ARMINIUS, TO CALVIN, TO PAUL
Miles J. Stanford
There are three men whose theology has a greater influence upon the lives of Christians today than that of any who have ever lived. Sad to say, Jacobus Arminius and John Calvin are far in advance of the Apostle Paul.
JACOBUS ARMINIUS (1560-1609) -- Jacob Arminius was born in Amsterdam, Holland, four years before the death of John Calvin. In time, he became a champion of Calvinistic Dutch Reformed theology. Ultimately chosen to write a defense against attacks upon Calvinism, Arminius came to the conclusion that many of Calvin's doctrines were indefensible. In rejecting Calvinism, and in the attempt to construct his own scheme of beliefs, Arminius made the fatal mistake of mixing Pelagian dogma with the Scriptures.
PELAGIUS -- Early in the fifth century, the English monk Pelagius sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church. He thus became a life-long theological antagonist of Augustine. Pelagius insisted that man did not inherit Adam's sinfulness, but was only affected by his example. He believed that man's will was free to choose for, or against, God. Hence, via Arminius, we have our present-day "Christian humanism," i.e., man is master of his fate, with God's help--if he chooses it.
ARMINIANISM TODAY -- Coming from humanistic Pelagianism instead of from the Scriptures, Arminianism bases salvation upon the will of fallen man. It is an anti-sovereignty, anti-security, anti-dispensational, anti-grace, pro-works religion. The teaching is that God, through redemption, bestows a "common grace" upon all men, thereby making it possible for the individual to exercise his free will either for, or against, God.
FREE WILL? -- According to Arminianism, man is not totally depraved--his will remains free to decide his own destiny. Its maxim is, "It is mine to be willing to believe, and it is the part of God's grace to assist." To Arminianism, "foreknowledge" means that God foreknows those who will receive the Saviour, and upon that basis He elects them. Those who choose to reject the Saviour, He condemns.
Since the final decision is made by man, and God then acts upon that decision, man is sovereign. In that case, God determines nothing, He gives nothing except so-called common grace which removes the inability to choose Him, and He secures nothing.
Thus the sinner's choice of God, and not God's choice of the sinner, is the ultimate factor in Arminian salvation. Those elected by God are chosen only in the sense that He foresaw their faith and good works--which arise from themselves and are not wrought of God. The human will is exalted to the place of sovereignty and, according to this system, man becomes his own saviour.
As Dr. A.H. Strong wrote, "It is important to understand that, in Arminian usage, grace is simply the restoration of man's natural ability to act for himself; grace never actually saves him, but only enables him to save himself ... if he will.
SOVEREIGN MAN? -- In that the Arminian begins on the premise of his own free will, his end is on the same assumption. He feels that since he can come in, he can therefore go out, by his free will. What little security and assurance of salvation he has is founded upon his own momentary merit, plus whatever emotional experiences he can muster along the way. "After I accepted Jesus I wasn't sure if I was really saved; but when I had my "baptism in the Holy Ghost," and spoke in tongues, then I was sure." Consequently the Arminian's existence is experience-based, only to be beset by fears, uncertainties, backslidings, and failure.
Doctrinally established unconditional eternal security grounded upon faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is utterly rejected by the Arminian. He sedulously avoids all Scripture that establishes eternal security, or at best seeks to discredit and deny it. He gravitates to out-of-context references that seem to him to militate against eternal security.
Arminianism's misleading error in the field of salvation is that it persists in attempting to build the Christian's standing upon his feeble and faltering daily life, rather than on the sufficient and immutable merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Arminian salvation becomes little more than a system of human conduct; for, though the idea of regeneration is incorporated, it is, in the Arminian idea of it, of no abiding value, being supported only by a supposed human merit. --L.S. Chafer (Systematic Theology III:356)
SEMI-PELAGIANISM -- Through a process of modification, Pelagianism spawned Semi-Pelagianism. It has been described as follows:
Though it retained much of the philosophical basis of its parent's humanism and rationalism, as opposed to divine revelation, Semi-Pelagianism compromised with truth sufficiently to gain favorable audience with some Christians. It became, thus, a far more dangerous form of infidelity than its parent. As such, it eventually overcame the Roman Catholic Church and returned it to the very Pelagianism condemned by Augustine. Semi-Pelagianism changed its disguise and further altered its voice at a later date to become known as Arminianism, following some refinements and adjustments to Christianity.
