We will continue to look at what some main figures in the history of the Church thought of Arminian theology. We are presently examining to some degree what John Owen thought. We will think through some of the points that Owen makes in his A Display of Arminianism. Owen starts with a few thoughts on how the depravity of man influences or perverts man’s ability to think and interpret divine truth. He says that man is corrupted by nature and darkened by a mist of ignorance “whereby he is disenabled for the comprehending of divine truth.” He “is also armed with prejudice and opposition.” We know that Scripture teaches us that man is at enmity with God and even hates Him (James 4:4; I John 2:15-16). Scripture also teaches that man loves himself and is centered upon himself rather than God in his fallen condition. It is no wonder, then, that the fallen mind is at war with God and the revelation of God regarding His sovereignty and character.
“As a desire of self-sufficiency was the first cause of this infirmity, so a conceit thereof is that wherewith he still languisheth; nothing doth he more contend for than an independency of any supreme power, which might either help, hinder, or control him in his actions.” He goes on to apply that with these words: “All which wrangling disputes of carnal reason against the word of God come at last to this head, whether the first and chiefest part, in disposing of things in this world, ought to be ascribed to God or man?” To attain his own preeminence man will declare God to be unjust, unequal and unfair. “Never did any man more eagerly endeavour the erecting of this Babel than the Arminians, the modern blinded patrons of human self-sufficiency.”
What Owen does, then, is get right to the key issues at hand. Who is supreme, sufficient and preeminent? Is it God or man? He rightly sees this as a battle over who is truly in control. Scripture reveals God is supreme in all matters. Scripture reveals God as the only sufficient One. Scripture reveals God as the preeminent One. However, man wants to retain control and so argues that if these things are true then God is unjust and unfair. It is at this point that we can see the enmity of the heart of man against the true and living God. Man is at war with God in this area and all other areas as well. This enmity and war is seen by the erecting of the idol of evolution in order to wrest the hand of God from man’s origin and as the sustaining power behind man’s existence. In the realm of religion God has been relegated to little better than a puppet because He is at the bequest and control of man as long as man does his performed duties and rites. In other religious circles God is still mostly in control in most cases but man has retained his free-will and that keeps God at arms distance and allows man to retain some control. But all of it is an effort to maintain some self-sufficiency for man and deny the rights of God in certain ways.
We simply must see that theology is done by the utter heathen in the darkest places of the world and it is also done in the seminaries. Each and every aspect of theology will always reflect something of the character of God. One cannot come up with a doctrine that does not reflect the view of God that the holder of the doctrine has. Yet all doctrine is believed, whether consciously or not, in a way that either holds God to be supreme and all-sufficient or man as sufficient in some areas. All doctrine is developed with God as the center of it or with man trying to limit God in some way to allow for man’s own freedom. All doctrines are developed and believed with greater or lesser degrees of the influence of man’s depravity exerting itself. Theology is not developed, believed and practiced in an intellectual way apart from the influence of depravity. It is done with a primary love. That is either love for God or it is out of love for self. Theology is either a revelation of God and His glory or it is man coming up with ideas about God from man’s own image and ideas of how God should be. The latter is crass idolatry.
Let us ask ourselves about our own beliefs and our own hearts. When we read and study Scripture, do we interpret it in order to defend something about ourselves or to love God as He is revealed? When we read and study Scripture, do we have to modify the character of God revealed in it by telling ourselves that He can’t be that way and must be another? On what basis do we modify what Scripture teaches us about God? Usually we modify the teaching about God based on what we think we know about man. This is a very dangerous hermeneutic since Romans 1:18ff tells us that a sign of the wrath of God is that we suppress the truth of God and He turns us over to hardened hearts. We are greatly mistaken if we limit that to those utterly apart from Christianity. The suppression of the truth of the character of God is practiced by theologians and pastors on a regular basis. It is uncomfortable to be in the presence of a God that is uncontrollable and unsafe. We either learn to love Him as He is or we will change the teaching about Him to where He is safe and somewhat controllable. Notice that this is to make Him in our own image for our own purposes. It is a common way to exert self-sufficiency and as such to practice idolatry.
God Loves... Himself 
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