Can you be saved?

Oct 11
14:50

2019

Bruce McLaughlin

Bruce McLaughlin

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Did God will all men/women be saved?

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If the Triune God truly ordained all future events before forming the universe then God may be angered by Arminians who consider this particular view of sovereignty as inconsistent with the Biblical presentation of God’s character.  Scripture is silent on the consequences of such a theological error.  Alternately,Can you be saved? Articles if Calvinism is a theological error, the consequences of embracing and promulgating this error are given with somewhat greater clarity. 

By the 1646 Westminster Confession (God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass) and the 1689 London Baptist Confession (God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass), God is the first-cause of all evil.  All tragedy, suffering, disease, decay, iniquity, corruption, immorality, wickedness and depravity covering the manifold of sin in heaven and earth were willed by God before anything existed except the Trinity.  Injustice also reigned since the greater part of mankind was predestined to eternal damnation by God’s decree before the universe was formed (Mat 7:13, 14). 

Matthew 12:31, 32 and Mark 3:29, 30 present the “unpardonable sin” of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  Attributing, to Satan, Christ’s authenticating miracles, done in the power of the Holy Spirit, is one path to blasphemy.  What about attributing Satan’s evil to the Holy Spirit?  Is that less heinous than attributing the Holy Spirit’s goodness to Satan?  Might that be another path to blasphemy?  Is Calvinism just one more arrogant theology concocted by a few Christian elite to create an “elect” aristocracy or is it blasphemy at its core?  How could Augustine, Calvin and their theological progeny embrace such a grievous error?  According to John Wesley’s “Serious Considerations on Absolute Predestination”:

“This doctrine is novel.  In the first four hundred years after Christ, no mention is made of it by any writer, great or small, in any part of the Christian Church.  The foundations of it were laid in the later writings of Augustine, when unguardedly writing against Pelagius.  It was afterward taught by Dominicus, a popish friar, and the monks of his order, and at last, it was unhappily taken up by John Calvin.”

Wesley goes on to say:

  • This doctrine is injurious to God because it makes Him the author of all sin and represents Him as delighting in the death of sinners, expressly contrary to His own declaration (Ezek. 33:11; I Tim. 2:4)
  • This doctrine makes the preaching of the Gospel mere mockery and delusion since many of those to whom it is preached are, by an irrevocable decree, shut out from being benefited by it.
  • This doctrine makes the coming of Christ and His sacrifice upon the cross, instead of being a fruit of God’s love to the world, to be one of the severest acts of God’s indignation against mankind.  God only ordained a very few for salvation while hardening and increasing the damnation of the far greater number of mankind, namely all those who do not believe.  The cause of this unbelief is the counsel and decree of God.

In contrast to Calvinism, Wesley affirmed that God has willed all to be saved and sacrificed his unique Son on the cross so that the great gift of salvation would be available to all mankind.  There is hardly any other article of the Christian faith so frequently, plainly and positively asserted.  It is that which makes the preaching of the gospel ‘Glad tidings to all.’  Had this offer of salvation been confined to a few, it would be ‘Sad tidings of great sorrow’ to most people.

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