Assurance

The Arminian and Calvinist Ordo Salutis: A Brief Comparative Study

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The ordo salutis is the “order of salvation.” It focuses on the process of salvation and the logical order of that process. The main difference between the Arminian and Calvinist ordo concerns faith and regeneration. Strictly speaking, faith is not part of salvation in the Arminian ordo since it is the condition that is met prior to God’s act of saving. All that follows faith is salvation in the Arminian ordo while in the Calvinist ordo faith is the result of salvation in some sense. What follows is how I see the Arminian ordo compared to the Calvinist ordo along with why I find the Calvinist ordo theologically problematic.

Arminian ordo salutis:

Prevenient grace

Faith

[Union with Christ]

Justification

Regeneration

Sanctification

Glorification

Notes on Arminian ordo:

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I John 5:20; A Devotional

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But we also know that the Son of God is now here and has given us acuity so that we learn the truth and so that we are in the truth; in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. -MGV

The beginning of the verse differs from verses 18 and 19 with the addition of the conjunction ‘de’. ‘de’ is most often translated ‘but’, and here I translate it as ‘but also’ to link it to the two proceeding verses. This indicates that this is the principle point that John has been building up to through 18 and 19. Using ‘but’ instead of ‘therefore’ shows that this thought doesn’t flow out of the proceeding thoughts, but takes the context of the proceeding thoughts and goes far beyond it to something greater.

So let us look at this line of thought:

  1. We know we are protected
  2. We know that the world is dominated by evil
  3. But we also know that Jesus is here now

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I John 5:19; A Devotional

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I John 5:19: We fully know that we are from God and that the world is laid out along the ground by evil. -MGV

Starting in the same way as verse 18, verse 19 speaks of something that we fully and completely know, being in the perfect tense. This verse is also carrying the same though as verse 18, for when is says “from God” or more literally “out of God”, it is referring to us being born of God, the quality that verse 18 is talking about. However, while that verse is talking about how we are protected by God, here it is talking about how the rest of the world is not.

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