Shipwrecked by the Navigators

            Someone recently handed me a religious tract. The Navigators, 1 through their publishing arm, NavPress, produced that tract, which is titled “Bridge to Life” 2 and begins with the following statement:

 

“The Bible teaches that God loves all men and wants them to know Him.” 3

            That statement is the premise of the tract. Indeed, it is the foundational theology of the Navigators. The dirty secret is that the theology behind that statement is the core of Roman Catholic doctrine, which holds that “Jesus knew and loved us each and all … and gave himself for each of us. … He has loved us all … the divine redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings without exception.” 4 That Catholic theology was popularized among Protestant churches by followers of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), known as Arminians. Oddly, the Navigators’ tract provides no Bible citation supporting that seminal premise. Why not? There is no Bible citation because there is no biblical authority for that proposition. Indeed, the Bible states the very opposite. The Navigator tract’s false premise that God loves everyone in the world leads to the tract’s erroneous conclusion that Jesus died for everyone’s sins and offers salvation to every person, who can, by their own free will, choose to believe in Jesus, thus obtaining salvation from their sins. But the Bible teaches that God loves only his elect and died only for their sins. Faith is a gift from God, who bestows it only upon his elect by his sovereign grace. All others are damned to hell. The Navigators are Arminian players in an age-old conspiracy to undermine the true gospel and replace it with an anti-gospel.

John 3:16

            Arminians always take John 3:16 out of context and subtly twist it to mean what it does not say. John 3:16 states that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Id. Clearly the passage is talking about God’s love for the world. That is a given.

            The context gives us a clue as to the meaning of “world.” In John 3:1 Nicodemus, who approached Jesus at night, is introduced as “a man of the Pharisees” and “a ruler of the Jews.” In verse 10, Jesus called Nicodemus “a master of Israel.” Jesus’ point in saying that God so loved “the world” was to tell Nicodemus that God’s plan for salvation is not limited to Jews. God’s love extends beyond the Jews to “the world.” Jesus does not mean he loves every single person in the world; he means his love is not limited to Jews only, but that his love is for all of his elect in the world without distinction to whether a person is a Jew or a Gentile.

            John 3:14-15 is a parallel passage to John 3:16. Jesus draws a parallel between Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness to save the Jews from the bites of the fiery serpents and how God so loved the world, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, that he gave his only begotten Son by lifting him up on the cross “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:15.

            It was God who sent the fiery serpents among the Jews to bite them in the wilderness. See Numbers 21:6. When the people went to Moses and asked him to pray to God for help from the serpents. Moses did so, and God instructed Moses to raise a fiery serpent on a pole “that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” Numbers 21:8. It was God who drove the Jews to look upon the serpent on the pole by sending the fiery serpents to bite them, just as it is God who draws his elect in the world (both Jews and Gentiles) to look to Jesus in faith.

            Furthermore, Arminians seem to skip over John 3:8, which makes clear that those who are saved are born of the Holy Spirit, who is completely outside the control of man. Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind; the wind can be heard but no one can determine from where it comes or where it goes. In like manner, people can perceive the effects of the Holy Spirit in the rebirth of the elect, but no one has control over the Holy Spirit. Those in the world who are loved by God are saved through the Holy Spirit by the sovereign “list” (will) of God, not through the mythical will of man. The Holy Spirit goes wherever he listeth (wills). “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

            It is quite obvious that the “world” John 3:16 is not a reference to everyone in the world because when Jesus had an opportunity to pray for everyone in the world he expressly refused to do so. Notice in John 17:9 how Jesus specifically stated that he did not pray for the world; he prayed only for the elect given to him by the father. “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” (John 17:9) The universalism of the Arminian anti-gospel has an attraction to the masses, because it is all-inclusive. Under the Arminian anti-gospel, all men have the ability to believe in Jesus, and anyone by their free will can do so. That is not the way of God under the true gospel. Under the gospel of Jesus, salvation is exclusive to those whom God has chosen for salvation.

Effectual Drawing

            In John 6:44, Jesus states clearly that no man can come to him unless the Father draws him and Jesus will raise up those who are drawn to him on the last day. All who are drawn by the Father to Jesus will believe in him and be saved. The drawing by God is effectual. Once one is drawn to Jesus, he will believe in Jesus and be raised by Jesus on the last day. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

            What does it mean to be drawn to Jesus? Jesus explains what it means in John 6:45. To be drawn to Jesus by the Father means that God opens one’s ears to hear and learn from the Father and believe in Jesus. “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” John 6:45. Notice that it is not just some, but “every” man who hears and learns from the Father comes to Jesus. The faith to believe in Jesus comes from God. Faith in Jesus is a gift from God; it is not the exercise of the free will of man. Those who come to Jesus do so in faith, and Jesus states that “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” John 6:47. It is clear, “no man” can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him, and “every man” that is drawn to Jesus will come to him and believe in him.

