Letter To An Arminian Friend

“Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” – 1 Timothy 5:20

 
The following letter was sent to a friend of mine who believes in the false free-will (Arminian) gospel of salvation taught by most modern-day so-called Christian churches.  He has continually said that there are some things we cannot know until we are with the Lord (which is true but that mindset should not be applied to essential Christian doctrines such as the total depravity of man and the sovereignty of God in salvation).  Jesus also said that the Holy Spirit would reveal truth to believers and that is quite true for the genuine believer in Christ.  This friend also has dogmatically said – like many Arminians – that Calvinism is not the Gospel, yet he does not have a correct understanding of either Calvinism or the Gospel, which are actually synonymous if you have a proper, biblical understanding of total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.  Unfortunately, decades of false teaching in the churches has corrupted the term Calvinism and misconstrued it to mean something other than what it really is, which is simply a systematic view of the essential points of the Gospel.  Less maligned terminology for the biblical doctrines pertaining to election and predestination are commonly referred to as “the doctrines of grace”.  While Calvinism has become more and more maligned in recent history and less understood, Arminianism and the false free-will gospel has spread like wildfire throughout the Christian Church worldwide.  My letter was written to defend biblical truth as well as to admonish a friend to stop listening to false teachers and start doing a more in-depth study of the Scriptures pertaining to election and predestination.
 

 
Dear friend:
 
I finally got around to the “Schrodinger’s Free Will And God’s Sovereignty” blog article[1] that you emailed me last month and quickly realized that the author didn’t know what he was talking about. Based on where we left off on our Calvinism discussion, you may not care much about my opinion on this subject so feel free to delete this email if you wish.  Anyway, in the interest of Biblical truth, I made some comments about that author’s statements… my comments may surprise you if you venture to read on. Some of my words may seem hard or harsh but if they are, it is because they are in defense of my sovereign God whose sovereignty is being severely attacked by many professing Christians nowadays.  I also wish to see you come to a correct understanding of these critical issues pertaining to the Gospel.
 
Looking at this quote from the Schrodinger’s article:
 
“What does that have to do with the Calvinism and Arminianism debate? As you probably already know, the debate centers around whether man has free will to choose salvation or if God’s sovereignty forces us to have no choice. Can man participate with God in his salvation or must God unilaterally choose for man?”
 
Two statements I highlighted above stood out as I read the article…
 
Statement #1. “God’s sovereignty forces us to have no choice” – That simply is an erroneous statement regarding Biblical election.  It’s not God’s sovereignty that forces us to have no choice! It is OUR FALLEN NATURE that makes us unable to MAKE THE CHOICE for the true and living God!  In fact, (based on how you’ve responded to my prior emails regarding this subject) it appears to me that even YOU don’t like this sovereign God of the Bible who says: “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” Psalm 115:3 AND who says “he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy” Romans 9:18.
 
The REAL God of the Bible emphatically declares that man is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and at enmity against his Creator (Romans 8:7-8).  Our FALLEN NATURE absolutely requires that GOD be the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our faith, else none would be saved!  That’s what it really means to be totally at the mercy of God my friend!
 
Statement #2. “must God unilaterally choose for man?” – The blog author has got it all wrong again.  The Bible does not say that nor do Calvinists say that… God doesn’t choose FOR a man. God chooses THE man. Since NONE will COME without DIVINE INTERVENTION (i.e. regeneration), God must GO – thru messengers of the Gospel and thru the application of HIS Spirit -and choose whom He wishes to become the BRIDE of His divine SON.  And like the parable of the wedding feast, GOD must ALSO supply the wedding clothes, the righteousness of CHRIST.  So it is GOD, not man, who is in the driver’s seat.  God, not man, who is sovereign.  God the Father, not man, who does the choosing of the Bride for His Son. God sends the messengers. God sends His convicting Spirit. God removes the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh. We are just a bunch of blind, deluded, arrogant sinners if we think we are better (less spiritually dead) than God says we are.  Our rotting spiritual corpses are in no condition and in no to position to run out and choose the God with whom we are at war. If you truly ever turned to God, you did it BECAUSE the King of Kings and Lord of Lords took the initiative and regenerated you after sending gospel messengers and sending His Spirit to convict and convert you.  God did not regenerate you BECAUSE you turned to Him.  Stop giving yourself credit for something God says He should be credited with (in Ezekiel 36:25-27 for example).
 
It is not the sinner who is sovereign my friend. Unsaved souls simply don’t possess the power to turn to the God who says they are LOST and in need of a divine Savior.  God has not left it up to ungodly sinners to choose the Bride for His Son.  And, tempted as we might be, we must not fall for the idea that its just one of those things we can’t know about for sure until we’re dead and gone up to be with the Lord.  The Church at large accepted predestination and election and constantly TO THIS DAY has been fighting off the free-will heresy.  Start fighting on God’s side, the Bible’s side… there’s no middle ground, no middle of the road and no time or place for complacency or fence straddlers in this war on God’s word and on His sovereignty.  I urge you to start reading everything the bible has to say about election.  I’ve attached LOTS of Bible verses[2] to back up the BIBLICAL doctrine of election.  To continue on in biblical error and go about spreading it is sin. Plain and simple.  I hope you will seriously revisit what the bible and its Author have to say about this subject and stop reading nonsense from pseudo-theologians like that guy named James who wrote the Schrodinger article.
 
And may God richly bless you as you seek to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!
 
brother RM Kane
 

“18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory” – Romans 9:18-23