Today we will continue to read God's Great Salvation, How God Saves His People by Louis de Boer. It's another book on the Calvinist-Arminian controversy. It represents a fresh approach to an old debate. It forsakes the traditional format of the Five Points of Calvinism that has dominated the controversy ever since the Synod of Dort in the early 17th century. Instead it presents the Calvinist position by arguing it systematically and thoroughly from the scriptures. This is a more natural way to teach these important truths and more effective in its testimony to all who love the word of God and receive it as the authoritative standard of their faith and doctrine. Calvinists will find their faith strengthened as well as their commitment to the truths that salvation is of the Lord, of the Lord alone, by grace alone, and through the merits of Christ alone. Arminians will find their faith challenged from the scriptures as never before and will have to rethink many of their beliefs with respect to how God saves his people. In both camps may this book have fruit to the glory of God. Today we will read chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4, Wounded or Dead. In the following scripture text, as previously noted above, the Apostle Paul contends that man is spiritually dead. In all three texts he is telling his readers that they were spiritually dead, but that God has quickened them. That is, he has made them spiritually alive again. In the following scripture text, as previously noted above, the Apostle Paul contends that man is spiritually dead. In all three texts he is telling his readers that they were spiritually dead, but that God has quickened them, that is, he has made them spiritually alive again. This quickening, this rebirth of the spiritual life, we call regeneration, or being born again of the spirit. The very term quickening, the quick being an old English term for those that are alive, is a reference to being made alive, and this, of course, presupposes that they were previously dead. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 and 2, And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Ephesians 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace are ye saved." Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. The issue here is, is salvation monergistic or synergistic? The issue here becomes, is faith something that unregenerate man brings to the table and to which God responds with the gift of regeneration? Or is faith something that unregenerate man cannot produce and is the fruit of the new nature, the result of being regenerated by the Spirit of God? The issue is whether the Augustinian doctrine of man's spiritual deadness is correct for the Arminian doctrine of semi-Pelagianism is correct. The former says man can do no spiritual good until he is regenerated because he is spiritually dead, and depraved in all his faculties by the fall, so that he is incapable of any spiritual good toward God in that state. The latter says that man's spiritual capacity is deeply affected but not eradicated by the fall, and is able to will spiritual good and exercise true faith towards God and Jesus Christ while in an unregenerate state. The issue here is man's spiritual nature. The issue is, are man's spiritual capacities merely wounded, as the Arminians teach, so that he still has some spiritual life in him, and is still capable of some spiritual good towards God? Or is man spiritually dead, and thus incapable of doing any spiritual good? That is the Calvinist position. A few analogies may be in order. The issue as stated above is, is salvation totally of the Lord, or is it partially the work of man? Take the following analogy. Men are drowning in the sea after a shipwreck. They will inevitably die if something is not done immediately to save them. A Hercules C-130 plane flies over the area and opening its tailgate dumps hundreds of life preservers over the area where the stricken men are drowning. Those who reach out and seize onto a life preserver are saved. Those that fail to do so are lost. This is, of course, a perfect picture, a reasonable analogy of how Arminian theology represents our salvation. God has not actually saved anyone. No one really knows what the effect of dumping the life preservers will be. In the same sense, no one really knows what the results will be of an atonement where Christ dies for all men and then it is left up to their free will decisions to determine if that atoning death will bear any fruit unto eternal life. No one really knows what the results of preaching the gospel and then relying on man's free will to see who will accept it and be saved. The life preservers have merely given the drowning men an opportunity to be saved. As this analogy demonstrates, God does not save men, he merely makes them salvable. He gives them an opportunity to save themselves. The Calvinist, by contrast, says that the men have already drowned. Somebody needs to jump into the sea, pull their dead bodies out of the water, and restore them to life. They have to be raised from the dead, and in all this they can do nothing to save themselves. They are dead, and on the bottom of the sea, God needs to save them. He needs to do it all. Men have no other hope. The common Arminian analogy is that man is very spiritually sick. He desperately needs a dose of a specific medicine which is all that can save him from imminent death. The life-saving medicine is offered to him. However, he has to decide whether he wants to take the medicine or whether he will reject it. If he takes it, he will live. If not, he will die. He has been offered life, but now it is his decision to determine whether he will live or die. The Calvinist, of course, will say that he is a corpse and is incapable of accepting the medicine. He needs to be raised from the dead. He needs a resurrection first before he can do anything, including accepting any life-giving medicine. There is a well-known analogy by the Scottish theologian Thomas Boston. I will paraphrase it as best I can. Man is in a deep pit. The pit has very steep and slippery walls. Man can try to scale the walls and climb out of the pit. This is the way of works. This is the way of Roman Catholicism and of religious cults and all false religions. But alas, the walls are impossible to scale, and this way is futile, for man can take hold of the rope of grace that has been lowered into the pit