Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you we are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people so thank you for generously

investing in this important and eternal work so with Pastor John busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark these are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history we only have about 30 of them and here's one of them

a listener to the podcast Peter from Seattle writes in Pastor John what is the main difference between Calvinism and Arminism I'm trying to explain this to my 13 year old son and would love to boil it down to one or two watershed differences what would those be okay I am going to give him more than he asked for and then I'm going to give him what he asked for okay I think I think it will be

helpful for me to just walk through the so-called five points because these five points are what the Arminian remonstrants in 1610 through back at the Calvinists the Calvinists didn't come up with five points to start with the Calvinists wrote their their vision of what salvation looks like and how it happens under God's sovereignty and and when the Arminians read that they said these are five places we don't agree and that's where we are.

We've gotten these five points so if you want to talk about what's the key so theological differences between Arminianism Calvinism you got to take these one by one so here's what I'll do I just give one sentence for each each Calvinism Arminianism under under the five points and then I'll say what I would say to my 13 year old depravity Calvinism says people are so depraved and rebellious that they are unable to trust

God without his special work of grace to change their hearts so that they necessarily and willingly freely believe. Arminians say with regard to depravity people are depraved and corrupt but are able to provide the decisive impulse to trust God with the general divine assistance that God gives to everybody.

Election number two Calvinism says that we are chosen God chooses unconditionally whom he will mercifully bring to faith and salvation and whom he will justly leave in their rebellion Arminian say God has chosen us elected to bring to salvation all those whom he foresaw would believe by bringing about

their own faith providing the decisive impetus themselves and as God doesn't decisively produce the faith that he foresees.

Third atonement Calvinism says in the death of Christ God provided sufficient atonement for all but designed that it be effective for the elect meaning that it purchased for them the new covenant promise

that God would bring about in his people faith and perseverance. Arminians say in the death of Christ God provided sufficient atonement for all and designed that it would become effective by virtue of faith for which we not Christ provide the decisive impetus meaning that the faith itself is not purchased by the cross

but it's the human means of obtaining what the cross purchased namely forgiveness of sins. Fourth grace or new birth Calvin say that the new birth is God's work of renewal in our hearts which necessarily brings about the act of willing, hearty, saving faith.

Arminian say the new birth is God's work of renewal in our hearts in response to our act of saving faith and fifth perseverance Calvin say God God works infallibly to preserve us in faith all of us who are truly born again and that no one is ever lost who was truly born of God.

Arminian say God works to preserve his people but does not always prevent some who were born again from falling away to destruction so what's the one thing you dad would say to a son because those are all heavy those words are carefully chosen that would be hard to get and they might need years to work through that and there is a

seminar on the five points I think it's I think it's at the website that people could see but let me ask close with the question trying to answer the question that the dad asked I'd like to say that the one key difference is the sovereignty of God but that that won't work because the Armenians won't like that because they affirm the sovereignty of God too and just mean something a little more limited by it so here's what I would say to my 13 year old.

I would say the key difference is how we get saved. The key difference between a Calvinist and an Armenian is how they understand how we get saved that is how we move from a condition of spiritual unbelief to a condition of heartfelt belief or faith in Christ and the key difference is this.

The Calvinist belief that God has to produce in us the decisive desire for Christ and Armenians believe we must produce in ourselves the decisive desire for Christ.

The Armenians say that God helps us helps all people but we provide the last decisive impetus and desire for that belief or I might say it like this you can tell if someone is an Armenian or a Calvinist by how they answer the question what was the decisive cause of your faith in Christ.

What was the decisive cause of your faith in Christ. Was it God or was it yourself and the Calvinist says the decisive cause of my faith was God and the Armenians says the decisive cause of my faith in Christ is myself.

Very good thank you Pastor John this is just a brief summary if you or someone you love once more details on Calvinism see John Piper's excellent book five points towards a deeper experience of God's grace which you can download right now free of charge in its entirety at desiring God dot org forward slash books again you're looking for the book five points five spelled out F I V E five points.

And thank you for listening to this episode from the archive one of our classics now with over 300,000 total plays to date and Pastor John returns with me to the studio in early September to record new episodes but until then please keep praying for him and please keep sending us new questions all summer we'll get them and we'll read them no matter when you send them our way to do that good or online home at desiring God dot org forward slash ask Pastor John.

I'm your host Tony Ranky we'll see you next time for another one of your favorite episodes see you then.