id="ulink_1ccf66d1-592f-55bf-b8f1-96a03887fb1a">Theologians have long debated how this doctrine plays itself out in people. What follows is not referring to chronology but more to the logic of order, how salvation works itself out in the mind of God. Arminianism believes in creation, and a partial fall (man is able to believe on Christ), but denies election, saying that people make a decision on their own free will to believe on Christ. Amyraldus, a Dutch theologian of the late seventeenth century, who believed in election, could not get past various passages that seem to teach that Jesus died for everyone. Consequently Amyraldus gave rise to what some call four point Calvinism. He denied particular redemption, that Jesus died only for the elect. The problem with Amyraldianism is that it pits the persons of the Godhead against each other—the Father chose a specific number of people, but Jesus died for everyone. Then there is Infralapsarianism (infra means after and lapse means fall, after the fall) that teaches creation, fall into sin, election, and then people becoming Christians at a specific time and place through the work of the Holy Spirit. The problem with this view is that it cannot explain fallen angels, like Lucifer, who must have fallen prior to man’s fall into sin. How else would Adam have been tempted? Then there is Supralapsarianism (supra means before). In this view, in the mind of God, there was creation, election, then the fall into sin, and the application of redemption where those drawn by the Spirit believe on Christ. Some are uncomfortable with this view because it seems to be cold and austere, suggesting that God capriciously chose some and condemned others, even before the fall into sin. I suggest that Supralapsarianism makes more sense, though Infralapsarianism is certainly an acceptable scheme of how salvation works its way out in the elect.12 At the end of the day these issues cannot be discerned in the mind. They are heart matters. We may be confused, unable to resolve the tension between God’s decree and human responsibility. However God is not confused. This tension is what we call the complementarity of truth. Jesus is both God and man. God elects and man decides for Christ. The Bible is God’s word, but it is written by man. God hates sins, but God allows sin. God judges people in hell but God does not delight in the death of the wicked.
You may be saying, “Okay, so what? Why in the world is this important?” Because ideas matter. Theology drives all we do, whether we know it or not. To embrace Arminianism means one believes man has a small island of righteousness within him. It is to this island all evangelistic efforts must be focused. If this is true, then an evangelist is justified in using whatever means necessary to win a decision for Christ from those to whom he preaches. This theology has led to a plethora of false professions of faith and the cheesiness of much modern evangelicalism. It causes people to deny the need for earnest prayer and for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It causes people to trust in plans, programs, and personalities. It causes many to go through life with a false sense of security, assuming that their decision for Christ many years before guarantees them eternal life.
But unless God chose you, unless the Lord Jesus Christ died for you, and unless the Holy Spirit regenerated you and gave you the grace to repent and believe the gospel, then you are still dead in your sins. Have you ever truly sensed your depravity and unsuitableness for salvation, and cast yourself unreservedly on the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, then you are still dead in your sins. What are you to do? Repent and believe on Christ and bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance.
11. Vandergugten, “The Arminian Controversy and the Synod of Dort.”
12. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 488–89.
Abundance
. . . which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.
Ephesians 1:8
Robert Lewis Dabney was born in rural Virginia in 1820, and though he was not wealthy, he nonetheless was reared with a notion of the Old South aristocracy. As a young man he came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and attended Hamden Sydney College near Farmville, VA. Later, he received a seminary education at Union Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian Seminary near the Hamden Sydney campus. R. L. Dabney became the pastor of a small Presbyterian Church in Tinkling Spring, Virginia and saw a mighty revival sweep through his church and town, drawing a large number of people into Christ’s kingdom. After a few years there, he became a professor of theology at Union Seminary and served as an officer for Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson during the War Between the States. The Confederacy’s loss of that war devastated Dabney, and he had a very difficult time reconciling what he saw as the loss of Southern culture and theology in post-war years. Dabney was a wonderful theologian. In fact he wrote various essays that have come to sound quite prophetic in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. His essay on public education in the 1880’s, where he predicted that public education would sooner or later forbid prayer and Bible reading in such schools, is a strong case in point.1
While Dabney was a great theologian, he had one glaring weakness. Sean Lucas of Covenant Seminary, in his biography on Dabney,2 confirms what many have long suspected. Dabney was a racial bigot. To be sure, we ought to “cut him some slack” on the issue, realizing that most nineteenth century people, in both the North and South, viewed black people as inferior; but there is no skirting the issue. In the post-war years Dabney’s bitterness over the loss of Southern culture and aristocracy seemed to cut him off from the mainstream of theological discourse. The impact Dabney could have had was severely blunted by his anger, resentment, and bitterness over race and culture.
Interesting story, you may say, but what’s the point? Here it is—if R. L. Dabney, one of our greatest theologians and a man of holiness and godliness, a man who knew well the doctrines of grace, could fall into such bitterness and resentment, then how much more so is that possible for you and me?
The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:7 has proclaimed the marvelous truth that in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the taking away of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Paul builds on that glorious proclamation by adding two phrases in verse 8—“which God lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.” Literally this grace He super abounded to us. It is an over abundance, overwhelming, over-the-top undeserved favor by God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The second phrase has to do with God super abounding this grace in all wisdom and insight. Conservative biblical commentators are divided on where to put this phrase.3 Does it make more sense with “which He lavished upon us” or does it go better with verse 9, “He made known to us.” It seems option one is best, for it is a foregone conclusion that God has all wisdom and insight. We don’t need to be told that. Rather this grace that super abounded to us gives us wisdom and insight, knowledge with application, the ability to work out the knowledge of God we possess.
At least it ought to do so. Dabney knew very well the riches of God’s grace. He taught and believed the doctrines of election, predestination, adoption, and redemption. He championed such doctrines. But there was this one area of his life where he failed to apply what he knew. He could have used more wisdom and insight.
How, in your own life, are you like R. L. Dabney? You know theologically and biblically the riches of God’s grace to you, but perhaps you are filled with racial pride or bigotry. Maybe you look with disgust on the immigrants in your community. Maybe you hold in contempt those of the hip hop culture. I am not saying that you must celebrate their culture. I am simply asking, are you bigoted? Are you a racist? And then we can move onto other issues. Is your life characterized by fear of people, anger or bitterness, worry? Are you slowly finding yourself put to the side because people simply do not enjoy being around you?
May God show you the blind spots in your own life! Yes, we rejoice over the super- abundant,
