Jacob Arminius by Rustin E. Brian

Author:Rustin E. Brian [Brian, Rustin E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498219778
Publisher: Cascade Books
Published: 2015-08-20T07:00:00+00:00

30. Arminius, Private Disputation XXXV, in Works, 2:380; italics mine.

31. Arminius, Public Disputation VI, in Works, 145.

32. This claim is strikingly similar to Anselm’s “proof” of God’s existence, which he thought to be a description rather than what we think of today as a proof or definition.

33. Arminius, Public Disputation VI, in Works, 2:148–49.

34. Ibid., 149.

Chapter 7

Grace, Predestination, and Election

O Thou, wha in the heavens dost dwell,

Wha, as it pleases best Thysel’,

Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell,

A’ for Thy glory,

And no for onie guid or ill

They’ve done afore Thee!35

Having examined Arminius’s doctrine of Scripture, as well as his views on Christology and the Holy Trinity, the foundation has been laid to examine his most important and, indeed, controversial teachings regarding grace, predestination, and election. It is here, more than any other place, that Arminius left his mark upon the church. Arminius refused to embrace the common Reformed understanding of predestination and election espoused by so many and championed by Francisco Gomarus and Theodore Beza in particular. Arminius refused to embrace this position, in short, because he held to a very strong doctrine of grace and refused to allow God to become the “author of evil,” as he would put it. His refusal was nothing short of revolutionary, and ended up paving the way for a large contingency of Protestant Christians to do the same. Heirs to Arminius’s theological teachings are quite numerous still to this day, though few know much about the great man from Oudewater anymore. In his strong rejection of the particular brand of intensified Calvinism that would eventually be championed by the Synod of Dort, Arminius paved a new way. Though he was most definitely not a papist, Arminius’s understanding of grace, and therefore his views of predestination and election, moved him closer, perhaps, to Roman Catholicism than to traditional Reformed Protestantism. Ultimately he would remain a Reformed Protestant, but in a way that I would describe as a via media, or middle of the road, figure. The issues of predestination and election were so important to Arminius that he risked everything—his career, his legacy, and his livelihood—to defend his fundamental impulse, namely, that all are elect in Christ, and thus have the real possibility of salvation. God does not will that anyone should perish and be damned, according to Arminius. Arminius staked his entire theology on this position. To see this argument in its most complete form, we are well served to look to Arminius’s Declaration of Sentiments.

During the years Arminius served as a Pastor in Amsterdam, he was able to remain relatively low-key. After his somewhat reluctant acceptance of an invitation to leave his parish and assume the role of Professor of Divinity at Leiden, however, he was never again able to keep out of public scrutiny. From the beginning of his professorship, Arminius was criticized and attacked by a vast array of theological opponents. Arminius tried to handle his critics in as polite and civil a manner as possible, trying hard to dodge public debates as often as possible.

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