According to Arminianism, chapter 7 of Paul's Epistle to the Romans refers to the unbeliever and not the believer. Man has the capability to choose or reject God even while unregenerate. God provides a "common grace" that is given to all men, that enables them to overcome the effects of the fall and gives sufficient power to exercise their "free will" in order to choose or reject God. God "predestines" to salvation only those people who He "foreknows" that in the future will choose Him through their own free will. God's action is dependent on the choice that a person makes. As a result of the ability to exercise "free will", even after becoming a Christian or becoming regenerate, a person can reject the faith, fall away, lose their salvation and be condemned to hell. Assurance of salvation cannot be known and people can lose and regain their salvation as they will, sometimes many times.
Gary Hand Jacobus Arminus and Arminianism
It seems that the whole progress of biblical revelation and church history through the ages has been forged out of the fire of controversy and the often angry struggles over truth. It is these great debates that have preserved the church from error and when the church grows lazy and fat, unwilling to be corrected, the world loses its only hope of salvation. It is never easy to correct, nor is it pleasant, but we are to "preach the truth in love." However, neither are we to pretend that our laziness, ignorance and apathy in defending the truth are really attempts to preserve the bond of unity. With Luther, we must say, "Unity wherever possible, but truth at all costs."Our attempt is to resurrect polemical debate as a means to the end of waking up a decadent and grossly unfaithful church and helping it make its way forward toward a second Reformation. And at a time when most Americans who claim to be Bible-believing Christians cannot, according to major studies, even articulate the basic message of the Gospel, what could be more relevant? Nevertheless, sometimes there are casualties of "friendly fire."
Michael Horton
Gary Hand Jacobus Arminus and Arminianism
It seems that the whole progress of biblical revelation and church history through the ages has been forged out of the fire of controversy and the often angry struggles over truth. It is these great debates that have preserved the church from error and when the church grows lazy and fat, unwilling to be corrected, the world loses its only hope of salvation. It is never easy to correct, nor is it pleasant, but we are to "preach the truth in love." However, neither are we to pretend that our laziness, ignorance and apathy in defending the truth are really attempts to preserve the bond of unity. With Luther, we must say, "Unity wherever possible, but truth at all costs."Our attempt is to resurrect polemical debate as a means to the end of waking up a decadent and grossly unfaithful church and helping it make its way forward toward a second Reformation. And at a time when most Americans who claim to be Bible-believing Christians cannot, according to major studies, even articulate the basic message of the Gospel, what could be more relevant? Nevertheless, sometimes there are casualties of "friendly fire."
Michael Horton
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