Arminian Today

In Exodus 3:18-22 we read what Yahweh tells Moses concerning Pharaoh and the plunder of the Egyptians.  God tells that Moses that He is going to set His people free from the bondage under the Egyptians (vv. 7-8).  He then tells Moses in verse 18 to go and tell Pharaoh that the Jews were to go into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD yet Yahweh tells Moses in verse 19 that He knows that Pharaoh will not let them go unless compelled by a mighty hand and so in verse 20 Yahweh tells Moses that He will strike Egypt with wonders and then Pharaoh will let them go.  God even promises in verses 21-22 that He will give the Jews favor with the Egyptians so that the Jews will plunder them.

Anyone who knows the book of Exodus and the history of the Israelites knows that all this comes to pass.  Moses goes before Pharaoh and sure to God’s word, Pharaoh denies that the Israelites can go free.  God does wonders that amazes both the Egyptians and the Israelites and finally, after the striking down of the first-born in all of Egypt, Pharaoh calls Moses to him and tells him to leave (Exodus 12:31-32).  The Israelites even plunder the Egyptians as God promised (Exodus 12:36).

What amazes me about Exodus 3:18-22 is that Yahweh clearly foresees all the free will decisions that will come to pass.  In His complete omniscience He knows what Pharaoh will do and say and even what the Egyptians will do for the Israelites after God’s judgment upon them.  Romans 9:14-18 gives us insight into God’s choosing of Pharaoh for His own purpose.  Romans 9:14-18 is not salvation in nature.  The point of Romans 9:14-18 is that God is sovereign to choose whomever He desires for His own purpose without saving them in the process.  Pharaoh could have been saved if he had repented of his sins but he continued in his unbelief and hardened his heart toward Yahweh.  The parallel between John 15:16 and Romans 9:17 are similar.  Jesus’ choice of His Apostles in John 15:16 was to service and not entirely to salvation (as the case of Judas shows).  This is true of Pharaoh as well.  He was chosen by God for God’s own purpose: to show His glory and wonders to the Israelites.

What is amazing though is that God knows the free will choices that Pharaoh and the Egyptians would make.  God does not force these decisions but He knows them just as He knows your thoughts before you even utter them (Psalm 139:4).  Jesus knew the thoughts of many in the Gospels.  In Mark 2:8 we read that Jesus perceived the thoughts of the people questioning His words in their hearts.  In John 2:25 we read that Jesus knew what was in man.  In John 6:64 Jesus even knew who did not believe about the disciples spoken of in verse 66 and about Judas (verse 71).  On a side note, Adam Clarke makes the point that could it be that Jesus was reaching out to Judas trying to call him to repent of his wickedness beforehand?  I know this is speculation on Clarke’s part but I do see the love of Jesus even for a Judas.

I write all this because some accuse us Arminians of rejecting the omniscience of God.  They believe that we hold to open theism, that God does not know all future actions of free will creatures.  I certainly reject this notion.  I believe from passages such as Exodus 3:18-22 that God does indeed know all things.  He knows even the free will decision of people.  He foreknows even those who will believe the gospel of Christ (Romans 8:29).  While this knowledge is not unconditional in that salvation is based on conditions that God has set including belief, He does know those who will believe.  This mystery is beyond me.  I cannot fathom knowing all things including decisions others are going to make.  God does.  God knows all things.  He foreknows all events.  He has chosen in His sovereignty to allow for free will from His creatures so that none can accuse Him of evil and say on the day of judgment that they were only doing what God had caused them to do.  Calvinists believe that God renders certain whatsoever comes to pass including sin.  How does this not make God the author of sin?  If God is going to render certain all things that come to pass then this means that He causes them to come to pass.  In essence, this makes God the one who caused the event (even sinful) to be rendered certain.

The Arminian view is that God simply knows.  That is it.  God knew the free will actions of Pharaoh and the Egyptians before it happened because He knows.  God knew when you would believe.  God knew that I would write this post.  That God knows is not the same as God caused.  God foreknows all things including the free will decisions of people.  He controls all things but He does not cause all things.  He knew the free will actions that would be taken toward His Son (Isaiah 53:4-6) but He allowed those free will choices to be made and for Jesus’ death to come to pass (Acts 2:23 notice that Peter says that those Jews were guilty of Jesus’ death through the hands of lawless men).  God allowed people to make free will choices to crucify His Son but He knew those choices would be made even if He didn’t make that choice for them.