and pull himself out. This is the Arminian way, but alas, man is dead. He cannot even see the rope, much less seize hold of it and pull himself up and out of the pit. Someone needs to come into the pit and pull him out. Someone needs to raise him from the dead. And this is the work of God. That is the work of God alone. The scriptural testimony seems clear. Man is spiritually dead. He can contribute nothing to his own salvation. In his unregenerate state, he is incapable of cooperating in his own salvation. He needs to be regenerated first. then he can respond to the gospel, exercise faith and repentance and cooperate with the grace of the Spirit. For as these analogies clearly demonstrate, if man is really spiritually dead, he needs to be saved. To make him salvable does nothing for him. He is in no state to take advantage of the opportunities to be saved. He needs to be saved. He needs God to save him, not just throw him a life preserver. Chapter 5 The Ordo Salutis The question before us is can man in his unregenerate state turn to God in faith and repentance? This is what Calvinists deny when they speak of total depravity. And this is what Arminians affirm. It is a key and necessary belief in their system, for they believe that it is only as man turns to God in faith that man elects him, and in response regenerates him. They believe that the election takes place before the foundation of the earth based on God's foreknowledge of this act of faith, and that the regeneration takes place in time. So to answer this issue we need to determine whether unregenerate man can turn to God in faith and repentance by an act of his own free will. We will see that the scriptural testimony is emphatically, definitively, and repeatedly no. It is extremely important to understand that this is a crucial point in the Arminian system. By it their system stands or falls. If regeneration comes first, then the Calvinist position is established. For only God, by the power of the Spirit, can regenerate a man. If a man can do nothing to contribute to his salvation before he is regenerated, then only those whom God sovereignly chooses to regenerate will be saved. On the other hand, if a man can contribute an act of faith while in the unregenerate state, then, as Arminians argue, this can be the basis for God's accepting and regenerating him. The crucial point is, does a man's act of faith, believing on Christ for salvation, take place before or after his regeneration? We will examine the following scriptures that specifically address the point before us. John 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching that unless a man is born again, unless he is regenerated by the Spirit of God, he cannot even see the kingdom of God. Yet Arminians have unregenerate men seeking the kingdom, desiring the kingdom, and turning to Christ in faith so that they can enter the kingdom. Christ does not say that unregenerate men will not see the kingdom of God, putting it all in an eschatological perspective. He says that now, in the present, they cannot see it, they are blind to it, because it is spiritually discerned. John 3.5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Similarly, in this verse Jesus is teaching that unregenerate men cannot enter the kingdom of God. Yet Arminians have unregenerate men seeking to enter that kingdom by an act of faith before they are regenerated. Jesus is teaching that a man needs to be regenerated first before he can enter the kingdom of heaven. John 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. This is an especially powerful verse. Christ is emphatically teaching that no one, that no man, can come to Him unless the Father draws him. Arminians teach that this verse simply means that the Father works to entice and attract sinners to Christ by the influence of His Spirit, but that the ultimate decision is left up to their free wills. However, the text is not amendable to such an interpretation. The word draw is a powerful word meaning to counsel by superior force. In the Greek language it is used to describe the action of fishermen who drag fish out of the sea with their nets and of being compelled to appear and to be dragged before the magistrates. In the New Testament it or its cognate form are used in seven other places. Here are a few examples of how this word is used in scripture. Acts 16 verse 19, And when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. Here it is plain that Paul and Silas are being compelled to appear before the magistrates. they have been seized and are being physically dragged before the court. James 2.6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Here again it is plain that the poor are not being enticed or attracted to appear before the judgment seats. They are not being influenced to please appear if they would. rather they are being compelled, they are being dragged into court by the rich and powerful. Acts chapter 21 verses 30 and 31, And all the city was moved, and the people ran together. And they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple. And forthwith the doors were shut, and they were about to kill him. This text hardly describes an exercise in persuasion. A Jewish mob, believing that Paul has desecrated the temple by bringing Gentiles into it, has seized him, dragged him out of the temple, and is on the verge of killing him. And he said unto them in John 21 6, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. again John 21 verse 11, Simon went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Now it is obvious that in these two texts they are not attempting to entice and attract the fish to come. but were attempting to drag them ashore and into the boat with the net. This was an exercise in physical compulsion, not in persuasion. Every use of this Greek word in scripture involves the use of force and compulsion. Although it is translated as to draw, it really means to drag. What Christ is teaching in John 6.44 is that no man can come to Him unless the Father compels him. This is strong language. This is the Calvinist language of irresistible grace, not the Arminian language of mere influences on man's free will. John 6.65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him by my Father. The Arminian position is that men can come to Christ anytime they please. It is only a matter of exercising their free will and making a decision for Christ. Christ is teaching the opposite. He is declaring that no man can come to him unless it is given unto him by the Father. That is, the ability to come to Christ is a gift of the Father. It is not a natural ability of unregenerate men. