The Churches of Christ Are Not Arminian

Labels are a useful tool in facilitating conversation. It makes conversation more efficient and quicker so that we can get to the point without long, repetition of things most folks in a conversation already know to be true. However, labels can also become a problem when they are misunderstood or misapplied. They become a tool of dismissal, a way to avoid having to deal with points of contention or differences in a meaningful way. Calling someone a Pelagian or an Arminian or a Calvinist might facilitate conversation if those labels are true and accepted by the person being labeled as such, but if they are not, then further conversation should be had and an appropriate label agreed upon by both parties.
Below is a definition of Arminianism based on the 5 Articles of Remonstration. The label itself comes from a Dutch Reformed teacher named James (Jacobus) Arminius who challenged John Calvin. Arminius died in 1609, but one of his followers, Simon Episcopius, took up leadership of the cause and wrote down these five beliefs to mirror the TULIP of Calvinism while demonstrating the difference between. 
==TULIP - Calvinism Reference==
Briefly, here is the TULIP of Calvinism explained for reference:
T - Total Hereditary Depravity - Due to Adam's sin, all men inherit from Adam a state of total depravity. This means that every action they take, every thought they have, is corrupted with evil so that even if an action appears to be good, it is actually evil because of that corruption. Even children in the womb bear this corruption and are thus subject to the wrath of God.
U - Unconditional Election - God chose in eternity past whom He would save without any conditions based on thoughts or actions of any individual at any time. It was God's will alone that determined who would be saved.
L - Limited Atonement - Jesus only died for those whom God had already elected, not for all mankind, thus Jesus did not die for all, nor can all men be saved.
I - Irresistible Grace - If God determined you to be one of the elect, there is no thought or action on your part that can prevent you from being saved.
P - Perseverance of the Saints - If God determined you to be one of the elect, one of the saved, once you are saved, there is no thought or action on your part that can change your state to not-saved.
I will order the five articles below to match TULIP but I will leave the Article Numbers as given in the original document for reference.
==The Five Articles of the Remonstrants, 1610==
These articles and a more lengthy, thorough introduction can be found here.
===Article 3. ===
====[Deprivation - corresponds to the first of TULIP’s five points, Total Depravity]====
That man does not posses saving grace of himself, nor of the energy of his free will, inasmuch as in his state of apostasy and sin he can of and by himself neither think, will, nor do any thing that is truly good (such as saving Faith eminently is); but that it is necessary that he be born again of God in Christ, through his Holy Spirit, and renewed in understanding, inclination, and will, and all his faculties, in order that he may rightly understand, think, will, and effect what is truly good, according to the Word of Christ, John 15:5, “Without me you can do nothing.”
===Article 1.===
====[Conditional Election - corresponds to the second of TULIP’s five points, Unconditional Election]====
That God, by an eternal and unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ his Son before the foundation of the world, has determined that out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save in Christ, for Christ’s sake, and through Christ, those who through the grace of the Holy Spirit shall believe on this his son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace, even to the end; and, on the other hand, to leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath and to condemn them as alienated from Christ, according to the word of the Gospel in John 3:36: “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that does not believe the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him,” and according to other passages of Scripture also.
===Article 2.===
====[Unlimited Atonement - corresponds to the third of TULIP’s five points, Limited Atonement]====
That, accordingly, Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemption and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins except the believer, according to the word of the Gospel of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  And in the First Epistle of John 2:2: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
=== Article 4.===
====[Resistible Grace - corresponds to the fourth of TULIP’s five points, Irresistible Grace]====
That this grace of God is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of all good, even to the extent that the regenerate man himself, without prevenient or assisting, awakening, following and cooperative grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil; so that all good deeds or movements that can be conceived must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. But with respect to the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible, since it is written concerning many, that they have resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7, and elsewhere in many places).
===Article 5.===
====[Assurance and Security - corresponds to the fifth of TULIP’s five points, Perseverance of the Saints]====
That those who are incorporated into Christ by true faith, and have thereby become partakers of his life-giving Spirit, as a result have full power to strive against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and to win the victory; it being well understood that it is ever through the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit; and that Jesus Christ assists them through his Spirit in all temptations, extends to them his hand, and if only they are ready for the conflict, desire his help, and are not inactive, keeps them from falling, so that they, by no deceit or power of Satan, can be misled nor plucked out of Christ’s hands, according to the Word of Christ, John 10:28: “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” But whether they are capable, through negligence, of forsaking again the first beginning of their life in Christ, of again returning to this present evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of losing a good conscience, of neglecting grace, that must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full confidence of our mind.
These Articles, thus set forth and taught, the Remonstrants deem agreeable to the Word of God, tending to edification, and, as regards this argument, sufficient for salvation, so that it is not necessary or edifying to rise higher or to descend deeper.