There are some who take comfort in a fatalistic view of God’s omniscience.  I have even known some who would abide in sin believing that God knew and rendered certain their sin so why fight it?  I have seen some find comfort in their struggles of life by believing that God caused their troubles to come upon them by His own sovereign choice.  I have seen women mourn over their dead baby only to bless God for killing the child.  They find comfort that God causes all things to come to pass even if they don’t understand God’s ways.  They read the book of Job and see the hand of God crushing Job as proof that we should expect the same in this life.

I don’t know.  I don’t find much comfort in that thought.  I do believe that God is sovereign.  I do believe that God foreknows all things.  I do believe that God controls all things.  I reject that God causes all things.  Did God cause Adam to sin?  Did God cause Judas to betray Jesus?  Did God cause Hitler to murder over 6 million Jews?  Did God cause the rapist to rape a little girl?  What kind of God is this?  Despite the picture that Scripture presents of Him being loving and good, I would find this fatalistic view of God as appalling.

I am not sure if either Arminianism or Calvinism has the answer to the problem of evil.  The Calvinist views the sovereignty of God as meaning that He must cause all things to come to pass for His glory even the hardening of sinner’s hearts.  The Arminian views the sovereignty of God as God allowing free will decisions to be made that He does know but does not cause.  The open theist view is that God allows the future to partly open so that free will decisions are completely unknown to Him before they take place in time and then God reacts to those free will decisions.  I believe that all three may have problems but I accept the Arminian view as I believe from cases such as Exodus 3:18-22 that God does know all things including the future free will choices that others will make and He is able to make prophetic statements in that regard.

I can’t say enough but how incredible it is to have the Society of Evangelical Arminians and the vast amount of articles found there to defend Arminianism and to help people see the faulty theology of Calvinism. I recently have been reading from the various articles on the doctrine of foreknowledge. I wanted to link to a few of the articles but found all of them to be quite insightful to understanding the Arminian doctrine of divine foreknowledge in comparison to the deterministic doctrine of God’s sovereignty seen within Calvinism.

“Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none.”
- Isaiah 44:7-8 (NASB)

Dr. Jack Cottrell, in his book The Faith Once For All, has a section on Divine Providence and history. I want to borrow his outline for this post.

In essence, Christians believe that God is sovereign over His creation and the orthodox view of God has been that since God is eternal, He dwells outside of time and so God sees all things from the beginning to the end. The mystery, of course, is how God created the human beings in His image (Genesis 1:26-27) with limited free will. Since God saw the Fall from eternity past, the Bible can make statements such about Jesus Christ such as, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:20) or speak of those whose name is recorded in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

When it comes to God’s dealings with humanity, we can take three basic approaches to God and History:

1. God Has Nothing to Do with Anything
This would be the secular view and largely is the view held by many in the West today. This is the view held by all atheist (since there is no god) and all deists who don’t deny the Creator but simply believe that He is either hidden Himself (or Herself) and has left us alone without a revelation of this Creator. Often times you will hear people make statements such as “fate” or “karma” or “good luck” and “bad luck.” People often live their lives based on personal laws that they value and believe control their destiny. Popular jargon such as “Que sera, sera!” (“Whatever will be, will be”) or “When your time is up, your time is up.”

Psychological determinists believe that our destiny is the product of heredity and environment. They see two laws working together to decide our fates: natural law and man. In essence, this view believes that each person is the captain of their own ships and their own fates. “You made your bed, now lie in it.” In a way, this view is similar to the Hindu concept of the caste system in that the person born in that caste can only make their lives comfortable within their own caste. Reincarnation decides your fate based on karma (how much good you do in this life).

This sort of view of God and history doesn’t lead toward God but away from Him. People begin trying to look to the stars (astrology) or witchcraft (palm readings, psychics, New Age cults). People are aware that there are laws at work to make us who we are and where we are going but they often avoid looking to God and look to other things outside of themselves but not in the Bible. For evolutionists, natural law will take its course and there is simply nothing that can be done to stop nature.

2. God Has Everything to Do with Everything
This is the opposite extreme of the above view. In this view, God has everything to do with everything that happens; He is the only true causative factor in the universe. “Law” and “free will” are just names we give to certain ways that God works. This is called theistic determinism. This view is held by Muslims as well as within Christianity among Calvinists (this doesn’t mean that Calvinists and Muslims believe the same about God or His nature but both do hold that God has everything to do with everything).

