The Lord God commanded man, saying. From every tree of the garden you may eat as you wish, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For from that tree you will surely die when you eat from it.” (Genesis 2.16-17)
In describing human sin, the Bible avoids abstract arguments and describes it in terms of the steps taken by specific people and peoples. The events we will discuss are the first couple's rebellion against God over the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as recorded in Genesis 2 and 3. As you read here, you will notice that human beings are placed in five relationships. The five relationships are: relationship with God, relationship with the serpent (devil), relationship with self, relationship with one's neighbor, and relationship with other creatures. Adam's breaking of his relationship with God, symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, through the temptation of the serpent, has caused disharmony in the other relationships as well.
1 The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - The Nature of Sin
When God created man and gave him the cultural commandment to “till and keep the garden” and made him heir to the Garden of Eden, He told him that he could take from any tree in the garden and eat from it, but only from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he broke this commandment, “you will surely die. By reserving this one tree for man, God demonstrated His sovereignty over the Garden and demanded obedience from Adam. From this perspective, the essence of sin is the refusal of God to be sovereign.
In terms of covenant, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a sign of the covenant. When God makes a covenant, He often establishes a sign of the covenant, such as the rainbow in the Noahic covenant, circumcision in the Abrahamic covenant, and bread and wine in the covenant of Christ. In the creation covenant, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the sign of the covenant. The central point of the sign was that God is sovereign, as mentioned earlier, but why was it called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”? The meaning is read in the context of Genesis 2 and 3. The serpent said to the woman. God knows that at the time you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like [sidebar] God, knowing good and evil [/sidebar].” (Genesis 3.5, side point author) After man ate of the fruit of the tree, God also said, “Behold! Man [sic] became like one of us, knowing good and evil [/sic].” (Genesis 3.22, author's footnote). We can see from this that “to be like God” means the same thing as “to be a knower of good and evil.
God alone has the authority to know and determine what is good and what is evil, autonomously and independently of anything else. On the other hand, it is the Creator's nature for creatures to accept and follow the good and evil that He has ordained. The Creator is sovereign over the good and evil in human life. As God's creatures, we human beings are to live according to the standards of good and evil that the Creator has ordained. For example, we are to accept and obey the laws of the Ten Commandments, such as not making idols, honoring parents, not killing, not committing adultery, not stealing, and not bearing false witness, without debating their merits or demerits. Symbolic of this is the commandment, “Do not eat only from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why was it forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It is because God forbade us not to eat from it. Humans were to obey God without reason.
But since the Fall of Adam, man has turned his back on God, becoming independent of God and trying to become like God, who determines good and evil for himself. In “Crime and Punishment,” Dostoevsky portrays the hero Raskolnikov as the epitome of a man who has lost sight of God. He murders a stingy old woman and takes what little money she has, not because he wants the money. His motive for killing the old woman was to prove that he was an “extraordinary man. According to Raskolnikov, there are two types of people: ordinary people who must obey the law, and extraordinary people who have the right to make new laws for themselves and transgress all moral codes. So Raskolnikov killed the old woman to see if he was a “Napoleon” or just a “louse. Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya. I wanted to kill her, Sonya, for no reason at all. I wanted to kill for myself, just for myself.” By “without reason,” he means that he is God. The essence of sin lies in stepping over the Word of God with authority and trying to be God. They do not doubt that living a self-centered life without God is good. Therefore, the nature of self-centeredness is at the root of all sins such as filial piety, murder, adultery, stealing, and perjury.
