he is utterly evil in every way - as the Devil is - but that he is affected by evil in every way. He does not possess free will - he is free only to sin - because he is bound to Satan who takes man captive at his will. All men are born into this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sins so that their human spirits are irresistibly drawn, to and blinded by the god of this world. Man is depraved in the sense that he is spiritually dead, blind, deaf, and unteachable in the things of God. He is ruled by Satan through his perverse heart and corrupt soul. His thinking, emotions, will, and bodily desires have all been perverted and corrupted.

All are totally affected by sin: Rom 5:12 ..... just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.... Jer.17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? See Rom.3:9-12 Psalm 14:1-3 Psalm 58:1-3 Prov.20:9.

All are born spiritually dead: Eph.5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord... Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins... hath he quickened ... Eph.2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.. Eph.2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

See Psalm 58:3 Psalm 51:5 John 3:3 Gen. 8:21.

Taken Captive at Satan's Will: 2 Tim 2:25,26 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. John 8:44

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

Irresistibly drawn to Satan: Eph.2:2,3. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The natural man is spiritually unteachable: 1 Cor. 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.