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. The natural man is the unregenerate man who is still in the flesh, in the old nature. Paul is saying that such a man, in such a state, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Paul is saying that he cannot know them, he cannot receive them, and know them because they are spiritually discerned and he is spiritually dead in sins and trespasses. He needs to be regenerated, to be quickened, to be granted spiritual life before he can receive, know, and discern spiritual things. In contrast to this clear teaching of the Apostle, Arminians believe that an unregenerate man can receive the things of Christ and turn to Him in faith and repentance. Paul is saying that he cannot. Romans chapter 8 verses 5-7 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Paul here says that those in the flesh mind the things of the flesh and not the things of the spirit. Yet the Arminian scheme of salvation requires unregenerate men, while still in the flesh, to mind the things of the spirit and turn to Christ in faith and repentance. Paul goes on to state that the unregenerate mind is in enmity against God. Arminians teach that the unregenerate man can by his own free will make his peace with God and turn to Him in faith and repentance. Paul is teaching that the unregenerate man cannot be subject to the law of God. Arminians teach that unregenerate men can turn from their sins and come to Christ. Greater contrast between the teachings of Paul and the beliefs of Arminians can hardly be imagined. Romans chapter 8, verse 8. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Here Paul is teaching that those that are in the flesh, those that are unregenerate cannot please God. Arminians again believe and teach otherwise. They hold that unregenerate men can please God by turning to Him in faith and repentance. God is so pleased with them for this that he elects them to eternal life based on his foreknowledge of this act and regenerates them as a reward for doing it. Yet Paul explicitly teaches that the unregenerate men cannot please God. John 6, 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Here the Apostle John is teaching that the Holy Spirit quickens men and grants them spiritual life. By contrast he points out that the flesh, man's unregenerate nature, profits men nothing. As Jesus said, he must be born again. Yet Arminians teach that the flesh profits much. Men in the flesh can turn to God in faith and repentance and bring themselves into a state of salvation. They believe that the actions of unregenerate men in the flesh are decisive in whether they are saved or lost. John is emphatically teaching otherwise. We have reviewed eight verses here. Seven of them use the word can. The word can is a word of ability, just as the word may is a word of permission. Seven of these texts therefore deal directly with the issue of unregenerate man's ability to turn to God by himself. And the scriptural answer is emphatically clear. It is no. I admit that the verses quoted from John 3 are amenable to other interpretations. I have taken, as many commentators do, that seeing the kingdom of God is apprehending it spiritually. It could be argued that seeing it refers to actually seeing it in its eschatological fulfillment at the end of the age. And when does a man enter the kingdom of God? The scripture seems to teach that he enters it spiritually now, when he is regenerated and becomes a child of God, but that the ultimate fulfillment of entering the kingdom is at the establishment at the second coming of Jesus Christ. However, even if these two texts are eliminated from the argument that still these five texts that explicitly deny that unregenerate men can come to Christ while in that state. As Jeremiah stated it, can the Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13, 23. Christ summed it up well when he taught his disciples in Matthew 19, 24-26. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. As the case of the rich young ruler demonstrated, rich people have extra attachment to the things of this world. Christ is here commenting on the difficulty of such people entering the kingdom of God by their own efforts. He does not give much credence to the view that unregenerate man has the ability to come to God on his own. Just how difficult does he say it is for a rich man to turn to God? Whether one takes the needle as literally being a needle, or whether one understands the eye of the needle as being a small gate in the walls of Jerusalem that a stooping man can just fit through, Christ's point is clear. It is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God on his own. The Apostle certainly understood it that way and exclaimed, who then can be saved? Christ's answer is very instructive. He flatly states that with men the salvation of such is impossible and then he gives the key to their salvation and indeed the key to the salvation of all men. He states that their salvation is only possible with God. If all this is true, and scriptural than the Calvinist case is established. The Arminian case rests on man exercising faith and God responding by regenerating him. The Arminian doctrine of election declares that God elects men to salvation based on foreseeing that they will respond to the gospel with faith and repentance. If that faith is the work of God and not of man, the Arminian case fails. If regeneration needs to come first, and no man can regenerate himself, then the Arminian case becomes impossible. I believe that these texts are conclusive, and that they strike a fatal blow against the doctrine of the Arminians. Are we going to believe the explicit statements of Scripture, the personal teaching of our Lord, and the inspired teachings of the Apostles? Or are we going to believe the words of Jacobus Arminius and his followers? That is the choice before us. Calvinists have made their election. Calvinists have made their decision. Arminians need to reflect. They do not have scripture on their side on this point. If you would like a copy of this book, God's Salvation, by Rev. Louis de Boer, Please send $14 to the American Presbyterian Church, 150 Brock Holt Lane, Georgetown, Tennessee, 37336.