Calvinism & Arminianism

The church has been deeply divided over one issue more than any other: by differences b/t Calvinism and Arminianism.

Why I Am Not an Arminian Chapter 1: Introduction

J. I. Packer once observed that the very terms Calvinism and Arminianism represent an opposition: “The words are defined in terms of the antithesis, and the point is pressed that no Christian can avoid being on one side or the other.”1 This suggests that the two ideologies—whatever each might stand for in its own right—are to be considered mutually exclusive positions. An Arminian is by definition not a Calvinist, and a Calvinist could not also be an Arminian. Whatever one stands for, the other represents its opposing perspective and thus its denial. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, an inability to affirm the other easily becomes hostility toward the other.

Both sides have been guilty of labeling the other as “heretics” which is a very serious accusation. Heresy is not merely doctrinal error; it is damnable error. The heretic so mangles the gospel of Jesus Christ that it no longer communicates the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Heresy is such a corruption of the grace of God in Christ that it invalidates either Jesus as the Savior or grace as the way of salvation.

There are issues relevant to salvation (soteriology) that both parties disagree on but we should not stand in condemnation of the other. The issue of debate is not between belief and unbelief but rather which of two Christian perspectives better represents the biblical portrayal of the divine-human relationship in salvation and the contributions of both God and man in human history.

John Calvin (b. July 10, 1509 – d. May 27, 1564—25 years younger than Luther)

Calvin was born in France in 1509. He was twenty-five years younger than Luther. As such, Calvin represents the second generation of Protestant Reformers.

Calvin was converted in the early 1530s. Like Luther, he had been studying to be a lawyer before God changed the course of his life. When persecution against Protestants erupted in France, Calvin fled to Switzerland.

In Basel (Baa-zl), he penned his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was published in 1536 (age 26). Later that same year, he was planning to travel to Strasbourg. His journey took him through Geneva, where another Reformer named William Farel (1489-1565) convinced him to stay and help lead the Protestant church in Geneva.

In 1538, Farel and Calvin came into conflict with the city council and were forced to leave Geneva. Calvin travelled to Strasbourg, where he got married and published his first commentary on the book of Romans and his second edition of the Institutes.

In the summer of 1541, Calvin returned to Geneva. He would minister there for the rest of his life. During his time in Geneva, he preached over 2,000 sermons.

By 1546, Calvin began to face opposition from some of the citizens of Geneva. This opposition group (known as the Libertines) resisted Calvin and the rules that were enacted by the church in Geneva. It was not until nearly ten years later, in the mid 1550s, that the opposition against Calvin finally began to wane.

Beginning in 1555, Calvin welcomed English Protestant refugees (who were fleeing from the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I) to Geneva. Among them was the Scottish preacher John Knox.

In 1558, Calvin became ill and worked quickly to finish up the final edition of his Institutes. This final version (published in 1559) expanded to 80 chapters, from the original six chapters in the first edition. Died 1564

Jacobus Arminius (b. October 10, 1560 – d. October 19, 1609)

Only 4 when Calvin died.

Jacobus Arminius was an accomplished pastor, Dutch theologian, and professor in the early post-Reformation Netherlands, living from 1560–1609. He served as the first Dutch pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam during the city’s emergence from its medieval past into its golden age1, and later became professor at Leiden in 1603.

Arminius was raised as a Calvinist but would come to reject some of the basic assumptions of the Calvinist soteriology that was being taught at the Geneva Academy under Theodore Beza. Those who agreed with Arminius’s criticisms of Calvinism were called Remonstrants (“ones who complained against” the Calvinist orthodoxy of their day). The bitter controversy that erupted in the Dutch church between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants (as the Calvinists were called) would assume national importance in the second decade of the seventeenth century, and would eventually lead to the calling of the Synod of Dort in 1618. The synod condemned the views of the Remonstrants as heretical and removed Remonstrant pastors from their posts.

These issues are not isolated to the 17th century (when Calvin and Arminius lived). To get a better understanding of what divided these 2 men (and their followers) we need to go farther back in church history.