Dr. Lorraine Boettner has stated:
Arminianism existed for centuries only as a heresy in the outskirts of true Christianity. In fact, it was not championed by an organized Christian Church until the year 1784, at which time it was incorporated into the system of doctrine of the Methodist Church in England by John Wesley.
Today, Christendom has been overrun by Arminianism. It has been spread mainly by the Pentecostal and Holiness movements, and especially by the out-of-control Charismatic movement. Then too, there is the influence of the many Arminian denominations, such as the Assembly of God, Nazarene, Mennonite, Christian & Missionary Alliance, and many others.
Almost all truly born-again Christians begin as Arminians, with their "free will" and their self-centered life and service for "Jesus." The tragedy is that far too many never get beyond that baby stage, but go on into the fleshly emotionalism of full-fledged charismatic Arminianism.
A clearer view of Arminianism may be gained from the following listing:
- Human depravity has not rendered man incapable of savingly exercising his will to trust Jesus for salvation.
- God's grace is resistible in the final sense so that man can ultimately thwart His purpose to save him.
- God's election is conditioned upon His divine foresight of faith in certain men whom God, then, designates as His elect.
- Jesus' atonement was exactly the same for everyone with no discrimination whatever, rendering all men savable, but actually guaranteeing the salvation of none.
- Final salvation is possible for believers, but ultimate victory rests with their continuance in faith, so that ultimate apostasy may be possible for the saved.
STATEMENT -- Dominated by the free will of man, Arminianism is characterized by fleshly lawlessness. The Arminian's center and object is himself. It is all to be rejected! "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them" (Rom. 16:17).
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564) -- Calvin was the theologian of the Reformers, second only to Arminius in the extent of his doctrinal influence upon believers today. Calvin's tenets were Bible-based, and could be classed as "far right." However, he had a tendency to extremism, and hence went too far in some areas of his theology. "Too far," whether right or left, usually results in heresy.
Conversely, Arminius, the one-time Calvinist, in his recoil from Calvin's extremes, went all the way to the left, and kept right on going over the edge into Semi-Pelagianism. In these two men we have the far right and the far left of theology among believers today.
The core of original Calvinism is seen in the following five doctrinal points, known as "TULIP"-- the tulip that never blossomed!
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints
There are many "moderate" Calvinists today who do not adhere to some of the original extremes, such as point three. Hence there are three-point, four-point, and four-and-a-half-point Calvinists. We will simply comment on the more prevalent aspect of Calvinism, known as Covenant theology.
COVENANT CALVINISM -- We will only consider the first point of Calvinist error, Total Depravity. Calvin did not possess all-important doctrinal balance. By pushing the truth of God's sovereignty to an extreme in the realm of the new birth, he all but eliminated man's responsibility.
Calvinists define Total Depravity as "total inability." Their proof text is Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Their illustration for total inability is a man physically dead, who cannot see, hear, feel, speak, or move. Hence he is totally unable to respond to God in any way--he cannot believe.
Calvinism's solution to their self-created problem is regeneration. It is taught that the Holy Spirit first regenerates those whom God has elected; He thereby gives them life so that they can exercise faith and live. In all of their writings it can be seen that they place regeneration before faith--one must be saved in order to be saved!
In their book, Five Points of Calvinism Defended, D. Steele and C. Thomas write:
The Holy Spirit creates within the sinner a new heart or a' new nature. This is accomplished through regeneration or the new birth by which the sinner is made a child of God and is given spiritual life. His will is renewed through this process so that he spontaneously comes to Christ of his own free choice.
Because he is given a new nature so that he loves righteousness, and because his mind is enlightened so that he understands and believes the Gospel, the renewed sinner freely and willingly turns to Christ by the inward supernatural call of the Spirit, who through regeneration makes him alive and creates within him faith and repentance.
How simple is the refutation of this scholarly error: The corpse is not the man! Death is always separation, not obliteration. Paul wrote to Timothy, "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" (1 Tim. 5:6). James stated, "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth" (James 1: 18). The Lord Jesus said, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25).
Dr. Samuel Ridout was clear about this:
"Being born again (regenerated), not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Pet. 1:23). The new birth is "by the Word of God." That it is a sovereign act of God, by His Spirit, none can question. But this verse forbids us to separate, as has sometimes been done, new birth from faith in the Gospel.
It is often taught that new birth precedes faith; but here we are told that the Word of God is the instrument in the new birth. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"; "the Word which by the Gospel is preached." John 3:3 and 3:16 must ever go together. There is no such anomaly possible as a man born again, but who has not yet believed the Gospel.