God Only Draws His Elect

            Those who do not believe in Jesus and are not saved do not believe because the Father has not drawn them to Jesus. “No man” can come to Jesus unless the Father gives him the faith to come to Jesus. In John 6:63-66, Jesus stated to those who “believed not” in him that they did not believe in him because the Father had not given them the faith to believe in him. The message of John 6 and the entire gospel is clear. Salvation is by the will of God and not by the will of man. See John 1:12-13. In John 6 many of the supposed disciples went back and walked no more with Jesus. They walked away from Jesus not because they were saved and lost their salvation, but as Jesus explained, because the faith to believe in him was not given to them by his Father.

 

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. (John 6:63-66)

            The point is driven home in John 6 that salvation is by God’s sovereign grace and that faith, which is the means of salvation, is a gift of God. In John 6:70-71, Jesus stated that one of the twelve he had “chosen” was a devil, referring to Judas. Judas did not lose his salvation; he was never saved to begin with, because he was not chosen for salvation. Jesus chose him for the purpose that Judas would betray him. Eleven were chosen for salvation and one (Judas) was chosen for damnation.

 

Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. (John 6:70-71)

            Jesus lost none of those whom he had chosen for salvation. God preserves all who are chosen for salvation. Judas was preordained to be lost in order to fulfill the prophecy in scripture.

 

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)

            Judas was chosen for damnation before the foundation of the world according to the will of God, just as the other apostles were chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world according to the will of God. See Ephesians 1:4-5.

Only Jesus’ Sheep Believe in Him

            Jesus expressly told the Jews who confronted him in Jerusalem that they do not believe in him because they were not chosen to be of his flock.

 

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:26-28)

            Notice that Jesus did not say that if they were smart enough they could believe of their own free will. Instead, he put it right in their faces that they did not believe, and indeed would never believe because they were not of his sheep. He said that to them after they asked him if he was the Christ. “Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.” John 10:24-25.

            Faith is not only the means of salvation, it is the fruit of the spirit that is proof that God has elected the person for salvation. Man does not elect God by believing in Jesus, rather God elects man and gives him the faith to believe in Jesus. All who do not believe in Jesus were not elected by God for salvation. John Hendryx explains:

 

[W]e should take notice that Jesus tells us many times in Scripture why some do not believe. “You do not believe because you are not my sheep” (John 10). The order here is of great importance. Jesus does not say, “You are not my sheep because you do not believe,” thereby making belief a condition of becoming a sheep. Rather, he says the exact opposite, “You do not believe because you are not my sheep.” To believe therefore, far from being a condition, is the sign (or fruit) that one is already a sheep. So too, Jesus speaking to some of the Jews said, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” The nature of the person determines the choice he makes. And who exactly is “of God”? Jesus answers clearly in his prayer to the Father in John 17: 9 when he says, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” The Father has set apart certain persons for Himself and, in His prayer here, Jesus is seen to only pray for them, while simultaneously excluding others who were not “given” to Him. 5

Ordained to Unbelief

            Kevin Bauder explains that “Arminians see God’s foreknowledge as His foresight. God looks ahead through the corridors of time and sees what free people will choose. For Arminians, divine foreknowledge is essentially reactive.” 6 Arminians would argue that Jesus knew by looking through time who would believe in him, and he knew by doing so those Jews in John 10:24-25 would not believe in him. The problem with that explanation is that it is directly contrary to what God states in his Holy Bible. The Arminians have a hard time getting around John 12:39-41 where Jesus stated:

 

Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. (John 12:39-41)

            God has purposely blinded the eyes and hardened the hearts of many to the gospel to prevent their conversion. Notice that Jesus stated that these things were prophesied by Isaiah. Clearly, God is not simply looking through the corridors of time and seeing whether men of their own free will would believe; God has determined beforehand who would believe and who would not believe. Isaiah 6:9-10, which was fulfilled in John 12:39-41, shows that God planned in advance that certain people would not believe in Jesus:

 

And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Isaiah 6:9-10.

            In Romans 11:7-8 God makes the point once again that those who do not believe cannot believe because they were not elected to believe.

 

What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. Romans 11:7-8.

