The Humanism Of Arminianism
Part I

Elder O. B. Mink

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Corinthians 2:14)

I know that definition of terms are generally very boring, but for the sake of clarity and understanding, it is necessary that the terms Arminianism and Humanism be defined at the outset of this discourse. The distinction between the two terms is in the far greater part superficial, and even more so when considered in the light of true religion.
 
The term “Humanism” defined by Webster:
           
“A doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially a philosophy that assures the dignity and worth of man and his capacity for self realization through reason and often that rejects supernaturalism.” This definition, as will be shown in the following consideration of the term, is diametrically opposed to or the very opposite of biblical anthropology.
   
Arminianism defined:
           
It is a religious system centered in man. According to Arminianism, it is man that makes the decrees of God effectual. It consists of five (5) articles, i.e.,
   
1.) Conditional election.
   
2.) Universal atonement; (That is, Christ in His sacrificial death made atonement for all of mankind).
   
3.) Regeneration brings good works.
   
4.) Divine grace is resistible.
   
5.) Believers may finally fall from grace and be eternally lost.
   
These definitions are concise, and do not penetrate very deeply into the intense darkness of these man exalting and God debasing isms, but we will enlarge upon them as we progress in the message. The main or central feature of Arminianism and Humanism is the idea that man is superior to God, and that man can, in and of himself, solve all of his problems without any supernatural help. An early perpetrator of Arminianism and Humanism is third century Pelagianism, which exalted the human will above that of the God of the Bible.
   
Knowing the Holy Spirit inspired word of God (II Timothy 3:16) is sufficient for reproof and correction of every sophism of man, it will be the exclusive criteria I shall use in refuting the preposterous frauds referred to in the heading of this message.
   
Firstly, let us consider the HUMANISM OF ARMINIANISM in the light of Scripture revelation concerning the absolute sovereignty of God. To say that God is sovereign is to own and proclaim that He is Almighty, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and that “He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.” (Psalms 115:3). It is the inescapable obligation of the Adamic family to recognize the sovereignty of God, and to ascribe perfect praise unto Him. (Psalms 46:10; I Peter 2:9). The God of the Bible has emphatically declared: “I am the first and the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6). Every other god (?) is conjured up by vain imagination, the figment of which is the very ground of both Humanism and Arminianism. The fatal aspect of these two nefarious isms is not that they do not have a god, but that their god is such a one as their inventors. (Psalms 50:21).
   
Humanism and Arminianism have a singular goal, and that is to dethrone God, and enthrone man. In both systems the sovereignty and authority of God over man is abrogated; man becomes the sovereign and God the suppliant; and man is the exclusive determiner of his eternal destiny. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is so hateful to Humanism and Arminianism, they have mustered all the resources of carnal sagacity in an effort to find deficiency in the God of the Bible. The Apostles of the Lord have warned His churches, saying: “... There should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lust ... having not the Spirit” (Jude 18, 19). These vain mockers are shut up to degenerate wisdom, and being bound by their finite intellect, cannot conceive of God as being any more than themselves, and say in their hearts: “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). The term, “this man”, is a reference to Christ.
   
“Humanism holds that human beings shape their own destiny” (Secular Humanism, by Homer Duncan). The person who is able to decree his or her own destiny is, and must be a god. So it is, Humanism is not a religion without a god, but every person according to its premise is a god in and of themselves. The inevitable result of this satanic concept is self worship, and the worst form of idolatry, is autolatry, or full of devotion to self. It was this very ideology that tripped up Lucifer (Isaiah 14:13).
   
Arminianism, like Humanism is a religion without the God of the Bible, but it is not godless, for this creature exalting system contends that man is the exclusive determiner of his own destiny. Therefore, like Humanism, every man is in and of himself a god. Oliver B. Green, recently deceased, but while as yet living was one of the most fervent advocates of Arminianism. Speaking of the sovereignty of God, predestination, election, and irresistible grace, he said: “They are some of the rankest and some of the vilest doctrines I have ever heard.” (PREDESTINATION, Page 1). The doctrines referred to by Mr. Green in the immediate quote are obnoxious to the supreme (?) intellect of the natural man, for the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). However, the substitutionary death of Christ has atoned for the hereditary hatred of His elect people (Ephesians 2:16), and they will in due season cry out from their inmost and redeemed soul: “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Revelation 19:6).
   