COVENANTISM -- Without benefit of Scripture, Calvinism is based upon a single "covenant of grace," whereby all of Israel's covenants are "spiritualized," thereby making the Church to be spiritual Israel: "the continuing covenanted community." As Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it, "Paul is asserting that the Church is now the Kingdom, that what the Jewish nation was in the OT the Church is now." (The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, p. 48)
VICARIOUS LAW-KEEPING -- Calvinist teaching concerning salvation is that Christ gained eternal life for the elect by keeping the Law on their behalf ("active obedience"), and, in dying ("passive obedience"), He paid the penalty of the broken Law. The heart of all Calvinism is the Law! Remove their doctrine from that center and there is total collapse.
Dr. Wm. R. Newell refutes this "vicarious" error as follows:
"Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 10: 4). The words "Christ is the end of the Law" cannot mean that He is the fulfillment of what the Law required. The Law required obedience to its precepts--death for disobedience. Now Christ died for our disobedience!
If it be answered, that before He died He fulfilled the claims of the Law, kept it perfectly, and that this law-keeping of His was reckoned as over against our breaking of the Law, then I ask, Why should Christ die?
If the claims of the Law were met in His earthly obedience, and if that earthly life of earthly obedience was "reckoned" or "credited" to those who believe, the curse of the Law has been removed by "vicarious law-keeping." If so, why should Christ die? "For if righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21).
It is because Covenant theology has kept us Gentiles under the Law--if not as a means of righteousness, then as a "rule of life,"--that all the trouble has arisen. The Law.; is no more a rule of life than it is a means of righteousness. Walking in the Spirit has now, in this dispensation of Grace, taken the place of walking in ordinances. The Father has another principle under which He has placed His saints: "ye are not under law, but under grace"! (Romans, Verse by Verse, p. 391)
WILDERNESS WANDERING -- Calvinism will go as far as the Cross for salvation, but then it turns back to the OT and the Synoptics, in order to have a rule for the Christian life. Like the Israelites whom it seeks to spiritually emulate, it fears the freedom of Canaan, only to turn back into the wilderness struggle. It is Romans Seven all the way for the Calvinist. Arminianism at least goes as far as Pentecost, only to turn back to its pre-Cross "Jesus."
The disqualification of Calvinism is in its failure to "rightly divide" between Israel and the Church, Law and Grace--it considers the Body of Christ to be "spiritual Israel." As John Stott put it, "Although Jesus was greater than Moses and although His message was more Gospel than Law, yet he did choose twelve apostles as the nucleus of a new Israel to correspond to the twelve patriarchs and tribes of old." (Christian Counter-Culture -- The Message of the Sermon on the Mount -- Inter Varsity Press)
In his Systematic Theology VII:211, Dr. Chafer struck down that error:
It should be made emphatic that to observe distinction between Judaism and Christianity is the beginning of wisdom in understanding the Bible. Theologians of past generations have made no greater mistake than to suppose, despite all the scriptural evidence to the contrary, that Judaism and Christianity are one and the same, or as some have put it, "One is the bud and the other is the blossom." Judaism has not merged into Christianity. This is a colossal error of Covenant theology perpetuated to the present day.
ECCENTRIC EXEGESIS -- Calvinism insists that Jesus taught the spiritual aspects of the Mosaic Law in the Sermon on the Mount, and that He instructed His disciples in that law. That is true. Since the disciples were saved, their reasoning goes, the Church is therefore subject to the law-teachings of the Sermon. That is untrue!
At that time, in that dispensation, the disciples were not Christians. There was no such thing as a Christian until the day of Pentecost. These believing disciples were Messianic Jews, "saved" unto the earthly kingdom. Their Messiah-King was instructing them concerning the laws of that coming millennial, theocratic kingdom.
No Christian ever was, ever is, nor ever will be under law, whether Mosaic, Sermonic, or Millennial! Arminianism and Calvinism may put the Christian under law, the believer may put himself under law as his rule of life, but the Lord Jesus never did, Paul never did, and the Holy Spirit never will!
Rather than put the believer under law, the Spirit places him into death via the Cross, and thereby positions him above the law and into the freedom of the life of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." "Now we are delivered from the law, having died to that wherein we Were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter [law]" (Rom. 7:4,6).
LIFE, NOT LAW! -- Within the believer the Holy Spirit applies "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"; not the law of condemnation and death (Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:6-9). The Spirit of Christ does not write any law upon the heart of any Christian--He ministers life, "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
The kingdom law will be written on the heart of the redeemed Jew in the millennial kingdom, but now it is "Christ in you" (Col. 1:27). The Christian is not under law, nor is he under promise; he has the effect of the accomplished fact: "for to me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21).