For Calvinism the key word is causation: God is the ultimate cause of everything. Omnicausality is central to the Calvinist concept of divine sovereignty. The cornerstone of Calvinism and omnicausality is the eternal decree of God. Eternal decree means that everything is predestined: history, salvation, even sin – all is foreknown and purposed by God who knows all things from beginning to end and causes all things from beginning to end.

This view holds three major points about God’s eternal decrees: they are comprehensive (“whatsoever comes to pass” encompasses all things); they are efficacious meaning that they will certainly come to pass by the unfailing power of the One who gave the decree; and they are unconditional meaning that God’s eternal decrees are not based on anything outside of God Himself.

The problem with such a view is that it does not allow for free will. Calvinists no doubt speak of free will but they hold to a compatible free will meaning that human beings choose in accord to one’s inner character, motives, and desires which have been predetermined by God who places His desires and motives in the person’s heart. A person may feel that they are making a free will decision but God Himself has caused that person to do what they are doing by His own sovereign purpose. This view has led many to accuse God and say, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?”

On a humorous note, I saw a coffee cup the other day that said, “Calvin’s God made me drink this.”

3. God Has Something to Do with Everything
This is the Arminian view of God, His providence, and history. This is based on three assumptions made by Arminians:

First, what kind of world did God create? We believe He created a world in which He gave relative independence, divine self-limitation, sovereign control, and conditionality.

Second, God created humans with two forces to initiate action and cause things to happen: natural law and free will. God created the world with natural laws meaning that the world operates on laws that He Himself set in motion. For instance, storms come not because God necessarily caused them but rather He set the natural laws in motion and He controls those laws if He so desires. Jesus controlled the natural laws when He calmed the seas in Mark 4:39. He also overcame natural laws such as healing people simply by His power (Mark 2:1-12). Most of the miracles of Jesus overcame natural laws.

However, God also gave humanity free will. We are free to act without our acts having been predetermined by God and without constant input from a divine remote control apparatus. Being made in the image of God, we can create ex nihilo not in a material sense but in creative events.

Yet the third point of the Arminian view is that God has something to do with everything meaning that if God so chooses, He can step into time and act. History shows that He has done so and will do so in the future with the second coming of Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Hebrews 9:28). The history of Israel itself is a carving out a people from one man, Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) to bring about His Messiah (Romans 9:5). God worked through Israel (Romans 3:2) while allowing them to choose their own destiny at times (Joshua 24:14-15). God allowed the Israelites to sometimes go astray after false gods not because He wanted this or caused this but simply He allowed the Jews to have limited free will. I say “limited” because God can and did step into Israel’s history to turn His people back (Acts 7:51-53). He did this to gurantee that His Son would come from the house of Israel (Galatians 4:21-31). God had something to do with Israel’s history but He did not have everything to do with Israel’s history (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).

The Arminian view is the best view in my opinion since it allows for God to interupt human history both in the past and in the future yet does not lay sin and evil at His door but our own. Wars, murders, violence, sins, evil, etc. are free will choices made by truly free creatures made in the image of God. This view does not deny the sovereignty of God but believes that God is sovereign in His control of all things but God is not the cause of all things.

Conclusion
One final note would be that we could add the Open View of God but the problem is that the open view does not believe that God foreknows all things. The open theist believes that God’s understanding of history and future events are partly open (partly because some events will come to pass such as the second coming of Christ) but based on His unequaled wisdom, God does know some things better than we do and can read the times. While the open theist would side with the Arminian view on free will, they would reject that God has something to do with everything but rather that He operates much like we do in learning about humans and creation based on free decisions and natural laws. In the open view, God observes everything, operates in some things, but limits His involvement in most things. The open theist believes that this truly gives freedom of the will to human beings and takes God out of the arguments about suffering and pain since God does not operate based on a divine blueprint.

I reject this view since I hold that God does know all things from beginning to end and that this is based on His foreknowledge. While I reject the Calvinist concept of divine, omnicausality, I do believe that God is omniscient in that He does know all things.

Calvinist often deplore the Arminian argument concerning Adam’s transgression but we Arminians often turn to this because it is the first sin in the Bible and it produced the world that we live in (Romans 5:12). The Arminian argument over Adam’s sin is simply this: If the Calvinist doctrine of God and their definition of His sovereignty are correct then God caused Adam to sin. There is simply no getting around this argument. If God is the direct cause of all things then He obviously caused Adam’s sin. This, of course, would make God the author of sin and the reason for sin being in the world would be primarily with God and not mankind.

