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Much of the debate comes down to one basic difference: Arminians affirm synergism (i.e., “working-together,” or cooperation between God’s grace and human willing and activity), while Calvinists affirm monergism (i.e., “one-working,” or God’s grace as the effectual source of election, redemption, faith, and perseverance).
the root of every heresy in history is adding something of our own to the work of Christ.
Although the Calvinist/Arminian divide cuts across many church traditions, from Anglican to Baptist, it also unites believers across the same spectrum. The Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles, the Savoy Declaration of Congregationalism, and the London/Philadelphia Baptist Confession embrace these truths, along with the Reformed and Presbyterian churches.
there is no evidence of this acronym being used before the twentieth century.
All Christians believe in the new birth, but Calvinists believe that it is a gift that God gives us so that we will believe, not because we believed.
Reformed is to be Catholic — that is, a living expression of Christ’s visible church that affirms the ecumenical creeds on the basis of Scripture.
we do not regard our congregations or denominations as the only true church, but as part of the Catholic church across all times and places.
to be Reformed is to be evangelical,
Scripture alone
grace alone
Christ alone
faith...
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glory goes to G...
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“neo-nomianism”—that is, turning the gospel into a new law.
The heart chooses that which it approves and desires.
Reformation theology holds that the sinful inclination itself incurs God’s judgment, and this inclination not only weakens but imprisons the whole person. No one can overcome this inclination through free will. Cooperation with grace will not heal the soul. From the sinful condition proceed sinful acts.
Fallen human beings are not irreligious but idolatrous.
We are not free to choose whether or not we will be sinners, but in every sinful thought, desire, and action we are doing what we want to do. We are not compelled to sin. Just as God’s immunity to sin derives from his own natural goodness rather than any external compulsion, so the reverse is true for sinners.
human beings are “not deprived of will, but of soundness of will.”
Our choices are determined by our nature; we choose what we desire and we desire what is most consistent with our nature.
Satan cannot create, but can only corrupt.
the consequence of human wickedness and suppression of the truth in unrighteousness is not atheism but idolatry, speculation, and the measuring of God’s majesty according to human standards.
It is not God’s sovereignty that holds human freedom in bondage, but sin.
The problem is sin, not nature.
We aren’t sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.
One is either a justified covenant-keeper in Christ or a condemned covenant-breaker in Adam.
It therefore behooves us to be very certain about the distinction between God’s power and our own, God’s work and our own, if we want to live a godly life.”
Not only did God not base his election on foreseen faith and obedience; he made this choice in the full knowledge of Israel’s disobedience.
God’s sovereign election of people from every nation to form his church in no way supplants Israel. Rather, it is an enlarging of Israel’s tent,
God has always exercised his freedom even within the covenant family.
mercy is something that God shows to those who are at fault. By definition, no one deserves it.
Election reminds us that God is always on the giving end and sinners are always on the receiving end of grace.
It is impossible to believe that God chose us based on foreseen faith and obedience if no one is in fact morally able to trust and obey.
The other side of election is reprobation: God’s decision not to save some.
God is not arbitrarily choosing some and rejecting others. Rather, he is choosing some of his enemies for salvation and leaving the rest to the destiny that all of us would have chosen for ourselves.
No one is saved by divine coercion and no one is rejected apart from his or her own will.
no passage speaks of sinners softening their own hearts and regenerating themselves.
God only has to leave us to our own devices in the case of reprobation, but it requires the greatest works of the triune God to save the elect, including the death of the Father’s only begotten Son.
“those whom he foreknew,” not “that which he foreknew.”
the question arises again as to what God would have foreseen apart from his own merciful
decision and action. If no one can believe apart from God’s regenerating grace, then God could never have foreseen someone believing apart from his prior decision to give that person saving faith.
The one who is ultimately in charge of the universe is good, kind, wise, merciful, just, and righteous.
God
has the ability to make our intercession a means through which he fulfills his purposes?
While God never causes sin, he is Lord over it, and it can progress no further than his wisdom and goodness will allow. In short, with conditional election you get foreknowledge without purpose: salvation is finally of us, not of the Lord.
Salvation is a gift, not a reward
Is election fair? Hardly. But who wants fairness in this matter? After all, if God were to give everybody what is deserved, nobody would be saved. He could leave every one of us in our spiritual death and the condemnation that we have chosen for ourselves.
what would God have foreseen in us prior to his own decision?
God does not react to what we do; he “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph 1:11).
Arminians hold that it is more important to God to give people free will to decide their own destiny than it is to save everyone. Calvinists hold that God chose to have mercy on many and leave the rest to their own choice.
