Thirdly, we will further consider the
Humanism of Arminianism and its theory that fallen man’s will is the
determinative factor in his present and future well-being.
Humanism and Arminianism teaches
that one of man’s most destructive flaws is to mistrust himself. In
countering
this fallacious elevation of the native intellect of man, Paul says: “We
rejoice in Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians
3:3). Christ, speaking of regeneration, declares: “It is not of
the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
Salvation of the soul is not the result of a cooperative effort of God
and man,
but God is the Sovereign and solitary author of the salvation of His
people (Hebrews
12:2). Esau, Isaac’s first born son, trusted in himself, and while
running
in the energy of the flesh, he lost the blessing (Genesis 27),
and
reflecting on Esau’s diligent effort to earn the promised blessing,
Paul said: “So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that
sheweth mercy.” (Romans 9:16).
Humanists claim that academic
learning is the panacea for all of man’s ills and difficulties. It is
this sort
Paul has in mind when he says, they are: “Ever learning, and never
able to
come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Timothy 3:7). The
more they
learn the more acute becomes their ignorance of God, and despite for
His word.
The humanist contends that the Bible is a myth, a fabrication of
unlearned and
ignorant men. Thus it is, he allows no place for the Bible in his
acumen. His
learning has given sophistication to his atheism, but he will one day
learn
that his denial of the God of the Bible has infinitely aggravated his
reprobation (Romans 2:5). “The wisdom of this world is
foolishness
with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”
(I
Corinthians 3:19).
Humanists puffed up on their
academic attainments have concluded that their postulates are
axiomatic, and
that their wisdom is so absolute it allows for no “ifs” or “perhaps”.
Their
dogmatism is that of a fool, for they have said in their hearts, “There
is
no God.” (Psalms 14:1), and they know nothing yet as they
ought to
know it (I Corinthians 8:2). The born again person does not deny
the
contention of the Humanists that an education in the arts and sciences
taught
by the elite institutions of men enhances success. The Lord’s churches
have a
high regard and respect for success, but what they know and proclaim
is: any
success that does not own God as its Author is of the flesh and the
flesh
profiteth nothing. Simply, aside from God there is NO genuine success.
Arminianism says: “Man has the
intellectual power to choose eternal life or death, and that every man
is given
ample space to make up his mind in this vital matter”. But Christ says,
speaking of the natural man: “Ye will not come to Me that ye might
have
life.” (John 5:40). Speaking of the utter impotence of man’s
natural
will, Christ says: “No man can come to me ...” (John 6:44).
Paul,
in his accentuation of this truth, says: “The carnal mind is enmity
against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So
then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom. 8:7-8)
The
natural man is “Ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth.” (II Timothy 3:7).
Arminianism’s declaration of the
absolute independence of man’s will is tantamount to saying, the fruit
of a
tree has a nature of its own, which is altogether free of the root of
the tree.
The fruit of a tree is invariably determined by the character of its
root.
Genealogically, Adam is the root of mankind, and when Adam committed
spiritual
suicide (Genesis 3:6), his progeny died in him. “Wherefore,
as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon
all men,
for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12).
“A corrupt tree cannot bring
forth good fruit ...” (Matthew 7:18). All
the moral fruit which the natural man brings forth, be they ever so
laudatory
or praiseworthy by the standards of men, are, when weighed in the
scales of
omniscience, seen to be worm infested. Thus it is, the rationalist is
left
without a valid recourse, for the law of reaping and sowing applies not
only to
agrarian science, but to all earthly organisms. Christ said: “The
tree is
known by his fruit.” (Matthew 12:33). Note: in this text,
Christ
personified the “tree”, and in so doing, leaves NO room for the
hypocrite. The
flesh, be it ever so religious, profiteth nothing (John 6:63).
Job,
speaking of human reproduction, asks: “Who can bring a clean thing
out of an
unclean?” And Job, with awesome finality, answers his own question,
saying:
“Not one” (Job 14:4).
Humanism and Arminianism contend
that the will of man is free and independent of God, and it is of such
power
that it can frustrate and nullify the will of God. Therefore, this
premise
teaches that the ultimate in all things is left to the reasoning power
and will
of man. So, it inevitably follows, their faith is in man, and that man
in the
final analysis is the measure of all things. Over and against this
felonious
contention of Arminianism and Humanism, the all wise and merciful God
has
issued the following admonition; “Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding ... . He that
trusteth in his
own heart is a fool.” (Proverbs 3:5, 28).
Nowhere in the Bible is it said
the man who has lost his natural mentality is a fool. Notwithstanding,
the
worldly wise oft refer to the dedicated Christian as being mentally
deranged (Acts
26:24), but oft times the Bible refers to the worldly wise as
fools, and
likens their dialogue as being inferior to the chatter (prattle) of
children (Proverbs
10:8). The rich farmer (Luke 12) ingeniously devised a
scheme
whereby he would have plenty with pleasure for many years to come, but
not once
in all of his planning and purpose was God ever thought of, and this
lack of
consideration for the Author of all life was his fatal and eternal
mistake
which proved him to be a “fool”. A rich “fool” is no better off than a
poor
fool, for both have said in their heart, “There is no God.” (Psalms
14:1).
Humanism’s so-called “good life” is temporal at the longest, and
superficial at
its best, and is all too often the “wide gate that leadeth to
destruction.”
(Matthew 7:13). The Apostle Paul, leaving no
room for ambiguity, asks: “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
this
world?” (I Corinthians 1:20).