The result of rebellion against God's commandments and rejection of God's sovereignty was death. The essence of death is the severance of fellowship with God. In the days of the gentle breeze, the Lord used to walk around the garden and talk with Adam and Eve after they had finished their day's work of tending the garden. Eirenaeus deduces that this is the Son, given the role of the “divine form” that allows us to see the “invisible God” [ Eirenaeus, “The Apostles' Explanation of the Apostolic Faith,” 12 (translated by Minoru Kobayashi and Reiko Kobayashi), (in The Original Medieval Thought, 1, Heibonsha, 1995)]. I think this is an accurate inference. For human beings, originally, looking up to the face of the Lord and communing with God was “life” and bliss. The writer of the book of Revelation also describes the bliss at the end of man's life as “God's servants will serve Him and look up to His face” (Revelation 22.3-4). However, as soon as they sinned against God, the face of the Lord, which had been so adored, became an object of fear. Adam and his wife “hid themselves among the trees of the garden to avoid the face of the Lord their God” (Genesis 3.8). (Genesis 3.8). Although communion with God is “life,” they fell into sin, which prevented them from communing with God, and they fell into a state of spiritual death. Their bodies were still alive, but they were already dead in spirit.
2 Under the power of the devil
(1) Serpent, dragon, god of this world, ruler with authority over the air.
See the introduction of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis in . Since the Devil welcomes both the materialist who says, “There is no such thing as the Devil,” and the wizard who takes an undue and unhealthy interest in the Devil, as he says in the preface to “The Devil's Letters,” I will try to keep the discussion of the Devil where the Bible goes and to stop where the Bible stops.
Now, the “serpent” that tempted man “was wiser than any other of the creatures of the field” (Gen. 3.1), which refers to the animal serpent. But since Revelation says that this old serpent is the devil, Satan (see Revelation 12.9), it can be interpreted that the devil used the animal serpent as a tool to tempt the first couple. The devil is a spiritual entity that is referred to in other biblical expressions as the great red dragon [ Revelation 12:3], Beelzebul [ Matthew 12:24], the ruler with authority in the air [ Ephesians 2:2], and the god of this world [ 2 Corinthians 4:4].
In the book of Jude, we read, “Jesus also locked up in everlasting chains under darkness the angels who did not keep their own domain but left their place where they belonged, for the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6). Some of the angels became arrogant and fell beyond their portion. Satan seems to be the chief of the fallen angels who became arrogant. The demons that frequently appear in the Gospels are probably the lower class of such fallen angels. The words of judgment against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:12-15 and the words of judgment against the king of Tullo in Ezekiel 28:11-19 have been read throughout the history of the church as alluding to God's judgment against the pride of Satan. The words of Isaiah are quoted here. Here is a quote from Isaiah.
O son of the dawn, the morning star, how did you fall from heaven? How did you fall from heaven?
O thou that overthrew the nations! Why were you cut down to the earth?
And thou saidst in thine heart.
I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne far above the stars of God,
I will sit on the mountain of meeting in the farthest north.
I will ascend to the top of the dense clouds, and I will be like the Most High.”
But thou shalt be cast down into darkness, and into the bottom of the pit. (Isaiah 14.12-15)
Indeed, the words “Let us be like the Most High” are a cry of satanic pride. Incidentally, the word translated as “bright star” was translated into Latin as lucifer in the Roman Catholic Urgata, which came to be used as another name for the devil in the West.
(2) The Power of Darkness (The Kingdom of the Devil)
The Devil's end is set for eternal destruction in Gehenna (see Revelation 20.10). Therefore, the devil tempts mankind in various ways, hoping to deceive them, persecute God's people, turn as many of them against God as he can, and increase the number of those who will suffer the eternal fire of Gehenna.
The woman became autonomous in the sense that she disobeyed God's Word and did selfish things as a result of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after being beguiled by the serpent's words, but in reality, she became a slave of the devil and tempted her husband into sin. Thereafter, man was placed under the devil's “power of darkness” (Colossians 1.13) and became his slave. 'Now you who were dead in your transgressions and sins, and once walked in those sins according to the course of the world, according to the ruler who has authority in the air, the spirit that is still at work in the children of disobedience.' (Ephesians 2.1-2). Paul makes a powerful statement in Romans 6 that those who follow Christ have become “slaves of sin” to “slaves of righteousness” or “slaves of God,” but it has been pointed out that the personified singular “sin” (rare: hamartia) here should be understood as the devil [ see chapter 16, verse 2, of this book]. [see Chapter XVI, Section 2 of this book].
