“In the early part of the seventeenth century Arminius introduced a new system of doctrine in the Reformed Churches of Holland, which was formally condemned by the Synod of Dort which sat from November, 1618, to May, 1619. Against the decisions of that Synod the advocates of the new doctrine presented a Remonstrance, and hence they were first called Remonstrants, but in after years their more common designation has been Arminians. The Arminians taught:—
We give in the following notes some extracts from Volume I. of Dr. Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, and from those sections which deal with what is called Arminian doctrine:—
1. That all men derive from Adam a corrupt nature by which they are inclined to sin, but they deny that this corruption is of the nature of sin. Men are responsible only for their own voluntary acts and the consequence of such acts.
2. They deny that man by his fall has lost his ability to good. Such ability, or liberty as they call it, is essential to our nature, and cannot be lost without the loss of humanity.
3. This ability, however, is not of itself sufficient to secure the return of the soul to God. Men need the preventing, exciting, and assisting grace of God in order to their conversion and holy living.
4. This divine grace is afforded to all men in sufficient measure to enable them to repent, believe, and keep all the commandments of God.
5. Those who of their own free will and in the exercise of that ability which belongs to them since the fall co-operate with this divine grace, are converted and saved.
6. Those who thus believe are predestinated to eternal life, not however as individuals, but as a class. The decree of election does not concern persons, it is simply the purpose of God to save believers (Dr. C. Hodge).
We have underlined, or printed in italics, certain phrases to draw the attention of our readers to particular points in Arminian doctrines which are dangerously erroneous and completely out of harmony with Holy Scripture and the doctrinal statements of the Confession of Faith.
Wesleyan Arminianism.
In a further section of his Systematic Theology, Dr. Hodge deals with what he calls “Wesleyan Arminianism.” He writes:—“The Arminian system received such modification in the hands of Wesley and his associates and followers that they gave it the designation of Evangelical Arminianism.”
Among other statements from the Wesleyan point of view, Dr. Hodge gives the following, viz., Wesley says, “No man living is without some preventing grace, and every degree of grace is a degree of life. I assert that there is a measure of free will supernaturally restored to every man, together with that supernatural light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world.”
In reviewing these and other points of Wesleyan Arminianism, Dr. Hodge asserts, and rightly and scripturally so, that the difference between the Arminian schemes and that of Augustinians is, that according to the Augustinians, God determines who are to be saved, but according to Arminians man determines who are to be saved.
And let our readers study carefully, and with the help of the Bible, the aforesaid statements regarding Arminianism, and be fitted to discover and discern these dangerous doctrines to be more or less the doctrinal background to, and basis of, present-day revival crusades.
And in conclusion read what Dr. Hodge has written so concisely respecting the wholesome teaching of Augustine—“Augustine taught that out of the fallen family of men, all of whom might have been justly left to perish in their apostasy, God, out of His mere good pleasure, elected some to everlasting life, sent His Son for their redemption, and gives to them the Holy Spirit to secure their repentance, faith, and holy living unto the end.”