christiangrowth.net
The Two Foundational Errors Against God's Sovereignty and Human Depravity
(John Owen widely known as the Prince of the Puritans 1616-1683)
Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.
The first objective of Arminian teaching, Owen argues, is to free human beings from God's absolute government and providence. Instead of living and acting under God's sovereign control, man is given an independent power over his own actions, so that events depend largely upon chance, contingency, and human choice.
Owen regards this as a deeply sinful attempt to remove God from His rightful throne. To accomplish this goal, he says, the Arminians advance several doctrines.
If God's purposes are eternal and unchangeable, then human actions must ultimately unfold according to His sovereign plan. This would place limits upon the independence that Arminians attribute to free will.
Therefore, Owen claims, they teach that God's decrees are not eternal and fixed but temporary and changeable. They even suggest that God alters His purposes according to changes that occur in human beings. Owen considers this idea contrary to God's nature and destructive to His divine attributes.
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'
Malachi 3:6 For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
If God infallibly knows everything that will happen before it occurs, then all future events must certainly come to pass exactly as He foreknows them.
The Arminians fear that such certainty threatens their doctrine of contingency and human autonomy. Owen argues that denying God's exhaustive foreknowledge undermines the very nature of God and leads toward practical atheism.
Acts 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Isaiah 44:7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come — yes, let them foretell what will come.
Owen accuses the Arminians of reducing God's providence to a general influence rather than an active, effective government over all things. According to this view, God does not decisively direct human hearts, govern thoughts, determine wills, or order events — making God a spectator who wishes many things were different but lacks the power to bring about His desires.
Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.
Daniel 4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'
Ephesians 1:22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.
Owen further argues that the Arminians teach that God often sincerely wills things that never happen, and that His purposes can be frustrated and His intentions defeated by man's will. Owen believes such teaching exalts human freedom above divine sovereignty and reduces God to one who merely hopes that His plans will succeed.
Psalm 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Romans 9:15–16 For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
The second major objective of Arminian doctrine, according to Owen, is to clear human nature of the guilt and corruption of sin. Rather than seeing man as fallen, spiritually helpless, and dependent upon grace, Arminianism seeks to establish that people possess sufficient ability to do what God requires and to distinguish themselves from others by making better use of their natural powers.
The ultimate result is that the primary credit for salvation belongs not to God but to man. Owen regards this as a proud and Lucifer-like ambition.
Scripture teaches, Owen argues, that before the foundation of the world God chose certain individuals to receive holiness, faith, and eternal life through Christ, solely according to His gracious purpose — leaving no room for human boasting. Owen claims the Arminians replace this with a doctrine that grounds election in human conditions and choices.
Ephesians 1:4–5 Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
Romans 9:11–13 Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls — she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'
2 Timothy 1:9 Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
Owen argues that a proper understanding of original sin exposes the weakness of human nature and reveals mankind's inability to do spiritual good apart from grace. Because original sin demonstrates the helplessness of human free will, he says the Arminians reject both its reality and its full consequences.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Romans 8:7–8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If human nature is naturally opposed to God's law, Arminians are forced, Owen claims, to say that such opposition existed even in Adam before the Fall — making God Himself the source of that corruption rather than man's sin.
Genesis 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Owen argues that the Arminians deny that Christ's death actually secured salvation for His people or purchased faith, grace, righteousness, and obedience for them. Instead of seeing Christ's cross as effectively obtaining salvation, they treat it as merely making salvation possible. If faith itself is a gift purchased by Christ, Owen notes, then believers cannot claim any credit for their own faith.
Isaiah 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Owen charges that some Arminians suggest that people who have never heard of Christ may nevertheless be saved without explicit faith in Him — one of the highest forms of human-centered religion because it elevates human ability and moral effort closer to God's throne.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Having, in Owen's view, stripped glory from God, Christ, and grace, the Arminians then bestow extraordinary powers upon free will. Free will becomes the decisive factor in salvation, receiving honors that properly belong to God's grace alone.
John 1:12–13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
1 Corinthians 4:7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Before Conversion: They claim that sinners can prepare themselves for grace and place themselves in a condition where grace becomes fittingly bestowed upon them.
In Conversion: They also teach that human will cooperates with grace in producing conversion.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Acts 16:14 The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
According to Owen, the entire Arminian system is built upon one central purpose: to divide the glory of salvation between God and man. Rather than giving all praise to God's sovereign grace, it assigns part of the credit to human free will. In Owen's judgment, this places an idol alongside God in His own temple.
The result is a theology that says:
“Not all glory to God, and not all glory to free will, but let the praise for salvation be shared between them.”
For Owen, this is the fundamental error of Arminianism. The great question is whether salvation is ultimately the work of God's sovereign grace alone, or whether man contributes something decisive of his own. Owen contends that Scripture gives all glory to God and leaves no room for human boasting.
Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1:29–31 So that no human being might boast in the presence of God... so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'
christiangrowth.net