The believer, dead to the law and alive to God in Christ risen, looks upon his Lord, not Israel's law. Christians, "with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," not "even as by the law of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).
Just as the Ten commandments were the declaration of the mind of God under the dispensation of the law; so now the Church is the engraving of Christ, "written, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart," to show forth the virtues of Him "who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."
Law demands everything, but gives and changes nothing--it is meant to condemn. We may even turn the Lord Jesus into that letter of condemnation; we may take His life, for instance, and make it our law. We may say, "He has loved me, and done all this for me, and I ought to love Him, and do so much for Him, in return for His love, etc." Thus if we turn His love into our rule of life, it becomes the ministration of death; for the only thing a rule can do is condemn. Christianity is a nature, not a regulation.
LAW-BOUND -- The entire realm of the believer's identification with the Lord Jesus in His death and ascension is not only misunderstood, but usually avoided by Calvinism. Although Paul explicitly wrote that "sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:1-4), Calvinism insists that the Spirit will enable the believer to live by the principle of law.
Paul pleads especially with these Calvinists: "Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" (Rom. 7:1). They fail to understand the believer's death to the law. Beyond justification they lose their doctrinal footing and slip back to the ground of death (law), failing to move forward onto the ground of growth (Christ, our life).
Typical of all Covenant theologians, Dr. John Stott wrote in his Christian Counter-Culture, p. 75:
It is a new heart-righteousness which the prophets foresaw as one of the blessings of the Messianic age. "I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts," God promised through Jeremiah (31:33). How would He do it? He told Ezekiel: "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes" (36:27).
Thus God's promises to put His law within us and to put His Spirit within us coincide. We must not imagine (as some do today) that when we have the Spirit we can dispense with the law, for what the Spirit does in our hearts is, precisely, to write God's law there.
It was not only to Timothy that Paul wrote, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). Neither Jeremiah nor Ezekiel nor anyone else from Adam on down ever dreamed of such a thing as the Church, to say nothing of a Christian! That wondrous truth was God's hidden mystery, until Paul. We share Merrill Unger's thought:
The Church is said to be a "mystery" (Eph. 3:3), "the mystery of Christ" (Eph. 3:4). It was foretold, but not explained, by the Saviour (Matt. 16:18). was a truth unknown and unrevealed to anyone in OT times (Eph. 3:5), indeed a revelation and purpose "hid in God" throughout the ages (Eph. 3:9), first realized historically at Pentecost, and first revealed doctrinally to the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:3-7). (The Baptizing Work of the Holy Spirit , p. 29)
Actually, God said through Jeremiah, "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer. 31:33). And through Ezekiel He promised to His nation, Israel, "Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God" (Ezek. 36:28).
Dr. Chafer sets the record straight concerning Israel's kingdom:
There is a dangerous and entirely baseless sentiment abroad which assumes that every teaching of Jesus must be binding during this dispensation simply because He said it. The fact is overlooked that the Lord Jesus, while living under, keeping, and applying the Law of Moses, also taught the principles of His future kingdom, and, at the end of His ministry and in relation to His Cross, He also anticipated the teachings of grace. If this threefold division of the teachings of Christ is not recognized, there can be nothing but confusion of mind and consequent contradiction of truth.
The teachings of the kingdom (as centered in the Sermon on the Mount) have not yet been applied to any man. Since they anticipate the binding of Satan, a purified earth, the restoration of Israel, and the personal reign of the King, they cannot be applied until God's appointed time when these accompanying conditions on the earth have been brought to pass.
The kingdom laws will be addressed to Israel and, beyond them, to all nations which will enter the millennial kingdom. It will be the first and only universal reign of righteousness and peace in the history of the world. One nation was in view when the Law of Moses was in force on the earth; the individual is in view during this dispensation of grace. The whole social order of mankind will be in view when the kingdom is set up on earth.
The teachings of grace are perfect and sufficient in themselves. They provide for the instruction of the child of God in every situation which may arise. There is no need that they be supplemented, or augmented, by the addition of precepts from either the Law of Moses or the teachings of the kingdom. Law cannot give life, nor have, therefore, any control over it. (Systematic Theology IV:207)
John Darby was clear on the all-important differentiation:
We are not seeking to take away, nor negate any portion of the blessed Word of God. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). It is simply that the law as a rule of life for the believer obliterates the realization of identification with, and liberty in, the glorified Lord Jesus Christ.I learn in the law that God abhors stealing, but it is not because under the law that I do not steal. All the Word of God is mine, and written for my instruction; yet for all that I am not under law. I am a Christian who has died with Christ on the Cross, and am not in the flesh, to which the law applied. I have died to the law by the body of Christ (Rom. 7:4).