There is not merely a correlation between Arminianism and Humanism, but when both systems are carefully examined, it will be readily seen they have the same choreographer, and dance to the flesh pleasing music of creature invincibility, and that without missing a step. Arminianism and Humanism contend that man is an autonomous entity, and that God’s decrees may be negated by the vaunted will of man. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. (II Timothy 3:5).
   
“This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come” (II Timothy 3:1). The climax of this present evil age is imminent, perilous times have come, the foundation of the ecumenical church is laid, and the superstructure is going up at an accelerated pace. The false prophet and the antichrist are waiting in the wings, and will in the near future step onto the world stage. The so-called Christian Church is utterly permeated with Arminianism, and the political and educational world is overrun with secular Humanism. Pseudo Christianity and Humanism will soon merge, for it is not difficult for two systems to merge when they are so much alike and their goals and ends are the same, and that is the glorification of man.
   
But the struggling saint should not despair for no man, be he even the personal anti-Christ, is able to pluck God’s elect from His all sovereign hand (John 10:27- 29). The ranting and raving of Arminianism and Humanism is nothing more that the rattling of their chains of degradation and death with which they are sovereignly bound. Arminianism says: “Sinners go to hell because God Almighty Himself could not save them! He did all He could. He failed” (Noel Smith - Defender Magazine). But the Bible doesn’t agree with Noel Smith, for that infallible Book says, speaking of God: “What His soul desireth, even that He doeth” (Job 23:13). Humanism says: “No Deity shall save us, we must save ourselves” (The Humanist Manifesto). The Scripture says that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16), and that “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Paul says, speaking of Christ: “According to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). If man’s destiny is left to Arminianism or Humanism, God will be defeated and heaven deserted. But perish the thought, for the Sovereign and infallible Architect of the universe says: “He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will ...” And. “As I have purposed, so shall it stand” (Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 14:24).
   
Humanism does not recognize the God of the Bible as an authority in any matter, and Arminianism disavows the authority of God in all things. If God is not sovereign in all things, then He is not sovereign in anything, for that which He is not sovereign over, is the sovereign of all things, including God. However, God denounces His would-be detractors, asking: “Nay but, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20). The creature has NO right to question his Creator, for God’s supreme and all pervading providence redounds to His own glory, and the eternal good of His people (Romans 8:28; I Corinthians 1:31).
   
Arminianism is nothing more than Humanism with a religious veneer, the combination of which is the ultimate subterfuge of the devil. Both systems are an eternal offense unto God, and it would be far better to have never been born, than to live and die trusting these God scandalizing errors for salvation from sin. So, let us not limit the Holy One of Israel. (Psalms 78:41), for His omnipotence is absolute, and no satanic ruse can in any wise hinder or disturb Him.
   
Secondly, let us consider the HUMANISM OF ARMINIANISM in the light of the Bible doctrine of the total depravity of man. The Psalmist says: “... Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” (Psalms 39:5). This text refers to man as he is in his Adamic nature, and it plainly says that Adam and all of his posterity are in their fallen nature, totally depraved. The text allows for no exceptions, and allows for no partial depravity. Every man was utterly and spiritually ruined in Adam, for when Adam rebelled against God (Genesis 3:6), his action was not representatively singular, for he was at the time the federal head of the family of man, and in his defiance of God, his posterity became utterly defiled, for they acted in Adam (I Corinthians 15:21,22).
   
