At the aomin.org blog site, the following is a primer on the two perennial branches of theological systems in Christianity. Or to put it another way, there are two very different ways for believers to view how their salvation was brought about.
In general, the first type (the Arminian-Synergist) affirms what is called “synergism.” Synergists believe that two forces in the universe are necessary to bring about regeneration in the life of the sinner. In specifics, the two forces at work (cooperation) that are necessary to bring about regeneration, or spiritual life, is the will of man and the Holy Spirit (grace).
To put it another way, the work of the Holy Spirit is dependent on the creature’s will, hence, “synergism” (working together). Synergists will sincerely say, “I believe in grace alone.” But in reality, they believe that grace is not alone (sufficient), but that man’s will is necessary for regeneration to be effective.
It could be said that synergists are “functional” Arminians because even though some will deny the label, their theology functions synergistically (thus, how they identify themselves is inconsistent with what they teach and believe).
The second group of believers (the Calvinist-Monergist) affirm what is called “monergism.” Monergists believe that there is only one force in the universe (grace alone) that brings about regeneration in the life of the sinner. In specifics, because of the deadness of man’s spiritual state, his moral inability, the Holy Spirit performs the miracle of spiritual resurrection (regeneration) in that person, hence, “monergism” (one work). Grace is sufficient to be effective, and does not depend on some action of man.
In other words, the Holy Spirit does not merely whisper in the hardened sinner’s ear, hoping that the rebel sinner will “cooperate”; rather, while the sinner is in a state of hardness and rebellion, the Holy Spirit penetrates in the will of man and performs the miracle of spiritual life (regeneration). That is grace alone. Faith does not precede regeneration, regeneration precedes faith.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. John 8:47
Arminians cannot affirm monergism (grace alone); they must always have the creature’s will as the final determiner of their destiny, not God. Inconsistently, Arminians pray (without knowingly) Calvinisticly, “God, change my unbelieving relative’s heart.” I have never heard them pray, “God, only whisper in my relative’s ear, but don’t change their heart unless you’ve been given permission.” In contrast, the Calvinist prays and affirms biblical truth consistently.
Hello John,
“In general, the first type (the Arminian-Synergist) affirms what is called “synergism.” Synergists believe that two forces in the universe are necessary to bring about regeneration in the life of the sinner. In specifics, the two forces at work (cooperation) that are necessary to bring about regeneration, or spiritual life, is the will of man and the Holy Spirit (grace).”
Could you site references of actual original sources, that would back your above statement..
Russ,
The very essense of synergism is that the actions of more than one party is necessary to bring about regeneration. http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/whatismonergism2.html
I guess what I’m looking for which was not contained in your link was actual quoting from actual Arminian resources (i.e. perhaps Arminius himself, the remonstrants, the pre and post Nicene fathers, etc.)
Arminians believe that apart from God’s prevenient grace, a sinner will not seek for God. So salvation is always initiated by God. It’s not a matter our will cooperating with God, but rather choice being granted, which is required for genuine love to exist.
So in light of the following comment:
“Synergists believe that two forces in the universe are necessary to bring about regeneration in the life of the sinner. In specifics, the two forces at work (cooperation) that are necessary to bring about regeneration, or spiritual life, is the will of man and the Holy Spirit (grace).”
We would have to disagree with your conclusion, we don’t believe that our will is a force in salvation, but rather salvation is all of God, Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that the gift of salvation is received by faith. God doesn’t force us to repent and believe.
I did not write the original article so would not defend the author’s use of words, but the concept he outlines is certainly biblical. Sadly, your use of the word “force” is not in any way helpful as no one I know of who believes in monergistic regeneration believes God “forces” people to love Him. When God intervenes in the life of a person to open their heart, taking out a heart of STONE and putting in a heart of flesh (to use Old Testament language) and to allow the blind to see the beauty of the glory of Christ so that they WILLINGLY come to Christ – to call that “forced” love is an extremely unhelpful and pejorative term and misses the mark completely.
A synergist does not believe that God regenerates the heart of a man unless man cooperates with Him. That is the essence of synergism – two parties at work to cause a result. “Force” is a bad word to use but in your scheme, the will of man is still the deciding factor, for unless man does his part in exercising his will, regeneration does not take place.. something that John 1:12,13 makes clear is NOT how we are born of God. You believe man with a hostile nature to God actually WANTS Christ and the gospel and will ask for a new heart, while still possessing one that is at emnity with Him. Romans 8;7,8 teaches that man, in the flesh (without the Spirit) CANNOT submit to God or His law.
John
“Sadly, your use of the word “force” is not in any way helpful as no one I know of who believes in monergistic regeneration believes God “forces” people to love Him.” I have never met a monergist that admitted to that either. Force, coreirce, eitherway, the gift of salvation in the calvinist model has no option to receive the gift or not receive the gift, thus why you have to redefine what the word gift means. Synergists believe that a decision must be made once enabled by God’s Grace first. How is a decision
Arminians do believe that prevenient grace enables the sinner to receive or reject it. Just like any present you ever received in your life time, you have the option to receive or reject it. Where I can agree with you is that God mades the gift very appealing.
John 1:12-13 makes it clear that those who receive Him and believed, exactly my point. Notice 13 follows 12, naturally. In other words those who received and believed, were then born again, by God. Verses 7-9 read very clearly Jesus’s purpose to save all men that would believe in Him
7He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
9There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man
God is the recreator not man, but man must believe in Christ for that to happen. Just as you would reach out your hands to receive a gift someone gave you must reach out and lay hold(faith are our hands) of the Gospel.
