The guardians of ‘free-will’ have exemplified the saying: ‘out of the frying-pan, into the fire.’ In their zeal to disagree with the Pelagians they start denying condign merit, and by the very form of their denial they set it up more firmly! By word and pen they deny it, but really, in their hearts, they establish it, and are worse than the Pelagians upon two counts. In the first place, the Pelagians confess and assert condign merit straightforwardly, candidly and honestly, calling a spade a spade and teaching what they really hold. But our friends here, who hold and teach the same view, try to fool us with lying words and false appearances, giving out that they disagree with the Pelagians, when there is nothing that they are further from doing! ‘If you regard our pretences, we appear as the Pelagians’ bitterest foes; but if you regard the facts and our hearts, we are Pelagians double-dyed.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will)
Luther sets out that some will deny Pelagianism in word or pen and then go on to teach it in a different way or with different words. He says that those who do this are actually worse than the Pelagians because they are teaching the same error but under pretences and false appearances. This should be taken as a great warning to many in the modern day as well. We must look to what is really being taught rather than the words of people in and of themselves. It is utterly foolish to simply take the word of a person or a group of people on who they are simply by what they say about what they deny or what they believe.
Quite frankly, there are many in our day that say they are Arminian but who are actually more in line with the historical Pelagian view. There are many in our day that claim to be Reformed but are more in line with the Arminians or even Pelagians on certain vital issues. For example, you cannot believe in free-will and still believe in justification by faith alone as Martin Luther taught it, but there are many Arminians and Pelagians who say they believe in justification by faith alone. Then there are those who claim to be Reformed and they agree that the Arminians (at least in name) teach and preach the same Gospel that they (the Reformed) do. Okay, that may be true that the Arminians in name preach the same gospel as some of the professing Reformed do. But all that means is that neither of them preach the same justification by faith alone that Luther did.
If what Luther preached and taught was the Gospel of the Bible, and assuredly there was a great revival that went on when that Gospel was preached by him and many others, then anyone who differs with it in reality (even if they say they don’t) is teaching a false gospel and is not Reformed. If justification by faith alone is the article by which the church stands or falls and is also the very hinge on which the church swings, then to deviate from that in fact is a fatal deviation. When people claim to teach what is biblical and Reformed and yet teach what is against it, that is being worse than those who clearly oppose what is biblical and Reformed.
According to Martin Luther and John Owen, if I am reading them correctly, a true Arminian cannot preach and teach the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Scripture tells us that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8-9). The Arminian cannot assert that faith is the gift of God and that it came from a will that is free at the same time. Scripture declares that “you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1), yet the Arminian cannot really hold to that and a will that is free at the same time. The professing Calvinist must be very careful at this point if he wants to maintain the view of total depravity while at the same time asserting that the Arminian is preaching the same gospel as he is.
Scripture tells us that this death is that (of v. 1) “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). The Arminian says that the will is free and so is not walking according to the course of the world and the prince of the power of the air, but instead is walking according to a ‘free-will.’ The professing Calvinist who is more eager to be gracious than he is to stand for the Gospel simply says that these things can go together, though in reality it is nothing more than Pelagianism.
Scripture tells us that “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph 2:3). The Arminian cannot really believe that and the professing Calvinist does not want to assert that above a whisper as well. The Scripture tells us that “God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” is the cause of salvation and that it is by grace alone. The Arminian tells us that the sinner must make a choice based on the will that is free so that God will save him. The professing Calvinist disagrees with that theologically but does not want to hurt the feelings of others or do anything to cause some dissension with the Arminian. The Arminian has just effectively done away with the Gospel of grace alone and the professing Calvinist would rather be gracious to the Arminian rather than be faithful to the God who reveals His glory in the Gospel of grace alone. In other words, by adjusting words and meanings the true Arminian distorts and even denies the true Gospel of grace alone. The professing Calvinist is also guilty of distorting the true Gospel when he will not stand up for grace alone but instead allows for people to trust in free-will plus grace. Both can be worse than the plain speaking Pelagian.
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