Are Arminians Even Saved?
When I engage in discussion with other brothers and sisters in the faith regarding the Doctrines of Grace aka the Five Points of Calvinism or about the absolute Sovereignty of God, I get one specific question that seems to concern non-Calvinists or non-Reformed Christians and with good reason. The question usually goes like this “Ricky, are Arminians or non-Calvinist even Christians?”. My usual response is, of course they are and that all those who have put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are sealed with the promise. But, it is a little deeper than that.
I do not affirm that Arminians or non-Calvinist are not saved like many if not most Hyper-Calvinist do but rather I affirm with the rest of orthodox Reformed teachers that the problem is that Arminians have inconsistent bad theology and are saved in spite of that and that is usually the case. I find, in my many encounters with Arminians, that they really do not understand what they believe and that most Arminians are inconsistent and they don’t really believe what they claim they do. Why do I say that? Well for example, they pray and plead with God to intervene and save their family members and friends, they pray like Calvinist, How? You may be asking yourself. It is because God has no right to or in His gentlemanly character would violate mans “free” will according to Arminianism. But most Arminians, the ones that are saved, know in their heart that salvation IS all the work of God and IS all by grace. So they pray and plead for God to save sinners. Their true theology comes out in their prayers and I would argue even in their sermons, even if they don’t want to admit it.
Most Arminians agree with Calvinist and affirm that salvation is all of Christ through grace and that faith is the only instrument by which we receive Christ. Most Arminians I dialogue with will clearly acknowledge that they have no hope except in the mercy of Jesus Christ alone. Here is the bottom line. That as long as their trust is in Christ alone and they see faith as the vital instrument to receive Him then it is more than likely that they are saved and we should be gracious and merciful in thinking that they are. Furthermore, many Christians do not even know what Arminianism nor what Calvinism is to begin with but nevertheless believe it is grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone.
On the other hand those non-Calvinists who are pure Pelagians who believe man can get to God without the help of God’s grace and or deny that salvation is of grace alone and believe that salvation has to be earned via your own works and your own righteousness as Rome teaches then I must highly question their salvation and preach to them the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let us be mindful of these important distinctions. It is not our job to know who are truly saved or not. Yes of course we must preach and teach the truth while exposing error and destructive heresies but that does not give us the license to doctrine check everyone we come in contact with.
I leave you with these quotes of a few who were some of the most vigorous defenders of Calvinism.
“A man may be evidently of God’s chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
“Far be it from me to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
“By orthodox Christians we mean those who believe in historic Christianity. In
particular we are thinking of all Protestants, whether Lutheran, Arminian or
Reformed in their theology.”
Dr. Cornelius Van Til, Westminster
Theological Journal. 16:2, May 1954.
“Arminianism accepts the Bible, preaches the vicarious death of Christ, and believes in the Resurrection. All sincere Arminians are predestinated, all persevere in grace, and are perfectly sanctified in heaven. We hold that
Arminianism misinterprets the Scriptures on some important points. But, to put it mildly, it requires a singular lack of theological discernment to hold that Modernism and Arminianism are equally dangerous.”
Dr. Gordon Clark, to the Directors of Covenant House, March 1, 1948.
“An Arminian may be a truly regenerate Christian; in fact, if he is truly an Arminian and not a Pelagian who happens to belong to an Arminian church, he must be a saved man. But he is not usually, and cannot consistently be
assured of his salvation. The places in which his creed differs from our Confession confuse the mind, dilute the Gospel, and impair its proclamation.”
Dr. Gordon Clark, What Presbyterians Believe, 74.
“Not all Christians are Calvinists … It must not be supposed that these people are therefore lacking in sincerity and devotion or that they are outside the fold of Christ.”
Dr. Gordon Clark, What Presbyterians Believe, 22.