You may remember this gem from "Deep Thoughts" by the Handey-Man himself:
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself. "Mankind." Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind.” What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-- Jack Handey
I have read the Blue Letter Bible study helps to great benefit as well as their commentaries. They have an article on the major Protestant theological systems
which they list as follows: Calvinism, Arminianism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. What was Calvin's position on unity in the church? Read it and weep:
Some fault may creep into the administration of either doctrine or sacraments, but this ought not to estrange us from communion with the church. For not all the articles of true doctrine are of the same sort. Some are so necessary to know that they should be certain and unquestioned by all men as the proper principles of religion. Such are: God is one; Christ is God and the Son of God; our salvation rests in God’s mercy; and the like. Among the churches there are other articles of doctrine disputed which do not break the unity of faith…. Does this not sufficiently indicate that a difference of opinion over these nonessential matters should in no wise be the basis of schism among Christians?
-- John Calvin
Jacobus Arminius, or Jacob Harmensen, died in 1609. Jacob's father died early and he was adopted by Theodore Aemilius who later died in Jacob's teen years.
When Arminius was around 15 years old, Rudolf Snellius (Snel van Roijen), a professor at Marburg, took on the fatherly role. I did not meet my real biological father until I was sixteen years old and took on his name at that time. So, in some Alt-History we might have several tags for Contra-Calvinism:
Arminiusers
Harmensenites
Aemiliusism
Snellists
Roijenites.
Arminius made this fascinating statement:
In this state [man's fallen condition], the Free Will of man toward the True God is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed and lost. And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace.
-- Jacob Arminius
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote Of Free Will: Discourses or Comparisons (De Libero Arbitrio Diatribe Sive Collatio) in 1524. It is mostly known as The Freedom of the Will. Martin Luther's response is found in The Bondage of the Will where we read this:
You who make it out, that the human will is a something placed in a free medium ... you make both God and the devil to be at a distance, spectators only, as it were, of this mutable and “Free-will” ... it must either be, that the kingdom of Satan in man is nothing at all, and thus Christ will be made to lie; or, if his kingdom be such as Christ describes, “Free-will” must be nothing but a beast of burden, the captive of Satan, which cannot be liberated, unless the devil be first cast out by the finger of God.
-- Martin Luther
Church of England rector John Charles Ryle (d. 1900 @ 83 yo) studied the Classics and had aspirations of a political future. Ryle became the first bishop of Liverpool thanks to a plug from Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Ryle had a firm opinion on God's sovereign grace:
We should observe ...the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. We read that our Lord says to his Father, “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” [Lk. 10:21] ... The truth here is deep and mysterious. ... We can merely acknowledge that the words of our Lord Jesus Christ supply the only answer which mortal man should give: “Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” Let us, however, never forget that God’s sovereignty does not destroy man’s responsibility. That same God who does all things according to the counsel of his own will always addresses us as accountable creatures, as beings whose blood will be on our own heads if we are lost.
-- JC Ryle
#Calvinism #Arminianism #Lutheranism #Anglicanism #JohnCalvin #JacobArminius #MartinLuther #JCRyle #Erasmus #FreeWill #SovereignGrace
#DeepThoughts #JackHandey #BlueLetterBible #ChurchOfEngland #Anglican
