In the last BLOG we looked at the view of John Owen regarding Arminianism. He said that their attempt to set out free-will was really the desire to set up the sufficiency of man as happened at the Fall. In this they attempt two things: First, “To exempt themselves from God’s jurisdiction,–to free themselves from the supreme dominion of his all-ruling providence.” Second, “to clear human nature from the heavy imputation of being sinful, corrupted, wise to do evil but unable to do good; and so to vindicate themselves a power and ability doing all that good which God can justly require to be done by them in the state wherein they are.”
Louis Berkhof, in The History of Christian Doctrines, says this:
“Between the extremes of Augustinianism and Pelagianism a mediating movement arose, which is known in history as Semi-Pelagianism. As a matter of fact that halfway position served to bring out clearly-as nothing else could have done-that only a system like the Augustinian, with its strong logical coherence, could maintain its ground successfully against the onslaughts of Pelagius. Semi-Pelagianism made the futile attempt to steer clear of all difficulties by giving a place to both divine grace and human will as co-ordinate factors in the renewal of man, and by basing predestination on forseen faith and obedience. It did not deny human corruption, but regarded man the nature of man as weakened or diseased rather than as fatally injured by the fall. Fallen human nature retains an element of freedom, in virtue of which it can co-operate with divine grace. Regeneration is the joint product of both factors, but it is really man and not God that begins the work.”
What we see here is a man looking back on the history of these competing and contradictory views of theology. John Owen was a man who lived in a time when Arminianism (Semi-Pelagianism) was beginning to have a renewal. The version that John Owen saw was one that had certainly suffered a downhill slide since the days of Arminius himself. But Berkhof gives us a brief view of the history of these things from the twentieth century. What he tells us is in some ways a vindication of the views of John Owen, though he is more measured in his assessment of the situation. Augustinianism (Calvinism) holds to the teaching that man is dead in sin and cannot do one good thing apart from the power and effect of the grace of God. Pelagianism says that man is not dead in sin and can do good things apart from the grace of God. Semi-Pelagianism comes along and says that man is not dead but is weakened. Of necessity, then, human nature is seen as having “an element of freedom” and one that “can co-operate with divine grace.”
What we want to see here is that no longer is salvation by grace alone, according to this scheme, but instead is now by grace plus something. This is a different view of the Gospel and of God. While the Semi-Pelagian view is that salvation is almost all of grace, it has to leave some little part of man that can do something good and so it is not all of grace. Regeneration, then, is started by the choice of man and God finishes the work. But again, contrary to John 1:12-13, the new birth is not of the will of man, but instead it is of the will of God. Following from that the teaching is that God forsees faith and obedience rather than gives faith and obedience by grace. While this may be seen as small to some, it is a drastic change in terms of the character of God. What we can see, then, is that the stringent effort to maintain free-will has led to a change to where the Gospel is now mostly grace instead of all grace. Instead of the teaching of Scripture about predestination, we now have what is more aptly termed “post-destination.” In the Arminian or Semi-Pelagian view, God sees what the human being will do and then He destines. That is a destination after the human does something and so is post-destination.
We must not miss how important and vital this point is. Predestination and total depravity teach us that God looks upon sinners who hate Him and cannot do anything to help themselves. God looks upon them and by sheer and utter grace He breaks their hearts from their self-trust, regenerates them and gives them Christ. They are saved by grace and grace alone. It is grace that makes the first move and it is grace that makes all of the moves. God does not act because the sinner did something as an act of the will, but the sinner does something as an act of the will because God has shown grace. If you are reading closely, you will see that these positions are drastically different both about the Gospel and about the character of God. Owen has taught us that to maintain the Arminian position one has to have a different view about God and man than does the Reformed one. Berkhof has supported that position if we read him carefully. While Owen uses hard language, he believes he is fighting for the truth of God and the Gospel. Let us be careful and realize that these opposing positions are not as close as many insist today.
God Loves... Himself 
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