One of the obvious signs that since Adam man has been deceived by the devil and placed in spiritual darkness, in the kingdom of the devil, is idolatry and witchcraft. Since God created man in His own image, man has been given a much greater intelligence than other creatures and has produced a spectacular civilization, but in spite of this, he is ignorant of the true God and is carving idols in the image of gods, such as man, birds, beasts, insects, mountains, large trees, and celestial bodies, which are only creatures. They carve idols in the likeness of gods, such as humans, birds, beasts, insects, mountains, trees, and heavenly bodies, which are only creatures, and they sin by worshipping them (cf. Rom. 1.18-23). It is the devil who lures human beings into spiritual blindness and the sins of idolatry and witchcraft. Since demons and evil spirits are obsessed with the ambition to surpass their own portion and become like the Most High, they take pleasure in being worshipped by humans behind such idolatry and witchcraft. Incidentally, when Paul says, “What am I trying to say? Am I trying to say that the flesh offered to idols has any meaning, or that idols have any meaning?” (I Corinthians 10.19), some have argued that idolatry is merely a doll carved of stone, wood, or metal, and therefore it is okay to worship anything, but they are wrong. In the following verse 20, Paul points out that the offerings of idolaters are “offered not to God but to demons” (I Cor. 10.20). What Paul means in verse 19 when he says that idolatry is meaningless is that “it is bullshit, as the world says, that if you worship Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, you will become a beautiful woman, or if you worship Apollo, the god of art, you will become a great sculptor. It is not the beautiful gods who are behind idols, but evil spirits. To offer an offering to an idol is to offer it to an evil spirit and to commune with it. This is what the Lord Jesus meant.
It is the idolatry of mammonism, or worship, that the Lord Jesus told us to be especially wary of. No one can serve two masters. You will hate the one and love the other, or you will esteem the one and esteem the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6.24) In the land of Gerasa on the other side of Lake Galilee, when the Lord released a man who had been taken captive by a great number of demons who called themselves Legion and had become like wild beasts, and he came to his senses, the Gerasaites, rather than rejoice, drove Jesus out of the region [ Mark 5:1 See -20]. [ Mark 5:1-20 ]. This was because they feared that the death of their property, the pigs, was an economic loss and that they were bound to suffer even greater damage if they welcomed Jesus. They probably thought they were normal people who were not possessed by evil spirits, but in reality, they were also captives of mammonism and slaves of the devil. Whether they are rationalists who believe that there is no God or devil, idolaters, occultists, or worshippers, all people who disobey God are inhabitants of the devil's kingdom. To explain somewhat ahead of time, the Lord Jesus suggested that when He cast out demons from one man, He bound the strong one, the devil (Beelzebul), and recaptured him from the devil's kingdom to the kingdom of God (see Matthew 12.22-29). The arrival of the Kingdom of God means that the kingdom of the devil is falling apart. A work that beautifully expresses this situation in a narrative form is C. S. Lewis's The Lion and the Witch.
However, it is a mistake to overestimate the devil as well as to underestimate him. Overestimation will lead to a dualism that treats God and the devil as if they are equal, and the devil will turn up his nose at you. In reality, as we see in the Book of Job, even the devil cannot do evil without God's permission, and God, in His providence, will eventually turn that evil into good. According to the Bible, the devil and God are never equal, and the only equal to the devil are the good angels who serve God. While we should be wary of the devil, we should be careful not to overestimate him.
