Five Articles of Remonstrance

Following the death of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius in 1609, his followers (the “Arminians”) found themselves under heavy fire from the orthodox Calvinist establishment.

To protect their positions in the state church & the universities, 44 ministers drafted a document called the Remonstrance (a formal statement of grievances) & presented it to the States General of Holland in 1610. The Articles were the Remonstrants saw as the harshness of strict Calvinism.

Article 1: Conditional Election

The Remonstrants argued that God’s decree to save individuals is based on foreseen faith. The Idea: God doesn’t just pick names out of a hat before time began. Instead, He chooses to save those who He knows will believe in Christ & persevere in faith. Election is “conditional” on the human response to grace.

Article 2: Unlimited Atonement

This article argued that Jesus died for all men/people, not just a select few. The Idea: While the benefits of the sacrifice are only applied to believers, the scope of the sacrifice is universal. It’s a direct rejection of “Limited Atonement.”

Article 3: Deprivation

This states that man is in a state of sin & has no saving power of his own. The Idea: Without the regeneration power of the Holy Spirit, a person cannot do anything truly good or exercise saving faith.

Article 4: Resistible Grace

While they agree that grace is necessary for every good action, they argue that this grace isn’t irresistible. The Idea: God offers the gift of grace to everyone through the Gospel. But a person can essentially “say no” & reject the Holy Spirit’s pull.

Article 5: Conditional Perseverance

This was the most cautious article in the original 1610 document. It questioned whether a believer could ever “fall from grace” & lose their salvation. The Idea: Initially, they said this required further study from Scripture. Eventually, they moved toward the “Arminian” stance we know today: that through negligence or sin, a believer can indeed forfeit their salvation.

The Calvinist response was the Synod of Dort (1618-1619). It was an international gathering that essentially acted as a trial for the Remonstrants. The Remonstrants were condemned. Many were exiled, & Oldenbarnevelt (their political protector) was executed.

To refute the 5 Articles of Remonstrance, the Synod produced the Canons of Dort, which we now know by the famous acronym, TULIP.

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

#1609 #1610 #1618 #1619 #Arminians #Calvinism #Calvinist #Christ #Dutch #FiveArticlesOfRemonstrance #HolySpirit #Jesus #LimitedAtonement #Oldenbarnevelt #Remonstrance #Scripture #StatesGeneralOfHolland #SynodOfDort #TULIP

Arminianism

This is 1 of the most significant theological traditions in Protestantism. This represents a major shift in how Christians understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty & human free will.

It began as a technical debate within the Dutch Reformed Church in the 17th century, it eventually became the dominant “theological engine” for American revivalism & much of modern evangelicalism.

Arminianism is named for Jacobus Arminius (1590-1609), a Dutch pastor & professor at the University of Leiden. Arminius was trained in the strict Calvinism of Geneva, he was actually assigned to defend the Calvinist view of predestination against critics.

As he began researching on his own, he became increasingly unsettled by the idea that God might choose to save some (the “elect”) & condemn others (the “reprobate”) before they were ever born.

He argued that if God’s decree of salvation was “unconditional,” then God would ultimately be the author of sin. Arminius sought to preserve both God’s justice & human responsibility, leading to a system where God’s grace is primary but requires a human response.

After Arminius died, his followers (known as Remonstrants) formulated their beliefs into 5 articles. These points were a direct challenge to the “High Calvinism” of the time. These 5 articles are known as the Five Articles of Remonstrance, 1610:

• Conditional Election: God chooses people for salvation based on His foreknowledge of those who will believe, not an arbitrary decree.
• Unlimited Atonement: Jesus died for everyone, not just a select few/elect. However, only those who believe receive the benefit.
• Total Depravity (with a twist): Like Calvinists, Arminians believe humans are too sinful to save themselves. They need help to even take the 1st step toward God.
• Resistable Grace: God offers “prevenient grace” (grace that goes before) to everyone. But humans have the free will to reject it.
• Conditional Preservation: While God empowers believers to stay faithful, Arminians initially left it an open question whether a believer could “fall from grace.” Later Arminians generally argued that they could.

The Dutch authorities called a national council, the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), to settle the dispute. The Remonstrants were condemned as heretics. The council produced the Canons of Dort.

Interestingly enough, the famous “Five Points of Calvinism” (using the acrostic TULIP) didn’t exist before this. They were created specifically as a point-by-point rebuttal to the 5 Arminian articles. Essentially, Arminianism made Calvinism to define itself in the rigid terms we see today.

