The Jacobus Arminius Heresy

I certify, at the outset of this post, that the gospel that I teach on this blog is not from man. Because I neither received it from any man, neither was I taught it by any man; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Arminianism, or, the "Arminian gospel,"as I say (in order to specify that I am referring to his gospel, and not to any of the other numerous doctrines he taught), is the gospel as first prominently promoted by Jacobus Arminius. This is the gospel, dear Christian reader, that you know and believe, unless you are a Calvinist. The Arminian gospel is the gospel taught by essentially every Christian denomination. Interestingly, it is also not substantively different from the gospel as taught by the Catholic Church. The central point of Arminianism is that human beings are not justified/saved/redeemed/born again until and unless they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is not correct (as clearly demonstrated by Paul in Romans 2.14-16, and John 3.3-8), and I am exercising restraint in simply saying that it is not correct. So let me be more clear about the matter. The Arminian gospel is blasphemous heresy. The Arminian gospel claims that one cannot bear good fruit or shine a light in the world without accepting Christ. This is clearly not true, and not consistent with the everlasting gospel. Arminianism is not the everlasting gospel. Notice that, logically, Arminianism makes man into his own Savior. This is unavoidable no matter how hard you want to try, as the only difference between one man and another, within the Arminian viewpoint, has to do with choices and actions taken by the man. This means that man saves himself by agreeing with the good advice and taking action on it. He can then boast about himself as compared to those who have not heard, understood, and acted on the good advice. Arminianism is what the SDA church currently teaches, and it is what pretty much all of Christendom teaches. It is NOT the true and everlasting gospel. The Arminian gospel is not good news, it’s good advice. While if one takes a very gracious view of Arminianism, one can indeed say that it is very very good advice, nevertheless, it is not good news. The everlasting gospel is without question good news! The good news is that all of humanity has been redeemed! This is what Romans 5.18 is speaking of very clearly. This is given to all men, the light that lighted all men (John1.9). Redemption is not different for those who don’t know Christ as compared to those who eventually do come to know Christ. All human beings have the new birth/quickening/redemption as a birthright delivered to them, without their knowledge or consent, and before they even have use of reason.

I will close by pointing out that my emphasis in everything I have said previously in this post about the gospel, is on elucidating the everlasting gospel, and is not on elucidating the process of sanctification which involves ever-increasing compliance with the law of God. The startling liberality of the true everlasting gospel should not lead anyone to fears regarding increased sinning so that grace might abound, as such ideas are diametrically opposed to the very core of the gospel, which is that redemption is given for the purpose of eventual entire restoration (Eph 4.13). The everlasting gospel is a doctrine distinct from the doctrine of the law and sanctification. Of course these two dontrines inextricably and beautifully intertwined. But they should not be spoken of as if they were one and the same thing. The good news is the good news, not the good advice. Keeping the law is good advice. Indeed keeping the law is very good advice. But when we are attempting to clarify the one and only true everlasting gospel, which has never before been taught in modern times, we should be very careful to distinguish it from the fulfillment of the law in us. The fulfillment of the law in us is a beautiful and necessary thing, but it is not the gospel. In fact, without the understanding of the true everlasting gospel, the fulfillment of the law in us becomes a very questionable affair.

In The Kingdom of God Embassy, September 13, 2023 - with apologies to Thomas Jefferson, et. al.!

The Unanimous Declaration of the members of the Kingdom of God Embassy, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the religious bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the ecclesias of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Jehovah entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that God is One being, and that His name is Jehovah. That He is not a mystical illogical self-contradicting three in one monstrosity, but is simply One Being, and there is none beside Him! That Jesus Christ is a man, and not a second god (though he has now been glorified and set at the right hand of the Father's Throne!). That Jesus is God's son precisely because Jehovah miraculously brought about his conception and birth. That Jesus being fully and only human is absolutely the only way in which his perfect life, sufferings, death, and resurrection is of any usefulness to the rest of humanity and to Jehovah in His Supreme Court of the Universe. That the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jehovah, and is not a separate god. That it is also a reference to the spirit of Christ, and that the context of the passage will clarify whose spirit is being referred to. That the Law of Jehovah is the eternal manifestation of His Person, and that Christ has perfectly fulfilled His Law and is therefore our perfect personification of The Law of God. That by allowing Jehovah and Jesus to transform our spirits so that we are in perfect harmony with the mind of Christ, we can thereby perfectly fulfill God's Law in our own lives. That all followers of Jehovah and of His son will themselves keep, and will teach others to keep all of His Commandments, not just the ones that are convenient for them. That the Everlasting Gospel includes the fact that Christ, the second Adam, has redeemed all mankind, without their foreknowledge or consent, and has thereby overruled the condemnation they received, without their foreknowledge or consent, from the first Adam. That the Everlasting Gospel also includes, as a central emphasis, the soon coming of Jehovah, with Christ at His right hand, to establish His Kingdom among men forevermore! 

That all men are sovereign over their own consciences, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are liberty and the pursuit of God in the manner in which their conscience constrains them. That to secure these rights, ecclesias are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the Word of Jehovah.  That whenever any ecclesia becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, or leave it, and to institute a new ecclesia, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. That this Foundation can be nothing other than the Word of Jehovah. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that ecclesias long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that christians are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of doctrinal and ecclesiastical errors, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a ecclesia, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these present ambassadors of the kingdom of God; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of ecclesia. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Kingdom of God Embassy, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority Jehovah has granted to us, as to every man, solemnly publish and declare, that the Kingdom of God Embassy is, and of right ought to be a free and independent ecclesia. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to Jehovah our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.