Jesus’ Elect Are Prededestined to Salvation

            This is more than God merely omnisciently predicting who would not believe in him and thus be condemned; God is omnipotently determining who they would be ahead of time. God predestined those who would believe and those who would not believe; he “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1:5. See also Ephesians 1:11; Romans 8:29-30. He chose those who would believe in Jesus before the foundation of the world. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Ephesians 1:4. Concomitantly, God chose those destined for destruction before the foundation of the world. Proverbs 16:1-4.

            Arminians cannot ignore the plain language in the Bible that God predestined his elect for salvation and therefore also predestined the unelected for damnation. Arminians conjured an argument to get around those Bible passages. Arminians simply redefined the word “predestinate.” Arminians claim that “predestinate” when referring to God’s election of those to be saved is limited to mean only that God knows those who will exercise their free will and believe in Jesus. The Arminian interpretation is that “God in his divine foresight, looked down through the corridors of time and saw all of those who would choose salvation in Jesus Christ. Having this divine knowledge, He then ratified men’s votes of confidence in His ability to save them.” 7

            Romans 8:29-30 completely eviscerates the Arminian theology.

 

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30.

            Best selling Arminian author Dave Hunt dodges Romans 8:29-30 by dismissing the connection of predestination to salvation. His position is that “in the Bible predestination/election is never unto salvation.” 8

            David Bennett explains his Arminian view of Romans 8:29-30, that predestinate does not actually mean predestined. According to Bennett predestinate means only that God affirms the free will decision of those who choose Jesus. Bennett, as with all Arminians, wants God to butt out of man’s free will decision. In order to strip God of his sovereignty, he must strip “predestinate” of its meaning. He claims “predestinate or any form of the word does not even remotely hint as God predetermining who would have eternal life.” 9 Predestinate is a word that invalidates the Arminian religion, and so Arminians must redefine the word to remove it as an impediment to their free will theology. Bennett states:

  

Those that God predestined means He predestined for Glory those who would accept him. … Romans 8:29-30 tells us what the promise is if we believe and accept His invitation, as do many other verses in the Scriptures. Never does election or predestination refer to salvation, but always and only to particular benefits which is Christlikeness. Predestination…. simply means that God has predetermined that those who respond affirmatively to His call…will be justified…and furthermore will be glorified. All this is ‘according to His purpose’… Herschel H. Hobbs, Fundamentals of our Faith, (Nashville: Broadman, 1960), 94-99. … It should be clear then that the word predestinate or any form of the word does not even remotely hint as God predetermining who would have eternal life with Him or suffer eternal damnation because He willed it just because He could. Predestination clearly refers to God’s plan for salvation of those who freely accept God’s gift. 10 (italics in original)

The Heresy of John Wesley

            John Wesley had yet a different Arminian explanation. Wesley claimed that since God knows everything at any moment, he knows nothing ahead of time, and therefore he does not foreknow or predestinate anything. Wesley stated:

 

The sum of all is this: the almighty, all-wise God sees and knows, from everlasting to everlasting, all that is, that was, and that is to come, through one eternal now. With him nothing is either past or future, but all things equally present. He has, therefore, if we speak according to the truth of things, no foreknowledge, no afterknowledge. 11

            The problem with Wesley’s interpretation is that God himself in Romans 8:29-30 says that he does exactly what Wesley claimed God does not do. God makes it clear that he foreknows and predestinates his elect. Wesley is making up a different gospel out of whole cloth.

  

            Wesley compounded his error by making the following incredible allegation:

 

Yet when he speaks to us, knowing whereof we are made, knowing the scantiness of our understanding, he lets himself down to our capacity, and speaks of himself after the manner of men. Thus, in condescension to our weakness, he speaks of his own purpose, counsel, plan, foreknowledge. Not that God has any need of counsel, of purpose, or of planning his work beforehand. Far be it from us to impute these to the Most High; to measure him by ourselves! It is merely in compassion to us that he speaks thus of himself, as foreknowing the things in heaven or earth, and as predestinating or fore-ordaining them. But can we possibly imagine that these expressions are to be taken literally?” 12

            In essence, Wesley claims that God thinks we are too stupid to understand what he is really doing, and so he tells us a fib in Romans 8:29-30 about foreknowing and predestinating men. Wesley is calling God a liar. The brilliant John Wesley, however, was able to see through God’s purported prevarication and understand the supposed truth that is the diametric opposite of the lies that Wesley alleges God tells in the Bible.

