Arminianism & the Doctrines of Grace
Fourth Point & Doctrine :I 

  The Five Points of Arminius

  The Five Doctrines of Grace

The Fourth Point

"Resistible Grace"

Arminius, thinking that it is the will of God that all men inclusively should be saved, confused God's 'will of desire' - i.e. His benevolent will, with His will of decree. (It may be our will that our children never suffer - that is our desire - but we may order - i.e. decree their punishment.) He taught that God's will can be resisted by men since each has the faculty of self-determination. Since God, according to Arminians, loves all men indiscriminately, He seeks to draw all men to faith in Jesus Christ. But that call, they teach, can be resisted by man's "free will". If this were not so, they think that men are merely the puppets of God.

Texts used:
1 Tim 2:3,4 "...God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

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

John 5:40 "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

John 3:18-21
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

 The Fourth Doctrine

"Invincible Grace"

This Doctrine is also referred to as "Irresistible Grace"

Since it is the decreed will of God that those whom He gave to His dear Son in eternity past should be saved, He will surely act in sovereign grace in such a way that the elect will find Christ irresistible. This does not mean that God forces the elect to trust in His Son but rather, that He gives them life and that life sets them free to repent of their sins and to put their trust wholly in Him for salvation. The dead human spirit finds the spirit of Satan irresistible and the living (born-again) human spirit finds the God of the living irresistible.

Regeneration is the work of God and must precede repentance and faith. It cannot be the result of repentance and faith.

Paul the apostle, first known as Saul, is a clear example of "invincible grace". In Acts 9 at the very moment when he was the leading figure in the persecution and killing of believers and in strong-willed rebellion against God and His Christ, he was converted.

GOD'S WILL IS IRRESISTIBLE

Dan.4:35 He (God) does according to His will in the army of heaven and among all the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"

Isaiah 46: 9,10 "...I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, And I will do all my pleasure."

GOD WILLS (DECREES) THE SALVATION OF THE ELECT

John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me, shall come to Me!"

John 6:29 "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him who He hath sent."

THE FATHER BEGETS THOSE HE HAS WILLED

James 1:18 "Of His own will He begat US....." John 1:13 "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but (who were born) of God."

ACCOMPLISHED BY GOD GIVING LIFE

John 5:21 "The Son gives life to whom He will." Ephes. 2:4,5 "God who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which he loved US, even when we were dead in sins, made US alive with Christ (by grace are ye saved)."

Acts 11:18 "Then hath God also granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles."

EFFECTUALLY APPLIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

Titus 3:5 "He saved us (not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy), by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit."

SO WHY WITNESS? WHY BE HOLY?

The Arminian often accuses those who hold to the Bible Doctrines of Grace of a kind of 'fatalism' - because they believe in the sovereignty of God in saving sinners and in keeping them unto eternal life.

Why bother to witness? they ask. If God is going to save men anyway, why bother to strive to live a holy life, if there is no possibility of believers being lost in the end? (To quote a phrase "Once saved - always saved").

The Scriptural answers are clear and simple. We witness because He has declared "Ye shall be my witnesses..." We witness to the Person and Work of Christ because it is by the "foolishness of preaching" that God is pleased to saved those who believe.

We witness because we are "labourers together with God." (1 Cor:3.9) The truth is that God is Sovereign in the MEANS of Salvation as well as in the ENDS. He makes His people willing in the day of His power. ( see Psalm 110:3)

As to the keeping power of God - "those who are born of God do not continue in sin." (See 1 John 3:8,9) - Believers can and do fall into sin, but because of the seed (of new life) within them, they will not continue in sin and be lost. This is the clear teaching of John. Hebrews 6:4 -8 refers to those who have "tasted" - not those who have been fed, and continue to be fed. See 2 Peter 1:4,5 and Jude verse 24.

"Who Acts First?"

Arminians believe that the human will is one of the causes of regeneration (This is an expression of the old heresy of synergism). They believe that election is based on the foreknowledge of God who foresaw "those who would believe" back in eternity past. Foreknowing those who would freely will to repent of their sins and make a decision to place their faith in Christ, God elected them to salvation. This means that repentance and faith are man's "good works" whereby he establishes the condition for his being elected to be saved. Arminianism therefore is a "works religion" to the extent that man must accomplish the good works of repentance and faith, with only the general aid of the Holy Spirit, who according to Arminians is given to all men alike.

The great Reformers taught that God alone is the CAUSE of regeneration. Knowing that no man can or will establish any condition which can serve as a basis for his election, they follow the Scriptural position which declares that "foreknowledge" is grounded in the "purpose" of God to elect some to salvation without good works on their part. (By sovereign grace - unmerited favour -alone!)
Every work that is related to salvation is God's work, for He alone can regenerate, give life to the dead, open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, evoke faith in Jesus Christ, illumine the dark recesses of man's evil heart of unbelief, and grant true repentance of sins by establishing a desire for purity in doctrine and life. The "Reformed Faith" is strictly a "not of works, lest any man should boast" religion. (Ephes.2:8,9) because it insists on giving God all the glory for all that is good.

Who is "Irresistible" and Why

One of the ideas so prevalent among Arminian "evangelicals" is that the lost are longing to hear the Gospel and hungry for the things of God! Our Lord is very clear in His teaching that the world hates Him, hates His Word, and hates His messengers. (See John 15:15 and following.) "Irresistibility" is the reason for the world hating God and His elect. Satan is the god of all dead spirits, angelic and human. The spirits of men who are born into this world 'dead in trespasses and sin' are irresistibly drawn to the leader of the spiritually dead. This is why no unregenerate person ever freely 'wills' to turn to God. How can a dead man do anything of his own will? By nature all men are not only 'dead' to God, but paradoxically the Scripture also declares that they are at enmity with God - they are not drawn to Him, but repelled by Him. Gen. 3:15 Rom. 8:7

However, for the same reason all living spirits find the God of the living "irresistible". They cannot help being drawn to Him, trusting Him, loving Him, just as before they were born-again by the Spirit of God, they were drawn to Satan, trusting the Lie,

John 1:13 "Who were born (1) not of blood, (2) nor of the will of the flesh, (3) nor of the will of man , but of God.

John 1:12 must be linked with John 1:13 to be understood. Those who have the right to be God's children are the ones to who have received the free unmerited gift of Christ as their Saviour and Lord..

So whose "will" determines the conception and birth of the one who is born again? It is the will of the Father in heaven!
Salvation is of the Lord! Jonah 2:9