[Luke]

Originally Posted by biblereader

I realize this is an older post, but, I was looking for discussions on Calvinism vs. other doctrines.

Please define, right dividers, and arminians. Please give contrasting definitions.

Hi Brother...

We tend to consider Arminians as those who hold to a view of conditional security, although in other ways are much like the Calvinists.

Arminians tend to be Amillennial in doctrine, or post-millennial. They tend to deny the eternal security of the believer through Jesus Christ.

Some arminians are premillennial in doctrine, but rarely in practice. For example, the Charasmatic Assemblies of God are premillennial in end times doctrine, but in practice, they are jewish, with their signs and wonders, and do not rightly divide signs and wonders into the proper dispensations of God.

Most arminians believe in Conditional security because they fail to rightly divide the word of truth. They will look at Matthew 24 and see "Endure to the end to be saved", and ignore the context of the verse, and the context of the whole chapter which is the "end of the world". If anyone had to endure to "the end" as defined in Matt 24, noone would be saved yet, because "the end" has not yet come.

A Biblicist, right divider, bible believer, whatever you want to call me, or us, is not arminian. 99% of us will have never read anything by Jacob Arminius, or John Wesley. We don't believe a believer can be lost, even if they fall away for a time. We believe in the free will of man given to man by the Sovereign God, and that man's free will does not hinder the Sovereignty of God. Man's free will can be influenced by God, directed by God, drawn by God, but that man can also reject God's grace.

Most of us rightly divide the word of truth and recognise a distinction between God dealing with Israel and God dealing with the church. This distances us from Arminius and Wesley a great deal, as their views were still highly calvinist, in terms of Christian living.

According to Calvinists, the christian needs to live their life under the law, not as a way of salvation, but as a pattern of life. Failure to do this proves that one was never saved

According to Arminians, the christian needs to live their life under the law, not as a way of salvation, but as a pattern of life. Failure to do this results in a loss of salvation.

According to Dispensationalists/Right dividers, the Christians need not live their life under the law, but recognises that the law is good and holy, and shows us our state, but that we are not under law but under grace. The Christian's motto is "I am dead, nevertheless I live, yet Not I, but Christ, and the life I now live, I live by the FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD" He need not keep the law, because the law has been kept. His pattern of life is not law, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Death to self, life through Christ.

That line in bold always gets me accused of preaching "license". But consider this.

Not trying to keep the law is a whole lot different from trying to break it.

An illustration I used in a sermon recently was something like this

When you go to the supermarket to buy groceries, you aren't trying to break the law. But you aren't trying to keep it either. You aren't constantly warning yourself every step of the way not to put the groceries in your pocket, not to steal. You just don't. Because it is a way of life. You don't have to try and keep the law. You probably never even think of it the whole time you are grocery shopping. When you get to the checkout, you do what everyone else does, and you pay for your groceries. You don't get to the car and say "phew, that was tough, I am so glad I didn't steal anything, I was so tempted, but I overcame". You didn't even think of it. If you had been trying to keep the law the whole time you were in the grocery shop, it's because you aren't just resting, and doing what comes NATURALLY. You are still fighting.

It's the same with a Christian. A Christian who is struggling to keep the law is fighting with the old nature. He needs to just die, and let the new nature do what it does NATURALLY - live unto God. Jesus Christ is the new nature, and he never sins, so why would he start sinning in you?