By “the earth” is meant the whole creation, represented by thorns and thistles. Paul describes the state of creation in disobedience to man as being subject to emptiness and under the bondage of perdition (cf. Rom. 8.20, 21). Since God gave the labor/culture imperative before the Fall of mankind, labor and culture formation are inherently a blessing, but a curse has been added to it, so that when people work, they feel joy and purpose in life in one aspect, but in the other, they are stressed by work. In addition, creation is no longer obedient to man as it was before the Fall, and since then, the history of mankind's relationship with nature has been a struggle between man and nature. We have fought ferocious wild beasts, we have battled pests and diseases, we have fought typhoons and earthquakes. The created world has not yet come under the dominion of man [ cf. Hebrews 2:8]. [ Hebrews 2:9]. In modern times, mankind has attempted to dominate creation through the power of natural science, but as a result, it suffers from the contradiction that it is destroying the foundations of its own survival through environmental destruction.
4 Original Sin and Total Depravity, the Devil and Misery
(1) Original Sin and the True Meaning of “Total Depravity
As described above, Adam, the head of the covenant, committed the sin of rebellion against God after being defeated by the devil's temptation. This is the so-called original sin. Since Adam is the head of the covenant, the representative of mankind, all mankind that came out of him in Adam became the bearers of original sin before God. There are two aspects to this: the legal/relational aspect and the nature aspect. The legal and relational aspect is the guilt of disobedience to God, while the natural aspect is the tendency toward sin and moral corruption in rebellion against God.
Adam's descendants fell into spiritual death, which is a severance from God, and as a result of losing the relationship of holy life fellowship with God, man lost his original righteousness (original sin) and became inclined to sin and corruptible. The basic nature of original sin is to be self-centered and selfish, turning away from God. This is because the root of sin is the attempt to drive out the true God, who is originally on the throne of life, and to sit on the throne as God himself. Man who rebelled against God began to commit idolatry, filial piety, murder, theft, adultery, perjury, covetousness, and various other real sins, and you will notice that this self-centered and selfish nature dwells at the root of all sins.
Let me explain the term “total depravity” in theology. One might argue, “Reformed theology speaks of total depravity, but surely there are some people in the world who are very fond of filial piety, violence, and theft, but there are also many people who are very fond of filial piety and charity. I am sure there are some who would argue that there are people who like filial piety and charity. When I was a resident of Shinshu, I saw people in my neighborhood who would get up in the winter when the snow was piling up, even though the sun had not yet come out, in the freezing cold (more than 10 degrees below zero), and silently shovel snow from the path to school. Perhaps the phrase “total depravity” is inappropriate, since the doctrine of total depravity is usually misunderstood as such; L. Berkoff wrote, “This [total depravity] does not mean that everything that all men do is so evil that they cannot do good in any sense of the word and have no sense of praise for truth, goodness, or beauty. It does not mean that they have no sense of praise for the true, the good, and the beautiful.” After a bit of exculpation, he adds that total depravity “means that the inherent corruption spills over into every part of humanity, so that there is in him no spiritual goodness, that is, goodness in relation to God, but only moral distortion. [ L. Berkoff, General Reformed Theology, p. 164.” The following is the case. The doctrine of total depravity means that man in his total depravity does natural, civic, and outwardly religious good deeds, but these good deeds do not lead him to love God or mankind. What the doctrine of total depravity means is that all men who are guilty before God in Adam and have fallen into a state of separation from God have become totally incapable of turning to God on their own. In other words, this is the human understanding that is the premise of Grace Salvationism, in the sense that no human achievement will save man before God.