===="The Articles of the Remonstrants" are adapted from Phillip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 3, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 1996, pp 545ff. ====
==What the Churches of Christ Believe==
The following will line up with the TULIP acronym and the Articles of Remonstration in the order listed above. The purpose of this section is to show that, while we do have some commonality with the Arminian systematic, we do not share all of them (and none with Calvinism) so that the Arminian label should not be applied to the churches of Christ. 
#Hereditary Depravity - The churches of Christ reject all forms of hereditary depravity. Man is conceived and born in a sinless state so, while he cannot save himself, he is in a safe state until he becomes morally accountable for his actions, then chooses to sin, and is thus lost/spiritually dead (Rom 7:9; Deut 1:39; Num 14:27). We believe that thoughts and actions are intrinsically morally good or evil and thus evil men may have good thoughts and actions and good men may have evil thoughts and actions. To the point, men who have sinned and are in a lost, spiritually dead state, can and even must come to faith in Christ Jesus (John 1:12), repent of those sins (2 Corinthians 7:10), and confess Christ as the Son of God (Romans 10:9-10), before they can be saved in baptism (1 Peter 3:21; Romans 6:3-18).
# Conditional Election - For those who are lost, the churches of Christ generally agree with this article. God elects those in Christ and it is through our free will that we read the Bible God has provided for us, understand it, and respond positively to it by obeying the gospel plan of salvation. Where we disagree is what all is necessary to be in Christ.
#Unlimited Atonement - Again, the churches of Christ agree with the main point here. Jesus died to provide atonement for all individual humans regardless of initial or final state. Where we disagree is on how people access that state. The Arminians officially believe this is through sola fide, that is, faith alone. The churches of Christ believe the plan is a bit more lengthy than that, but that is for another article.
#Resistible Grace - It may surprise you to find out that the churches of Christ disagree with this one. Yet it is not for the reason you might think. We certainly disagree with the Calvinist that the grace of God is irresistible. We can certainly resist God's grace at any time, saved or not. The reason we would disagree with the Arminian Article 4 here is because of how they define grace. They speak of terms like "prevenient" grace or "cooperative" grace turning the grace of God into some kind of Star Wars "The Force" or some kind of direct action by God on mankind. In the Arminian mind, God must directly operate on a person, regenerate them to a moderate, but not complete, extent to allow them to understand the gospel just enough for God to regenerate them the rest of the way. Not only is this idea super clunky and more of a response to Calvinism than anything, it's not found in scripture. The reason is because Arminians, like so many others, do not understand what God's grace is.
::
::God's grace is simply the plan of salvation: Christ and the New Testament. The church of Christ does not hold to things like prevenient or cooperative grace. God's grace is God acting alone while men were yet sinners. God's grace is the sending of His Son into the world, to live as He lived, die, be buried, and rise again, and all the teachings of the New Testament that accompany those actions by Christ.
::
::Man, created in God's image, has the capacity to respond positively within himself as part of that design to the gospel message, to turn from his master of sin and towards God being convinced of the gospel (Rom 6:16). God took the first step in sending His Son and revealing the New Testament to us. We are commanded to take the next steps as outlined in scripture. That is obedient, living faith, and it requires no direct, supernatural operation of God to bring us to the point of regeneration. It is when we get down in the water that God again operates on us (Colossians 2:11-13), applying the blood of Christ that washes away our sins (Revelation 1:5; Acts 22:16; 1 John 5:6-8)5.
::
::5. Assurance and Security - similar to point 4 above, the churches of Christ have some agreement, but because of the misunderstanding of the nature of grace, we disagree with the details. We do believe that Christians must remain faithful, abiding in Jesus (John 15:6) and can forsake their salvation (1 John 1:6-7) and be damned unless converted (James 5:19-20). We do believe that it is through staying in the word, walking in the light, that we are continually cleansed and kept from sin and death, assured of our salvation as long as we do so (1 John 1:7). Again, this requires no direct, supernatural aid on the part of the Holy Spirit. God's design at the beginning of time is sufficient to empower us to make those choices either way, and His Son's work and His word are sufficient to provide all we need to make an informed choice. There is assurance in that we know that God keeps His promises. If we are faithful, we know we have a home in Heaven. There is security in knowing that as long as I remain in Christ, nothing outside of Christ is stronger and can remove me from Him against my will. But assurance and security do not mean I can't leave the safety of the arms of Jesus. If I don't want to be in a relationship with Him any more, He does not force me to be. He will let me go, the way that the father in the story of the prodigal son let him go, all the while longing for the son to return.
== Conclusion ==
In conclusion, while the beliefs of the churches of Christ crossover somewhat with Arminianism, we cannot be properly labeled as Arminian. We are on the far side of Arminianism (and even Provisionism) away from Calvinism, as far as the east is from the west.
Having read this article, to continue to label the churches of Christ as Arminian is just willful mischaracterization of our faith.
In Truth and Love.
Category:Denominationalism