Post by Admin on Jul 18, 2023 23:18:56 GMT -5
CALVINISM...The Truth
Rev. Robert C. Harbach
Part 2 of 4
● Total Depravity
● Unconditional Election
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
2. ARMINIANISM, however, under its breath croons the siren son of man's essential goodness. Man is only "very far gone from original righteousness," not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers to spiritual good, but is wounded, badly corrupted, and left half dead ( Luke 10:30 ). Though he be totally depraved, yet he remains a free moral agent, and can still hunger and thirst after righteousness and life ( Matt. 5:6 ); he can believe ( Acts 16:31 ), if he will; he can will and choose, or not will and not choose Christ, and all manner of good which may be offered to him: "How often would I have gathered thy children...and ye would not" ( Matt. 23:37 ), and, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" ( Josh. 24:25 ). Therefore the initial grace of God is not that almighty power whereby He raises us out of death into life, but is only a gentle advising whereby God does not produce the consent of man's will, but merely proposes that consent to the will, and leaves man to comply and convert himself: "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" ( Acts 2:40 ). Man, therefore, after the Fall not only has power to do good, but can so resist God ( Acts 7:51 , but see under 'Irresistible Grace') that he can entirely prevent his (conditional) regeneration, since it is in his power to be regenerated or not. For before regenerating grace can work efficaciously in man's new birth, the will of man must first move, and determine to comply with the conditions of regeneration, e.g., "I have set before you life and death...therefore choose life..." ( Deut. 30:19 ). To be sure, God must give the grace to conform to the prescribed prerequisites, as we ourselves can do nothing. Nevertheless, regeneration is a work of God in harmony with the free agency of man and performed on conditions required of man. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God" ( John 1:12 ).
CALVINISM confesses the Scripture truth that man is wholly gone from original righteousness, has in his sinful flesh "no good thing" ( Rom. 7:18 ), and that "there is none righteous, no, not one" (3:10). Man, though physically (half or all) alive, is totally depraved, totally deprived of all spiritual ability, "dead through trespasses and sins" ( Eph. 2:1-3 ), and this death passed upon all men ( Rom. 5:12 ). "We ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves" ( II Cor. 1:9 ). Calvinism alone takes man's spiritual death seriously. For man is dead, not merely half-dead; he is drowned, not simply drowning. By the Fall, man lost all power unto good, or to better himself. He is "wise to do evil, but to do good he has no knowledge" ( Jer. 4:22 ). He can do no good when it is his nature only and continually to do evil ( Jer. 13:23 ). Freedom of will for fallen man is the ability to act according to his nature. What is his nature? One totally corrupt, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart" ( Jer. 17:9-10 ). His "carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh (unregenerate nature) cannot please God" ( Rom. 8:7-8 ). This being true, unregenerate man cannot and will not believe..." (5:44), and, "they could not believe (12:37, 39). And we never will until "we believe according to the working of the strength of His power" ( Eph. 1:19 ); for we "believe through grace" alone ( Acts 18:27 ), i.e., our believing is the result "of the operation of God" ( Col. 2:12 ). Why is this? Because faith is the gift of God, an exotic something, not something native to man. Not all men have it: when Paul speaks of "they which are of faith" ( Gal. 3:7 ), he implies that some are not of faith: "all men have not faith" ( II Thess. 3:2 ). Again, why? Faith is "the grace given" ( Rom. 12:3, 6 ), not to all, but "was once delivered unto the saints" ( Jude 3 ). Furthermore, in regeneration and in the receiving of faith, man is passive, as an infant in physical birth (and has all done to it and for it -- no co-operation!), and as in the initial work of salvation. Then it is not "save yourselves," but as in the original, "Be saved" (aorist passive), and indicates that God permanently makes alive the sinner dead in trespasses and sins. Then he acts and lives Godward. Thus the "receiving" and "believing" are acts of the regenerated who already "were born of God" ( John 1:12, 13 ), and so believed as born again, and because regenerated. It is never true that one believes, and so is for that regenerated; but one is regenerated so that he may and does believe: "he that heareth...and believeth...hath eternal life" (5:24). Why he hears and believes is because he "hath passed out of death, into life" (Gr.). He had to be in life before he could believe! For believing is evidence of regeneration.
