# Does Arminianism teach that God is a fatalist?



## Average Joey (Dec 13, 2006)

Calvinists have always gotten the argument,from Arminians, that God saw in the future of who will be saved instead of choosing who He would save.Does the Arminian world view really believe that God is impotent or bound by time or fate?

Joe


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## MrMerlin777 (Dec 13, 2006)

I believe that Christopher Ness in his An Antidote to Arminianism said somthing to the effect that Arminianism teaches a God that is bound by cruel fate because all God can do is to look down through time and see who'd choose Christ in history and elect them based on that. So He's not really sovereign in that case but bound by what will be.


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## Blueridge Believer (Dec 13, 2006)

How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence.[1] To say that God the Father has purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God the Son died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; when, as a matter of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of our fellow-men are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. We have stated the issue baldly, but there is no escaping the conclusion. To argue that God is "trying His best" to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent. To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being.

A.W. PINK


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 13, 2006)

I wish I had Dr. Frame's book _The Doctrine of God_ handy. He does an effective job of demonstrating that the view of mixing a form of libertine free will with the idea that God is omniscient leads to only one consistent conclusion: God was able to foresee what would happen once He set creation into motion, but once it began it had to unfold precisely as He foresaw it, without His control.

One of the reasons consistent Arminians become Open Theists is because God's prescience of all events (without control) leads to some very uncomfortable conclusions. Arminians don't like God to be mean in any way so the idea of a God who can't see the future makes Him nice again since He didn't foresee that puppies would get run over by cars and still decided to create such a cruel universe.


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## Scott Bushey (Dec 13, 2006)

Average Joey said:


> Calvinists have always gotten the argument,from Arminians, that God saw in the future of who will be saved instead of choosing who He would save.Does the Arminian world view really believe that God is impotent or bound by time or fate?
> 
> Joe



I believe God settles this when He says:



> John 15:16 16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.





> John 15:19 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.


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