This teaching goes against the Scriptures. Sin is defined as lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Adam broke the Law of God Who said that Adam and Eve were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam violated God’s Law. James 1:13 says that God is not tempted by sin nor does He tempt anyone to sin. For God to tempt someone to sin would go against His holy character (Habakkuk 1:13; Matthew 5:48). If God caused Adam to sin, while God Himself would not be guilty of sin, it would violate His desire for people not to sin nor tempt someone to sin. Further, God’s statement that if Adam ate from the tree he would surely die as His judgment would be simply unfair since God Himself caused Adam to commit the sin. Why must Adam pay for a sin that God caused him to commit?

The Arminian answer to Adam’s sin is simple. God created Adam and Eve with freedom of the will. God gave them the right to either obey Him or disobey Him. Adam chose to disobey God and so sin came into the world through Adam and death to all men. It was not God who caused Adam to sin but Adam, in his own free will, rejected God and chose to rebel against God and brought condemnation upon himself. This is not just the case for Adam’s sin but for us all. The Bible says that the soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). Jesus said that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). The Scriptures further teach that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Our own sins will condemn us (Romans 2:7-10).

The Calvinist, in turn, will come back to the issue of Divine sovereignty. By definition, if God is sovereign, then He must be the cause of all things. But why? The Arminian believes in the sovereignty of God but we believe that God Himself limits His sovereignty by allowing His creation to operate with a certain sense of free will. No doubt, for example, God is sovereign over His creation. Jesus said that the Father makes His sun to rise on the good and the evil and His rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). But does God cause directly the sun to rise or the rains to fall or does He control them? I would argue that God controls His creation and He has the right to do with it as He wants but does God cause hurricanes or floods or earthquakes or does He control them and places limits upon them? There is a difference. If God controls His creation and allows it to operate based on its natural courses then we could hardly call storms “the wrath of God” but rather that He allowed them to occur based on their natural weather patterns.

In a practical level, the Calvinist would have to look on rapes, murders, racism, etc. and see that God caused these to take place for His glory. The only appeal to Scripture for this is usually Deuteronomy 29:29 (which Calvinist theologians often apply to election as well). But the Arminian says that these sins and horrible events take place not because God willed them or caused them but because He has given His creation a limited freedom. Does God want people killed or babies murdered in the womb? Of course not! But people sin against God and do things that violate His laws as Adam and Eve did in the garden.

Frankly, life is difficult at times. People are mean. Bad things happen to good people. But I believe that the Calvinist understanding of divine determinism leads only to pointing our finger at God and blaming Him for such occurrences in life. This should not be. We should run to God as our refuge (Proverbs 18:10). We should see God as good and loving (Romans 8:28) and not as a harsh dictator who causes all things to come to pass for His own mysterious (and some would say twisted) desires. No doubt I trust God when bad things occur but I don’t blame Him and say that He did this to me. I trust Him as Job said in Job 1:21 (which God controlled but did not cause as is clear in the context). God is sovereign and He does what He likes (Psalm 115:3). I praise Him for this but it is clear that God limits His own sovereignty to allow humanity a limited freedom to do what they like but in the end, God will have His way and His kingdom will be firmly established and His Christ will be exalted above all others (Philippians 2:9-11). While God allows a limited freedom, in the end He will be exalted and His plans will come to pass (Ephesians 1:11).

In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.
- Titus 1:2

“God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
- Numbers 23:19

One of the great attibutes of Yahweh is that He does not nor can He lie. His promises are sure (2 Corinthians 1:18-20). God fulfills what He says (Hebrews 6:13-14). How can He do this? Because God is absolutely sovereign and in control of all things. His universe is upheld by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3) and nothing happens that God does not know about beforehand (Acts 2:23).

And this is wonderful theology for those of us who hold firmly to the inerrancy of the Bible. It logically follows that since God is sovereign and since God is perfect and since God cannot lie then God’s Word is preserved faithful by His power. How could we trust in a God who is not able to watch over His Word and preserve it from error? Surely if God is able to make the universe in six days then He is able to uphold His Word by His power.

