by Christopher Scott

Created on: January 28, 2008   Last Updated: January 31, 2008

Calvinism and Arminianism: Both Biblical?

Calvinism and Arminianism are two ideologies that since the late 16th century, will forever be known as archrivals. Simply defined, Calvinism stands for God alone electing individuals of the human race for salvation through Jesus Christ; because of the complete depravity that exists in them, they cannot choose to be saved by God because of the depraved state in which they exist. Arminianism holds to the belief that mankind is completely unable to get to heaven by his own works yet has the ability to chose to let in God's saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Other than this, there are further details that separate the two, but the cardinal concept is election versus choice. Although argued for centuries, few people have ever considered the two able to co-exist. Through extensive reading, in any translation of the Bible, anyone will inevitably conclude that the Bible teaches both. Does this mean God's word contains paradoxes impossible for the human mind to comprehend? Does the apparent anomaly discredit the Bible altogether as being God's only consultation to mankind? The answer to these questions can be found through supreme critical thinking. These few pages do not hope to adjudicate the ceaseless battle of both arguments, but to plainly express the opinions of one individual. Calvinism and Arminianism, although completely different, are completely correct, and able to concur in different aspects of God's divine revelation to mankind.

First-off, the importance of realizing the purpose behind God setting an apparent contradiction between free will and election is essential. Why would God in all his sovereignty give us a contradiction that pertains to the very foundations of our entire Christian faith? The answer is that this contradiction was not formed in God's words, but within the compass of flawed human intellect. The bounds of human thinking, limited in so many aspects since the fall of humankind, is the cause for this inconsistency.

In the book of Genesis, Moses (through the divine inspiration of God) describes the events leading to the fall of mankind. One of the main tenets of Calvinism found in the famous acronym TULIP is the total depravity of man (Crosby 88). This tenet states that because man is completely deprived (because of sin) he cannot make the decision of salvation by his own freewill because of the fact that when God created Adam, no sin resided within him. The Bible talks about God walking,

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