“Calvinist vs. Arminian”

There’s been a debate going between Christians for the last three or four hundred years. It’s the Calvinism versus Arminianism debate. For those who are not familiar with it, basically, it boils down to how a person gets saved, not if they are saved but rather, how they are saved. Now I’m not going to take sides in this argument here in this article, but I am going to address the division that it has caused, especially in the last decade or so with the rise of the new Calvinists and such; so where do we start?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

In Mark chapter seven Jesus has an interesting encounter with the Pharisees, a dispute arises over traditions, and Jesus states that the

Pharisees are being hypocritical because their hearts are not in the right place. Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Mark 7:1-13 ESV

The reason I bring this up is that a few weeks ago a church ministry group I follow on Facebook posted a series of articles on Calvinism in church ministry, and one of them was a note from the editor which started out, “If you are not a Calvinist, this page is not for you”. Over the years I’ve really noticed a trend to take sides on this issue, but it seems to never stop at simply taking sides. Often times it leads to heated arguments and

ultimately division, which I believe breeds the hypocrite of our time. Jesus said, “you will know my disciples by their love for one another”. It is hypocritical to claim to be a disciple of Jesus and at the same time get into an argument that leads to division with another believer over how a person gets saved.

I believe Jesus’ words, “you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”, apply to this situation as well. I’ve seen pastors and many zealous Christians get belligerent over this issue. I’ve sadly, left a church because the pastor was preaching Calvinism instead of Gods word. Why are we dividing so heavily on this? In Mark 9:38-40 (ESV) we read that, John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. Let’s try to unify on our common salvation; let’s unify on the fact that Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins and eternal punishment.

If you want to know where I stand on the issue, I don’t. I stand on Gods word, not John Calvin’s nor Jacobus Arminius’. Ultimately God knows who is saved (Ps 139:1 NLT), and his word says that his desire is that all would be saved (1Tim 2:4 NLT), and that he will not turn away a repentant heart (Ps 51:17 NLT). Getting back to the topic, many of these self-proclaimed Calvinist and Reformed are pushing the traditions that have been handed down to them, to the point of being divisive with other Christians. When Jesus clearly said, “the one who is not against us is for us”. When we divide on tradition; when we divide on personal convictions, everyone loses, and we are not obeying the commands of God. This doesn’t mean we align with false teachings, rather when there’s common ground, please, stop being divisive; time is short, and the end is near.

The Christians in the book of Acts were accused of turning their world upside down. I believe, it got to that point by their love for one another. People need to hear the Gospel, people need to hear that God loves them, and they won’t hear it if all we’re doing is arguing with one another.