BEWARE! -- Listed here are some of the better-known anti-dispensational, pro-law Calvinist authors whose theology has permeated the thinking of vast numbers of fundamental and dispensational believers today:
Adams, J. Edwards, J. Mauro, P. Steele, G. Allis, 0. Fletcher, J. Morris, L. Stonehouse, N. Bass, C. Fuller, D. Murray, G. Stott, J. Baxter, R. Gerstner, J. Murray, J. Thomas, C. Berkof, L. Gill, J. Nicole, R. Van Til, C. Berkouwer, G. Goodwin, T. Owen, J. Van Til, H. Boettner, L. Haldane, R. Packer, J. Vos, G. Boice, J. Hamilton, F. Payne, H. Warfield, B. Bonar, A. Hodge, A. Pink, A. Watson, R. Boston, T. Hodge, C. Romaine, Wm. Watson, T. Brown, D. Kromminga, D. Ryle, J. Wyngaarden, M. Bunyan, J. Kuiper, H. Schaeffer, F. Conn, H. Kuyper, A. Shedd, Wm. Cox, Wm. Lloyd-Jones, M. Smeaton, G. STATEMENT -- Calvinism emerged from the dark ages, but is still in the twilight--half in the darkness and death of the law, half in the light and life of the Saviour. It has a fleshly affinity for fetters, hence it is the life of the 'hang-dog' heart, the wretchedness of Romans Seven .
THE APOSTLE PAUL -- Finally, we come to the one who is least influential in the realm of doctrine among Christians today. There are three prominent reasons for this sad fact--the first two are negative, the third is positive.
FIRST -- Due to its humanistic base, Arminianism is suited to the carnal, Adam dominated Christian. As Dr. Kenneth Good states:
Man is by nature Arminian. The basically human philosophical foundation of Arminianism is quite compatible with man's inherent rationalism. Arminianism succeeds (and exceeds) because it appeals to the natural mind of man. It seems so reasonable! Unregenerate man approves it. It is eminently naturalistic, comfortably human. In this day of unprecedented emphasis upon the sufficiency of man, the doctrine must inevitably be successful among those who will not be regulated by divine revelation.
Arminianism is a subjective religion, swayed by human emotions rather than living by the Word of God. From start to finish it is man-centered, instead of God-centered. Man is really the object of it, not God.
SECOND -- Because of its objective, legalistic base, Calvinism is also compatible with the carnal, Adam-dominated Christian. As a rule, Calvinism emphasizes the external law, which hampers internal growth. Typical of the Calvinistic bent, the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones insisted that "the Christian must never say farewell to the law. Thank God, we are no longer under it as a way of salvation; but we are to keep it, we are to honor it, we are to practice it in our daily life" (Romans, Chapter Seven, p. 27).
Dr. James Kennedy, typical of the Calvinist "Reconstructionists," takes the law beyond the Church, stating: 'There is an old saying, 'You can't legislate morality.' I ask, What else can you legislate? The nation that endeavors to live according to His law is the nation that will be most free [!], the nation where people will enjoy the most happiness."
THIRD -- Because of Paul's near-exclusive teaching of the death-dealing Cross in the life of the believer, and the glorified Lord Jesus Christ as his life, the Apostle's ministry is in total opposition to the carnal Christian. This includes death to the law, to the world, and to the principle of indwelling sin as centered in the old Adamic man.
Wm. R. Newell explains the perennial problem concerning Paul's ministry:
Just as definitely as Moses received the law for Israel, so Paul received the Gospel of grace for us. How unutterably sad to find many Christians shutting their doors in the face of Paul as he comes to tell them the glories of the heavenly message given to him--the unsearchable riches of Christ. In his ..last epistle Paul mourns that "all which are in Asia"--of, which Ephesus was the capital! --"turned away from me" (2 Tim. 1: 15).
LIFE FROM DEATH -- While the Lord Jesus was on earth He ministered mainly to the nation of Israel, and to His Jewish disciples. His message had primarily to do with Himself as Messiah and King, and with His coming millennial kingdom.
