September 23, 2005

• Arminians are Polytheists

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  Arminians make man into a god. They say that right now the Holy Spirit is trying to save people everywhere who will actually never be saved. Apparently, God’s grace can be RESISTED. Arminians say these people are actually able to OVERPOWER God the Holy Spirit, so that these people are stronger than “God”. So, are not these people gods, in the mind of an Arminian?

  
  

   

  
  

  Furthermore, Arminians make Adam into a god. They say that God FORESAW that Adam would eat the fruit, and THEN decided to send Christ. Apparently, Adam got to decide whether or not Christ was going to be a Savior. The power lay in the hands of Adam to determine whether or not Jehovah would justify His people. Is not Adam a god also, in the minds of Arminians?

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  “But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves?” (Jeremiah 2:28).

  
  

   

  
  

  In the mind of an Arminian, of course, is the only place where these gods exist. For the apostle Paul says, “now this I say, that an idol is NOTHING in the world.” The biblical truth is that God — the eternal Three — ALONE determines the future. All sin was decreed by God, and He ABSOLUTELY controls the state of every single person. Read Ephesians 1:11. God works ALL things according to the counsel of His own will.

  
  

   

  
  

  God made all things for His own glory. His design in creating the universe was to manifest His perfection, and particularly His justice and His goodness. “Jehovah has made ALL for His purpose, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” (Pro16:4) He created men with the design that they should sin, in order that in the end He might appear infinitely good in pardoning some, and perfectly just in condemning others. God resolved to punish the reprobate, NOT because he foresaw they would sin. God DECIDED to reprobate a group of people and DAMNED them based on his CHOICE. They sin because of God’s determination for them to do so. In fact, in Matthew 11:25, God the Son praises His Father that He “hid these things [i.e. the gospel] from the sophisticated and cunning”, so that they might be damned. Christ says “THANK YOU” to the Father for hiding the truth from certain people (the reprobate).

  
  

   

  
  

  If there is a calamity in a city, has Jehovah not even done it? (Amos 3:6). On the topic of Arminianism, God decreed and causes this heresy to come about, “for also heresies need to be among you.” (1Cor11:9) Notice, also, the biblical parallel between God sovereignly causing the sin of sodomy (Rom1:26) and sending workings of error like Arminianism (2Thes2:1). Of course, in terms of suffering in hell, it would have been better to have died as a homosexual in Sodom, than to die an Arminian today.

  
  

   

  
  

  Objections

  
  

   

  
  

  If God causes all sin, then is God the author of sin? In answer to this accusation, let the irony be pointed out, that it is the ARMINIAN who makes God the author of sin. Firstly, the Arminian “god the son” died for everyone, yet “god the father” only draws a few of those for whom the “son” died. The “father” withholds some people from their purchaser “christ”, who bought them with his own blood, having paid the price into his “father’s” hand. The Arminian ”father” DENIES salvation to some for whom the “son” died, “sinning” against the son. The Arminian god authors sin, because the persons of his “trinity”, sin against one another. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Secondly, Arminians say that their “god” breaks his promises. Take a moment to read the promises made to believers in Isaiah 53:5-12, and remember that the Arminian “god” breaks all of these promises, because some for whom his “christ” died for will not receive these promises. The true Christ of the Bible, “was wounded for our transgressions; [He was] bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him … But Jehovah pleased to crush Him, to make Him sick, [so that] if He should put His soul as a guilt offering, He shall see [His] seed; He shall prolong [His] days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul; He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge the righteous One, My Servant, shall justify for many, and He shall bear their iniquities. Because of this, I will divide to Him with the great, and with the strong He shall divide the spoil; because He poured out His soul unto death; and [He] was numbered with those transgressing; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for those transgressing” (Isaiah 53:5-12).

