Arminianism and Its Dangers to Protestant and Baptist Soteriology
The Arminian view was written by Jacobus Arminius who was also a Pelagian, who believed that man doesn't have original sin. If man had no original sin, what on Earth did Jesus die for the sins of man for? It would be nonsense. Please note however just because one Baptist movement isn't Calvinistic, it is Arminian. No, I used to be neither Calvinist nor Arminian. So far, what makes Arminianism pretty deadly is this heresy called conditional perseverance which goes against the perseverance of the saints. In my younger years as a believer, I was struggling with the question, "Can a person lose their salvation?"
I believed that if you are in Christ, you cannot lose your salvation even if you stumble but a person may lose it if they deliberately choose to stop trusting Christ in order to go back to their former life until I ran into this truth again found in 1 John 2:19- either you are saved or not saved. It's amazing how many Arminians today may even appeal to Matthew Henry who was a Calvinist. Please note that not every person who can believe in the de-conversion heresy teach works salvation, it's just that they don't have a clear picture of true and false conversion but their conversion can be true with their doing good works by God's grace, it's just that they bought the lie that a person can be a Christian yesterday and an unbeliever today which is false. As said, if you are a Christian, you are always a Christian because God's grace keeps the person from living like the rest of the world. Conversion to Christianity is not just a mere acceptance of facts, it's undergoing the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and a change in life. 1 Corinthians 6:11 declares the changed life in Christ.
I believed that if you are in Christ, you cannot lose your salvation even if you stumble but a person may lose it if they deliberately choose to stop trusting Christ in order to go back to their former life until I ran into this truth again found in 1 John 2:19- either you are saved or not saved. It's amazing how many Arminians today may even appeal to Matthew Henry who was a Calvinist. Please note that not every person who can believe in the de-conversion heresy teach works salvation, it's just that they don't have a clear picture of true and false conversion but their conversion can be true with their doing good works by God's grace, it's just that they bought the lie that a person can be a Christian yesterday and an unbeliever today which is false. As said, if you are a Christian, you are always a Christian because God's grace keeps the person from living like the rest of the world. Conversion to Christianity is not just a mere acceptance of facts, it's undergoing the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and a change in life. 1 Corinthians 6:11 declares the changed life in Christ.
Protestant soteriologists like John Calvin, J. Vernon McGee, Arthur Pink, Harry Allen Ironside and Matthew Henry believed in the perseverance of the saints. Maybe Protestant preachers like McGee and Allenside weren't Calvinists (but were neither Arminian) but they were certainly right with the eternal security of the believer and the evidence brought by it that no eternally secure believer can live like the rest of the world. If a person is truly secure in Christ, lifestyle shows. I cannot buy for a second a person claims to have eternal security yet they live so wantonly. So far, the Protestant literature of Harry Allen Ironside had the books "Except Ye Repent" a thesis on Biblical repentance and "The Eternal Security of the Believer". John Calvin's stand of perseverance of the saints was right about the fact truly saved believers will endure to the end, even if they do sin horribly but they cannot retain themselves in such horrifyingly cruel sins. David wasn't a habitual adulterer, Solomon may have fallen so low into foolishness yet in the end he repented in Eccesiastes, even if Samson was foolish yet he was a hero of the faith and Lot was vexed by Sodom... that's just a few that even if these men didn't give their all, they surely were Christians. Ray Comfort in "True and False Conversion" and "Hell's Best Kept Secret" have noted that true salvation results to the fruit of gratitude, the fruit of joy, the fruit of good works... and that false converts fall away.
The problem of Arminianism has definitely become a condition of the feeding of man's pride and his ability to save himself. Taken from this, Arminianism is really bad theology at best. This is one good example of a heresy from a professional heckler of an Arminian who Paul David Washer chose wisely not to debate and neither will this ministry Evangelical Outreach saying, "We are not saved by works (Eph. 2:8,9) but to reap eternal life and not destruction you must sow to please the Spirit and not the sinful nature (Gal. 6:8,9). God is faithful to us (1 Jn. 1:9; 1 Cor. 10:13) but we must be faithful to him to the very end of our lives to escape the lake of fire or second death (Rev. 2:10,11). God surely loves us (Jn. 3:16; Mk. 10:21; Rom. 8:35-39) but those who inherit the kingdom of God love God (Jam 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:9) and to love God means to obey his commands (Jn. 14:15; 1 Jn. 5:3)." This is obviously self-righteous boasting and contradictory.
I sow to please the Spirit because I'm saved, I do good works because I'm saved, I will be faithful to Jesus to the very end though I may stumble because I'm saved, obviously this is stealing away the glory from God. If I chose to be tortured to death by Muslim terrorists or by the Inquisition, it's God's grace and because I'm a real convert. I did it not so I won't lose salvation but because I can't lose it. Conditional security is at best, works salvation because it demands Christians to do good works to stay saved rather than Christians doing good works because they are already saved and God's grace continues to work preventing the believer from ever living like the rest of the world even if they may stumble like Lot, Samson and Solomon. These people are thieves and imposters, their works are but dead works and not good works. Listen, I only do good works, I give tithes not for my own glory but only for God's glory. I refuse to take any credit in my salvation, God paid for it and I'm glad to be His slave. As said, if saved you are always saved and everything shows by it.
I sow to please the Spirit because I'm saved, I do good works because I'm saved, I will be faithful to Jesus to the very end though I may stumble because I'm saved, obviously this is stealing away the glory from God. If I chose to be tortured to death by Muslim terrorists or by the Inquisition, it's God's grace and because I'm a real convert. I did it not so I won't lose salvation but because I can't lose it. Conditional security is at best, works salvation because it demands Christians to do good works to stay saved rather than Christians doing good works because they are already saved and God's grace continues to work preventing the believer from ever living like the rest of the world even if they may stumble like Lot, Samson and Solomon. These people are thieves and imposters, their works are but dead works and not good works. Listen, I only do good works, I give tithes not for my own glory but only for God's glory. I refuse to take any credit in my salvation, God paid for it and I'm glad to be His slave. As said, if saved you are always saved and everything shows by it.
In fact, truly saved individuals do not depart and yet many Arminiams continue to insist that the "not saved to start with" doctrine is heresy and can't really explain 1 John 2:19. From reading John F. Macarthur's book "The Gospel According to Jesus", he cited several people who mentioned the real change in life of believers. Martin Luther though he declared that salvation was by faith alone, yet it was never by a faith that is alone. True salvation results to good works outwardly as its fruit, not the root. Armininianism puts the cart before the horse. The reason why apostasy is in the churches is not because of OSAS but because of a wrong view of it. As said, eternal security is not about being saved and staying saved regardless of lifestyle, rather those who are truly saved will have a changed life that will make them endure to the end only by God's grace. For anybody to teach OSAS yet permit false conversion, it's just as utterly heretical as Arminianism in itself.