Since Pentecost the glorified Lord Jesus ministers exclusively to the members of His Body, mainly via the Epistles of Paul. His life in the Christian is not by law, but by "the law of the Spirit of life." And that life is manifested as the fruit of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22,23).
Paul's focal points are the believer's crucifixion with Christ, and His risen life in the believer. "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4: 11). The death of the Cross and the life of Christ are ministered to the believer by the indwelling Holy Spirit. He does not minister the law of Moses, nor the law of the King, but rather the life of the Lord. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
TO THE ROMANS, Paul ministered death to sin and the law: "Knowing this, that our old man is [was] crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God" (Rom. 6:6; 7:4).
TO THE CORINTHIANS, Paul presented the Object for the Christian's growth and walk: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).
"For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
TO THE GALATIANS, Paul ministered death to the law: "For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:19,20).
TO THE EPHESIANS, Paul ministered the believer's position in Christ ascended: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3).
TO THE COLOSSIANS, Paul focused upon Christ ascended: "If (since) ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1-3).
TO THE PHILIPPIANS, Paul ministered the principles of the Christian life: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3:10).
CRITICAL CONTRASTS -- Judaism is earthly, horizontal; Christianity is heavenly, vertical. There is very little vertical, positional, in either Arminianism or Calvinism. Hence the former is characterized by self-gratification, the latter by self-righteousness.
Arminianism is horizontal. It cannot rise above man and his "free will," which binds the Arminian to himself: "I feel...." "God told me...." "Jesus, bless me, help me, heal me...." Arminianism is subjective, experience-centered; it seeks to feel life. Coming mainly from man, it has little or no defense against Adamic humanism--the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Calvinism is likewise horizontal. It struggles under the unbearable burden of the law as a "rule of life," centering upon Israel's millennial kingdom. Coming from man, Calvinism seeks to legislate life, hence has little or no defense against the power of sin and self-righteousness, spawned by the law.
Christianity is vertical, heavenly. It descends from There to here and the responsibilities and needs of a sin-bound and judged world. The Christian life is begins in and comes from heaven, to be manifested here as the light of life. "That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
Christianity, coming from the Lord Jesus Christ above, primarily via Paul, is by the Cross freed from the power and dominion of both humanistic Adam and death-dealing law. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). "Reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin [and the law], but to be alive unto God in Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Rom. 6:11). There is no rest or peace in Adamic sin, Mosaic law, or Satan's world. The ascended Lord Jesus Christ is alone our Object, our Rest, our Peace, our All.
Whatever our privileges in union with our risen Lord, it is all-important for the believer to live in the fear and faith of God, according to "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." It is not man's responsibility without law or under law; it is all over with us on either ground.
It is the responsibility of the new life of faith, which is that of a pilgrim and a stranger here--a life come down from heaven--a life which man lives as passing through this world, yet wholly out of it in spirit--a life of faith which finds in the Father's presence fullness of joy. --J. B. Stoney
STATEMENT -- The Church never has escaped from the law, the problem of Galatianism, to this day. During the early centuries, Romanism saw to that. The Reformation rescued the Church from the law as a way of justification, but not from the law as a means of sanctification (growth).
The crippling problem in the Body of Christ today is not so much the aberration of Arminianism, but the "righteousness" of Calvinism--the self-righteousness of the law. That has always been the issue, the answer to which was given to us through the apostle Paul. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).
MAN-, LAW-, OR CHRIST-CENTERED?
CHARISMATIC ARMINIANISM -- MAN-CENTERED
CAUSE -- The error, the excess, the abject failure of Charismatic Arminianism can be summed up in one reversed principle: "Not Thy will, but mine be done." The Arminian founds his religion upon the theory of free will, i.e., his will. Thus the cause of the charismatic confusion and chaos is--sovereign man!
ELECTION -- Humanism can be clearly seen in the Arminian's "election." He claims that God chooses, or elects, those whom He foreknows will of their own volition, choose His Son. Hence the sinner's free-will choice of the Saviour, not God's eternal choice of the sinner, is the basis of the charismatic's election.
CONVERSION -- The Arminian does not believe man's depravity is total, but he does admit that some assistance is needed from God in order for him to choose the Saviour. To this end he invented the non-biblical "sufficient grace." This is said to remove the effects of the Fall to the extent that the sinner can exercise his free will in order to be saved.
SECURITY -- Since the Arminian's election and conversion are founded upon his free will, he can never have the benefit of eternal security--he can never be sure! Hence his constant reliance upon new (same old) ecstatic experiences, and repeated trips to the altar for yet another salvation experience.
