These are not new believers[1] merely "church shopping", unfamiliar with the Confessions or Creeds, but ones who have presented themselves as teachers of His Holy Word, having spent many years studying.
If they are confronted before the time, they immediately try to appear in agreement to keep up the deception while remaining in league with those who reject it.
These three individuals, Jacob Arminius and his two students, Jan Uytenbogaert and Simon Episcopius, were the "Big Three" of Arminianism. They all gave the appearance of publically agreeing with the Confessions and Creeds of the True Reformed Church, but were duplicitous and then broke their word and Covenant to the Church who had trusted them.
They then proceed to try and take as many people with them away from the Creeds and Confessions to form their own "ministry". Their teaching is not authorized by any True Church Council or Synod.
MANY REPUTABLE WITNESSES
Fortunately for the Faith, these persons were known and events were witnessed by many reputable individuals of very high integrity. They recorded what really happened. One of these reputable witnesses was William Bradford. The very same William Bradford, the Pilgrim, who came over on the ship Mayflower with the Pilgrims in 1620 and became Governor of the Plymouth colony in the New World. As G-ds' Providence works, he had previously resided in Amsterdam where these persons also were. His reliable eye-witness account of these persons and events is presented further on in this study.
First, we will study each of the "Big Three of Arminianism" and their actions in turn.
JACOB ARMINIUS
The public debate became the catalyst that revealed Arminius' secret unfaithfulness to anyone who may have had any questions at all about him or his true beliefs.[2]
Arminius knew Erasmus' arguments as they had all been published over 50 years earlier and refuted in detail by Martin Luther in Bondage of the Will and his other writings. Arminius had a good idea of the refutations. He was fully aware of Koonherts' arguments, but he never prepared his answers before the debate. He also never openly revealed his personal dislike of this Doctrines of the Reformed Faith to the Church-at-large which he wad been appointed to uphold as a minister of that Church. He had been most definitely involved in duplicitousness. Arminius had been engaged in teaching things along the same lines for some time, but not openly so as to bring full attention to himself.
There was one minister who did speak out. Pieter Plancius. Pieter Plancius had been appointed a minister in the same Church in Amsterdam where Arminius preached things contrary to the Confessions while still supposedly a minister of the Reformed Faith. Pieter Plancius had alerted the Church, but certain ones thought so highly of Arminus that Plancius' revelations were swept aside.
2. Arminius' duplicity also appeared in his preaching. While preaching on the book of Romans, especially Romans Chapter 7, he taught that Pauls' testimony in Romans 7:14-25 was Paul before he was Saved.[3] Arminius claimed Paul was describing himself as an unregenerated man: an interpretation that leads to a denial of Total Depravity. And when he taught Romans 9, he totally denied Sovereign Reprobation.
3. This was duplicity because the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession of Faith bound the Reformed Churches and their ministers. Arminius was absolutely taught these Creeds and Confessions, and knew them well and had sworn to uphold them. As a Reformed Pastor, he always claimed to agree with and to be faithful to these Creeds and Confessions, but according to his preaching, he was anything but.
This was not generally known as few suspected that anyone held in such high esteem could be hiding his true beliefs.
Even though Pieter Plancius had spoken out against him, Arminius continued to have high regard in the Churches. He was even appointed Professor of Theology at the University of Leiden. This was where he came in contact with Professor Francis Gomarus. Francis Gomarus quickly saw that Arminus was conducting a deception under the guise of being a true minister of the Reformed Faith. Here too, when called to give an account of his teachings, Arminius was not honest, but deceptive, and guilty of hiding his true beliefs as much as possible, all the while continuing to teach his students things that violated his trust, especially concerning the Book of Romans. Arminius had managed to get around Pieter Plancius but he could not get around Professor Gomarus. By the time Arminius died in 1609 (one year before the five Articles of the Remonstrants were written) the ill effects of his teachings had spread throughout the Churches, especially through the preaching of those who had studied under him and secretly agreed with him.
Arminius was in league with and the secret teacher of two other key individuals.
Other than Arminius himself, no one had more influence in the Arminian cause than Jan Uyterbogaert. Born in 1557, three years before Arminius, He said he converted from Roman Catholicism because Roman Catholic authorities told him he was not permitted to hear the preaching of a Pastor who advocated Protestantantism.
Uyterbogaert had intended to become a lawyer, but, upon joining the Reformed churches, he decided to become a minister instead. He also studied in Geneva under Theodore Beza at the same time as Arminius. Arminius, not the respected Beza, was the one who influenced Uyterbogaert, and he returned to the Netherlands a firm believer in the heresies of his fellow student, Arminius, and also unfaithful to the trust Beza and his Church had given him..
Arminius showed him how he did it, and how to still remain a minister.
Step-by-step they conspired to take over the government, or overthrow it by force if necessary, for the purpose of Convening a Council that would Rule Arminianism valid within Protestant Churches. They assumed they had enough government approval, Arminian theologians and public support to pull it off.
Uyterbogaert was made leader of the Arminian party when Arminius died and was chief composer of the Five Articles of the Remonstrants, which presented the doctrinal position of the Arminians and is still used today by them, even though no Church Council composed of all the Protestant Churches of any nation has ever Approved it.
Arminius' teaching was spreading in the Assemblies with some apparent approval. Having obtained what they believed was sufficient power and influence in the Netherlands they started speaking out against the Reformed Churches. They were rebuffed. That did not stop the Arminians. They thought they had sufficient support to attempt a coup d'etat.
