Calvinism and Arminianism
Where the debate came from, what each system teaches in its own words, and what the Bible says about God's choice, Christ's death, the Gospel call, and the believer's security.
Recommended Order
Study in any order. This path builds each topic on the one before it.
Calvinists and Arminians both confess salvation by grace, but they differ on election, the atonement, human ability, the power of God's call, and the security of the believer, and we hold a non-Calvinistic Baptist position that is neither system.
The debate runs from Augustine's answer to Pelagius through Calvin's Geneva to the Remonstrance of 1610 and the Synod of Dort, a story of state churches and their synods that binds no Baptist church and that Scripture alone can judge.
Sin has corrupted every part of every person, so that no one can save himself, but Scripture does not teach a total inability to respond: God commands all to believe and enables them through His Word and Spirit, and He gives life to those who do.
Reformed theology teaches that God chose particular people to salvation with no regard to foreseen faith; we believe He chose in Christ, according to His foreknowledge, to save all who believe.
Reformed theology teaches that Christ died to secure the salvation of the elect alone; we believe He died for all, that His payment is offered to all, and that it is applied to all who believe.
Reformed theology teaches that the Spirit's saving call always brings the elect to faith; we believe God's call through the Gospel is sincere and powerful, that He enables the response He commands, and that sinners can refuse Him.
Calvinists and non-Calvinistic Baptists agree that a true believer can never be lost, but we rest his safety on God's keeping and God's promise to everyone who believes, not on a decree that passed over others, and never on the believer's own continuing.
Romans 9–11 answers whether God's word to Israel has failed: He has always worked by promise and mercy, Israel stumbled by seeking righteousness through works, whosoever calls on the Lord will be saved, and God will keep His word to Israel and have mercy on all who believe.
Arminianism teaches that God chose in Christ to save those who believe, that Christ died for all, that grace goes first but can be resisted, and, for most Arminians, that a true believer can fall away, which is where we part from our Arminian brethren.
The warnings of Scripture are real and must be heeded, but they never teach that a born-again believer can be lost: they expose false profession, warn of chastening and lost reward, and drive God's children back to the Christ who keeps them.
Calvinists, Arminians, and non-Calvinistic Baptists differ on election, the atonement, and grace, but the debate must never silence the Gospel, weaken our prayers for the lost, or turn brethren into enemies, because Christ commands His people to preach to every creature.