            Wesley’s Arminian god is a liar who says he foreknows and predestinates, but actually does neither. The true God of the Bible, however, does not lie.

 

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

            Wesley was a false teacher “who changed the truth into a lie.” Romans 1:25. Despite Wesley’s claims to the contrary, God is not lying to us when he says he foreknows and predestinates his elect. God means what he says. “Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Numbers 23:19.

            Many Arminians are not satisfied with Wesley’s or Bennett’s approaches and use a different strategy to get around Romans 8:29-30. They theorize that “predestinate” in Romans 8:29-30 is not in reference to the certain election of individuals, but rather to the election of a group of people. B. J. Oropeza, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Biblical Studies in the School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University claims that “the predestination and election of Christians in Romans 8:29-30 may rest on Paul’s assumption that election to final perseverance refers to the election of a community rather than individuals as such.” 13

            Despite the clear statement in Romans 8:29-30 that God predestinates individuals to heaven, Arminian author and pastor Andrew Telford contradicts the Bible and states that “God never predestinated an individual to Heaven, and God never predestinated an individual to Hell; for God neither predestinates individuals to Heaven nor to Hell.” 14 Telford believes that “God is not here [in Ephesians 1:4-5] deciding the destination of individuals as individuals, but is telling us that before the foundation of the world He had decided the destination of the Church the corporate group.” 15

 

            The Arminian interpretation is that God predestinates a group of persons to potentially be saved, but that the members of that group maintain their free will to choose or reject God. The Arminians claim that God only foreknows the individuals who will be saved, but he does not predestinate their individual salvation. Their individual salvation is up to their free will decision.

All Who Are Foreknown Are Predestined to Salvation

            The Arminian argument is easily exposed as sophistry. The exact same people who are foreknown by God for salvation in Romans 8:29 are “also” predestinated for salvation. The “whom” he foreknew are the same “whom” he “also” predestinated. The word “also” links together “foreknow” and “predestinate” and applies both actions to “whom.” It means that in addition to foreknowing his elect, God “also” predestinated his elect “to be conformed to the image if his Son.” There is no way to separate the persons who are foreknown from the persons who are predestinated to salvation; they are the same persons.

            Notice also in Romans 8:29-30 that it is “he” (God) alone who 1) foreknows, 2) predestinates, 3) calls, 4) justifies, and 5) glorifies “them.” There is no reference to anything done by the free will of the “them” “whom” God foreknows, predestinates, calls, justifies, and glorifies. From foreknowing to predestining to calling to justifying to glorifying, “he” (God) does it all. The pronoun “he” is repeated in reference to God nine times in Romans 8:29-30. There is no way in the passage to shoehorn man’s mythical free will to believe. There is no room in the passage to squeeze in the Arminian claim that God predestinated a group made up of saved and unsaved persons, all of whom have only the potential to be saved, and that God only foreknew (but did not predestinate) the persons in that group who would exercise their free will to believe in Jesus and be saved.

Heretics Have Tried to Redefine Predestinate

            The Arminians have interpreted “predestinate” in Romans 8:29-30 in such a way as to render it meaningless surplusage. Even though the passage states clearly that God predestinated his elect, the Arminians redefine predestinate such that God only knows ahead of time those who will choose of their own free will to believe in him. The Arminian predestination goes hand in hand with their prevenient grace mythology. In order for Arminians to be consistent, every person in the world who is predestinated (which is redefined by Arminians to mean only known about by their god ahead of time) is first given prevenient grace to believe in Jesus. However, not all who receive the prevenient grace believe in Jesus; most who receive prevenient grace reject Jesus and end up in hell. The prevenient grace is a (largely ineffective) mythical grace; in like manner, the Arminian predestination is a mythical predestination (being only foreknowledge). The Arminian theology is a mess, with words stripped of meaning, grace stripped of its effectiveness, and a god stripped of his power.

            The Arminian theology requires redefinition of Bible terms in order to maintain their mythology that God is powerless to determine or effectuate salvation. The Arminians deceptively redefine “predestinate” in the same way that they reduce God’s grace to only a prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is not really grace, Arminian predestination is not really predestination, and the Arminian god is not really God.

Replacing The Grace of God With the Free Will of Man

            The Arminian god is an impotent liar; his ministers call people from “the grace of Christ unto another gospel.” Galatians 1:6. Because they pervert the gospel by replacing the grace of Christ with the free will of man, they are under a curse from God.