(2) Satanic oppression and misery
By the way, we said that man became self-centered and selfish as a result of his disobedience to God in Adam, but then, if we say that man became truly in control of his own life, this is not really the case; he came under the oppression of the devil. The first woman was tempted, “You can be like God,” and after eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all she did was work as a servant of the devil, tempting her husband into sin. Moreover, not only they, but all who would be born of them, rebelled against this God and came to live in fear of death, under the oppression of the devil's darkness, experiencing numerous miseries between themselves, their neighbors, and their creatures. The apostle Paul describes the miserable condition of man under the oppression of sin, death, and the devil since Adam. 'Now you were dead in your transgressions and sins, and once in those sins you followed the course of the world, walking according to the ruler who has authority in the air, the spirit that is still at work in the children of disobedience. For we also were all once among the children of disobedience, living according to the lusts of our flesh, doing what our flesh and heart desired, and like all others, by birth deserving of His wrath.” (Ephesians 2.1-3)
When Cain was born, Eve seems to have expected that he would be the savior who would crush the head of the serpent (the devil), saying, “I have a son by the Lord” (Genesis 4.1), but in fact, Cain was tempted by sin and became the first murderer (see Genesis 4.7). Original sin was inherited. After David's carnal desires were stimulated by the devil and he committed the sin of adultery by taking the wife of his loyal retainer Uriah and then conspiring to kill Uriah, he was accused by the prophet Nathan and confessed before God as follows. He was accused by the prophet Nathan and confessed before God: “See, I was born condemned and sinful. I was born iniquitous and sinful, and my mother carried me in her womb.” (Psalm 51.5) He was a sinner from the time he was conceived in his mother's womb. Paul tells us that “through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death entered into the world, and in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5.12). The mechanism by which original sin is transmitted is controversial and cannot be fully explained, but the reality is that we are “born-again children of wrath” (Ephesians 2.3). Indeed, “There are none righteous, no, not one. Not one. There is no one who understands. No one seeks God. All have gone away, and everyone has become useless. No one does good. No one does good.” (Romans 3.10-12).
We know that the oppression of the devil and all the misery that results from rebellion against God extends to everyone. Although a distinction is made between sin, which refers to man's inner life, and misery, which refers to the external environment, they are closely connected. Man tries to say, “God does not exist,” or he carves various creatures into images and kneels to them, or he is unable to control himself because his desires overtake his will within himself. As a result, they experience distrust and discord in their relationships and are troubled. They are also afflicted by the viruses and pathogens that are creatures, wasps, bears, earthquakes, and typhoons. However, this is in large part the result of the sin that overflows from within the human being. Moreover, the civilization created by human beings has plundered and destroyed the created world, shaking the foundation of human existence by itself. We need a Savior who will resolve our guilt against God, restore our fellowship with God as legally righteous, cleanse man's inner tendency to sin, and destroy the oppression of the devil.
5 The view of sin is the Archimedean point of the theological system.
We have looked at human sin and misery and the oppression of the devil. Theology is a logical system in which one part harmonizes with the whole. Reformed theologian A. A. Hodge, reviewing the history of theology, noted that the view of sin is the Archimedean point, or fulcrum in the principle of leverage, that drives the entire theological system. The fulcrum, he says, is the difference in view of how bad human sin is, which has driven the entire system and created three types of theological systems: grace salvationism, self-help salvationism, and the God-man cooperation theory that falls between the two [see A.A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, chapter6 for a discussion of the three types of theological systems].
The first is grace salvationism. ＜Man is totally depraved and spiritually dead through original sin. Since man has free will but can only choose sin, he can only be born again by the secret preemptive work of the Holy Spirit, be made aware of his sin, have faith, and be saved by faith in Christ. ＞Grace Salvationism asserts that the only way to be saved is to be born again through the secret, prior work of the Holy Spirit. Grace salvationism emphasizes omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, and righteousness in the view of God, and the theory of salvation emphasizes predestination and penal substitution. The Christ view teaches both Redeemer and Exemplar, but the emphasis is clearly on the Redeemer. Augustine in ancient times, and the religious reformers Luther and Calvin in modern times, are its representatives. Nevertheless, Luther dealt with the sanctification of Christians in his “Freedom of Christians,” and Calvin further emphasized sanctification as well as justification, and in this context he stressed the normative use of the law.
