Wednesday, May 27, 2009

My Default Arminianism


If you know anything about me, you know that I'm a Calvinist. I'm not one of these Arminians. Except that as a Calvinist, I believe in total depravity, which means that as a Calvinist I know that I am an Arminian. That is - even though I say with my lips that I'm justified by faith alone, in my heart I think that I can earn God's favor with my behavior. In fact, if you're a really hardcore Calvinist, you think that you can earn God's favor because of your zeal and commitment to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Calvinists hold to the doctrine of unconditional election which holds that God didn't choose us because He peered down the corridors of time and saw that we would choose Him - that's an Arminian view. We don't believe that. No, we think God peered down the corridors and saw that we'd be a Calvinist and that's why He chose us.
So often our spiritual exercises are designed in the horrible, dark corners of our hearts as a means to win God's favor.

- R.C. Sproul, Jr. [pictured with his newly adopted son, Reilly Justice Sproul]

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