The other texts Arminians appeal to under this heading must not be made to say what they do not say. First, the will of man can never disappoint or checkmate the will of God. Christ does not say, "I would have gathered you, and you would not." Nor, "I would have gathered Jerusalem, and she would not." Nor even, as some force the text to say, "I would have gathered thy children, and they would not." But, "I would have gathered thy children, and ye would not." That plainly does not teach that the children Christ would gather were unwilling to be gathered, but rather that the "generation of vipers" were not willing that they should ( Matt. 23:13, 15 )! Of the two wills here, the finite will of "ye would not," and the infinite "I would," the latter never fails, and the former is always subservient to the latter. Secondly, it is Arminian philosophy, not Scripture truth, which exhorts us to make a decision between Christ or some other alternative. Scripture allows no other: it is Christ or nothing! Moses does not bid us either to choose life or death. His precept is "choose life!" This is further borne out by the fact that Joshua did not give sinful Israel a choice between Jehovah and idols. Instead, since it seemed evil to them to serve the Lord, preferring either the gods of their fathers "or the gods of the Amorites," it was in severe denunciation (not "invitation") that they heard, "choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!... Ye cannot serve the Lord" ( Josh. 24:14, 15, 19 ).
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
3. ARMINIANISM pretends to believe the doctrine of election. "Election is of such persons as believe and persevere in faith." For God has chosen the act of faith as a condition of salvation, which condition is a prerequisite unto the final establishment of man's election: "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" are everywhere presented as the conditions. If then, some men do not fulfill the conditions, they may possibly have an election unto faith, but not an election unto salvation. They may once have had faith, but unless they also fulfill the condition of perseverance, they at last are lost: "lest...when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (reprobated)" ( I Cor. 9:27 ). Thus their election can be unto a justifying faith, without being a decisive election unto salvation. For it is necessary to "give diligence to make your calling and election sure" ( II Pet. 1:10 ). God elects believers, it is contended, because He foresaw their faith, their holiness, obedience and turning to Him in final perseverance. These good qualities, therefore, do not have their source in sovereign, immutable election; they are not fruits of election; nor is election the cause of all our fruitfulness; but the performing of these as conditions are the cause of the election. Where we do read, "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" ( Acts 13:48 ) we are to understand that it means, 'as many as believed to eternal life were ordained.' Or, if the familiar word-order be retained, we are to understand "ordained" to mean, 'those who were ready' (Twentieth Century N.T.), or 'those disposed,' i.e., 'those who felt led to exercise faith.' Arminianism takes the basic virtues of salvation and makes them previously necessary causes of election, foreseen as being fulfilled by the finally faithful.
CALVINISM maintains with Scripture that the Lord chose us not because we were holy, but "he hath chosen us in Him...that (in order that) we should be holy" ( Eph. 1:4 ); not because He foresaw our obedience, but we are "elect...unto obedience" ( I Pet. 1:2 ); nor because He foresaw our faith, for "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through...belief" ( II Thess. 2:13 ). The effect of election is that none believe except those ordained to eternal life, chosen to faith and to every saving good. The word "ordained" pertains to the eternal, sovereign counsel of God. According to that counsel it means, "to place": 'as many as were placed to eternal life believed,' i.e., to be placed in such a way as to be rooted in and invested with eternal life; it means "to give": 'as many as were given to eternal life,' i.e., those under the dominion and ownership of eternal life believed. And since the word is a passive verb ("had been ordained"), it implies that a word omitted is to be understood. That word can be nothing else but "Lord," which appears in the first part of the text. "As many as had been ordained" -- by whom? By the Lord! It is not man's act, but God's. "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen" ( John 13:18 ), for, "ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and ordained you" (15:16). Our election does not depend upon anything in us, but upon His own sovereign ordination. From God's point of view, it is absolutely eternally firm and sure. Our diligence cannot make His decree any more secure; it rather furnishes us with the comfort and joy which knowledge of election affords ( I Thess. 1:4 ). God's election guarantees that none of His elect can be fatally deceived ( Matt. 24:24 ); that none can perish ( John 10:27ff .) or be lost (6:39). God Himself is omniscient, omnipotent, and never changes ( Mal. 3:6 ). Therefore it is impossible that His election be changed, recalled, disturbed, or disannulled. Nor can the elect be cast away by God (Is. 41:9). They are cast away by men ( John 6:37 with 9:34); and sometimes, because of their sins, they bring reproach upon the Gospel, and so are blamed and disapproved by men, enough, perhaps, to become useless in the Lord's service. But even if an elect person should have a fear that he may become a reprobate, still he is not, nor can he ever be. Scripture does not contradict itself ( John 10:28, 35 c). As to all God's people, their names were forever written in heaven ( Luke 10:20 ), and He unconditionally promises that He will not blot out their name form that record ( Rev. 3:5 ).
