AG STUDY GUIDE FINAL - The Forerunner

“Arminianism is ‘natural’ in one sense, in that it represents a characteristic
perversion of Biblical teaching by the fallen mind of man.” ~ J. I. Packer
As we saw earlier, the Synod of Dort sat for six months. After reviewing the written
protests and hearing the arguments, they declared the teaching of Arminius and his
followers out of accord with the Bible and the confessions of the Dutch church. In fact,
they went so far as to label the Remonstrants and their doctrines as a form of the
Pelagian heresy, a label modern Arminians reject as both unfair and unduly harsh.
But was it unfair? First it needs to be understood that as the men who condemned the
Arminian Remonstrants looked across the doctrinal divide they, at times, found
themselves staring into the eyes of men whom they loved and with whom they had
labored. Pastors, professors, students, fathers and sons came down on opposite sides of
the theological fence. The final decision by the Synod of Dort was not made in haste, nor
were the Calvinists filled with joy in seeing the Arminians condemned for teaching
error, at best, and heresy, at worst. Repentance was their lofty goal. But as Martin
Luther had declared just a century earlier, their thoughts were captive to the Word of
God. When it came to the Gospel, family and friendships were laid aside.
“My conscience has been taken captive by the Word of God.” ~ Martin Luther
Second, there’s no getting around the fact that the Arminian controversy marked the
beginning of liberalism in the modern church. The issue of how a sinner is justified, as
serious as that was, was simply the symptom of a greater disease – the disease of
unbelief that bore itself out in the years following the Synod of Dort.
Dr. Thomas Nettles – The doctrines of grace serve as a conserving factor for those
central orthodox and evangelical doctrines that all true Christians hold dear. The
doctrine of the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the necessity of salvation, the doctrine of
the necessity of the atonement, the doctrine of justification by faith, the inspiration of the
Scripture – all of these things have a much more secure and solid foundation on the
doctrines of grace.
Dr. Philip Schaff confirmed this observation when he wrote:
“…Calvinism represented the consistent, logical, conservative orthodoxy;
Arminianism an elastic, progressive, changing liberalism.” ~ Philip Schaff, The
Creeds of Christendom, p. 509
But the ultimate reason that the Synod of Dort labeled the Remonstrants as being
184