Charge: Arminianism makes Salvation an Accident
Calvinist Complaints: Arminianism makes Salvation an Accident
J.I. Packer writes: “So the believer may rejoice to know that his conversion was no accident, but an act of God which had its place in an eternal plan to bless him with the free gift of salvation from sin (2:8-10)….” (Knowing God, p.122, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, Charles Spurgeon, states: “In fact, the reigns are gone out of God’s hands; the linch-pin is taken away from the wheels of the creation; you have left the whole economy of grace and mercy to be the gathering together of fortuitous atoms impelled by man’s own will, and what may become of it at the end nobody can know. ” (God’s Will and Man’s Will)
From the Calvinist perspective, it’s not about God initiating a choice but rather that God having eternally written a date to preemptively make an elect person Born Again, regenerated, in Christ, a child of God, so that when they, as the regenerated un-believer, hears the Gospel, they will receive it for the first time, very naturally, as a direct consequence of the new nature installed. In this way, the salvation of such an elect person is “no accident,” but a predetermined, unilateral activity on the part of God. To a Calvinist, this is the Doctrine of Grace, though it is not entirely fair to call it so, when it would more aptly be the Doctrines of Particular Grace, as it is particularly given to some, rather than all, and which some would also call it, the Doctrines of Limited Grace, that being, limited in scope. So when a Calvinist refers to Calvinism as the Doctrines of Grace, one may wish to ask, “grace for who”? When the Calvinist follows with “for the elect,” it becomes clear that it is the Doctrines of Preferential Grace. Really, what the Calvinist is doing is engaging in a marketing gimmick, rather than presenting a true expression of their theology.
Question: Does Arminianism make salvation an accident?
Answer: Perhaps under Pelagianism, but not Arminianism, since the latter teaches that God sets the Divine Appointment, and reaches out with grace, insomuch that God is the One who initiates the appointment.
Jesus seeks (Luke 19:10), draws (John 12:32) and knocks (Revelation 3:20), while the Holy Spirit convicts (John 16:8), pricks (Acts 26:14), pierces (Acts 2:37) and opens hearts to respond to the Gospel. (Acts 16:14)
