Arminianism Research Paper

the belief that "salvation came only as a free gift from God" and those who

God gave men the free will to elect their own salvation. There is no sin until it is actually committed. Sin was now considered a voluntary act. It also consists of a change of heart, which revived the concept of limited atonement. Christ did not die for only a select few predestined elect, but for whosoever will accept God’s offer of salvation. Personal commitment also involved an active and useful Christian life in which individual action brings the kingdom closer.

The people who perceived the movement as disingenuous and found many errors of the Awakening, Old Lights denounced the fervor and emotional experiences; they argued that man was naturally a rational being. Old lights rejected the revivalist belief of salvation through faith and an understanding of "spiritual knowledge," a knowledge that comes from self-examination and what Jonathan Edwards called a "sense of the heart." Old Lights believed that works can justify their faith and said that men could achieve salvation through time, exercise, observation, and instruction. Although they did not focus on predestination and justification through faith, the Old Lights did not follow Arminianism, a group centered on justification through works, which

The major points which are total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of saints. Total depravity states that all mean are inherently sinners, unconditional election entails that certain people were predestined to receive God 's grace no

People must recognize every ones need for a savior, and without Christ they would be in the same helpless state as them. All people were created by God and created in His image. Imago Dei means that you are created in God’s perfect image, not meaning that people are deity as He is but, created in His likeness with His attributes. In Genesis 1:26 it says this, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness [speaking of the Trinity].” God created every human to have the likeness and attributes of himself. Still people are sinful and fallen, but God in His abundant mercy gave the human race a way to attain righteousness and eternal life with him. People have the ability to love because of God. People have the ability to forgive because of God. Everyone’s wonderful attributes are because of God, but they also have the ability to judge, condemn, and hurt people because of their sinful nature. People fail to see and accept God’s perfect design and his perfect “image” in his creation. When people criticize or diminish other people they are ridiculing or mocking God’s creation and ultimately mocking themselves for God created them also. All people, white or black, are more alike than different. All people breathe the same air, pee the same color, and are all in need of a merciful savior. So, in short, people are only different in skin color, hair colors, and eye

I believe that human beings, who have the image of God, are the best creature in the world. Therefore, they can instinctually recognize the existence of God and have capacities to choose somethings and to create somethings creatively. For John Wesley, human beings are created by God in the image of God, which means that they have similar characteristics to God. Scott J. Jones insists, “we share God’s nature in that we are immortal spirits who have various divine capacities: understanding, freedom of the will, and affections.” In this view, in the beginning, the human beings have capacities not only to understand God in the communication between God and them, but also to choose and do anything which they want. However, at the Fall, their characteristics given by God became malfunctioned by Adam’s exploiting their free will not obey God, but disobey God, which generates the original sin. John Wesley explains about this in his sermon ‘The New Birth,’ “The natural consequence of this is that everyone descended from him

In conclusion, we can say that Pelagianism rejects the belief and the doctrine of the Original Sin and claim that humans have not been corrupted, so people are capable of deciding to do good and avoid sin without the help of God. In summary, humans are capable of merit salvation on their own without God’s grace. Pelagius believed that the only thing that can affect us to obey God would be the human ignorance of God’s will.

Gods kindness helps humans to repent for their sins however, those to be judged have no place to judge others.

In Baptist history there has always been differences in doctrine. This has unfortunately resulted, at times, to separate believers from one another. This can be evident from comparing two American Baptist confessions. The most notable difference in doctrine between The Philadelphia Confession of 1742 and A Treatise on the Faith of the Free Will Baptists, 1834 and 1948 is the doctrine of Calvinism versus free-will. The Philadelphia Confession supported Calvinism and the Free Will Baptists supported Arminianism. A closer look at these two confessions show that throughout Baptist history certain doctrines remain constant while others are debated and cause separation of believers. However, this has not stopped the Gospel message to be preached

themselves with their own works. Salvation is a matter of God’s choosing those who will

Origen was one of the original to believe that predestination and will of man plays an important role in the doctrine of election. The Scripture he uses is 2 Timothy 2:20-21 to where men can be saved. John Chrysostom endorsed the thought on how salvation is performed. Semi-Pelagians also opposed unconditional because of human freedom and preaching would be pointless. The Catholics believe the part of free choice and being in the grace of God. James Arminius disagreed with Calvinist on a few issues like atonement and will of man. He formulated major proclamations of the process of salvation. James’ articles were dismissed at Synod of Dort for being against the Scriptures and where the articles from Calvin were accepted for the churches to teach. John Wesley was strongly against unconditional and Calvinism that he gave reasons why the theory

Sin-management theology leads us to believe that we must earn God’s love and grace through our works and actions, which contradicts the whole purpose of Jesus coming to the earth. Those living under the law showed that man could never earn God’s love and grace through works because of man’s fallen nature. Therefore, it causes humanity to live in a broken state that results in hiding and disregards the righteousness given to us by God.

God created all people as equals. As a believer in God, I serve him through service to others and my community. I take on responsibilities of helping others in my community, volunteering, and donating goods. At all times I abide by these principles: worship only God, respect people, be humble, be honest, live a moral life, be generous with time, practice my views, do not criticize, judge, or condemn, do not hold a grudge, and forgive others. I believe it is right to resist temptation while knowing that evil lurks around. I believe one-day God will return and seek judgment for his people. To live morally and ethically divine is obligatory to have eternal life. As a person and professional, I understand and acknowledge that not all human beings embrace the same views as me and I respect the views of others.

However, I am with Christians who openly work to complete their goal to “love people to Jesus.” They acknowledged that each of us is a sinner. This was unlike the people, in my youth, as they accepted that they were not perfect nor did they bully others. It is important to know that no one is better than his brother or sister, and understand that everyone is a brother and sister. As a Christian, I must live these words. They are inspirational in my faith walk, as a proof of Immanuel Kant’s moral imperative.

     If we use the Weslyan definition of sin we find that there are four elements that lead to sin a personal voluntary act. The first of these is to use God as a standard. He is perfect and flawless, as we should strive to be. The second is man as a free personality. God gave us free will to decide our own actions; He did not just make us drones. The third makes sin a live option. It is something that is always there and we can always choose to do what God would have us do or go against His will. The fourth is a deed committed. This goes back to the third one. Sin is a willful act against God. We must choose right or wrong.