Where can the camps come into peace?
Like a river that flows between two banks, so the truth of God's Word flows between the extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism. As countless parties have pointed out, both are true and both are false. Election and predestination are Biblical doctrines. God knows everything and therefore He cannot learn anything or be surprised by anything. Thus, He knows, and has known from eternity past, who will exercise their free will to accept Him and who will reject Him. The former are the elect, the latter are non-elect. As D.L. Moody once said, the "whosoever wills are the elect, and the whosoever wont's are the non-elect." Every person who is not saved will have only himself to blame. God will not send anyone to hell, but many people will choose to go there by exercising their free will to reject the Messiah.
On the other hand, no one who is saved will be able to take any of the credit. Our salvation, from start to finish, is 100% God's work, and is based entirely on the finished work of the Cross. We were dead in trespasses and sins, destined for hell, when God in His grace, drew us to Himself, convinced us of our sin and our need for a Savior, and gave us the authority to call Jesus the Savior. Is this grace, this wooing, irresistible? No, we have free will and we can resist, even to the damnation of our souls, but God does everything short of making us puppets to draw us into His family.
Moreover the concept of a limited atonement, that Jesus only died for the elect, and not for the sins of all people, is clearly unbiblical. The Bible is crystal clear that Yeshua's death on the cross was for all people, and that there is sufficient power in His blood to cleanse away every sin. "Whosoever will may come" is meaningless if man has no free will and no ability to choose God.
It is imperative to remember that both Calvinism and Arminianism are systems of theology devised by godly, devout, Bible-believing men. Both systems are based on the Word of God, and both contain essential elements of truth, but neither can be substituted for reading and believing the Word of God. The Apostolic church knew nothing of either system; they simply believed what God had revealed. The difficulty arises when it seems that some of what God has revealed contradicts something else He revealed. How can man be absolutely free and God absolutely sovereign and directive simultaneously? How can salvation be entirely God's work, yet require the cooperation of mere men simultaneously? These are unanswerable questions ultimately. The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. It teaches what appears to be unconditional perseverance in some places and conditional perseverance in others. These things can never be intellectually reconciled perfectly because God is simply too big for us to understand. Both systems of theology emphasize one set of Scriptures while either ignoring or drastically twisting and explaining away others.
We are not called to fully understand God, only to believe Him. I am a free moral agent, responsible for my own sin, hopelessly lost. Jesus not only died for me, He drew me to Himself with bands of loving-kindness and grace, convicted me of my sin, gave me the power to call Him LORD, and will one day present me faultless before His presence with great joy. I am, by His grace, His child. And yet, I am still free to walk with Him or not to walk with Him. And what applies to me, applies to every human being. Jesus died for all of us and desires fellowship with all of us. Whosoever will may come and receive of His forgiveness and grace and salvation. Innocent babies who die are safe in heaven. God's election excludes no one. Messiah's atonement includes everyone. As has been pointed out, we are looking at two sides of the same coin. Election is God's side, free will is our side. Someone once said, "As we enter life, we see emblazoned over the gateway the words 'Whosoever will may come'." Then, as we enter and look back at the backside of the same gateway, we see the words inscribed, "Elect from the foundation of the earth." Election is God's side of the coin we call salvation while human responsibility is our side.
A famous rabbi once put it this way: "All is foreseen yet free will is given."
Rather than interpreting the Bible based on any theological or philosophical structure, it behooves us to simply read and believe God's Word. As we teach and study the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation in context verse by verse, we will at times sound like staunch Calvinists, preaching those passages which emphasize God's sovereignty. While at other times, we will seem like devout Arminians as we preach those passages which emphasize man's responsibility. The key to successful ministry is balance.... to stay focused on Jesus and the Bible... to not become distracted by the countless doctrines of men.
Works cited
Messianic Rabbi's letter edited by Jeremy Brown
(Replaced Hebrew words with English.)
We are rather interdenominational here at Loxley Ministries. We want to focus mainly on grounding in the Word of God and not so much on man's systematic theology.
As for our stand on things like eternal salvation and predestination, I wish to embrace both Calvinist and Arminian positions. So in that sense, I feel we are middle ground. We believe strongly in both the absolute sovereignty of God and the free will of man within the plan of God's salvation, and we see these as complementary, not contradictory. We however do believe that Jesus died for the sins of every person and not just for a few.
Loxley Ministries and Jeremy Brown believe exactly like Calvary Chapel's Chuck Smith. See his writing on this subject at: http://calvarychapel.com/library/smith-chuck/books/caatwog.htm
If you have any further questions, please let us know.
Jeremy Brown @ Loxley Ministries
