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).