Student
After reading Enns' section on "Reformation Soteriology," critique and evaluate his assessment of Calvinism (Reformed) and Arminianism on the select topics of atonement and faith and works (Enns, ch. 30). Would your church denomination be in agreement with the Reformed or Arminian or some modified position?
Reformation Soteriology is generally described as a theology that stresses God's sovereignty in salvation. Generally is equated with Calvinism. One may agree that the essence of free choice is that man always embraces what his heart wants more than anything else at the present time. Reformers believed the faculty of the will is free, but it is in bondage to its nature, as all wills are. There is truth in what Enns says, “The Reformers taught Christ died to satisfy the justice of God. This work of Christ can be appropriated only by faith, which unites the believer to Christ; the believer thereby has Christ righteousness imputed to him.” [1] Calvin’s teaching that Christ died only for the elect then how do we account for the passage, “for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:21-22). Calvin’s view of atonement was that Christ death was a particular atonement that He only died for the elect. This view gives us the understanding that we are all predestined by God. The Arminian view believes that Christ death was just a sacrificial offering where the death of an animal was deliverance from punishment. The death of Christ was a replacement for a punishment not a harsh equal for sin. [2] God promised to pardon sinners on the basis of Christ death. Paul relates this in his writings “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The issue for me is that if we were to teach the Calvinistic principal of atonement in our church there may be a misunderstanding on the issue of the chosen
Reformation Soteriology is generally described as a theology that stresses God's sovereignty in salvation. Generally is equated with Calvinism. One may agree that the essence of free choice is that man always embraces what his heart wants more than anything else at the present time. Reformers believed the faculty of the will is free, but it is in bondage to its nature, as all wills are. There is truth in what Enns says, “The Reformers taught Christ died to satisfy the justice of God. This work of Christ can be appropriated only by faith, which unites the believer to Christ; the believer thereby has Christ righteousness imputed to him.” [1] Calvin’s teaching that Christ died only for the elect then how do we account for the passage, “for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:21-22). Calvin’s view of atonement was that Christ death was a particular atonement that He only died for the elect. This view gives us the understanding that we are all predestined by God. The Arminian view believes that Christ death was just a sacrificial offering where the death of an animal was deliverance from punishment. The death of Christ was a replacement for a punishment not a harsh equal for sin. [2] God promised to pardon sinners on the basis of Christ death. Paul relates this in his writings “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). The issue for me is that if we were to teach the Calvinistic principal of atonement in our church there may be a misunderstanding on the issue of the chosen