THE TRUE BAPTISM -- The Arminian admits that the Holy Spirit indwells, or at least comes upon, those who choose the Saviour. But because the true baptism by the Spirit is non-experiential--a matter of faith in the Word--it is never enough for the experience-oriented charismatic. For him, faith without fireworks is dead!
THE CHARISMATIC BAPTISM -- This self-induced experience of fleshly feelings is sought by the Arminian for the following reasons: (a) Instead of founding his salvation upon justification (God's work for us in Christ), he bases his all upon sanctification (God's work in us by the Holy Spirit). The charismatic baptism in the Holy Spirit is the end, and Christ but the means to that end. (b) The true baptism by the Spirit being non-experiential, he considers it to be insufficient. (c) Therefore, he feels he must have a sensual, sanctifying baptism in order to live the Christian life and be fitted for heaven; he requires a "second blessing," a false baptism of enablement.
FICTITIOUS FAITH -- The charismatic Arminian claims that his subsequent baptism is received by faith; but faith, for him, is always a matter of feelings and works. In order to receive his baptism there are a number of "conditions" (works) that first must be fulfilled. To mention but a few, he must appropriate all that God has for him; he must yield himself completely; he must rid himself of all known sin. The effort, the agonizing, and the psychological pressure that he undergoes in seeking to meet these conditions are the very things that produce this nerve-fostered, self-satisfying "baptism" of feeling and sound.
TONGUES -- Because he must be holy in order to maintain his Christian life and have a semblance of assurance, he claims that this "baptism of fire" fills him with the "Holy Ghost," makes him righteous, and empowers him for service. His experience is the result of an over-wrought nervous system, which is evidenced by the ecstatic feelings and out-of-control chattering of the vocal chords. The climax is his all-important "gift of tongues."
Here is the vortex and substance of his faith--the hypnotic, hysterical, nerve-shattering experience of irrational feeling and noise. He has arrived! He is in the center of Charismatic Christianity. Yes, he has arrived, while at best barely begun--he has no real assurance of salvation, nor eternal security. His Christianity is contingent upon his free will, his obedience, his good works, his experiences; but there is neither reality nor security there--and he knows it. But how can he forsake that which feels so good?
HEALING HOAX -- The stress and strain of all this striving and insecurity, to say nothing of the unnatural toll upon his already over-wrought nervous system, soon bring on emotional illness and often breakdown. Psychosomatic symptoms make the charismatic a pawn in the hands of his fellow-charismatics--the egocentric, money-mad, nerve-manipulating "healers."
"DEMONISM" -- Since God to the Arminian is less than sovereign, Satan soon takes on that attribute in his thinking. Ere long this would-be "warrior" is reduced to a pathetic, harried victim of his own inflamed imagination--he is overwhelmed by sin, events, objects, people-controlled, and manipulated by "demons." God, his "Jesus," and the "Holy Ghost" become to him smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker; while Satan and his clouds of evil spirits become larger and larger, stronger and stronger.
BEWARE! -- "You can help these poor duped ones by intercession, by example (your own growth, security, and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ), and by assiduous avoidance. Fraternization only strengthens them in and subjects you to their errors. They cannot hear a word you say; their all-consuming intent is to get you into their "baptism."
"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but heir own body, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the innocent" (Rom. 16:17,18).
COVENANT CALVINISM -- MOSES-CENTERED
CAUSE -- Covenant Calvinism is at the opposite extreme of the theological spectrum from Charismatic Arminianism. To the Calvinist, God is absolutely sovereign, and unregenerate man is absolutely dead in sin.
CONVERSION -- The Calvinist reasons that since man is totally lost and dead in his sins he cannot possibly have any part in his conversion, unless God first regenerates him and gives him the necessary faith to believe.
LORDSHIP SALVATION -- To add to the legal confusion, the Calvinist insists that the sinner must submit to His Lordship in order to accept the Saviour. Law to begin with, law to continue with.
SECURITY? -- The Calvinist abhors as "pernicious" and "perverse" the term "eternal security," insisting upon the highly indicative term, "the perseverance of the saints"--which is no assurance of security at all, leaving him no better off than the apprehensive Arminian.
The late Dr. John Murray, highly respected Covenant theologian, wrote:
Let us not take refuge in our sloth or encouragement in our lust from the abused doctrine of the security of the believer. But let us appreciate the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and recognize that we may entertain the faith of our security in Christ only as we persevere in faith and holiness to the end. (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 155)
Under this legal stricture the Calvinist has no assurance of eternal security prior to his very end!