Oldenbarnevelt then began advocating violent revolution against the Church and the State. He was arrested and put on trial for Treason against the Civil Arm in Holland, before the Convening of the Synod of Dort, having been discovered to be secretly in league with the Arminians to overthrow the country by force of arms. Uyterbogaert fled. Oldenbarnevelt was found guilty and executed for Treason. The Synod deposed Uyterbogaert In Absentia and Prince Maurice Banished him, and ordered his goods confiscated.
So there would be no further misinterpretation in the Churches concerning the Five Articles of the Remonstrants as opposed what True Protestantism really was, The Synod of Dort was Convened by Prince Maurice and the Dutch Estates-General and The Five Articles of the Canons (T.U.L.I.P.) were Ruled. And the Five Articles of the Remonstrants were Ruled a papist distortion which denied the teachings of the Reformers. Arminians have not been happy since.
Uyterbogaert then bided his time waiting outside the Netherlands for a change of government and secretly returned from banishment to became a pastor of a church where he continued until his death, promoting the cause of Arminianism in the Netherlands once more. Neither he nor his church ever regained the height of power and influence it once had in the Netherlands again.
Episcopius also secretly became Arminius' student. He was born in 1583. He studied theology under both Gomarus and Arminius at the University of Leiden. The teachings of Arminius appealed to him rather than those of Gomarus, and he became a follower of Arminius and an avid defender of his teaching. By this time, Arminius was teaching more and more the exact opposite of the Confessions he was trusted to uphold, and his two allies, Uytenbogaert and Episcopius were following suit.
After Arminius' death in 1609, in 1610, the Articles of the Remonstrants were drawn up, and Episcopious became a pastor, and took the place of Gomarus as Professor in Leiden when Gomarus resigned. Episcopius became so widely known as Arminian in his thinking that he was called along with twelve other pastors to appear at the Synod of Dort to give an account before the Synod of his beliefs.
Episcopius had no respect for the Synod. He took charge of the Arminians and engaged in delaying tactics to thwart discussion of the real issues. When in Bogerman dismissed the Arminians from the Synod because their tactics were obvious, Episcopius exited shouting, "With Christ I shall keep silence about all this, God shall judge between me and this synod."
Guess he didn't keep much "silence" while he was shouting.
He was also banished, but returned to the Netherlands in 1626 when the attitude against Arminianism had decreased. He established his own Arminian congregation and also a seminary where he taught, and he wrote Arminian tracts. His church never regained the power and influence it had before in the Netherlands either.
WILLIAM BRADFORD, THE PILGRIM WITNESS
There were Pilgrims in Holland as well as England. A sizeable group of English Separatists who would later be known as the "Pilgrims" arrived in Amsterdam in 1608.[5]
Some Pilgrims were present at the University of Leiden. Among them was William Bradford. The Pilgrims were all Calvinists. William Bradford would later arrive in 1620 on the Mayflower, and become the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Bradford wrote of the debate about Arminianism that was going on while he lived in Holland. He recorded how the Pilgrims strongly disagreed with the Arminians. He wrote in History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650, "In these times also were the great troubles raised by the Arminians, who, as they greatly molested the whole state, so this city in particular in which was the chief university; so as there were daily and hot disputes in the schools thereabout."
It should also be known that Governor William Bradford wrote a copy of The Mayflower Compact inside his book The History of Plymouth Plantation. Governor Bradford described a certain Pastor John Robinson as quite literally, "a terror to the Arminians".
Bradford wrote that there were two Professors at that time who were teaching Arminianism: Episcopius and Polyander. The Pilgrims' Pastor, John Robinson, debated both of them, "which made Episcopius to put forth his best strength and set forth sundry theses which by public dispute he would defend against all men."
Episcopius was soundly defeated by Pastor Robinson in the debate.
Then Polyander wanted to have a go at Pastor John Robinson: "Now Polyander, the other professor, and the chief preacher of the city, desired Mr. Robinson to dispute against him; but he was loath, being a stranger. Yet the other did importune him..."
Pastor Robinson then made up his mind to take on Polyander as well. Bradford wrote, "when the day came, the Lord did so help him (Pastor Robinson) to defend the truth and foil the adversary (the Arminians), as he put him to an apparent nonplus in this great and public audience. And the like he did a second and third time upon such like occasions. The which as it caused many to praise God that the truth had so famous victory, so it procured him much honor and respect from those learned men and others which loved the truth."
Along with Governor William Bradfords' testimony of Pastor John Robinsons' defeat of the Arminians, what should be impressed upon the students' mind with regard to Episcopius, the staunchest public defender and primary spokesman of Arminianism, is that Episcopius' own Arminianism led him in the direction of Socinianism, which denies the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ. He only tended to grow more and more heretical. Thus his teachings became the basis for Modernism and all the falsehoods it entails.
Any serious student that examimes Arminianism closely will find that it is just Pelagianism which is based on ancient Gnostic teachings and that is all.
Today, many Arminians are taught that the "Five Points of Calvinism" as they became known appeared first, and the "Five Points of Arminianism" second. As with Arminian beliefs in general, the reverse is true. The Five Points of Calvinism appeared last as a rebuke answer to The Five Points of Arminianism. Present-day Arminians are for the most part wholly lacking true information about these how the Arminians ttied to have a Council Convened to have Calvinism declared a heresy or a "cult", and have themselves Ruled as the "true Protestants" and how they were discovered, and judged.
Lastly, the Roman Catholic Church officially approved Arminianism at the Council of Trent.
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