An Anglican Cleric--Actually, Really-- Believes in Predestination

 

Life has simple surprises.  Here's another Anglican clergyman who--yes, sit down and take a deep breath--actually believes in Article 17 and Predestination.  Most of them, in my experience, wouldn't know or care about it much like other Reformation themes.  Nor would the parishioners, thanks to the clerics.  This Anglican clergyman actually says this: 

"Arminianism is a serious compromise of the gospel. It may not simply be erroneous but, when carefully analysed, be deemed to be heretical."

 

 

He actually said, "Heretical." 

 

Also, the highlight and bold in the text below is in the original. 

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16518


ARTICLE XVII - PREDESTINATION: PASTORAL RATHER THAN POLEMICAL
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonlinewww.virtueonline.org
Sept. 13, 2012

The purpose of Article XVII is primarily pastoral. The intention of the leaders of the English Reformation was to address the common people for the edification of the whole church rather than engage in speculative theology and disputation. They pursued their academic tasks in another context e.g. William Whitaker versus Peter Baro who objected to the doctrine of an unconditional election.

Their aim in the Article was to entice believers to an assurance and enjoyment of their God-appointed state of salvation through grace alone. Predestination was a definite truth of divine revelation to be humbly received, but it had practical implications that required wise counsel and sensitive guidance. It was not beyond the competence of the English Reformers to consider issues such as supra-lapsarianism versus infra-lapsarianism, or to weigh theories, later formulated logically in the 17th century by Amyraut and Pajon, as to the extent of the atonement or the nature of effective grace.

The English were as astute and as bold as their Continental confreres. Their priority was not to prove or debate predestination in the Augustinian sense for that was already agreed. Their aim was to propose and propound the security of the true believer in the love of Christ and promote the "sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort" the doctrine affords as the ground for its proclamation. It is an eternal election effected in and through Christ. Sovereign mercy is the theme. Before time was the "names" of the elect were associated with the Lord Jesus in the mind of God for prospective union with the Beloved, and when the time was right the Lord Jesus accomplished all that was necessary to re-unite the predestined ones with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever.

The way of salvation (or ordo salutis, as some folk prefer to say) as outlined in Romans 8:28-30 is repeated in the Article. The eternal decree is fulfilled in consecutive stages. Salvation, conceived in eternity, is wrought in time. The elect are called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and in due time glorified. The record of their election is sealed in the exercise of faith, the sanctification of their lives, and the witness of the Spirit - these signs are not always consciously recognized by believers.

The necessity for encouragement is ministered to in the second paragraph. The grace of God may be observed and felt in the life of the Christian if the conscience is kept clear and the course of life is lovingly obedient. There are of course pastoral situations that are more complicated where sensitive or disturbed minds are concerned, or inconsistencies of thought and behaviour are present. But confirmation of a gracious state is pledged to the careful enquirer: Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).

Just as balm is applied to humble and believing souls so warnings are announced to irreverent and incautious persons who pry into into the eternal determinations of God. Christ is the focus of the elect and also the earnest enquirer. Humility is the approach to the secrets of the Lord - not attitudinal and intellectual hubris. Curiosity and pride become the tools of the devil in his onslaughts upon the soul causing desperation that engenders a sense of hopelessness and futility in spiritual matters or a daring in reckless godlessness. Forebodings derived from misreadings of providence or dark introspection are to be avoided. They are the snares of the evil one who knows only too well our susceptibilities and vulnerabilities.The Article's universal advice to folk in any condition is to look to Christ and appeal for his mercy with persistence and patience.

Casual speech or unfeeling, cold, and over-confident debate concerning election and reprobation are unseemly and potentially injurious. However, the doctrine is not to be concealed. It stimulates the fear and seeking of God. It confronts us with our helplessness and casts us upon God. It reinforces the fact that the central problem in the plight of man is his possession of a fallen will that is entirely and incurably averse and antipathetical to anything to do with God and his goodness apart from the unbidden intervention of grace.

Such an awareness necessitates an open acknowledgement of predestination if we are to encounter lost humanity on the basis of gospel candour. Biblical particularism exalts God's majesty and dominion over all things in a most salutary way. And although the election of grace highlights our wretchedness as guilty rebels before God it does not permit us to regard the ultimately reprobate as either identifiable or "trash".