LAW -- The Calvinist is anti-dispensational, which causes him to err concerning the law. He is unable to keep the law in its scriptural realm (pre-Cross; post-Rapture), but seeks to use it as the Christian's "rule of life."
Dr. John R. Stott -- "We are set free from the law as a way of acceptance (justification). It is as a ground of justification that the law no longer binds [it never did!]. But as a standard of conduct (sanctification) the law is still binding." (Man Made New, p. 43)
THE LIFE OF GROWTH -- CHRIST-CENTERED
CAUSE -- The growing, Christ-centered believer knows the Father in His sovereignty, and understands His divine purpose for him: predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29).
EFFECT -- His life is based upon the Father's pure grace and His perfect will. He is thankful that he is a "vessel of mercy," and that it is God who works in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Rom. 9:23; Phil. 2:13).
ELECTION -- The dependent believer acknowledges that the Father is the sole source of his election, and not his own will. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:4,5).
CONVERSION -- In the Word he sees that God the Father sovereignly chose and then called him to salvation, that God the Holy Spirit prepared and drew him in such a manner that he responded to this calling and received God the Son willingly and responsibly. "In whom [Christ] ye trusted, after ye heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).
SECURITY -- This believer rests eternally secure in the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the foundation of His finished work on the Cross and His faithful presence on his behalf at the right hand of God the Father. He rejoices that his life is safely "hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).
"ONE BAPTISM" -- The resting believer is assured by the Word that at conversion the Holy Spirit came to indwell him, never to depart (John 14:16), while at the same time He baptized him into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). He is satisfied with this one all-inclusive baptism by the Spirit, and needs no other. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4:5). Believer's water baptism by immersion is but an illustration of, a testimony to, this one and only spiritual baptism.
"DEAD TO THE LAW" --The Pauline dispensational view of Scripture enables the life-centered believer to rightly divide the Word of truth to the extent that he knows the place and purpose of God's law.
He honors that law the Holy Spirit applied as a means of convicting him of sin, which prepared him for receiving the Saviour. "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20).
When converted he was positioned in the ascended Lord Jesus; he was not only identified with His risen life, but with His Calvary death unto sin as well (Rom. 6:3). In that death both the Lord Jesus and the believer died to the law. "The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth." "Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ." "Now we are delivered from the law, having died to that in which we were held" (Rom. 7:1,4,6). By co-crucifixion we were delivered from the dominion of the law.
The law's just penalty--"the soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4)--was fulfilled by the believer's death with Christ. "For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Gal. 2:19). Thus God's holy law is upheld, honored, and its claims fully met. It has no more jurisdiction over the dead and risen believer; he is now "married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead" (Rom. 7:4).
THE CROSS -- It is by the work of the Cross that the Spirit deals with Adamic sin in the believer, not by law. When the growing believer struggles against the power of sin he finally learns the futility of his efforts, as set forth in Romans Seven. Then he sees that in the Lord Jesus he died unto sin's dominion (Rom. 6:7).
As he learns to reckon himself to have died unto sin and the law (Rom. 6: 11), he begins to rely upon the Holy Spirit to apply that finished work of the Cross to the old Adamic man within. He is thereby progressively liberated from the power of sin and the law, and has ever-increasing freedom to grow in the life that is Christ (2 Cor. 4: 11).
THE CHRIST-LIFE -- As for the NT "law of Christ," and the commands and exhortations that apply to the believer, his reliance is upon the Holy Spirit for their fulfillment in his life. "All the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Gal. 5:14; Rom. 5:5). The Word guides and instructs him as to his dependence upon, his walk in, the Spirit. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
The growing believer realizes that "the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners" (1 Tim. 1:9). He learns to abide above in the Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father, far above and beyond the law's dominion. His life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, is manifested by the "fruit of the Spirit," not by the works of the law. "The law is not of faith"; it was never meant to produce this fruit, which is Life! (Gal. 3:12).
It is true that in the mind of the Father we are always over Jordan. But though here in the wilderness the joys of heaven are ours--like the grapes of Eschol--the reality of being over is not known until by faith we accept it as having died and risen with Christ; and that therefore heaven is our position, we know it to be our place, and that this side is not our place, and we know that it is not.
The more you are with the Lord in spirit on the other side, the less disappointed you will be here, for when you are there you import new joys and new hopes into this old world, from an entirely new one, and you therefore in every way surpass the inhabitants of this judged world. May this be more and more your happy song. --J.B. Stoney
"Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" (Col. 1:18).