Older than the Labels
The words Calvinism and Arminianism are about four hundred years old. The questions behind them are much older, and the Scriptures that answer them are older still.
Knowing the story helps in three ways. It shows how each position was shaped by the fight that produced it. It keeps us from treating a system as though it were the Bible. And it reminds us that the men behind the labels were more complicated, and often better, than their reputations.
Nearly every name here belongs to the catholic state church or to the Protestant state churches. The councils and synods were gatherings of bishops or ministers, often called by rulers, and they hold no authority over any local church. All through these centuries the free churches stood apart from those bodies, though they left little writing on this question. Christ's churches never ceased, and the Gospel was never lost from them. We name what each man taught and weigh it by Scripture (Acts 17:11). We judge teaching, and we leave each soul to God.
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For Deeper Study
- Augustine of Hippo: A BiographyAmazon Peter BrownThe standard modern life of Augustine, written by a historian rather than a theologian.
- Arminius: A Study in the Dutch ReformationAmazon Carl BangsThe standard biography, sympathetic to its subject.
- Saving the Reformation: The Pastoral Theology of the Canons of DortAmazon W. Robert GodfreyReformed. A warm account of the synod with a fresh translation of the Canons. We differ on its doctrine.
- The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist WitnessAmazon H. Leon McBethA standard Baptist history covering General and Particular Baptists. It traces the first English Baptists mainly to English Separatism.
- Spurgeon v. Hyper-CalvinismAmazon Iain H. MurrayReformed. Shows why a Calvinist preacher rejected hyper-Calvinism and pleaded with all to come to Christ.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Calvinism and Arminianism: What Is the Debate?
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.
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