The second is self-help, or Pelagianism, which is the opposite of grace salvationism. Self-help salvationism holds that since there is no original sin in human beings, we are all born in the same condition as Adam before the Fall. This is the position of liberal theology since Augustine's opponent Pelagius in ancient times, Sozzinism in modern times, and Schleiermacher in modern times. Since man without original sin can save himself on his own, Christ need not be the Savior from sin. In Pelagianism, Christ is at best a role model and a teacher of love, which is sufficient for man. The view of God is that of an infinite embracing being who does not require any sacrifice for the atonement of sin. As for atonement, it rejects the theory of penal substitution, in which Christ atoned in the place of the sinner, and advocates the theory of moral inspiration, in which Christ is the exemplar. Thus, self-help salvationism leans toward the theory of universal salvation.
The third is the God-man cooperation theory, which has been called semi-Pelagianism on the part of grace salvationists. This holds that man is not spiritually dead, but spiritually seriously ill. It is the idea that salvation can only be fulfilled with a little human cooperation in God's great grace that seeks to save man. The Anglican Church, from which Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages and Arminius in the Early Modern period, and the Methodist Church, from which the Methodists, and the Holiness and General Baptist Churches, which flowed from the Anglican Church, and the General Baptist Church, which flowed from the Methodists, do not hold to the limited atonement theory of Christ but hold to the general atonement theory of atonement. Baptist churches that do not hold to the limited atonement theory of Christ and adopt the general atonement theory. It is to be distinguished from the PARTICULAR BAPTISTS who hold to the limited atonement theory]. These are positions such as. The recently popular “open theism” also belongs to this category. According to their argument, God foreknew that some would repent and believe, and based on that foreknowledge, He scheduled them. In the case of the God-man cooperation theory, the balance between self-help and grace is diverse, depending on how one perceives the degree of human cooperation between self-help and grace, somewhere between self-help and grace. The view of Christ is that He is both Redeemer and Exemplar, and the salvation theory emphasizes sanctification rather than justification.
6 How to Think about the Arminian Argument (Arminian Controversy)
A. A. Hodge's view of original sin as an Archimedean point and his categorization of theological systems into three types is certainly useful for looking at the systematic development of theology, but we must be wary of the possibility of easy labeling of other schools and of going too far in theological reasoning beyond what the Bible says. Easy labeling of others gives us immediate relief but prevents us from learning from others, making us foolish while thinking we are wise.
In the seventeenth-century Dutch-settled controversy over the theory of predestination, Arminianism has accused Calvinism of a theory of predestination that makes God the author of sin, and Calvinism has criticized Arminianism for neglecting God's sovereignty and for being half a self-help theory. In response to Arminianism's five-point protest against Calvinism, Calvinists have argued that man is totally depraved and cannot turn to God on his own (total depravity), that God's election to salvation is totally unconditional (unconditional election Unconditional election), that Christ died an atoning death for the sins of the elect and not for all mankind (Limited atonement), that man cannot resist and reject God's saving grace if God decides to offer it to him (Irresistible grace Irresistible grace is that God has chosen the saints to persevere in their faith to the end, regardless of the twists and turns that may come their way (Perseverance of saints). In English-speaking countries, TULIP is the acronym for the five points, and is referred to as the five characteristics of Calvinism. Is it a pun that the tulip controversy is set in the Netherlands? Calvinists accept all five, moderate Calvinists often accept all four except limited atonement, and some Protestants accept all four except saints' perseverance, etc. The position varies among Protestant denominations. Calvinist theology, which emphasizes coherence, would probably say that since all five points are logically and necessarily connected, it is impossible to accept one part and not accept the others, but just because they are logically and necessarily connected does not mean that all five points should be treated with the same weight. However, just because they are logically and necessarily connected, it does not mean that all five points should be treated with the same weight. As to the degree of emphasis that a doctrine should be taught, it is proper for us as believers to follow the context in which and the degree to which the Bible emphasizes that doctrine.
