Tell me how
the following sits with you:
Well, fine. I can cut through a lot of basic apologetics then, for you will recognize the doctrinal terminology presented from the Reformed view.
First and foremost, we differ primarily with the RCC because Reformers hold to the Truth that
sinners are justified by faith, alone. The RCC system of thought, as your document verifies, is a synergistic system, that declares soteriology contingent upon human co-operation (“good works”).
You are taught that God’s grace does not monergistically save, but only enables and helps the sinner lead a holy life, so that he might be declared saved on the last day. Obedience to God synergistically achieves ultimate salvation, rather than being the result of saving Grace that changes the heart and mind of the sinner upon regeneration.
The recent discussion we have had on this thread, reveals the lengths to which some will take a supposed synergism, which they believe necessary for salvation, to apply even to non-contingent God, robbing Him of His Simplicity, Immutability, Omniscience, etc.
In this regard, Arminians are more like the RCC than Calvinists. Arminians are Synergists, where Calvinists are Monergists. Thus the ongoing conflict between these two Protestant camps.
I will go through the Magistrate declarations, and point out our differences.
303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events: "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases." And so it is with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens". As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will be established."
This paragraph is agreeable.
304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes.
That is because God is not contingent upon secondary causes. The secondary agency (will) given to man is accountable to submit to God’s primary causes; particularly through moral obedience to His commands. (Decalogue) However, God is not subject, nor accountable, to the same Laws of Creation, for He is Creator. His commands (Word) is mankinds’ final authority.
This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way of recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the world, and so of educating his people to trust in him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.
God’s people are gifted with faith. Faith is knowledge of God’s will, intents, purposes, and promises. Belief is the acting out and manifesting saving faith, but sinners are justified by faith alone, apart from any works of belief. Trust, is resting in this Truth.
Justification comes by faith, alone and so does Sanctification. Works do not factor in at all, other than manifesting the fruits of the Indwelling Holy Spirit in the lives of the regenerate.
There is no synergy in any of this. Calvinism is a Monergistic view in all regards.
This does not rule out obedience, the duties of living according to the moral Law, but rather establishes and validates both. Romans 3:31
Providence and secondary causes
306 God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation.
Disagree. God does not need His creatures co-operation. This is Synergism.
This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan.
It is mans’ duty to submit his will and actions to the sovereign will of God. God’s purpose in bestowing saving grace upon His people, is to bring them into harmony with His will. This was exemplified throughout the life of Jesus Christ. He without fail, did the will of the Father and not his own. Jesus Christ did not co-operate with God; He obeyed all the holy and moral Law. This is how mankind was created to live with God. In willful submission to God’s commands and holy standards. IOW’s man was not created to be God’s buddy; nor was man created to elevate himself through holy works to God’s equal.
307 To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it.
This is not providence; this is Law. These duties came in the form of command/promise. This was the basis of the first Covenant of Creation (Works) which Adam breached in his disobedience.
God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors.
Creation was complete before the fall. Justification through faith will result in spiritual good for the believer and goodness shown to one’s fellow man. But it is an effect of faith; not a cause of faith or a synergistic work of any kind.
Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom.
I object to the words, “collaborators, fellow-workers, and co-workers, all together . . for all the reasons already stated above. Christians are God’s subjects; enabled to serve His righteousness through the power of His Holy Spirit, alone.
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Far from diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the creature vanishes." Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace.
This is a monergistic statement that I can mostly agree with. However, the bolded is not biblical and a little too dramatic I believe, for it opens the door to the possibility of justification (forgiveness) being lost through lack of works, trust, obedience, rituals, etc. none of which God is dependent upon.
The saints will persevere to the end because God has promised to preserve them to the end. It is by this total reliance and rest in God, by faith, that the saints endure all things. To God alone be the glory!