To be continued...
Rev. Robert C. Harbach
Rev. Robert C. Harbach
Part 2 of 4
● Total Depravity
● Unconditional Election
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
2. ARMINIANISM, however, under its breath croons the siren son of man's essential goodness. Man is only "very far gone from original righteousness," not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers to spiritual good, but is wounded, badly corrupted, and left half dead ( Luke 10:30 ). Though he be totally depraved, yet he remains a free moral agent, and can still hunger and thirst after righteousness and life ( Matt. 5:6 ); he can believe ( Acts 16:31 ), if he will; he can will and choose, or not will and not choose Christ, and all manner of good which may be offered to him: "How often would I have gathered thy children...and ye would not" ( Matt. 23:37 ), and, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" ( Josh. 24:25 ). Therefore the initial grace of God is not that almighty power whereby He raises us out of death into life, but is only a gentle advising whereby God does not produce the consent of man's will, but merely proposes that consent to the will, and leaves man to comply and convert himself: "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" ( Acts 2:40 ). Man, therefore, after the Fall not only has power to do good, but can so resist God ( Acts 7:51 , but see under 'Irresistible Grace') that he can entirely prevent his (conditional) regeneration, since it is in his power to be regenerated or not. For before regenerating grace can work efficaciously in man's new birth, the will of man must first move, and determine to comply with the conditions of regeneration, e.g., "I have set before you life and death...therefore choose life..." ( Deut. 30:19 ). To be sure, God must give the grace to conform to the prescribed prerequisites, as we ourselves can do nothing. Nevertheless, regeneration is a work of God in harmony with the free agency of man and performed on conditions required of man. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God" ( John 1:12 ).
CALVINISM confesses the Scripture truth that man is wholly gone from original righteousness, has in his sinful flesh "no good thing" ( Rom. 7:18 ), and that "there is none righteous, no, not one" (3:10). Man, though physically (half or all) alive, is totally depraved, totally deprived of all spiritual ability, "dead through trespasses and sins" ( Eph. 2:1-3 ), and this death passed upon all men ( Rom. 5:12 ). "We ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves" ( II Cor. 1:9 ). Calvinism alone takes man's spiritual death seriously. For man is dead, not merely half-dead; he is drowned, not simply drowning. By the Fall, man lost all power unto good, or to better himself. He is "wise to do evil, but to do good he has no knowledge" ( Jer. 4:22 ). He can do no good when it is his nature only and continually to do evil ( Jer. 13:23 ). Freedom of will for fallen man is the ability to act according to his nature. What is his nature? One totally corrupt, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart" ( Jer. 17:9-10 ). His "carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh (unregenerate nature) cannot please God" ( Rom. 8:7-8 ). This being true, unregenerate man cannot and will not believe..." (5:44), and, "they could not believe (12:37, 39). And we never will until "we believe according to the working of the strength of His power" ( Eph. 1:19 ); for we "believe through grace" alone ( Acts 18:27 ), i.e., our believing is the result "of the operation of God" ( Col. 2:12 ). Why is this? Because faith is the gift of God, an exotic something, not something native to man. Not all men have it: when Paul speaks of "they which are of faith" ( Gal. 3:7 ), he implies that some are not of faith: "all men have not faith" ( II Thess. 3:2 ). Again, why? Faith is "the grace given" ( Rom. 12:3, 6 ), not to all, but "was once delivered unto the saints" ( Jude 3 ). Furthermore, in regeneration and in the receiving of faith, man is passive, as an infant in physical birth (and has all done to it and for it -- no co-operation!), and as in the initial work of salvation. Then it is not "save yourselves," but as in the original, "Be saved" (aorist passive), and indicates that God permanently makes alive the sinner dead in trespasses and sins. Then he acts and lives Godward. Thus the "receiving" and "believing" are acts of the regenerated who already "were born of God" ( John 1:12, 13 ), and so believed as born again, and because regenerated. It is never true that one believes, and so is for that regenerated; but one is regenerated so that he may and does believe: "he that heareth...and believeth...hath eternal life" (5:24). Why he hears and believes is because he "hath passed out of death, into life" (Gr.). He had to be in life before he could believe! For believing is evidence of regeneration.