Arminianism is the choice gem of
religious ignorance, and Humanism is the idolized brain child of
intellectualism. The two isms in their combined strength, are nothing
more than
tinkling cymbals and sounding brass. The God of the Bible is the Author
of all
true science, and there has never been a conflict between the
Scriptures and
true science. But when “science, falsely so called” (I
Timothy 6:20)
is weighed on the scales of God’s infallible word, it is rejected in
toto, and
labeled “wood, hay and stubble.” (I Corinthians 3:12).
But
worse than false science is the deification of true science by the
Humanists,
for it is by this artifice Satan has made allies of a great host of
academics,
who are fearfully worse off for all of their learning, and will be
found of an
unsound mind before the omniscient God in the day when all accounts are
settled.
The Humanists say, without the
least compunction: “Science alone can resolve for man the eternal
problems for
which his very being urgently demands a solution” (Wilhelm Dilthey,
THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY, page 16). The Hippocratic oath does not make a
physician; wedding vows do not make a marriage; a confession of faith
does not
make a Christian; nor can humanistic science, be it ever so perfect,
redeem, or
help to redeem one soul. The Holy One of Israel has, with Sovereign
exclusivity, said: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is
no
Saviour” (Isaiah 43:11).
Fourthly, Arminianism and Humanism
are the inventions of men. “Lo, this only have I found, that God
hath made
man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” (Ecclesiastes
7:29). The word, “inventions” in this text is not a reference to
man’s
scientific discoveries or devices which he has invented to help
alleviate the
hardship of his journey back to dust from whence he came, but it is a
reference
to religious inventions, for the inventions referred to in the text are
contrary to the original uprightness of man. Every religious heresy is
of the
Devil, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44), and
Arminianism and Humanism are his prize deceits. The word “and” used in
the
foregoing sentence is not used merely as a conjunctive, but to show the
parity
of the twin evils.
The ill supposition that the will
of man is utterly free and independent of God is the foundational
doctrine upon
which Arminianism and Humanism stands. These God debasing systems are
as
ancient as Lucifer’s first “I will” (Isaiah 14:13-14), and will
not
reach their terminus until the Devil, the originator of these fatal
deceptions
is cast into the everlasting lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). The
foundation upon which Arminianism and Humanism stand is not merely
defective,
but is utterly faulty, and all who are deceived thereby are not wise,
but
foolish (Romans 1:21-22). But the would-be detractors object,
saying: “You
put man in an intellectual straight jacket; rob him of his image of
God;
and nullify his will”. It is not
our contention that man’s will is impotent, but that it is
circumscribed by his
nature. It is an obvious absurdity to claim that man can will or desire
something that is contrary to his own nature. The natural man’s will is
in
bondage to sin, and never varies in its servitude (Romans 6:20).
Man by
nature is free to choose whatever pleases him, but he cannot prefer
that which
is the very opposite of his essence and being.
The carnal desire is limited to
that which pleases the flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot
please God
(Romans 8:8). Man’s natural liberty is exceeding great, but
every
exercise of that liberty is utterly sensuous, and is antagonistic to
the nature
of the thrice holy God (Isaiah 6:3). So then, man’s natural will
is not
only destitute of all spiritual value, but in his every utterance and
action he
aggravates the condemnation under which all men are born (John 3:18).
All men all the time are by their Adamic nature haters of God (Psalms
81:15;
John 15:18, 25; Romans 1:30; etc.).
God does not force His people to
come to Him contrary to their will and nature, but God in sovereign
love and
mercy gives His people a new nature, and all the Father gave the Son in
the
unconditional covenant of election will joyfully come to Him, and that
by the
power of God (Psalms 110:3; Jermiah 31:3; John 6:37, 44).
The natural man is free to love
God, but he has neither the power, nor the desire to even be near God,
much
less love Him, for he is innately a hater of God. Paul, speaking of the
natural
man, says: “He is filled with all unrighteousness, maliciousness, full
of envy,
backbiters, haters of God, inventors of evil things.” (Romans 1:29-30).
The Ethiopian is free to change his spots for the stripes of a tiger,
but owing
to creature inability, these changes are an impossibility. So it is
with the
natural man. He is free to put off his custom of doing evil, but he
never has
the least desire to do so. (Jermiah 13:23), for he has beyond a
single
doubt concluded that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of
myths, and that
Christianity is the opiate of the people. These soul damning
conclusions are
intertwined with fallen man’s nature, and can only be severed by the
sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
Fallen man, be he rich or poor,
strong or weak, learned or unlearned, is an egotist. Mr. Webster has
defined “egotism”
, saying: “It is an ethical doctrine that individual self interest is
the valid
end of all action.” So it is, the vocabulary of fallen man consists
mainly of
the words, “Me, mine, my, and I”. But the Bible says: “He that thinketh
himself
to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” (Galatians
6:3).
The Apostle Paul for the most of his life was an egotist, self-willed,
and
self-congratulatory. He persecuted the disciples of Christ, both men
and women,
and he says he was “exceedingly mad against them.” (Acts
22:4; 26:11).
Paul, being blinded by pride, did not know that God had set aside his
beloved
religion, and with intense fervor he went forth to destroy every person
that
named the name of Christ. But while enroute on one of his persecuting
missions,
he was confronted with a great light from heaven, and an ego deflating
voice,
upon the sound of which, he fell to the ground, from which he arose one
of the
most selfless and greatest of men that ever lived (Acts 22:6-10).
However, he knew that in and of himself, he was a wretched man before
God (Romans
7:24), and knowing this, he said: “I am less that the least of
all
saints ...” (Ephesians 3:8).