I certainly realize that I am a “Jon-e-come-lately” as far my addressing an article written and submitted to the Society of Evangelical Arminians on September 30, 2010 by William Watson Birch. His article: “Answering ‘Against Calvinism’ on Total Depravity.” I’m grateful that Mr. Birch would take the time to even comment on our little paperback parody, Against Calvinism: Logical Arguments to Disprove the Doctrines of Grace; Including the Definitive Scripture List Refuting Calvinism.
If you’re not familiar with William Birch, he is a true adherent to classical Arminianism. You can read his bio info at his website, One Baptist Voice. He, like we, or at least most of us that hang out at Justification by Grace, believe that much of what is out there in contemporary evangelical Christian America is not Arminianism, being at best, semi-Pelagianism, and at worse, is nothing more than a hodge-podge of opinions and philosophy, which actually may more closely resemble neo-Gnosticism than anything else.
I do commend his article for your reading and his website for your perusal and consideration. You may or may not agree with him, but his articles are well written, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. I’ve learned something immediately just from reading this article as I had to look up the word, “irenic,” a word that is not often heard in the Philippines, bush Alaska, or Anniston, Alabama. In the past, I’ve read an article or two he had written as I could squeeze them in; and currently I subscribe to RSS feeds from his present web site. I have not had any personal interaction with Mr. Birch, but from those that have, I understand him to be considerate, jovial, and a passionate lover of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, his is a well written article, and though we may disagree on a few points of doctrine in an overall theological perspective, from the article at hand, the only item that I would ask him to look at again is his statement concerning those dead in trespasses and sins: “Though the truth of the matter is that corpses cannot do anything good, such as believe in Jesus Christ, it is also true that corpses cannot do anything bad, such as reject Jesus Christ: a corpse can do neither good nor bad. The corpse analogy is a poor one at best.”
Without pulling out a bunch of research, etc., my response to his suggestion concerning the neutrality of a corpse is a thought that disagrees with nature as well as scripture. As scripture is our authority, none of you need to have experienced what I have concerning the decay of flesh in a rotting corpse. Though the spirit has left, the stench remains: “Lord, by this time he stinketh” (Luke 11:39). Dead flesh was an abomination, which caused those who handled such to be unclean, forfeiting the privilege and commandment to observe Passover until they had been declared ceremonially clean in order to partake of Pasach Shniy, the Second Passover, a month later (Numbers 9).
Death is not neutral, even in cases such as the boy who fell as dead (Mark 9:26), or as in John’s case at Patmos in the presence of the gloriously ascended Christ (Revelation 1:17-18). The use of the term conjures an image that reflects a less than favorable condition. If that were not true, the Lord wouldn’t have needed to encourage him not to fear. Even when scripture presents a somewhat positive element to death, there is still an element of negativity that accompanies it, i.e., Christ’s obedience unto death (Philippians 2:8), that although brought good for those who would be saved through faith in His atoning death, that death came by the most unspeakable horrors of God’s wrath (Isaiah 53), an affliction and suffering that no creature can ever fathom.
Death is not neutral; and though a corpse cannot do anything bad, by being a corpse that has neither received nor rejected Christ, the unresponsiveness of a corpse is illustrative of the soul that is indifferent to a saving interest in Christ. Indifference and unresponsiveness equates to a denial of Him: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30). Finally, this statement from Jesus basically places the nail in the coffin, so to speak, with regard to the dead in scripture: “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err” (Mark 12:27).
In their recent book Against Calvinism: Logical Arguments to Disprove the Doctrines of Grace; Including the Definitive Scripture List Refuting Calvinism, constructed by self-publishing CreateSpace, irenic Calvinists Jeff Peterson, Eddie Eddings and Jon J. Cardwell state: ‘Man is unable to do anything good or virtuous before God; he is unable to believe in God or come to Him; he is unable to understand the truth; and he is unable to seek God.’1 Arminius and Arminians wholeheartedly agree with this doctrinal statement. Arminius argues against his semi-Pelagian opponents:
In this [fallen] state, the Free Will of man towards the True Good is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace. . . . (CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST)
I’d like to personally acknowledge my gratitude to the Lord for William Birch’s articles and his passionate pursuit of God in Christ. One way or another, his articles do stimulate me to deeper study and meditations of scripture.
HT: Society of Evangelical Arminians