 

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)

              

            Brian Schwertley explains further the error of the Arminian view of predestination:

 

Virtually all modern evangelicals and fundamentalists emphatically reject the biblical doctrine of unconditional election. They teach that election is based not solely upon God’s choice or good pleasure but upon God’s foreknowledge of man’s exercise of faith. In other words, before God created the world, He looked down the corridors of time and observed all those who exercised faith in Christ and then chose them. Arminians, broadly speaking, hold that election is based upon God’s foreknowledge of who will actively co-operate with God in the saving of his own soul.

 

The view that God only chooses those who first elect Him by making a decision for Christ is based on Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” The Arminian or semi-Pelagian understands the word foreknow simply to mean an intellectual knowledge of something before it happens. Thus they argue that God knew beforehand who would believe and repent and then elected them. There are a number of reasons why the Arminian understanding of Romans 8:29 is unscriptural and impossible.

 

The first reason that the Arminian understanding of Romans 8:29 is unscriptural is the fact that “foreknow” in this passage does not simply mean to know an event before it happens. Paul uses “foreknow” in the Old Testament Hebraistic sense of to love beforehand. John Murray writes: “Although the term ‘foreknow’ is used seldom in the New Testament, it is altogether indefensible to ignore the meaning so frequently given to the word ‘know’ in the usage of Scripture; ‘foreknow’ merely adds the thought of ‘beforehand’ to the word ‘know.’ Many times in Scripture ‘know’ has a pregnant meaning which goes beyond that of mere cognition. It is used in a sense practically synonymous with ‘love,’ to set regard upon, to know with peculiar interest, delight, affection, and action (cf. Gen. 18:19; Exod. 2:25; Psalm 1:6; 144:3; Jer. 1:5; Amos 3:2; Hosea 13:5; Matt. 7:23; 1 Cor. 8:3; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19; 1 John 3:1). . . . It means ‘whom he set regard upon’ or ‘whom he knew from eternity with distinguishing affection and delight’ and is virtually equivalent to ‘whom he foreloved.’” God’s electing love originates from Himself and not out of a foreseen faith or repentance. Therefore, when the Bible discusses election, it always grounds it in God and not sinful, depraved humanity. Election is “according to His good pleasure“ (Eph. 1:9). It is “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11). 16

            Probably the most devastating to the Arminian argument is the context of Romans 8:29. Arminians claim that God’s love is passive; that God sits back and waits upon the exercise of the free will of man. However, in the very next verse we read that God’s love is active: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Romans 8:30.

            Schwertley explains how the Arminian interpretation of Romans 8:29 that God only knew ahead of time what men would do of their own free will turns the biblical doctrine of the fall of man on its head:

 

The Arminian interpretation of Romans 8:29 would place a blatant contradiction within Scripture. It would contradict the biblical teaching with regard to man’s state after the fall. The Bible teaches that unsaved, unregenerate men hate both Christ and the truth (Jn. 3:19-21). Unregenerate fallen man: dwells in darkness (Jn. 1:4-5); is dead spiritually (Eph. 2:1-5); has a heart of stone which is unable to respond to divine truth (Ezek. 11:19); is helpless (Ezek. 16:4-6); is unable to repent (Jer. 13:23); is enslaved to Satan (Ac. 26:17-18); and is unable to see or comprehend divine truth (1 Cor. 2:14). Unconditional election is the logical corollary to total depravity. Thus Jesus Christ taught: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…. No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (Jn.. 6:44, 65). An unregenerate man can no more choose Christ as Savior than can a rotting corpse.

 

Since the Bible teaches that the fall has rendered man incapable of believing in Christ and repenting, the idea that God looked through time and chose those who first chose him is absurd and impossible. That is why the Bible teaches that faith and repentance are gifts from God (cf. Jn. 3:3-8; 6:44-45, 65; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:2). “For unless God by sovereign, operative grace had turned our enmity to love and our disbelief to faith we would never yield the response of faith and love.” Furthermore, the biblical passages which teach unconditional election are clear and abundant. 17

Arminian god Is Not Omnipotent

              The Arminian god is stripped of his omnipotence and only retains a remnant of his omniscience. Some Arminians even strip their god of his omniscience. Dr. Michael Scott Horton explains how Arminian theologian, Dr. Clark Pinnock, who was Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College, stripped the mythical Arminian god of his omniscience:

 

Once he became an Arminian, Dr. Pinnock notes, “I soon realized something would have to be done about the received doctrine of God.” God is no longer timeless, changeless, or even all-knowing. After all, “decisions not yet made do not exist anywhere to be known even by God.” 18

            The God of the Bible foreknows who will believe in him, because he has predestined that they believe in him. The God of the Bible is both omniscient and omnipotent; he does according to his will and pleasure. God foreknows those who will believe in him, indeed, he foreknows all things. God also brings to pass the foreordained salvation of his elect and all events, according to his purpose and will.

