SUB: TOTAL DEPRAVITY VS FREE WILL by Samaroo Sookraj
The foremost theologian of the Reformation of the 1500's was John Calvin (1509-64), the Reformer of
Geneva, Switzerland. He systematized the doctrine of salvation earlier defended by Augustine (345-430), written by Paul the apostle, and divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. His doctrine was embraced by fellow-Reformers throughout Europe and the British Isles.
The most-noted protest against the doctrine of John Calvin was raised by disciples of Jacobus
Arminius, professor in the university at Leiden, The Netherlands, 1603-09. They started their protest,
called the Remonstrance, in 1610, one year after Jacobus Arminius' death. Their disagreement with
John's Calvin's doctrine of predestination was presented to the Dutch Reformed Church's Synod of
Dort in 1618-19 in what has come to be called the Five Points of Arminianism:
1. Free Will or Human Ability: Fallen man is not totally incapable of saving himself; rather, he can respond to the gospel call through an act of his own free will.
2. Conditional Election: Election to salvation is not an act of God's grace alone; rather, God's choice is based upon man's choice, as God chose to salvation those whom He foresaw choosing Him of their own free will to be their Savior.
3. Universal Redemption or General Atonement: Jesus Christ did not die for the elect alone; rather, He died for all mankind, but only those who of their own free will believe in Him will benefit from His death.
4. Resistible Grace: The Holy Spirit is not irresistible in the application of the benefits of Christ's atonement; rather, man is of his own free will capable of successfully resisting the work of the Holy Spirit.
5. Falling from Grace: Not all the saved will persevere to the end in salvation; rather, some will of their own free will eventually lose their salvation.
The Synod of Dort condemned the Five Points of Arminianism as heresy, and affirmed as Scriptural truth all that Arminianism denied. This affirmation of the Synod of Dort is commonly called the Five Points of Calvinism.
We will here consider the first of the five points of Arminianism and of Calvinism
Arminianism Point #1: Free Will or Human Ability
"Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does so in such a manner as not to interfere with man's freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man's freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God's Spirit and be regenerated or resist God's grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit's assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man's act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner's gift to God; it is man's contribution to salvation."
This first point of Arminianism denies what Holy Scriptures teach regarding the human will and abilityin the following respects.
1. Arminianism teaches: "Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. Man is by nature, that state in which he was born, "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1) as the result of his sin and consequent death in Adam, his federal head (Romans 5:12).
A.He is therefore both blind and deaf to the things of God, and "every intent of the thoughts of his heart are only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5; cp. 8:21; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-23).
B. His "mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:7f). Consequently, "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them" (1 Corinthians 2:14).
2. Arminianism teaches: "God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does so in such a manner as not to interfere with man's freedom."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. God does not interfere with man's freedom, because man has none (see next point). God does not prevent anyone from repenting and believing, and instead exhorts all to "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth" (Isaiah 45:22). But as none are of themselves able to repent and believe, He has graciously ascertained that "as many as had been appointed toeternal life (by He Himself) believed" (Acts 13:48).
3. Arminianism teaches: "Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. Man's will is by nature in bondage to Satan, "having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:25). Consequently, he is a "slave of sin" (John 8:34; Romans 6:17,20; Titus 3:3) and "under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). He has from his birth "walked according to the ... prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2). And he has done so willingly, as such persons are said by Jesus Christ to be "of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (John 8:44).
4. Arminianism teaches: "Man's freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil" (Jeremiah 13:23). "There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.... There is none who does good, no, not one" (Romans 3:11f).
5. Arminianism teaches: "The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God's Spirit and be Regenerated or resist God's grace and perish."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. No sinner will of his own will cooperate with the Holy Spirit, because unregenerate men are told "You always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). The sinner therefore does not cooperate in his own regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and is instead totally passive in it, and therefore has no more to do with his second birth as he did with his first (John 1:13; 3:3-8). Jesus Christ declared God "gives life to whom He will" (John 5:21).
6. Arminianism teaches: "The lost sinner needs the Spirit's assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man's act and precedes the new birth."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. Life precedes faith! The doctrine of Jesus Christ in John 3
accordingly presents regeneration (in vv.3-8) prior to faith (in vv.14-21). And Scriptures declare the saved have been "begotten again to a living hope" (1 Peter 1:3).
7. Arminianism teaches: "Faith is the sinner's gift to God; it is man's contribution to salvation."
Holy Scriptures teach otherwise. Saving faith is "not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8f). The saved are therefore said to have "believed through grace" (Acts 18:27), and told "to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ ... to believe in Him" (Philippians 1:29).
The Synod of Dort therefore rightly condemned this first of the Five Points of Arminianism as heresy,and affirmed as Scriptural truth all that it denied. The synod's first response was:
Calvinism Point #1: Total Inability or Total Depravity
"Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not indeed he cannot choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit's assistance to bring a sinner to Christ it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is of itself a part of God's gift of salvation it is God's gift to the sinner, not the sinner's gift to God."
