Tag Archives: Catholic

Arminian and Catholic Soteriologies

2 Replies

As a Catholic and a former relatively "high" church Lutheran, I’m quite lost when it comes to battles between Calvinism and Arminianism. I am somewhat familiar with Calvinism and have been exposed to TULIP. Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin wrote a good review of TULIP from a Catholic perspective. I’ve only heard of Aminianism recently. Here’s some of what good ol’ Wikipedia had to say.

The Arminians suggested five, anti-Calvinist corrections [to TULIP], which are summarized below:

Conditional Election: God has decreed to save through Jesus Christ, out of fallen and sinful mankind, those foreknown by Him who through the grace of the Holy Spirit believe in Christ; but God leaves in sin those foreseen, who are incorrigible and unbelieving.

Universal Atonement: Christ’s death was suffered on behalf of all men, but God elects for salvation only those who believe in Christ.

Free Will with Partial Depravity: Freedom of will is man’s natural state, not a spiritual gift – and thus free will was not lost in the Fall. The grace of Christ works upon all men to influence them for good, but only those who freely choose to agree with grace by faith and repentance are given new spiritual power to make effectual the good they otherwise impotently intend.

Resistible Grace: The grace of God works for good in all men, and brings about newness of life through faith. But grace can be resisted even by the regenerate.

Uncertain Perseverance: Those who are incorporated into Christ by a true faith have power given them through the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit, sufficient to enable them to persevere in the faith. But it may be possible for a believer to fall from grace.

Am I wrong, or is this basically what the Catholic Church teaches? It certainly sounds awfully close. Akin focused on Calvinism, so I’m not sure if his Thomistic TULIP is compatible with Arminianism’s formulation (which unfortunately doesn’t have a nice acronym). Help from my readers would be appreciated.

Saved By _______

4 Replies

Adrian has seen fit to clarify his beliefs about how one is saved. Since my statements apparently weren’t very clear, either, I’ll follow suit.

  1. God gave man free will so that we might choose freely to love Him.
  2. Faith is a product of grace, which is given by God. We must be open to receiving that grace. If grace is irresistible, then we have imperfect free will.
  3. We must accept Jesus Christ by our own free will and live by His commandments.
  4. By opening ourselves to grace through faith, we become members of the elect who shall receive eternal life.
  5. That membership is not permanent. If it were, then grace is irresistible and we consequently have imperfect free will.
  6. Therefore, there are choices we can make (i.e sins we can commit) that separate us from God and remove us from the company of the elect.
  7. Like Paul, we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling and strive to finish the good race.
  8. God gives us sustaining grace, spiritual sustenance if you will, if we ask for it and through sacraments.

I’m no theologian or professional apologist, so I’m sure there are flaws in the above list. However, it represents my current understanding of the teachings of the Church. For more details about Catholic soteriology, look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church and search for the word "salvation". The following Catholic Encyclopedia articles also contain useful information.

Elect
Justification
Salvation
General Judgment
Particular Judgment
Predestination
Grace
Faith

The Not-So-Good News?

Leave a reply

Adian Warnock has been taking some heat for his wife’s "simple gospel". I think he thinks I’m one of the people giving him flack. Honestly, I’m not. I read his post too quickly and then foolishly blogged based on a misconception. In my rush to catch up on the blogosphere, I didn’t notice he was posting about something his wife had presented to 4-7 year-olds. Had I noticed that, I probably wouldn’t have responded. That’s not to say I agree with all ten points she gave, but given they were meant for children, I probably wouldn’t have blogged about them.

Anyhow, Adrian didn’t approve of my response "The Gospel in 30 Seconds". He calls my views "totally false" and makes the claim that I stated "that we must EARN our salvation". This is not true. I did not say that we have earn salvation. I implied that faith without works is dead. I also implied that repentance isn’t a do-it-once-and-you’re-done thing. It’s something we must do all our lives. Sin has consequences. Even when God forgives us, we still must attempt to repair the damage we have caused to ourselves and to others. Not to do so is to not be sorrowful of our sins and truly repentant. Also, it is possible to lose salvation. There are sins that cannot be forgiven without explicit confession, contrition, and penance. There’s no such thing as "once saved, always saved". Neither I nor the Catholic Church believes that one must earn salvation.

Now that I’ve defended my impromptu over-simplification of 2000 years of soterilogy, I’d like to apologize to Adrian and his wife, in case either felt ganged up on. I’m big into interdenominational dialogue, reunification of the Mystical Body of Christ, and apologetics. I was hoping to spur discussion, not attack anyone’s faith or expression thereof.

Your blog is a regular read of mine, Adrian. Keep on keepin’ on. 🙂

Pax Christi