We are convinced that biblical theology is neither Calvinist nor Arminian. We refuse to be forced to make a choice between John Calvin or James Arminius. Both were fallible men who attempted to describe biblical truth in a systematic theology. Both believed in the gross heresy of infant baptism and rejected biblical baptism. Neither man understood the New Testament church. Neither understood Bible prophecy. We have no obligation to follow either of these men. The only infallible systematic theology is the Bible itself. We believe in the everlasting consolation of the born again believer because this is what the Bible teaches, not because it is what John Calvin believed. We believe that Christ died to make it possible for all men to be saved and that all men can be saved, because that is what the Bible teaches, not because it is what James Arminius taught. We believe that God is sovereign and “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,” because the Bible teaches it, and we praise Him for it, and we believe in the wonderful doctrines of election and predestination, but we don’t believe what John Calvin taught as a disciple of the fifth century heretic Augustine. Calvinists claim for themselves the right to examine Calvinism and to define it in a multitude of ways. We claim for ourselves the same right, and we reject all of it.
(Friday Church News Notes, May 8, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)