Russ,
Two quotes from R. C. Sproul: The first concerning the concept of prevenient grace:
As the name suggests, prevenient grace is grace that comes before something. It is normally defined as a work that God does for everybody. He gives all people enough grace to respond to Jesus. That is, it is enough grace to make it possible for people to choose Christ. Those who cooperate with and assent to this grace are elect. Those who refuse to cooperate with this grace are lost. The strength of this view is that it recognizes that fallen man’s spiritual condition is severe enough that it requires God’s grace to save him. The weakness of the position may be seen in two ways. If this prevenient grace is merely external to man, then it fails in the same manner that the medicine and the life preserver analogies fail. What good is prevenient grace if offered outwardly to spiritually dead creatures?
On the other hand, if prevenient grace refers to something that God does within the heart of fallen man, then we must ask why it is not always effectual. Why is it that some fallen creatures choose to cooperate with prevenient grace and others choose not to? Doesn’t everyone get the same amount?
Think of it this way, in personal terms. If you are a Christian you are surely aware of other people who are not Christians. Why is it that you have chosen Christ and they have not? Why did you say yes to prevenient grace while they said no? Was it because you were more righteous than they were? If so, then indeed you have something in which to boast. Was that greater righteousness something you achieved on your own or was it the gift of God? If it was something you achieved, then at the bottom line your salvation depends on your own righteousness. If the righteousness was a gift, then why didn’t God give the same gift to everybody?
Perhaps it wasn’t because you were more righteous. Perhaps it was because you are more intelligent. Why are you more intelligent? Because you study more (which really means you are more righteous)? Or are you more intelligent because God gave you a gift of intelligence he withheld from others?
To be sure, most Christians who hold to the prevenient grace view would shrink from such answers. They see the implied arrogance in them. Rather they are more likely to say, No, I chose Christ because I recognized my desperate need for him. That certainly sounds more humble. But I must press the question. Why did you recognize your desperate need for Christ while your neighbor didn’t? Was it because you were more righteous than your neighbor, or more intelligent?
The question for advocates of prevenient grace is why some people cooperate with it and others don’t. How we answer that will reveal how gracious we believe our salvation really is. The $64,000 question is, Does the Bible teach such a doctrine of prevenient grace? If so, where?
We conclude that our salvation is of the Lord. He is the One who regenerates us. Those whom he regenerates come to Christ. Without regeneration no one will ever come to Christ. With regeneration no one will ever reject him. God’s saving grace effects what he intends to effect by it.
[R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God. Tyndale House Publishers: Wheaton, Ill.]
The second quote:
The biggest question any semi-Pelagian or Arminian has to face at the practical level is this: Why did I choose to believe the gospel and commit my life to Christ when my neighbor, who heard the same gospel, chose to reject it? That question has been answered in many ways. We might speculate that the reason why one person chooses to respond positively to the gospel and to Christ, while another one doesn’t, is because the person who responded positively was more intelligent than the other one. If that were the case, then God would still be the ultimate provider of salvation because the intelligence is His gift, and it could be explained that God did not give the same intelligence to the neighbor who rejected the gospel. But that explanation is obviously absurd.
The other possibility that one must consider is this: that the reason one person responds positively to the gospel and his neighbor does not is because the one who responded was a better person. That is, that person who made the right choice and the good choice did it because he was more righteous than his neighbor. In this case, the flesh not only availed something, it availed everything. This is the view that is held by the majority of evangelical Christians, namely, the reason why they are saved and others are not is that they made the right response to God’s grace while the others made the wrong response.
We can talk here about not only the correct response as opposed to an erroneous response, but we can speak in terms of a good response rather than a bad response. If I am in the kingdom of God because I made the good response rather than the bad response, I have something of which to boast, namely the goodness by which I responded to the grace of God. I have never met an Arminian who would answer the question that I’ve just posed by saying, “Oh, the reason I’m a believer is because I’m better than my neighbor.” They would be loath to say that. However, though they reject this implication, the logic of semi-Pelagianism requires this conclusion. If indeed in the final analysis the reason I’m a Christian and someone else is not is that I made the proper response to God’s offer of salvation while somebody else rejected it, then by resistless logic I have indeed made the good response, and my neighbor has made the bad response.
What Reformed theology teaches is that it is true the believer makes the right response and the non-believer makes the wrong response. But the reason the believer makes the good response is because God in His sovereign election changes the disposition of the heart of the elect to effect a good response. I can take no credit for the response that I made for Christ. God not only initiated my salvation, He not only sowed the seed, but He made sure that that seed germinated in my heart by regenerating me by the power of the Holy Ghost. That regeneration is a necessary condition for the seed to take root and to flourish. That’s why at the heart of Reformed theology the axiom resounds, namely, that regeneration precedes faith. It’s that formula, that order of salvation that all semi-Pelagians reject. They hold to the idea that in their fallen condition of spiritual death, they exercise faith, and then are born again. In their view, they respond to the gospel before the Spirit has changed the disposition of their soul to bring them to faith. When that happens, the glory of God is shared. No semi-Pelagian can ever say with authenticity: “To God alone be the glory.” For the semi-Pelagian, God may be gracious, but in addition to God’s grace, my work of response is absolutely essential. Here grace is not effectual, and such grace, in the final analysis, is not really saving grace. In fact, salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Yes, I must believe. Yes, I must respond. Yes, I must receive Christ. But for me to say “yes” to any of those things, my heart must first be changed by the sovereign, effectual power of God the Holy Spirit. Soli Deo gloria.
– R. C. Sproul, Grace Alone
Hello John, did I say something in the post that you removed that was unloving, or sinful, that you decided to remove it altogether?