Calvinism and Arminianism

SOVEREIGNTY, FREEWILL AND SALVATION
PROF. M. M. NINAN
no one would build a house or have children or engage in commerce. This is why, according
to the Midrash, Scripture says: ‘And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it
was very good’ (Genesis 1: 31). ‘Good’ refers to the ‘good inclination’, ‘very good’ to the
‘evil inclination’. It is not too far-fetched to read into this homily the idea that life without
the driving force of the ‘evil inclination’ would no doubt still be good but it would be a
colourless, uncreative, pallid kind of good. That which makes life ‘very good’ is the human
capacity to struggle against the environment and this is impossible without egotistic as well
as altruistic, aggressive as well as peaceful, instincts.
The Rabbinic view is, then, realistic. Human beings are engaged in a constant struggle
against their propensity for evil but if they so desire they can keep it under control. The
means of control are provided by Law: the Torah and the precepts. One of the most
remarkable Rabbinic passages in this connection states that the Torah is the antidote to the
poison of the ‘evil inclination’ (Kiddushin 30b). The meaning appears to be that when the
Torah is studied and when there is submission to its discipline, morbid guilt-feelings are
banished and life is no longer clouded by the fear that the ‘evil inclination’ will bring about
one's ruination. It follows that for the Rabbis the struggle against the ‘evil inclination’ is
never-ending in this life. Nowhere in the Rabbinic literature is there the faintest suggestion
that it is possible for humans permanently to destroy the ‘evil inclination’ in this life. For
the Rabbis, the true hero is, as stated in Ethics of the Fathers (4. 1), one who ‘subdues’ his
‘evil inclination’, one who exercises severe self-control, refusing to yield to temptation. It is
not given to anyone actually to slay the ‘evil inclination’. Nor are there references in the
Rabbinic literature to the idea, prevalent in the Jewish mystical and moralistic literatures, of
‘breaking the evil inclination’.
Both inclinations are necessary for the proper functioning of human society just as each
organ need to function the part assigned to the organ diligently without being a cancer
growth. Adam’s sin was to be like God while yet a child. This cancer caused pain. It
created hell. Father provides a solution which includes a shorter life, till the problem is
solved at the cross.
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