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Did God provide for the salvation of sinners that he chose to be saved, or did God provide a way of salvation and then it is up to sinners to choose it? Wrong question that has been asked... The question that SHOULD be asked: Did God know which choice we would make (as to salvation) when He created this universe and bring into existence that choice to be saved, or did He bring into existence His choice for whom He would save when He brought this universe into existence? Is the ultimate, final answer to this either/or, neither/nor, or both/and?...

VIII. THE DIVINITY OF THE SON OF GOD With regard to the Divinity of the Son of God and the word autoqeov both of which have been discussed in our University in the regular form of scholastic disputations, I cannot sufficiently wonder what the motive can be, which has created a wish in some persons to render me suspected to other men, or to make me an object of suspicion to themselves. This is still more wonderful, since this suspicion has not the least ground of probability on which to rest, and is at such an immense distance from all...

*Geisler:* Right! There's a big difference between the two systems. The answer to the question of truth is of eternal importance. If there's a substantial difference between the two systems -- and if your eternal soul depends on a correct choice of one system or the other -- then it behooves everyone to examine seriously all the evidence and make a truly informed decision. We can't just say, "Well, I believe it, I was taught it, I was reared that way." The question is, _Which one is true?_ If Islam is true, Christianity is false. If Christianity is true, Islam...

VI. THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION (Arminius) With regard to the certainty [or assurance] of salvation, my opinion is, that it is possible for him who believes in Jesus Christ to be certain and persuaded, and, if his heart condemn him not, he is now in reality assured, that he is a son of God, and stands in the grace of Jesus Christ. Such a certainty is wrought in the mind, as well by the action of the Holy Spirit inwardly actuating the believer and by the fruits of faith, as from his own conscience, and the testimony of God's Spirit...

"To charge the intellect with perpetual blindness, so as to leave it no intelligence of any description whatever, is repugnant not only to the Word of God, but to common experience. We see that there has been implanted in the human mind a certain desire of investigating truth, to which it never would aspire unless some relish for truth antecedently existed. There is, therefore, now, in the human mind, discernment to this extent, that it is naturally influenced by the love of truth, the neglect of which in the lower animals is a proof of their gross and irrational nature....

In reference to Divine Grace, I believe, 1. It is a gratuitous affection by which God is kindly affected towards a miserable sinner, and according to which he, in the first place, gives his Son, "that whosoever believers in him might have eternal life," and, afterwards, he justifies him in Christ Jesus and for his sake, and adopts him into the right of sons, unto salvation. 2. It is an infusion (both into the human understanding and into the will and affections,) of all those gifts of the Holy Spirit which appertain to the regeneration and renewing of man...

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.....is present with, and presides over, all things; and all things, according to their essences, quantities, qualities, relations, actions, passions, places, times, stations and habits, are subject to its governance, conservation, and direction. I except neither particular, sublunary, vile, nor contingent things, not even the free wills of men or of angels, either good or evil: And, what is still more, I do not take away from the government of the divine providence even sins themselves, whether we take into our consideration their commencement, their progress, or their termination.

This caucus of moderate Calvinists, i.e., "Calvinists in the Tradition of Arminius" is called to order ONLY FOR CTA's or their FRIENDS in regard to this question. What is position of us CTA's on the Tulip.... Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverence of the Saints? Two answers have been forthcoming to date. P-Marlowe has offered one, and I have offered another. INITIAL Suggestion From P-Marlowe: The TULIP was developed as a reaction to the Remonstrants and belief in the petals of the Tulip was not necessary in order to be a Calvinist at the time...

MEMORIAL TO JAMES ARMINIUS Arminius, that servant of Christ, in order to approve himself before God, chose to endure the hatred and contradiction of all mankind, rather than to violate his conscience. He held out to the whole Christian world the ensign of peace and concord, and he wished a commencement to be made in the Reformed Churches. Being a man of prudence and mild in spirit, he perceived that those Churches were distracted and separated from each other in many ways, and that in these days neither measure nor end was observed in making secessions; that endeavours were therefore...

Were the Remonstrants Faithful to Arminius? For the past four hundred years, the doctrinal battle between Arminians and Calvinists has raged on. This battle had its formal beginning with the issuance of the Canons of the Synod of Dordecht in 1619. These canons were the result of a national synod held in Dordrecht by the Dutch Reformed Church, and attended by delegates from Reformed churches throughout all of Europe, for the purpose of addressing the Five Articles of Remonstrance issued by followers of Jacobius Arminius in 1610, one year after Arminius’ death. The articles addressed point on which the Remonstrants...

