Display of Arminisamism by John Owen
(Summary in modern English)
By the arguments already examined, the Arminians have effectively placed the altar of Ahaz beside the altar of God. They have elevated human freedom into direct competition with the power and will of the Most High. Having already made God’s decrees changeable, His foreknowledge uncertain, and His providence greatly diminished, they now advance to their final conclusion: that God’s will can be resisted, His purposes can fail, and His intentions can be frustrated.
According to them, God may sincerely intend and purpose things that never come to pass. He may set before Himself ends that He neither does nor can accomplish because their fulfillment would conflict with the freedom of the human will. If this is not an extraordinary expression of spiritual pride—raising the creature against the Creator—it is difficult to imagine what would be.
Before addressing this claim, however, we must first clarify what is meant by “the will of God.” Scripture sometimes speaks of God’s will in different senses. For example, His commands are often called His will, and these commands are frequently disobeyed. Therefore, unless we distinguish carefully, confusion will arise.
The medieval theologians rightly said, “God’s willing is His being.” God’s will is not something separate from His essence. God is simple, eternal, and unchanging. Therefore, His will is fundamentally one.
Yet Scripture speaks of God’s will in different ways, and unless we recognize these distinctions, many passages will appear contradictory.
Consider Abraham. In Genesis 22, God commanded him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham rightly understood this command as something he was obligated to obey. Yet when he was about to carry it out, God stopped him and forbade the sacrifice. The outcome shows that God never intended Isaac actually to be slain.
Or consider Pharaoh. God commanded him to release Israel. Pharaoh was obligated to obey. Yet God had already declared that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would refuse until God’s wonders had been displayed in Egypt.
Without some distinction in God’s will, such passages would seem contradictory.
For this reason, both ancient and later theologians distinguished between God’s secret will and His revealed will.
God’s secret will is His eternal and unchangeable purpose concerning everything He has made.
This is what God refers to when He says:
“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10).
This is often called:
God’s decree
His good pleasure
His efficacious will
His absolute purpose
This will is always fulfilled.
It cannot fail.
It cannot be frustrated.
It cannot be resisted.
It is the eternal purpose of the God who never changes.
God’s revealed will is different.
It does not tell us what God has eternally decreed to do. Rather, it tells us what He commands us to do.
It concerns our duty, not His hidden purpose.
When Christ says:
“This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have everlasting life” (John 6:40),
He means that this is what God requires and approves.
God’s commands reveal what pleases Him morally. They do not necessarily reveal what He has eternally decreed will actually happen.
A master commands a servant to do certain things. The servant is responsible to obey the command, not to discover the master’s secret plans.
Likewise, God’s commands obligate us to obedience. They do not necessarily disclose His eternal intentions.
This is evident in Abraham and Pharaoh. God commanded one thing, while secretly determining an outcome that served a different purpose.
God’s secret will is not always hidden.
Sometimes it is revealed:
When Scripture tells us that the dead will rise, we know with certainty that this is God’s decree.
Once events occur, we can recognize God’s purpose in them.
Joseph’s brothers thought they were acting on their own wicked intentions when they sold him into Egypt. Yet Joseph later declared:
“It was not you who sent me here, but God.”
What they intended for evil, God had decreed for good.
Nevertheless, God’s will is called secret because:
Most of it remains unknown until events occur.
We cannot ordinarily know future events beforehand.
The reasons behind God’s purposes are often beyond our understanding.
As Scripture says:
“His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters.”
His judgments are often unsearchable.
The two differ mainly in two ways.
The secret will is God’s decree determining what shall occur.
The revealed will is God’s declaration of what He approves and commands.
The secret will concerns what God has determined shall actually exist and happen.
The revealed will concerns what is morally right and pleasing to Him, whether it is actually performed or not.
There are times when God’s secret and revealed will concern the same thing.
For example, God commands His people to believe.
That is His revealed will.
At the same time, He purposes that His elect will believe.
That is His secret will.
Therefore He gives them faith.
As He promises:
“I will give you a new heart.”
“I will put my Spirit within you.”
“I will cause you to walk in my statutes.”
(Ezekiel 36:26–27)
In such cases, God commands what He also determines to bring about.
Yet His command itself is not a revelation of His decree.
Many are commanded to believe who never receive faith.
God’s command says:
“You ought to believe.”
It does not necessarily say:
“I have decreed that you shall believe.”