The Bible itself testifies to the greatness of God. Certainly creation itself testifies to the greatness of God (Psalm 19:1-6) but the Word of God fully reveals God and His ways (Psalm 19:7-14). John records that the purpose of his writing was to reveal the Lord Jesus that through this knowledge we might be saved (John 20:31). John further went on to write that we must hold firmly to this word that has been preached to us (1 John 2:24-25). It is possible that someone writing directions or drawing a map can make mistakes. It is possible for orders taken through a business transaction may be copied wrong. These human mistakes can be corrected given time. But a doctor writing a perscription needs to make sure his writing is exactly what the patient needs otherwise someone could possibly die and their blood be on his hands. If it is this way with doctors and perscriptions, how much more should the Word of God be free from human error in since it deals with the most important reality: life and death, heaven and hell.

Thankfully God does not lie. God is able to keep His promises and as the Bible testifies through the many examples given to us in the Bible, God does keep His promises. I can know that I am saved by grace because God does not lie (1 John 5:11). I can rest in the assurance that God loves me (Romans 5:8-9), sent His Son to die for me (John 1:29), and that I am kept by His power (1 Peter 1:5) because God does not lie. I can trust that when I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness because God does not lie (1 John 1:9). I can rest in the knowledge that Christ is risen from the dead and that His resurrection gurantees not just my forgiveness but my own resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-5, 50-58) because God does not lie. I can trust in the Bible as the authorative Word of God that is infallible and inerrant (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21) because God does not lie (John 17:17).

May we cry with Psalm 105:1-6:

John Piper, in his book Spectacular Sins, points out that God used the greatest sin in the Bible, the betrayal and murder of Jesus Christ, for His own purposes and for our eternal salvation. He is correct. There can be no denying that God took the single act of Judas’ betrayal and turned it into the triumphed of the cross over sin and Satan (Hebrews 2:9, 14; 1 John 3:8). In the single act of Jesus’ murder on the cross, God gave us victory (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)! How is that for providence of all things!

When we come to the Scriptures we can’t help but to see that the death of Jesus Christ was God’s plan to crush the enemy (Genesis 3:15). I have been reading a book on Satan and in the book the author points out the obvious question: If Satan knew that Jesus was going to die on the cross for our sins, why did he go through with killing Jesus? The author states that it is possible (although quite speculative) that Satan hated God so much that even if Jesus’ death on the cross meant his certain defeat, he would still go through with it out of hatred. Another possible reason Satan wanted to kill Jesus was because God made him do this. But again this is too speculative since Scripture is silent on the issue. I believe that the reason Satan and Judas both did what they did to Jesus was because they were oblivious to God’s plan of salvation and what He was going to accomplish through the cross. They were willing agents in the progress of redemption who acted out of their own free will choices that God used for our salvation.

Consider this: what if Satan thought that Jesus was coming to be the Messiah-King of Israel? This is predicted in Scripture (Psalm 2). Satan himself no doubt knew Jesus was the Messiah as he tried to kill him in Matthew 2:16-18. Satan knew that the Messiah was coming to set up God’s kingdom on earth (Isaiah 2:1-4; Daniel 2:44) and he saw as Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph with the crowds cheering Him as the king of Israel (Matthew 21:1-11). So it is possible that Satan and Judas both thought that Jesus was coming to set up an earthly kingdom based in Jerusalem. Satan thought he could kill Jesus and halt God’s plans whereas Judas thought that the Romans coming to arrest Jesus would cause Jesus to rise up and take His throne and destroy the enemies of Israel. Both missed Jesus as the suffering servant of Isaiah 52:13.

God, in His providence, had planned to allow Jesus to die on the cross for our sins (Acts 2:22-24). The Bible proclaims that Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 NKJV). Paul said about Jesus and God’s plan of redemption through His Son: “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). The people involved in the murder of Jesus did not see the providence of God in allowing them to kill His Son. Jesus Himself had said to Pilate, the most powerful man in Israel at that time apart from Jesus, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11).

Jesus in fact laid down His life willingly. He said, “No one takes it [His life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:18). No one took Jesus’ life from Him. Not Pilate. Not the Jews. Not the Romans. Not Satan. Jesus laid down His life for the glory of God and to reconcile sinners to the Father (Ephesians 2:16). Yet God used the murder of Jesus through the hands of Judas, the Jewish ruling council, the Romans, Pilate, and Satan to glorify His name. How incredible is our God!