BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
THE following letter recently appeared in the North Star, Dingwall:—Sir,—Absence from home, together with other causes, prevented me hitherto from fulfilling my promise of sending you a letter on the above subject. I shall now, with your permission, make a few concluding remarks on the history and evil effects of Arminianism.
- Its history. Although the doctrinal system called Arminianism is associated with the name of Arminius, the errors of the system appeared in the Church many centuries before Arminius was born. They were held by many of the Fathers of the third and fourth centuries, who were in their interpretation of Scripture influenced by pagan philosophy. But it was Arminius and his followers that revived and introduced these errors into the Church after the Reformation. The Reformers were of one mind in holding and teaching the scriptural system of doctrine called Calvinism. Although Luther differed from his brethren in his view of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, he was on all other points of doctrine as Calvinistic as Calvin himself. Arminius—a Dutch divine—lived in the early part of the 17th century, and was for some years a Theological Professor at Leyden. In that capacity he began to speculate on the doctrines of the Bible, as held by the Reformers. He adopted and taught erroneous views on five points, as they were called, viz.:—Predestination or election; the death of Christ or the atonement; the cause of faith; the mode of conversion and perseverance. These are the points of doctrine on which Arminians in our own day hold unscriptural views. Arminius died in 1609, but his followers, of whom Episcopius was leader, continued to advocate and disseminate his novel views. In 1610 they applied to the civil authorities of the United Provinces, “asking a revision of the symbolical books of the Church, and demanding full toleration for the profession of their views.” This demand meant that the Church should so alter her creed as to conform to the views of the innovators. For the purpose of settling the controversy between the two parties “a national Synod was held at Dort in 1618, at which were present representatives from almost all the Reformed Churches of Europe.” The Synod sat for six months discussing the five points with the result that the Court unanimously condemned the views of the Arminians on those points; and as the Arminians would not retract their unscriptural views, they were by the sentence of the Synod deprived of their ecclesiastical offices. The Synod also drew up Scriptural canons in opposition to the views of the Arminians. These canons served afterwards as a model according to which the Westminster
Confession of Faith was framed. The Arminians after this formed themselves into a separate ecclesiastical organisation, distinct in doctrine from the Reformed Church.
It may be remarked in this connection that no individual or Church, holding Arminian views, can justly claim to represent the Church of the Reformation, or the creed of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland as set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith. That subordinate standard since its adoption, continued to be the creed of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland down to 1892, when a large majority in the then Free Church repudiated it, and adopted an Arminian creed in its place. In the new formula the ministers and other office-bearers of the Established Church of Scotland have practically disowned the Confession of Faith, as the confession of their faith, and that because of its Calvinism, which is Scripturalism. This much on the history of Arminianism.
- Its evil effects.—The evil effects of Arminianism are too many to be enumerated in a short letter, but I shall point out some of them.
(1) It promotes defective views on the effect of Adam’s first sin on his posterity;
(2) It undermines the true doctrines of grace and salvation;
(3) It ascribes to the sinner an amount of power to effect his own salvation which Scripture denies to him;
(4) It virtually denies that the glory of salvation, especially in its application is due to God alone, and arrogates a share of the glory to the sinner, who is supposed to have sufficient power of will to believe in Christ, and turn to God, without the work of the Spirit in effectual calling;
(5) It tends to confirm men in their natural idea of salvation by works, so that all who hold the error of salvation by works, in whole or in part, are influenced by Arminian views;
(6) It causes division in the Church. It did so in our own day. It divided the once great Free Church of Scotland into three sections. Many deplore this division who are not willing to admit the real cause of it. It was Arminianism that caused the division. As already mentioned, a majority in that Church adopted an Arminian creed, and by so doing seceded from the position taken up by the Free Church in 1843, and ceased to represent the Church of Scotland free. A comparatively small minority adhered to the original position, and these are the true representatives of the Reformed Church in Scotland. The most of those who kept loyal to the Church are in the Highlands, while in the Lowlands the people, with few exceptions, joined the Arminian Church. The leavening process of Arminianism began in the South, and its evil effects are to be seen there more than in the North.