Arminianism

Curtis Narimatsu

AI —

Lutheran seminary students denounce Arminian theology primarily because it undermines the foundational Reformation principle of sola gratia, or “grace alone”. While both traditions believe salvation is a gift from God, they disagree fundamentally on the nature of human free will and its role in accepting that gift. 

Core Lutheran objections to Arminianism

• The bondage of the will: Following Martin Luther’s treatise On the Bondage of the Will, Lutherans teach that the human will is “in bondage” to sin and is spiritually dead, utterly incapable of initiating a “decision for Christ” on its own. Arminianism, in contrast, teaches that God’s grace enables a person to either accept or reject the gospel through their own free will. For Lutherans, this suggests that the sinner contributes to their own salvation, which conflicts with their view that salvation is entirely God’s work.
• The nature of faith: In Lutheran theology, faith is not a human decision but a gift created in a person’s heart by the Holy Spirit through the gospel and baptism. This perspective views faith as an “empty hand” that receives God’s saving grace, not a meritorious act of human cooperation. Lutherans reject the Arminian view, which can be interpreted as making faith a condition or a human contribution to justification.
• Unconditional election: Lutherans confess the doctrine of unconditional election, agreeing with Calvinists that God’s choice to save believers is based entirely on His grace and the merits of Christ, not on any foreseen faith or action by the individual. They diverge from Arminianism, which teaches that election is conditional upon God’s foreknowledge of a person’s future faith. For Lutherans, the Arminian view subtly reintroduces human merit into salvation.
• Distinction between law and gospel: Denouncing Arminius allows Lutheran seminarians to preserve the sharp distinction between law and gospel.
  • The law tells humanity that it is sinful and unable to save itself.
  • The gospel proclaims that salvation is a free and unearned gift from God.
  • By teaching that a person plays a role in their own salvation, Lutherans argue that Arminianism conflates the law and the gospel, obscuring the radical freeness of God’s grace. 

A point of agreement, but with different reasoning

Interestingly, Lutherans and Arminians often agree that a true Christian can fall away from the faith. However, the reasons for this belief are different and highlight their core theological differences: 

• Arminianism: Views falling away as the reverse side of one’s initial choice for Christ, since salvation depends on the individual’s free will.
• Lutheranism: Views falling away as the result of human rejection of God’s grace, which is always resistible. They reject the notion that a person has the “ability” to reject Christ, instead viewing it as a spiritual act of drowning for someone already spiritually dead. 

Incompatibility at a foundational level

While some might mistakenly view Lutheranism as a middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, Lutheranism is fundamentally incompatible with the core principles of Arminian theology. In the Lutheran view, the Arminian focus on human freedom in salvation is seen as a move away from the centrality of God as the sole actor in a person’s salvation. 

Understanding the nuances of these theological positions is essential. To go a bit deeper, would you like to explore the difference in how Lutherans and Calvinists view predestination and election, or learn more about the Lutheran doctrine of the means of grace?

A Lutheran Response to Arminianism by Rick Ritchie June 29, 2007, in Modern Reformation

Since the seventeenth century, Calvinism has been identified with its five-point reply to the Arminian party at the Synod of Dort. Calvinists often complain that this summary of their theology, though accurate in expressing the Calvinists’ disagreement with their Arminian opponents, presents a truncated view of what Calvinism really is. Where in the five points do we hear of the covenant or of union with Christ? To properly understand a theology, we must not only know what it says to its opponents, but we need to know how it is to be presented on its own terms.

If a five-point summary is an awkward way to present Calvinism, it is downright foreign to Lutheranism. This is not because Lutheranism lacks a defined doctrine of election. (It certainly has one.) God’s gracious election of certain individuals to salvation was affirmed in Article X of the Formula of Concord, the last of the Lutheran confessions. The darker side of predestination has also been considered. As the great Lutheran theologian Hermann Sasse wrote,

Lutheran theology knows about the God of Predestination: This God who makes us responsible for demands which we cannot fulfill, who asks us questions which we cannot answer, who created us for good and yet leaves us no other choice than to do evil-this is the Deus absconditus. This is the God of absolute Predestination. This is the God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart, who hated Esau even before he was born, the Potter who fashions pots and before whom one shrinks-and who, nevertheless, thunders in pitiless sovereignty at these unhappy creatures, ‘Tua culpa!’ Thine is the guilt! (1) ….
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The relationship between Lutheranism and the Nazis, especially during the Holocaust (Shoah), is a disgrace exposing the bankruptcy of its dead theology. Lutheran leaders and institutions in Germany during the Nazi era either supported or remained silent about the regime’s actions, especially concerning the Jewish Nazi abomination.

The debate over Arminian theology and the principle of sola gratia (grace alone) highlights internal theological disagreements, but it can also be seen as a distraction from addressing the more pressing moral failures of the tradition during critical historical moments. This too exposes the bankruptcy of religious rhetoric. Grace, the translation of חנון in Hebrew, means the commitment to dedicate Oral Torah middot to shape and determine how a person socially behaves and interacts with his/her people in the future! This sola gratia gobbledygook religion rhetoric – simply pie in the sky narishkeit nonsense.

The Reformation, which emphasized grace and faith, remembered for the barbaric 30 Year War! The actions of the Lutheran church during the Shoah have confirmed “by their fruits you shall know them” … the Apple does not fall far from the tree – condemnation. The church, in all its many variable denominations, utterly bankrupt. Never has any Xtian country had a public courtroom hold the church accountable for war-crimes. Never has any State Court ever condemned the church for the 3 Century ghetto gulags of western European Jewry!