There is a vast difference between:
“Do this”
and
“You certainly will do this.”
Had God’s command to Judas implied that God intended him to believe, it would have contradicted God’s determination to judge him for unbelief.
Therefore God’s commands reveal our duty, not necessarily His secret purpose.
Several important truths follow from this distinction.
God commanded Pharaoh to release Israel.
Yet God had not decreed that Pharaoh would obey.
Therefore Pharaoh’s disobedience did not frustrate God’s purpose.
In fact, God intended through Pharaoh’s rebellion to display His glory in judgment.
The command showed what pleased God morally.
It did not reveal God’s secret decree.
We are accountable to God’s commands, not to His secret purposes.
From His revealed will we learn:
what we ought to believe,
what we ought to obey,
and what God approves.
Even when God’s secret decree is fulfilled through human sin, the sinner remains guilty.
Suppose Abraham had refused to sacrifice Isaac.
God’s secret purpose would still have been accomplished, since He never intended Isaac to die.
Yet Abraham would have sinned because he disobeyed God’s command.
Holiness consists in obedience to God’s revealed will, not in guessing His secret purposes.
As Gregory observed, people sometimes fulfill God’s secret purpose while attempting to resist it.
Augustine illustrated this with two sons whose father is dying.
One wicked son desires his father’s death.
The other godly son prays for his father’s recovery.
God has decreed that the father shall die.
Thus the wicked son’s desire agrees with God’s decree, while the godly son’s desire does not.
Yet the godly son is pleasing to God because he acts from love and duty, whereas the wicked son sins.
This shows that our responsibility is measured by God’s commands, not by His hidden decrees.
Returning to the main issue, Owen argues that the Arminians teach that God’s secret will can be resisted.
In other words, God may determine to save someone, yet that person may ultimately prevent God from accomplishing His intention.
According to them, God’s purposes regarding human salvation depend upon human cooperation.
They especially apply this to conversion and faith.
For example:
God intends to convert a sinner.
God gives grace to accomplish this.
Yet the sinner may resist.
Therefore God’s intention fails.
The Arminians openly admit this conclusion.
They acknowledge that God may aim at an end and not attain it.
They teach that God intends salvation for many who are never saved.
Thus, according to their view, God frequently desires what never occurs.
Owen argues that this doctrine portrays God in a miserable condition.
It pictures God as sincerely desiring the salvation of every individual with great earnestness and affection, yet being unable to accomplish what He desires.
According to this view:
God wants all men saved.
God intends all men saved.
God provides sufficient means for all.
Yet most perish.
Thus God’s desires remain unfulfilled, His intentions frustrated, and His purposes defeated by human choice.
Owen considers this entirely unworthy of the God of Scripture.
It portrays God more like a disappointed parent than the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth.
Some Arminians attempted to soften the problem.
They argued that God’s will may be considered in two ways:
Before an action occurs.
After the action occurs.
Before the action, they say, God’s will may be resisted.
After the action, God’s will is fulfilled because He adapts His plans to what has happened.
Owen rejects this as meaningless.
In effect, it says:
God’s purpose cannot fail once the thing has already happened.
But that is no answer at all.
The real question is whether God’s purpose can fail beforehand.
If God intends a man to believe and the man never believes, then the purpose has failed.
No later adjustment can change that fact.
Owen then appeals to Scripture.
The Psalmist declares:
“Our God is in the heavens; he has done whatever he pleased.” (Psalm 115:3)
Not some things.
Not most things.
Whatever He pleased.
Daniel teaches:
“He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand.” (Daniel 4:35)
Isaiah records God’s own words:
“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:10)
Again:
“I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:11)
And God confirms this with an oath:
“As I have planned, so shall it be; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Isaiah 14:24)
These passages leave no room for frustrated intentions in God.
What He purposes, He accomplishes.
What He decrees, He performs.
What He wills in His eternal counsel cannot fail.
The issue is not whether people resist God’s commands. They do so every day.
The real question is whether people can resist God’s eternal purpose.
Owen argues that Scripture answers decisively: No.
God’s revealed will may be disobeyed.
His commands may be transgressed.
His invitations may be rejected.
But His secret will—His eternal decree and purpose—can never be defeated.
Whatever God has determined shall come to pass certainly comes to pass.
Therefore, Owen concludes, the Arminian doctrine places human freedom above divine sovereignty and directly contradicts the biblical testimony that God always accomplishes all His pleasure.