Thursday, August 05, 2010

By force you are saved?

I'm really liking Roger Olson's blog. Today he has a nice post about Arminianism:

Contrary to what some critics say, an Arminian is someone who believes that salvation is all of grace and through faith alone without any merit (except, of course, the merits of Christ). An Arminian is also someone who believes, contrary to Calvinism, that the person being saved is enabled by grace to cooperate in his or her salvation without “contributing” anything meritorious to it. In other words, God does all the saving but he won’t save without our consent. All this is spelled out so clearly in Arminius and Wesley and other classical Arminians that one has to wonder about those who say otherwise. (For example, Calvinist and some Lutheran critics who argue that Arminianism makes “man” his own savior. One leader of the “young, restless, Reformed” movement says that according to Arminianism the cross of Jesus Christ doesn’t actually save anyone but only gives people the opportunity to save themselves. That is, of course, pure hogwash.)

...As one Arminian theologian has said about Calvinism, if it is true, Scripture should say “By force you were saved through faith….”

<idle musing>
I love it! I would add, what part of all and whosoever don't you understand?

When people ask me, I tell them the biggest difference is that Calvinists believe in apportioned grace, whereas classical Wesleyan/Arminians believe in free grace. Neither of them believe in free will—a point to remember. Free will has no place in either system; the will is bound to do evil—until the Holy Spirit moves. That's where the difference is; Calvinists limit that movement to the elect; Wesleyan/Arminians claim it moves on all.
</idle musing>

2 comments:

Nick Norelli said...

Amen!!!

Anonymous said...

wow, interesting! -Renee