10 MORE Things Arminians DON’T Have a Problem With, BUT SHOULD

The first 10 things can be found here.

For some reason, Arminians have a problem with God ultimately being sovereign over salvation, but they do not have a problem with God…

1. Choosing to not kill Satan the moment he rebelled against Him, but instead allowing him to tempt Adam and Eve.

2. Choosing to not give Adam and Eve the choice concerning whether or not they would be tempted by Satan.

3. Not giving the unsaved or Christians the choice as to whether or not they will be tempted by Satan and/or his demons.

4. Allowing godly Christians to be unable to have children, while giving wicked people the ability to have as many as they want.

5. Allowing Satan to run to and fro on the earth seeking whom he may devour, even allowing him to tempt and try to deceive His people.

6. Creating Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, etc. while foreknowing all the decisions they would make, and still foreordaining the birth places of innocent men, women, and children that would directly be affected by such dictators. 

7. Foreknowing the genocide of Israel’s enemies: men, women, and children; and God still birthing children near this appointed time; instead of not creating them at all or leaving the young “innocent” left alive.

8. Creating Mussolini, Hitler, Hussein, etc. with the natural charismas, intellects, personalities, etc. necessary to lead nations while knowing how they would use His gifts.  He could have easily chosen not to create them or to create them without these necessary natural gifts.  There is not one soul that has ever lived that God was forced to create; nor are there any natural gifts that He has been forced to give.

9. Being sovereign over when lives physically end.  The problem is that everyone dies from something; and if God appoints the time, He also indirectly or directly appoints the method as well.

10. Crucifying Christ before the foundation of the world, choosing His betrayer, appointing the exact time of His Son’s death, and thus indirectly appointing the men who would nail Him to the cross.  Jesus chose Judas knowing fully well that he was an unbeliever from the beginning.  Judas still made his own choice, but Christ chose him first; otherwise, Judas would never have been in a position to betray Christ.

These reasons and the others I have mentioned here are why Arminianism, if consistently carried out, eventually leads to Open-Theism.  Whenever “God must be fair,” is your hermeneutic, and you get to determine the definition of “fair,” you end up creating a god that is not sovereign or all-knowing, just so you can make “sense” of why evil exists in the world.  After all, a loving God would not create men knowing all the harm they would cause to the innocent of the world, would He?

10 Things Arminians DON’T Have a Problem With, BUT SHOULD

For some reason, Arminians have a problem with God ultimately being sovereign over salvation, but they do not have a problem with men, women, and children having the inability to choose whether or not…

1. God creates some of them ugly and some of them handsome or pretty.  An attractive person often has an easier life than someone who isn’t attractive.  Just ask teenagers, college students, and adults.

2. God creates some of them prone to obesity and others with high metabolism.  Being fat is the number one reason children are bullied in school.

3. God gives life to humans knowing that they will never trust in Christ and go to heaven; but, will rather choose another gospel and go to hell.  God however still chooses to create them even though He could have freely created only people that would choose Him.

4. God births some of them with natural abilities that translate into eventual riches; while birthing others with natural abilities that translate into borderline poverty.

5. God births some of them into affluent families, while birthing others into homes stricken with poverty, moral degradation, sexual molestation, drunkenness, etc.

6. God births some with natural intelligence that translates into great advances for society, while birthing others with below average intelligence that translates into no advances for society.

7. God births some with perfect health, while birthing others with physical handicaps, birth defects, etc.

8. God gives some life, while allowing others to be miscarried or stillborn.

9. God allows some to hear the gospel thousands of times before they die, while allowing others to hear the gospel only once or not at all.

10. God births some into Christian homes, while birthing others into Islamic, Buddhist, Mormon, etc. homes.

Why can God be absolutely sovereign over temporary life, but not absolutely sovereign over eternal life?  If you are willing to accept God’s sovereign rule over temporary life, then why not His sovereign rule over eternal life?

Jonathan Edwards on the Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart

In a classic sermon on Romans 9 and the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, Jonathan Edwards said this:

‎‎‎When God is here spoken of as hardening some of the children of men, it is not to be understood that God by any positive efficiency hardens any man’s heart. There is no positive act in God, as though he put forth any power to harden the heart. To suppose any such thing would be to make God the immediate author of sin. God is said to harden men in two ways: by withholding the powerful influences of his Spirit, without which their hearts will remain hardened, and grow harder and harder; in this sense he hardens them, as he leaves them to hardness. And again, by ordering those things in his providence which, through the abuse of their corruption, become the occasion of their hardening.

from Jonathan Edwards' sermon God's Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men

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