 

I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. Isaiah 46:9-11.

            Not all Arminians would go as far as Pinnock and say that God is not omniscient. It seems that the standard Arminian view is that God retains his omniscience; but they limit God to omniscience, by improperly interpreting Romans 8:29 to mean that God only foresees but does not effectuate the faith of his elect. The true God of the Bible, however, is omniscient and therefore knows everything, but he is also omnipotent, and the gospel message is that God exercises his omnipotence to supply the faith for those who he foreknows will believe in him. Hence, God predestinates his elect for salvation. John Murray, who was an instructor in Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and helped found the Westminster Theological Seminary, explains that God foresees those who will believe in him and supplies the faith for the foreseen belief.

 

Even if it were granted that ‘foreknew’ means foresight of faith, the biblical doctrine of sovereign election is not thereby eliminated or disproven. For it is certainly true that God foresees faith; he foresees all that comes to pass. The question would then simply be: whence proceeds this faith which God foresees? And the only biblical answer is that the faith which God foresees is the faith he himself creates (cf. John 3:3-8; 6:44;45,65; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; II Pet. 1:2). Hence his eternal foresight of faith is preconditioned by his decree to generate this faith in those whom he foresees as believing, and we are thrown back upon the differentiation which proceeds from God’s own eternal and sovereign election to faith and its consequents. 19

Anti-Gospel

            Brian Schwertley explains how the Arminian free will gospel is truly an unbiblical anti-gospel that evidences a hatred by Arminians for the sovereignty of God. Instead of God electing man for salvation, the Arminians have man electing God. It is devilishly backwards.

 

It is truly sad that so many who profess the name of Christ hate the doctrine of unconditional election, for it is the heart of biblical religion and a God-glorifying doctrine. What is more fundamental to biblical truth than the fact that salvation is a gift from God? “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10). Those who hate the doctrine in reality hate God’s sovereign grace. They would ignore the doctrine if they could, but since it is taught so clearly and often in the New Testament, they have no choice but to attempt to explain it away. Their main attempt—the idea that election is based on a foreseen faith—turns election into its very opposite: God does not elect man, but rather man elects God. Furthermore, predestination in such a scheme is really a postdestination. The Arminian viewpoint is unbiblical and illogical for it makes the eternal counsel and choice of God contingent upon the choice of men who are spiritually dead and unable to choose Christ (apart from regeneration) and who do not even exist yet! The Arminian scheme has temporal events controlling and conditioning the eternal, unchanging will of God. In other words, the clay has control over the potter. The Arminian, by taking election out of God’s hands and placing it in the hands of depraved man, has destroyed salvation by grace alone and replaced it with a humanistic synergism. Christ testified against such Scripture twisting when He said to His disciples: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (Jn. 15:16). Arminianism is unscriptural, irrational, and takes the glory due to God alone and bestows it upon sinful man. 20

            The passages that most assuredly put to rest the theory that God did not choose us for salvation but only knew by looking through the corridors of time who would choose him are found at Romans 9:9-13. In those passages God makes the point that he chose Jacob over Esau before they were ever born and before they had “done any good or evil.” God chose Jacob before either of them made any decisions to do anything. God makes it perfectly clear that he did not choose Jacob based upon his foreknowledge of what Jacob would do or what he would will or what he would believe. God states unequivocally in verse 12, that the reason he chose Jacob was so “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” God elected Jacob, period. God did not consider anything that he knew Jacob would do or will to do in deciding to choose him over Esau. In Romans 9:16 God drives the point home that salvation is “not of him that willeth.”

            The Arminians contradict God and claim that salvation is in fact of him that willeth. They claim that God knows who they are who will believe in Jesus, and God just affirms the decision of the believer. That is pure sophistry. Nothing can be clearer in the Bible but that God predestinates some for salvation without regard to any merit on their part.

            The passages in Romans 9 impeach those that claim that man chooses salvation of his own free will and that God only knows in advance who will choose him. Limiting God to only knowing the future is contrary to God’s whole purpose, which is to call and to elect and to show mercy, according to his sovereign will. God gives spiritual life to the spiritually dead, according to his will. “The Son quickeneth whom he will.” John 5:21. God does not merely know who will believe in him, he determines who will believe in him. God makes that determination, independent of the will of man. It is not of the “will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13.