In American history, Arminianism underwent a HUGE transformation. It made its way across the Atlantic mainly through John Wesley & the Methodist movement. But it truly exploded during the Second Great Awakening (circa 1790-1840).

Preachers like Charles Grandison Finney took to its extreme. Finney argued that a revival wasn’t a miracle from God. But a “result of the right use of means.” By using emotional music, “altar calls,” & “protracted meetings.” He believed he could persuade the human will to choose Christ. This “practical Arminianism” redefined the American religious landscape.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

#1590 #1609 #1610 #1618 #1619 #1790 #17thCentury #1840 #AltarCalls #AmericanRevivalism #Arminianism #Calvinism #CanonsOfDort #CharlesGrandisonFinney #Christians #Dutch #DutchReformedChurch #Elect #Evangelicalism #FiveArticlesOfRemonstrance #FivePointsOfCalvinism #Foreknowledge #FreeWill #Geneva #HighCalvinism #JacobusArminius #JohnWesley #MethodistMovement #Predestination #Protestantism #Remonstrants #Reprobate #SecondGreatAwakening #SynodOfDort #TULIP #UniversityOfLeiden

Nicolaes Maes -- The Idle Servant -- 1655 -- Oil on panel -- National Gallery, London

A picture that I am fond of recollecting in my mind's eye. The chiaroscuro ensures that we pause to consider both the thoughts of the mistress about her servant and what the artists has her communicate to us viewers.

The National Gallery notes that the servant has been painted in the traditional pose of acedia (sloth), while the mistress is perhaps shrugging her shoulders as she smiles at us.

Almost four centuries away from this Dutch scene and the Calvinist bourgeois culture in which it was painted, nonspecialists like me might well hesitate before ascribing any more definite meaning to the picture in general and the expression and gesture of the mistress in particular.

Yet Maes has invested this little genre scene with such power that it would be emotionally dishonest to pretend that one's response has been suspended, awaiting scholarly explication.

For me, what is illuminated here is the power of self restraint to overcome anger and the mistress's suggestion, with her gesture and her smile, that sinful though the servant may be, we fellow children of Adam and Eve might not be that much better.

A far cry from the wealthy of either then or now whining about the difficulty of finding decent help these days...

#Art #NicolaesMaes #NationlalGallery #TheIdleServant #SeventeenthCenturyArt #C17Art #DutchArt #GenrePainting #Painting #Calvinism

If you promised to make me rich, would you fault me for having doubts?

Imagine that you and I are sitting in the pub on a Sunday afternoon. You turn to me and say, “Soon, but I can’t tell you when, I will give you half of everything I have, which will leave you the 98th richest man in the world.”

If I had doubts, would you blame me?

This is the problem that the doctrine of “you must believe to be saved” has problems. Belief is not something one chooses. Either you find a claim credible or you don’t.

Calvinism can get away with this teaching as it teaches that God’s grace is irresistible. That irresistible grace is predestined to be given to some. Thus, you or I believing is not something we had any say in and “you are saved by grace and not anything you did” holds true.

If you make salvation a choice, people choose hell or choose heaven by their belief or lack thereof. That’s not a choice. Saying the prayer to go to heaven is something I could boast about, but believing in the first place, not so much.

This is actually the problem of free will. If we have free will, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves; it has to be given to us. If we lack free will, salvation was out of our hands to begin with. Either way, there’s probably no choice involved.

Unless you subscribe to modern evangelical doctrine, and then it very much is your fault if you go to hell because of free will. Just don’t squint too hard at the logic there.

Feel free to show this to your evangelical pastor. I could use the exposure that being preached against would bring.

#Calvinism #IrresistibleGrace

It is quite interesting to superimpose the Calvinist doctrines of election, total depravity, reprobation, and predestination over the nativist and nationalist mindset of the Christian conservatives.

https://willowinfinitus.substack.com/pub/p/christian-worldviews-how-they-influence

#christiannationalism #theology #calvinism #worldview

Nate's reference to C2K made me chuckle about my eclectic road. I'm #Calvinist and #TwoKingdoms, but my 2K theology came by way of #Luther. I'm a Calvinist who believes in #NaturalLaw, but my natural law theology came by way of Thomas. In every theological circle, I speak with an accent.

#ThomasAquinas #Thomism #MartinLuther #Calvinism #Christianity