Sometimes the doctrine of predestination seems to be interpreted as license to vent misanthropic sentiment or personal spiritual arrogance and superiority. Perdition is a tragedy given the human vocation to bear the image of God defaced in our fall. Charles Spurgeon makes it clear that the sentence of damnation will be uttered with divine respect for the creatures that veered away so seriously from their original purpose: "While I believe in eternal punishment, and must, or throw away my Bible, I also believe that God will give to the lost every consideration, consistent with his love. There is nothing vindictive in him, nor can there be in his punishment of the ungodly (Charles H. Spurgeon, London's Most Popular Preacher, W.Y. Fullerton, Moody Press, pages 151 - 152). "Lord", Spurgeon was heard to pray, "save your elect and then elect some more".

Article XV11 is directed to the hesitant who seek the infinite consolation of rescue through Christ and also to the hardened who are impervious to his overtures of compassion. It is not a guide to strictly dogmatic theology as such and a solution to even legitimate controversy. It establishes how Anglican pastors should preach and deal with precious souls. It is founded in Scriptural truth but it blends divine and human compassion for the lost by wooing the penitent and warning the impenitent. It urges us to an experiential knowledge of God and weans us away from the tendency to abstract theology void of humane concern. The tone is expressive of electing love, love that chooses. Its exhortation is empirical - are you receptive of or resistant to the mercy of God?

The imperfect understanding of the hesitant causes them to summon all the negatives they can think of to exclude themselves from the mercy of God. Their minds are still fixated on merit although they do not intend to be of that persuasion. They need to be educated in the thought patterns of Holy Scripture and come to agree with Blaise Pascal that if you desire God you already have him: "You would not seek me if you had not already found me." (The Mystery of Jesus). The powerful change of desire and affection that creates and disposes the will to know and trust Christ is the supernatural work of God in the hearts of the elect sovereignly selected and separated from the mass of sinful mankind. Prescience is not the ground for marking out certain ones for eternal life but the divine prerogative to favour whom he will (Acts 13:48).

As Augustine avers, the will has to be prepared for assent to Christ as Saviour prior to its volitional and free consent and then assisted all the way thereafter. Regeneration is the Spirit's sovereign deed. The consequence is that the predestined ultimately attain that for which the renewed heart intensely yearns. The non-elect manifest that they are such by their continued and final rejection of God. They spurn his grace, refusing what they do not desire (These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:40), and mock his justice, impugning unfairness to him and blaming him for the exercise of absolute sovereignty (One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will? Romans 9:19). The elect and the non-elect, determined by the will of God, gain exactly what they incline towards - the acceptance or absence of God. To describe the disposition of the elect and non-elect throughout the course of this life is no concession to Arminianism or conditional election. Nor is greater consistency in Biblical particularism gained through assuming Supra-lapsarianism, which may or may not be correct, but seems unlikely (See B.B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation). Election and rejection in Scripture are always treated in relation to human sin and the remedy of the gospel. "Oh, how self-condemned must the man be who says that the gospel is true, and the gospel is free, and saying that, stays away from God." (John "Rabbi" Duncan).

"The obstinacy of men rejects the grace which has been provided, and which God willingly and bountifully offers" (John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Calvin Translation Society: repr. Banner of Truth, 1986, vol 1, pp 476-7). The paradox in Scripture is that God selects whom he will favour and yet he still summons those whom he chooses to pass by (For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone. Ezekiel 18:32 cf 18:23, Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked? & 33:11, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn. Turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel? If it is pointed out that God is addressing Israel as his chosen we note Paul's observation that, "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel", Romans 9:6. See also Matthew 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem".  Arminianism is a serious compromise of the gospel. It may not simply be erroneous but, when carefully analysed, be deemed to be heretical. It diminishes the efficiency and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, reducing his stature and accomplishment as almighty and reliable Redeemer. It touches negatively and disparagingly on so many vital points of soteriological doctrine as virtually to make man his own saviour if its assertions are to be taken seriously. Arminians themselves may be friends and worthy advocates of the gospel, as no doubt many of them are, but the opinions they espouse, when isolated and examined, are foes of the gospel of grace.

Simeon's famous rapport with Wesley is charitable and right in terms of Christian brotherliness, but alleged compatibility in doctrine seems to be based on the common confusion, twofold, of responsibility with ability, and the sincerity of the gospel offer with special grace that achieves its aim. It is gently, and not judgementally observed that due to the well-intentioned truce with Wesley the seepage of Simeonism has adversely affected the witness of Reformed Anglicanism, causing it to be more of a matter of private conviction rather than public proclamation. If Arminianism is, objectively and accurately, determined to be unscriptural and contrary to the doctrine of grace then can it be condoned by Anglicanism and its clergy who are instructed at ordination, "To banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word" (The Ordinal)? According to Thomas Aquinas, a convinced predestinarian, those who teach others, "are bound to believe explicitly more things than others are".


The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church