The other texts Arminians appeal to under this heading must not be made to say what they do not say. First, the will of man can never disappoint or checkmate the will of God. Christ does not say, "I would have gathered you, and you would not." Nor, "I would have gathered Jerusalem, and she would not." Nor even, as some force the text to say, "I would have gathered thy children, and they would not." But, "I would have gathered thy children, and ye would not." That plainly does not teach that the children Christ would gather were unwilling to be gathered, but rather that the "generation of vipers" were not willing that they should ( Matt. 23:13, 15 )! Of the two wills here, the finite will of "ye would not," and the infinite "I would," the latter never fails, and the former is always subservient to the latter. Secondly, it is Arminian philosophy, not Scripture truth, which exhorts us to make a decision between Christ or some other alternative. Scripture allows no other: it is Christ or nothing! Moses does not bid us either to choose life or death. His precept is "choose life!" This is further borne out by the fact that Joshua did not give sinful Israel a choice between Jehovah and idols. Instead, since it seemed evil to them to serve the Lord, preferring either the gods of their fathers "or the gods of the Amorites," it was in severe denunciation (not "invitation") that they heard, "choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!... Ye cannot serve the Lord" ( Josh. 24:14, 15, 19 ).
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
3. ARMINIANISM pretends to believe the doctrine of election. "Election is of such persons as believe and persevere in faith." For God has chosen the act of faith as a condition of salvation, which condition is a prerequisite unto the final establishment of man's election: "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" are everywhere presented as the conditions. If then, some men do not fulfill the conditions, they may possibly have an election unto faith, but not an election unto salvation. They may once have had faith, but unless they also fulfill the condition of perseverance, they at last are lost: "lest...when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (reprobated)" ( I Cor. 9:27 ). Thus their election can be unto a justifying faith, without being a decisive election unto salvation. For it is necessary to "give diligence to make your calling and election sure" ( II Pet. 1:10 ). God elects believers, it is contended, because He foresaw their faith, their holiness, obedience and turning to Him in final perseverance. These good qualities, therefore, do not have their source in sovereign, immutable election; they are not fruits of election; nor is election the cause of all our fruitfulness; but the performing of these as conditions are the cause of the election. Where we do read, "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" ( Acts 13:48 ) we are to understand that it means, 'as many as believed to eternal life were ordained.' Or, if the familiar word-order be retained, we are to understand "ordained" to mean, 'those who were ready' (Twentieth Century N.T.), or 'those disposed,' i.e., 'those who felt led to exercise faith.' Arminianism takes the basic virtues of salvation and makes them previously necessary causes of election, foreseen as being fulfilled by the finally faithful.
CALVINISM maintains with Scripture that the Lord chose us not because we were holy, but "he hath chosen us in Him...that (in order that) we should be holy" ( Eph. 1:4 ); not because He foresaw our obedience, but we are "elect...unto obedience" ( I Pet. 1:2 ); nor because He foresaw our faith, for "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through...belief" ( II Thess. 2:13 ). The effect of election is that none believe except those ordained to eternal life, chosen to faith and to every saving good. The word "ordained" pertains to the eternal, sovereign counsel of God. According to that counsel it means, "to place": 'as many as were placed to eternal life believed,' i.e., to be placed in such a way as to be rooted in and invested with eternal life; it means "to give": 'as many as were given to eternal life,' i.e., those under the dominion and ownership of eternal life believed. And since the word is a passive verb ("had been ordained"), it implies that a word omitted is to be understood. That word can be nothing else but "Lord," which appears in the first part of the text. "As many as had been ordained" -- by whom? By the Lord! It is not man's act, but God's. "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen" ( John 13:18 ), for, "ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and ordained you" (15:16). Our election does not depend upon anything in us, but upon His own sovereign ordination. From God's point of view, it is absolutely eternally firm and sure. Our diligence cannot make His decree any more secure; it rather furnishes us with the comfort and joy which knowledge of election affords ( I Thess. 1:4 ). God's election guarantees that none of His elect can be fatally deceived ( Matt. 24:24 ); that none can perish ( John 10:27ff .) or be lost (6:39). God Himself is omniscient, omnipotent, and never changes ( Mal. 3:6 ). Therefore it is impossible that His election be changed, recalled, disturbed, or disannulled. Nor can the elect be cast away by God (Is. 41:9). They are cast away by men ( John 6:37 with 9:34); and sometimes, because of their sins, they bring reproach upon the Gospel, and so are blamed and disapproved by men, enough, perhaps, to become useless in the Lord's service. But even if an elect person should have a fear that he may become a reprobate, still he is not, nor can he ever be. Scripture does not contradict itself ( John 10:28, 35 c). As to all God's people, their names were forever written in heaven ( Luke 10:20 ), and He unconditionally promises that He will not blot out their name form that record ( Rev. 3:5 ).
To be continued...
Rev. Robert C. Harbach