Despite this controversy, as modern Enlightenment thought flourished and liberal theology emerged under its influence, which denied the authority of the Bible and held that human nature is good and that the kingdom of God will come by living according to the morality of Christ, the differences between Calvinists and Arminians, who believed in the authority of the Bible and shared the confession that original sin dwelt in human nature and the atonement of Christ was absolute and indispensable, came to be seen as relatively small. The differences between Calvinists and Arminians, who share the confession of the indispensability of original sin in human nature and the atonement of Christ, came to be seen as relatively minor.What should we think about the Scheduling Argument today? I would like to make three points.
The first is that we need to be humble enough to listen to what the other school's arguments intend.The intention of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin in preaching the schedule from the Bible is to thoroughly reject self-salvationism in salvation and to praise the glory of God's grace.This was Paul's intention in Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 in preaching the schedule.On the other hand, the intention of the Arminian school in insisting that minimal human free will remains is the concern that an overemphasis on God's sovereign election may result in making God the author of sin and neglecting human freedom before God and responsibility to respond to God.
The second is that the designation “semi-Pelagianism,” which has been used for many years, is a label for the negative image of Arminianism by the Calvinist side, and that, in fact, if one reads the claims and sermons of the Arminianists, it would be more appropriate to call it “semi-Augustinianism”This is to say.This is because Arminianists also place considerable emphasis on grace.John Wesley, who is considered an Arminian, claimed that “the ‘one great and fundamental difference between Christianity as a system of doctrine and the most refined paganism’ is whether or not it recognizes the fall and total corruption of man” [ Sermon #44, Original Sin, iii. 1-5, Mitsuru Fujimoto, Wesley'sTheology of Wesleyanism,” in Evangelical Literature Publishing Society, p. 132]. The pagan authors, he points out, know about various human vices, but they never admit the total corruption of man. So what is the difference between Wesley's Calvinism and Calvinism? Wesley says that sinners in total corruption can be converted because “grace, which leads to salvation, extends to the whole human race because of the atonement of the cross of Christ [ Fujimoto ibid. p161],” but “grace precedes and takes the initiative but does not force; it precedes but does not pre-ordain; it precedes but does not pre-ordain. It is possible to accept grace and make active use of it, or, on the contrary, to ignore it and reject it [Fujimoto, ibid. p. 161]. In this respect, it differs from Calvinism, which believes that God's grace is irresistible.
Third, I propose that the difference between the two views on the subject of predestination can be explained in terms of differences in perspective. Calvinists see things from the heavenly perspective of God's sovereign plan, while Arminians see things from the earthly perspective of the actual evangelistic and pastoral work on earth. From a heavenly perspective, God's election and salvation are certainly immutable. The conversion of one chosen person to become a Christian does not end with that person alone, but is connected like a chain through which the conversion of another person occurs, a Christian home is born, and the descendants of that person are born. If God's chosen person resists God's grace and can perish without conversion, then if that person is converted, those who should be saved will not be saved, Christian homes will not be born, some will not even be born, and so on in a chain ...... In this way, God's plan or election is effectively nonexistent. This is clearly unbiblical. From a heavenly perspective, God's plan and election are perfect and unchanging. The proof scriptures are listed below. The Scriptural evidence is that “God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him, so that we might be holy and without blemish before him. For God has predestined us in love to become his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1.4-5) The Lord Jesus also said, “I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man take them out of my hand. (Matthew 5:16) And the Lord Jesus said, “I will give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; and no one shall take them out of my hand. No one can take them out of my Father's hand.” (John 10.28-30). This affirmation of the Lord Jesus is a sure basis for the saints' perseverance.