Dort Pitted Calvinists against Arminians. by the Staff or associates of Christian History Institute. James (Jacob) Arminius was uneasy with some of the teachings that had come to be identified with Calvinism. Did God really choose some men to be damned before he created them? Was Christ's death only intended for those who would finally be saved? Does God exercise his sovereignty so fully that man has no choice in his own salvation? Does regeneration come first and then repentance? As the professor of theology at Leyden, James had promised to teach only those things which conformed to the confessions...

Who Is Elect? Arminius Differed with Calvin. by the Staff or associates of Christian History Institute. © Copyright 1999-2006. All rights reserved. After a lengthy exchange of letters, the curators and burgomasters of Leiden officially appointed Jacobus Arminius Professor of Theology at their university on this day, May 8, 1603. When first proposed for the position, Arminius doubted he would take the job. He had formed loving ties with his flock in Amsterdam. Furthermore, he had found theological research a hindrance to his growth in personal sanctity. His working relationship with Amsterdam's authorities was good and he seldom found it...

A seminary student tells this story about the first day of a class. The professor was the well known Reformed theologian and Presbyterian pastor R.C. Sproul. Sproul stormed into class on the first day, slammed his Bible on the desk and said, "You are all very very bad and God is very very mad!" I plan on telling that to my children before they go to sleep every night. There's a movement growing in young protestants in America over the past decade or so. It's called Calvinism and there are pastors around who would kill all the babies of this...

CALVISM DEFINED ByRichard Watson CALVINISM, that scheme of doctrine on predestination and grace, which was taught by Calvin, the celebrated reformer, in the early part of the sixteenth century. His opinions are largely opened in the third book of his "Institutes:" "Predestination we call the eternal decree of God; by which he hath determined in himself what he would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or other of these ends,...

Since the 17th century, Calvinism has been identified with its five-point reply to the Arminian party at the Synod of Dort. Calvinists often complain that this summary of their theology, though accurate in expressing the Calvinists' disagreement with their Arminian opponents, presents a truncated view of what Calvinism really is. Where in the five points do we hear of the covenant or of union with Christ? To properly understand a theology, we must not only know what it says to its opponents, but we need to know how it is to be presented on its own terms. If a five-point...

III. THE FREE-WILL OF MAN This is my opinion concerning the free-will of man: In his primitive condition as he came out of the hands of his creator, man was endowed with such a portion of knowledge, holiness and power, as enabled him to understand, esteem, consider, will, and to perform the true good, according to the commandment delivered to him. Yet none of these acts could he do, except through the assistance of Divine Grace. But in his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of and by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that...

Link: The Works of Arminius

ARMINIUS: (By Dr. Vic Reasoner) John Wesley observed that "to say, 'this man is an Arminian,' has the same effect on many hearers, as to say, 'This is a mad dog.'"(1)Arminianism has been called "the last and greatest monster of the man of sin, the elixir of Anti-Christianism; the mystery of the mystery of iniquity, the spawn of Popery, and the varnished offspring of the old Pelagians." (2)Robert C. Harbach wrote, "Arminianism is that rejected error which has become the most insidiously devised heresy ever to lay claim to biblical support." Harbach complained that Calvinists are the most hated people...

James Arminius (Jacob Harmenszoon) is undoubtedly the most famous theologian ever produced by the Dutch Reformed Church. His fame is a great irony since the Dutch Reformed Church historically was a bastion of strict Calvinism and Arminius has given his name to a movement very much in opposition to historic Calvinism. Who was this Arminius? What did he teach? Are the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism important today? Who Was Arminius? Arminius was born in 1559 in Oudewater - a small city in the province of Holland. Holland was one of seventeen prosperous provinces then known as the Netherlands or...

The History Channel is going to air a new historical series entitled DECISIVE BATTLES including some classic wars between ancient Persian armies and Roman and Greek ones. The History Channel goes on location to the actual battlefields and integrates cutting-edge videogame technology to bring history and imagination together in the new series DECISIVE BATTLES. The half-hour series DECISIVE BATTLES premieres Friday, July 23 at 9-9:30pm ET/PT. The series is hosted by Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) on location at the ancient battlefields and features expert commentary from the world©s foremost historians. DECISIVE BATTLES is unlike any series The History Channel...