Arminianism takes exception to the doctrine of total depravity of fallen nature, and says: “Man is not a sinner at birth, but at birth man becomes a potential sinner” (John R. Rice, as quoted by John Zens, from The Sword). Religious Humanism calls the Bible account of the fall of Adam a fable, and Arminianism has put a little sugar on their position, so as to satisfy the religious curiosity of the natural man. However, if a man takes arsenic coated with sugar, it will kill him as readily as the plain or uncoated. Damnable doctrine is just that, no matter what flavor it comes in. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12).
   
Humanism teaches that man as he is in nature is a moral giant and of infinite worth. Arminianism teaches the same thing, saying: “God valued man so highly that He sent His Son to redeem the whole family of man.” Conversely, the Scripture says: “They have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:12). The word, “unprofitable”, as used in this Scripture does not simply mean, no profit, but that man in the Edenic transgression suffered an irreparable deficit; and this loss has left man without God or hope.
   
Christ, in explicit and emphatic words said: “The flesh profiteth nothing.” (John 6:63). But no matter how well defined the words of Christ may be, they have never made a favorable impression on Arminianism, and this pseudo system says: “God needs us, for we are the only feet, hands, and mouth God has”. Poor handicapped God. But their god is not the God of the Bible, for He “... taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man... “ “... as he has purposed, so shall it stand ...” “... for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Psalms 147:10; Isaiah 14:24; Philippians 2:13).
   
The advocates of Arminianism and Humanism rebuke all who proclaim the immutable sovereignty of God over His universe, and all that is therein. They voice their objection, saying: “Your position on depravity dehumanizes man, and makes him as bad as the beast of the field”. This objection is not even near the truth of what sovereign grace believers contend for. Our position is based squarely on Scripture, therefore we do not dehumanize man, but emphasize the fact he is man, and as man he has no God likeness. Fallen and unredeemed man is the antithesis of God, for he is ungodly, and is an unrelenting enemy of God (Romans 4:5; 5:10).
   
The fallacious charge that we make man as bad as the beast of the field misses the mark by an infinite distance. To say that fallen man is as the beast of the field is to insult the lower animal kingdom, and to pay man a highly undue compliment. For, we ask, “What beast of the field is it that ever had an evil thought about God?” Conversely, where and who is the man in his native state that ever had a good thought about God? “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart are only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5). To the natural man, God saith: “Thou thoughest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” (Psalms 50:21). This is the ultimate of evil thought, and manifests the utter and awful depravity of the human mind, and its fearful disregard for the unimpeachable holiness of God.
   
“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” (Jude 10.  See also Ecclesiastes 3:18). This Scripture declares, while man is supposed to be a rational creature by nature, he has corrupted the moral principles of humanity, and has stooped lower than the irrational beasts of the field. Simply, sin has corrupted every fiber and faculty of man’s nature, so much so, he can neither know or obey God.
   
I ask in all seriousness, are we not in civilized and educational America living according to or below the code of the jungle? To answer this question in the negative is to deny nearly every newspaper headline that is printed in the USA. Humanism and Arminianism contend that the only thing wrong with man is: he needs a little more education. The unfavorable query is: Where is it that man can get this cure-all education? If we send our children to public school, they are inundated with humanism. If the family attends an Arminian church, it is deluged with the pernicious doctrine of self salvation. Christ rebuked some of the first century works mongers, saying: “Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). As it was then, so is it now. But as there was hope then, so it is now. There is a contemporaneous ray of light shining through the immense darkness of Arminianism and Humanism.
   
Hence, we go to the Holy Spirit inspired word of God, and when we do, we find that the “manifold wisdom of God” is to be known through His church, and “That unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:10, 21). If a person’s membership is in a church that teaches that the carnal man may at any time commend himself to the saving favor of God, he is in a false church no matter the name it may go by, or the isms it may teach and practice. The Scripture says, speaking of regeneration: “... It is not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13). Christ said to His disciples: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you ...” (John 15:16). The Apostle Paul makes it known beyond contradiction that God’s choice of His people antedated time and creation, and that it was according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:4-9). So it is, God in His great love for His people who are caught in the satanic snares of Arminianism and or Humanism, admonishes them, saying: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (II Corinthians 6:17).