Why Arminians pre-suppose the doctrines of grace.
Dr. James White: “…consistent, full-on Arminianism (not the historic view of Arminius himself, oddly, but the more modern versions that have shed the Reformed heritage that was Arminius’) I do believe leads, inevitably and consistently (please note those terms), to a non-saving, man-centered system of religion. No question about it. But there is all the difference in the world to confess that and, at the same time, to recognize what I have often called the “blessed inconsistencies” of our Arminian, or more accurately, synergistic, brothers and sisters in Christ. I have met very few consistent Arminians—I have met many who have firmly extolled truths that have no place in a consistent Arminianism, and yet they are unaware of how their system is self-contradictory. I was one of those—every Calvinist that came to the Reformed position through prayer and study of the Word knows what I mean. But I was not saved the day I asked John Calvin into my heart. I was saved when I trusted in Jesus, and He faithfully led me, by His grace, to an understanding of His truth. In His time. In His fashion.”
(some) “tell God He has no right to draw a straight line with a crooked stick. It is straightforward: until you embrace all of Calvinism (I wonder just how much of that they really believe, or just how perfect their own understanding actually is?), you are lost. Unsaved. Enemy of God. Only Calvinists are saved. Pretty blunt, but there it is. Hyper-Calvinism in all its theological snobbery and perfectionism, never realizing that God works with sinners over time, in His own way, to cause them to GROW in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was an heir of grace before I ever heard of John Calvin, ever heard of particular redemption, ever heard of many elements of Reformed theology. Once you start making the definition of the gospel more strict than the Spirit did in the Word, you have walked out of grace and into the realm of error yourself. Mark these men, keep an eye out for them! Few things can kill a Reformed church faster than graceless hyperism.”
Dr. John Gerstner concerning Arminian missionaries and whether their version of salvation can truly convert someone – from Handout Church History, at Ligonier:
"The 20th century and the modern missionary movement. You remember I called your attention to the fact that though the missionary movement really began with Calvinistic missionaries, the present day scene and really during the 19th century the transition from a predominantly Reformed missionary endeavor to a predominantly Arminian one took place. We’ve analyzed Arminianism a little bit more at an earlier period but now we are addressing the question with respect to evangelism and missionary work and winning people to Jesus Christ, and the question I’d asked was whether, indeed, an Arminian can do this.
My answer I said, was yes…and no.
Now the answer is yes in this sense: Because evangelical Arminians profess faith in the divine Christ, His atoning blood, His inspired word, and many, many other elements of Christian truth. People giving these essential truths, unlike people hearing the liberal denial of them, may be saved. We must never forget that point, that Arminianism is evangelical. It does proclaim the Gospel. It tells of a divine Christ who died vicariously for the sins of the people. That, we must never forget and for that we must always be profoundly grateful.
But along with it are other doctrines that we’ll come to in a moment, but right now we’ll say, when an Arminian speaks his version of Christianity, a person who hears him hears essential, core Christianity. The Gospel is there. There’s no denying that. And if the people really do believe in the Jesus Christ preached by an Arminian, they’ll believe in the Christ of the Gospel. He is the second Person of the Trinity, He is absolutely divine, He has a true and sinless human nature, He died vicariously on the cross. He rose bodily from the grave, He is going to come again in the clouds of heaven. Those basic verities will be carried to the ends of the earth by people who are truly Arminian and truly evangelical. In that sense, yes, because the core of the Gospel is there.
The answer is also no. … Arminian evangelism rests on profound error: that fallen man is not dead spiritually but only dying. He is therefore supposed to be able to bring about his own new birth by his self-generated faith. This can never happen. No one can ever be saved by himself even with the help of the Holy Spirit. Usually when I point this out to Arminians, they say, ‘don’t forget, we’re relying on the help of the Holy Spirit!’ Well, help from the Holy Spirit is not going to do any good for a corpse! You need more than help! And all you’re offering IS help! You admitting the person is sick and dying but you don’t admit what the Bible says, namely, he is dead. … I hope and believe that multitudes of Arminians really believe the truth they do hold in spite of the otherwise fatal errors they proclaim to the world.
So in a sentence, can an Arminian be a missionary, can person actually be saved by persons propagating such errors, yes, because they are propagating such truths. Such glorious truths that cause us to embrace them as fellow Christians and ask them to accept us as the same.
But at the same time, as an integral part of their theology, is an element which if it’s taken seriously, understood and acted upon by hearers of the Arminian gospel they’ll never be saved, they never can be saved. … These people are evangelical, they believe in the bible, they worship Jesus Christ, so you tend to trust them. If you trust their errors, it’s fatal. If you rely on their way of converting, you’ll never be converted.
Let’s try to hold onto both of these ideas."
Ray Ortlund: In Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism, Iain Murray draws four lessons from that conflict:
1. “Genuine evangelical Christianity is never of an exclusive spirit. Any view of the truth which undermines catholicity has gone astray from Scripture.” Spurgeon disagreed with hyper-Calvinists who “made faith in election a part of saving faith and thus either denied the Christianity of all professed Christians who did not so believe or at least treated such profession with much suspicion.”
2. Spurgeon “wanted to see both divine sovereignty and human responsibility upheld, but when it came to gospel preaching he believed that there needed to be a greater concentration upon responsibility. The tendency of Hyper-Calvinism was to make sinners want to understand theology before they could believe in Christ.”
3. “This controversy directs us to our need for profound humility before God. It reminds us forcefully of questions about which we can only say, ‘Behold, God is great, and we know him not’ (Job 36:26).” “It is to be feared that sharp contentions between Christians on these issues have too often arisen from a wrong confidence in our powers of reasoning and our assumed ability to draw logical inferences.” Spurgeon saw “how a system which sought to attribute all to the grace of God had itself too much confidence in the powers of reason.”
4. “The final conclusion has to be that when Calvinism ceases to be evangelistic, when it becomes more concerned with theory than with the salvation of men and women, when acceptance of doctrines seems to become more important than acceptance of Christ, then it is a system going to seed and it will invariably lose its attractive power.”
Iain H. Murray, SPURGEON VS. HYPER-CALVINISM; Banner of Truth (Edinburgh, 1995), pages 110-122. Italics added.