On the other hand, from the perspective of evangelism on the ground, a pastor who makes every effort to preach the gospel will probably receive more converts than a pastor who does nothing but roadside evangelism, document evangelism, personal evangelism, and the like. In earthly churches, we have also seen unfortunate cases where people who were so passionate about their faith have stopped coming to church and have left the world while denying their confession of faith. In the Bible, from the perspective of evangelism, pastoral care, and life of faith on earth, there are countless words, especially in the epistles, that urge unbelievers to repent, encourage them, and warn them. These are words that appeal to the human will and force a decision. Let me give you just one example. Once they have been illuminated, once they have tasted the heavenly gifts, once they have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, once they have tasted the wonderful Word of God and the power of the world to come, and then they fall away, there is no turning them back to repentance again. For they are the ones who will crucify and expose the Son of God once again by themselves.” (Hebrews 6.4-6) These words seem to contradict the words of the Lord Jesus quoted earlier (John 10.28-30), but this is the difference between a heavenly perspective and an earthly perspective. From a heavenly perspective, the struggles of the evangelists on earth, the conversion of people, the interference of the devil, and the stumbling of believers are all part of God's plan.
This should be considered in Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus, who was truly God but took on true humanity, had both the heavenly/eternal perspective and the earthly/temporal perspective in their perfect form. The Lord Jesus was the Father's plan for Himself.
We should consider this in Christ Himself.The Lord Jesus, who was truly God but took on true humanity, had both a heavenly/eternal perspective and an earthly/temporal perspective in perfect form.The Lord Jesus foretold at least three times that He would be handed over to His enemies and executed according to the plan of God the Father, but that He would rise on the third day.“Then Jesus began to teach His disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be abandoned by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and after three days [sic] rise [sic] [/sic].”(Mark 8.31).The expression “must” (rarity: dei) is used in the New Testament to express the certainty of God's plan.In the Garden of Gethsemane, however, the Lord Jesus said, “Abba, Father, you are able to do anything.Please take this cup away from me.But may it be done not as I desire, but as Thou desirest” (Mark 14.35).(Mark 14.35) He prayed for several hours with sweat pouring like drops of blood.Confident of the Father's unfailing plan, the Lord Jesus willingly offered Himself, struggling with the mission that the Father had given Him [ see Chapter 12, Chapter 2, “The Two Persons of Christ,” in this book].[see Chapter XII, 2, “The Two Persons of Christ” in this book].The Lord Jesus' words of lamentation concerning the betrayal of Judas Iscariot are also striking in their interplay of heavenly and earthly perspectives.He said, “The Son of Man goes away, just as it is written about Him.But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man.Such a one should never have been born.”(Mark 14.21) The certainty of God's sovereign plan and man's free will and responsibility are beyond our logic, but we should accept both as fact because they are the Lord's words.We do not become God just because we believe in Christ, but as those who have been allowed a glimpse of God's eternal plan through the Bible, we are to live as those who have been placed in time, struggling and willfully offering ourselves to God, praising the glory of the grace revealed in His sovereign election.When the apostle Paul was escorted by ship to Rome as an unconvicted prisoner, the ship was once caught in a storm and drifted through the Adriatic Sea.At that time, the Lord gave Paul a revelation that “not a hair” of the ship's crew would be lost.But later, the sailors were almost held back from running away, and when the ship ran aground, those who could swim were encouraged to swim and those who could not swim to hold on to planks and go to shore, and the people swam to shore in desperation (see Acts 27.23-44).God's unwavering promise is thus fulfilled.
From an Arminian perspective, it would be tempting to criticize Reformed theology for denying human free will and teaching determinism, which makes God the author of sin, but in fact, this is not the case.The Westminster Confession of Faith confesses in chapter 3, verse 1, the eternal sanctification of God as follows.
“God, from all eternity, by the wisest and most wise plan of his own will, hath freely and immutably ordained whatsoever things shall come to be, that he may not be the author of sin, nor violence be done to the will of his creatures, nor the liberty or accident of the second cause be taken away, but rather. so that it may be established.” (Translation by the Committee of the Christian Reformed Church of Japan)
As one can see, this confession does not rationally explain the relationship between God's plan and human free will.It is simply a confession of what the Bible teaches in both cases, as it is, though it cannot explain it.
For the positive significance of what the Bible says about the doctrine of predestination, please refer to Chapter 14, Section 3 of this book.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
