The 'god' of 'christianity"

Arminianism has become, for all intents and purposes, the majority belief held by the American ‘church’ today. It has been embraced and spread by most of the American culture, even those that don’t claim affiliation with Christianity often know at least some of ‘Christianity’ as it is taught be Arminian believers.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I had never heard the term Arminian. I didn’t know what it was and I sure didn’t know that I had been, and was being, taught the beliefs it held. Having been raised in and out of ‘church’ buildings I honestly think this is the case of many believers. They go to ‘church’ because it’s what they’re taught, what they believe they are supposed to do, and without knowing it’s happening they are accepting a false teaching that goes against Scripture. It is being embraced by the masses of the ‘church’ in America, many without even being aware that they are supporting, accepting, and perpetuating a false teaching.

What is Arminianism?

It is quite possibly the very basis of the ‘Christianity’ you were taught from the first day of your Christian walk. I know it was for me. It the ‘Christianity’ that teaches Scripture based on man. Quite simply it is man centered worship instead of God centered.

Isn’t it the same thing?

No, it’s not. The ‘god’ of Arminianism isn’t the God of the Bible. Walk into any ‘church’ that believes the Arminian way and you will quickly learn that ‘God loves everyone equally. Not only does He love everyone but He sent His son to die for everyone. No exceptions. All people are loved by God and he grieves the loss of anyone that won’t choose to believe in Him.

Sound familiar?

It should. It’s the primary form of ‘Christianity’ in this country. It’s the ‘Christianity’ we encounter in most ‘church’ buildings. The ‘Christianity’ portrayed in most Christian movies. The ‘Christianity’ that fills the shelves of Christian bookstores.

When and where did this belief begin and how did it take hold of so much of the ‘Christian’ world?

The short explination is that it began with a man named James Arminius. but more subtly destructive. Arminius was a minister that became a teacher of theology at the University of Amsterdam. He was to teach based on the Belgic Confession which was a Reformed confession that upheld biblical teachings about salvation, God, His decrees, and more.

 Arminius agreed to teach based off those beliefs but he didn’t believe them. He would teach what the University required but would distribute private manuscripts to his students that taught Arminianism. In that way he managed to teach his students the same beliefs he held dispite what he was required to teach by the University.

He was eventually caught and investigated. Arminius died before a decision was made about his teachings. But by that time the damage was done. Arminianism has caught hold with many of the young students he had taught and the beliefs grew. Those believing what he taught formed into what they called the Remonstrants. This group strongly opposed the Christian truth and perpetuated their version.

Arminianism was eventually declared to be unscriptural by the Synod of Dort and those that believed in it were labeled as corrupters of true religion. Armininism was the secular man’s idea of salvation and was forced, for a time, to exist in secret before it could thrive again.

 Today it is the exact opposite. True Christianity must exist in secret in the midst of the many Arminian believers or be, in many cases, kicked out of their gatherings.

Because true Christians believe that God has His chosen people and that He will save them whether they want to be saved or not we live and believe in direct opposition to what the Arminians believe. The ‘Christ’ of Arminianism will save anyone and everyone if they will only ask. That ‘Christ’ came to die for everyone. ‘Christ’ died to make a ‘way’ for everyone to be saved and no one is excluded from the opportunity to ‘come to Christ’.

But the Bible teaches a different God. It teaches that he has predestined only the elect to salvation. Those are the one’s that Christ came to die for, they are the ones He loves. Where Arminians believe that once a person ‘comes to Christ’ they are given grace, and anyone can do that, the Bible teaches that Christ gives grace only to those that are His. They are the ones He died for.  Christ did die for His people. But He didn’t die for all people. He died for those that are His, for His elect, for His chosen people.

He did not die for everyone.

 Before the foundation of the world there were certain people through all of time that were set aside to be His. They were the ones elected, through no doing of their own, to belong to Him. He predestined them to everlasting life and nothing they do can change that. They can’t choose to be saved and they can’t choose unbelief. The Lord will draw them whether they want to be drawn or not.

That is in direct opposition to what Arminianism teaches. By Arminian beliefs ‘God’ is unable to save anyone. He sits patiently by waiting for each person to choose to believe in Him and ask Him to come into His heart. That ‘god’ can do no more than hope that people will turn to him. By those beliefs man, and man alone, is responsible for his salvation. God has made a way for him to be saved but he can only be saved if he chooses to be.

That’s not what the Bible says.

 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. John 17:9-10

Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory… Romans 9:21-24

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

Where in any of those verses can one find the teaching that God is waiting on man to come to him so that He can save him? Where can the ‘free will’ of man be found in any of those verses?

It’s a belief that isn’t there but that is perpetuated over and over again. It’s a belief that has taken such a strong hold that it is what is considered ‘Christianity’ today.

And it’s wrong.

In that belief man’s free will has more power than does God.

I have to ask…what kind of ‘god’ would that make Him? And why would anyone want to believe in a ‘god’ that is so powerless. Arminians beg this ‘god’ to save their dying loved ones, they ask him to help them through troubling times…but if this ‘god’ is unable to save them from themselves how can they believe he’s powerful enough to perform miracles for them?

And yet the believe it. Their ‘god’ has limitless power when it comes to doing their will but his power is nothing when it comes to their salvation.

What kind of ‘God’ is that?

I’ve heard it said many times that ‘God’ is a god of manners. That he won’t enter where he isn’t wanted. He will stand patiently by waiting for you to invite him in and then, and only then, will he come in.

Does that ‘God’ fit with the God who created the world? Does it fit with the God that destroyed the wicked with a flood? Did He wait patiently by while the wicked made their choice and then leave them to it? Is that the God that says…You did not chose me but I chose you?

The Bible doesn’t support the belief in that ‘god.’ The Biblical God is a God that converts His chosen ones, changing their heart so that they can believe. He doesn’t wait by patiently until they ask Him to come in and then start cleaning house…although I’ve heard a preacher say He will do just that. He storms the gates of His chosen ones hearts, sweeps them clean of the sins of the world and draws them to Him whether they want to be drawn or not.

That is the God of the Bible.

That is the God that created all things and knows He can do with them what He wants. That is the God that out of anger destroyed the wicked of the world with a flood. That is the true God.

That God will not allow a single one of His children to be lost. He will save them whether they want to be saved or not. They cannot save themselves, and will not save themselves. Only Christ can save them and He will do it whether or not they want Him too. He does not need their permission. They are His to do with as He pleases.

You don’t need your socks permission for you to wear them, you don’t need your beds permission to sleep on it. They are yours to do with as you please. Man is the Lord’s to do with as He pleases. Some He will save, some He won’t. But they are all His to do with as He wishes.

…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

That is the God of the Bible. He is a God that is foreign to the beliefs of the Arminian. And yet that is the ‘god’ of the ‘Christianity’ of our country.