  
  

   

  
  

  Of course, the irony does not end here. Arminians assert that their god loves men to such an extent, that he gave man a “free will” to determine his eternity. However, the Arminian “god” knew that most men were going to make the wrong choice; he foresaw that Judas, Pharaoh, Saul and a whole multitude would decide to go to hell. Naturally, the question arises — How was it loving for “God” to give Judas, for instance, a choice, knowing *at the same time*, that he would choose hell? Is it ”loving” to give a rope to someone who will suicide? True believers can oppose this Arminian confusion (knowing that God actually did hate Judas, and all the reprobate, and does indeed give them a rope to hang themselves; and this is the wrath of God revealed). They can point out to Arminians, that their cardinal point — “God” loves everyone — is actually absurd.

  
  

   

  
  

  “But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves?” In the times of old, the Jewish and heathen idolaters ascribed several of the peculiar attributes of the One true God to their gods. For instance, they said of the golden calf, “These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” They sacrificed and prayed to Baal, saying, “Baal, Baal, hear us.” They said to a stock, “you have begotten me,” and to a stone, “you are my father.” They poured out drink offerings to the “king” and “queen” of heaven, with all their host, and thanked them for giving corn, wine and oil, and making it well with them.

  
  

   

  
  

  These pagans and idolaters attributed to their idols many of the works and attributes that belong to the True God. Does that mean they really and truly knew and worshipped the True God, under the name, form, and character of their own peculiar idols? Similarly, today, when Arminians use the name “Jesus”, and talk about “grace”, does that mean that they actually know the true God?

  
  

   

  
  

  This God utterly denies, He says — “I am God, and there is none else. There is no God besides Me. My glory will I not give to another, nor my praise to graven images.” To the idolaters of Israel, He said, “Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness, for the space of forty years, O house of Israel? But you have borne the tabernacle of your Molech and Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity… says the Lord, whose name is the God of Hosts.” God’s verdict against the false worshippers: their devotion is whoredom with idols, and whoredom with idols can never be the knowledge and love of God. The idolaters knew not God, when they worshipped the golden calf, that was their god — “These be your gods, O Israel.” I will let the reader draw the obvious parallels with the Arminian idolaters of today, who, although ascribing some attributes of the True God to their idol, yet by denying, for instance, His Sovereignty, they are left with, and only with, an idol.

  
  

   

  
  

  But what about true believers? There is good news for believers. Christ was the Substitute for His people, and the Father ”laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (Isa 53:6), not only iniquity, but ALL the elect’s iniquity, all sin original and actual, or heart, lip and life. Though he had no sin of his own, for He was holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, yet, becoming Substitute of His sheep, He made all their sin His own, in the same manner as a person, that is bound debt for another, makes the debt their own. Though He had contracted no debt himself, yet, by giving bond for him who had contracted the debt, that debt he makes his own; and Christ calls their sins his own sins. (Psalm 40:12). Furthermore, Jesus Christ the Son of God has fulfilled all righteousness, and has magnified the law, and made it everlastingly honorable. He has put a thousand times more honor upon it than the angels who never sinned, and infinitely more than Adam and all his posterity could have done, had they kept their original purity. Then, the law would only have had the obedience of creatures; but now, it has had the obedience of God.

  
  

  
  

  But how are poor elect sinners to receive and enjoy Christ, with all the benefits of his all-meritous life and death? By faith alone, previous to any thing else. But what is faith? The apostle tells us, that faith is the gift of God, and the work of God, and the substance, the ground, or confidence of things hoped for, the evidence, the conviction, the demonstration, or the assurance of things not seen (Heb 11:1) built wholly and absolutely upon the infallible word of God. In one word, faith is just belief; neither more nor less: and belief is the crediting of a testimony; faith in God, then, is the belief of His testimony—a certain persuasion that what God says is true—arising and inseparable from the belief of God’s veracity. But what are we to believe? We are to believe, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who has fulfilled all righteousness for His people. If we believe this with our hearts (“heart” being defined in the biblical sense, as the seat of understanding), then this is the faith of the apostles of Christ; and everyone that believes is justified, and he knows . “Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been generated from God. And everyone who loves Him who begets also loves the one who has been born of Him.” (1 John 5:1).

  • 10:39 pm
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