Comparing Calvinism And Arminius Viewpoints And Touch On...

Throughout history people have questioned election. The question is whether people are predestined to be called to heaven and can not reject the Holy Spirit’s calling such as a John Calvin. Or do we have the free will to accept or deny the Holy Spirit’s calling into our lives such as James Arminius believed. Or is it something else just as Karl Barth or Augustine believed in. But for the purpose of this paper we will look at Calvinism and Arminius viewpoints and touch on the view points of other theologians throughout history to come up with an accurate conclusion of which of the two main theological ideas is most likely the case of election. Election has always been a sensitive subject many in Christian circles. Most Christians lean†¦show more content†¦In the old and new testament he Understanding of election in terms of salvation was not clearly stated but there are scriptures in the Old Testament that you can see where election was in place. The Old Testam ent election mainly involved the nation of Israel. And when he chose the nation of Israel it almost seemed in a way that God chose the nation because he could. In Genesis God chose Abram later named Abraham to become a mighty nation from his seed and be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 18). And through that seed of Abraham in Deuteronomy chose Israel nation even though they where hard hearted often (Deut 9:6). But there are other examples outside the nation of Israel. Most notably Cyrus, Cyrus was chosen to rebuild the temple. God even revealed Himself to Cyrus but there is no evidence to suggest that Cyrus was in fact regenerated So it seems that the Old Testament does not support the concept that personal salvation is a result of individual election. In the New Testament there are verses on election and both sides to support their case. For example in Romans 8 it seems like that predestination is conformed when it mentions that we as believers would be predestined to be in Jesu s image. In Ephesians 1 it states that we where predestined to be adopted. But in John 3 it seems that everyone is called to God. And in Ephesians 2 God gives us the gift of salvation. I think that what