By Jown Owen (Summary in Modern English)
Christians have always believed, on firm and biblical grounds, that God's decrees are eternal acts of His will. Because they arise from His own unchanging nature, they are themselves unchangeable and irreversible. The idea that God forms temporary plans, changes His mind, or adopts new resolutions according to circumstances is completely contrary to His perfect and divine nature.
Truths so evident were never seriously questioned until the Arminians began, as it were, to stir up settled matters and take pleasure in opposing those common truths about God which both Scripture and sound reason plainly teach. Throughout Christian history, to attribute any changeability to God's essence—an essence identical with His attributes and eternal acts—has been regarded as a form of practical atheism. Yet this is precisely the charge that falls upon the Arminians, for they openly embrace conclusions that necessarily lead to it.
The Arminians teach that, in the order of God's decrees, some decisions come before human actions while others come after them. This was plainly asserted by their leading theologians, especially Corvinus.
But if God's decrees follow human actions, then those decrees cannot be eternal. Human actions occur in time; therefore, any decree that depends upon them must also arise in time.
Arminius himself declared:
God wills or determines many things which He would not will unless certain acts of the human will had first taken place.
His follower Grevinchovius went even further, claiming:
God wills many things which He neither would nor justly could will unless some action of the creature had first occurred.
Notice that they are not speaking about God's outward works of providence—such as rewarding obedience or punishing sin—which all Christians acknowledge are administered according to circumstances. Rather, they are speaking about God's inward purposes, His eternal decrees.
According to their teaching, God cannot finally determine many things until He first sees what man will do. Corvinus even says that God acts according to how He finds man complying or refusing to comply with His appointed order.
This places such power in the human will that God Himself supposedly cannot determine certain outcomes until He knows how man will respond. In their desire to exalt human freedom, they diminish the sovereignty of God.
This doctrine appears most clearly in their treatment of election.
The Remonstrants boldly asserted that it is false to say election is confirmed from eternity.
Yet Scripture teaches the exact opposite:
God's election is His eternal purpose (Romans 9:11).
Believers were chosen before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).
The Arminians attempt to escape this difficulty by saying that God eternally decreed that He would later elect believers.
But this merely means:
God eternally decreed that, in time, He would decide to save people.
Such reasoning reduces God's eternal wisdom to a series of delayed decisions, as though He first determined to make a determination later. Such confusion may belong to human speculation, but it cannot be attributed to the all-wise God.
Not only do they deny that God's decrees are eternal; they also teach that they can cease, expire, and be altered.
Episcopius states that some acts of God's will end at a certain time.
Arminius teaches that although God wills the salvation of all men, He is compelled by the stubbornness of some sinners to will otherwise.
Thus, according to their doctrine, God desires one thing but is forced into another.
This is a remarkable contradiction. They deny God the power to accomplish His will, yet expect us to admire His willingness to submit to circumstances He cannot control.
The same men who criticize Calvin for occasionally using strong language about God's powerful providence do not hesitate to speak of God's own will being compelled.
The reason is obvious. They must weaken God's sovereignty if they are to preserve the absolute independence they assign to the human will.
The Arminians teach that election and reprobation are based entirely upon a person's present condition of faith or unbelief.
A believer is elect because he believes.
An unbeliever is reprobate because he does not believe.
Therefore:
If a believer falls away, he becomes reprobate.
If an unbeliever later believes, he becomes elect.
Should these conditions change again, God's decree concerning them must also change again.
According to this system, God's eternal purpose rises and falls with the fluctuating choices of man.
The consequence is absurd. A person could be elect today, reprobate tomorrow, elect again next week, and so on. God's decrees would become as unstable as the tides.
Indeed, it would even be possible for every member of Christ's church to pass from the book of life to the book of condemnation within a single hour.
Such instability cannot be reconciled with the God who declares, "I am the LORD, I change not."
The Arminians teach that final impenitence is the sole ground of irrevocable reprobation.
Therefore, no one is truly elect or reprobate until death.
But if a person only becomes elect or reprobate at death, then God's decree concerning that person cannot have existed from eternity. It must begin only when life ends.
Under this view, God waits until the final moment before making His determination.
The eternal Judge is portrayed as suspending judgment until He sees the last movement of man's will.
This not only destroys the eternity of God's decrees but also undermines His perfect foreknowledge.
Their doctrine effectively turns God's decree into this:
If man believes, I will save him. If he refuses, I will condemn him. Until then, I must wait and see what he chooses.
Such a view places uncertainty where Scripture places certainty.
The Arminians further teach that all who are now saved could have been damned, and all who are now damned could have been saved.
Thus:
Pharaoh could have been saved.
Judas could have been saved.
Peter could have perished.
John could have perished.
Even the blessed virgin Mary could have been condemned.
This doctrine implies that God's eternal determinations are contingent and variable.
Yet God knows those who are His. His purposes are not guesses but certainties.
Having exposed the error, Owen now briefly presents the truth taught by Scripture and confirmed by sound reason.
James declares:
"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning" (Acts 15:18).
Whatever God accomplishes in time, He decreed from eternity.
Election especially is presented throughout Scripture as an eternal act:
We were chosen before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).
God's purpose according to election was established before birth (Romans 9:11).
The Lord knows those who are His (2 Timothy 2:19).
Grace was given to us in Christ before the world began (2 Timothy 1:9).
Because God's purpose arises from eternal wisdom and perfect knowledge, it cannot be revoked or altered.
God never becomes what He was not before.
Change belongs only to creatures.
Scripture says:
"With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).
And again:
"I am the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).
Since God's decrees are acts of His will and His will is inseparable from His nature, His decrees must be as unchangeable as He Himself is.
Scripture repeatedly affirms the certainty of God's counsel:
"My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10).
"The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent" (1 Samuel 15:29).
"The LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?" (Isaiah 14:27).
God does not merely hope events will occur. He determines them according to His wisdom and power.
His purposes do not depend upon the unstable will of man.
To suggest otherwise is to place human weakness above divine omnipotence.
If God only forms a decree in time, one of two things must be true:
He discovered something He did not previously know.
Something outside Himself gave new value to a course of action.
Both conclusions are blasphemous.
God knows all things from eternity.
He is the source of all goodness.
Nothing can surprise Him, instruct Him, or improve His understanding.
Furthermore, men often change their plans because they lack the power to carry them out. But God is omnipotent:
"He hath done whatsoever He pleased" (Psalm 115:3).
Therefore, God's purposes never fail. What He determines, He accomplishes.
Owen's argument is straightforward:
The Arminian doctrine makes God's decrees temporal, conditional, and changeable. It portrays God as waiting upon the decisions of man, revising His purposes according to human actions, and altering His determinations as circumstances change.
Scripture teaches the opposite.
God's decrees are eternal because He is eternal.
They are immutable because He is immutable.
They are certain because His wisdom cannot err, His knowledge cannot fail, and His power cannot be frustrated.
The believer's confidence rests not upon the unstable will of man, but upon the eternal purpose of the God whose counsel shall stand forever.