The Five Articles of Remonstrance were five theological propositions advanced by followers of Jacobus Arminius that opposed some tenets of Calvinist doctrine in the early 17th century. Arminius studied under Calvinist theologian Theodore Beza at the University of Geneva and served as a pastor in Amsterdam. He began to doubt some aspects of Calvin’s doctrine of predestination and published a theological treatise in 1608 that questioned the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. After the death of Arminius in 1609, his followers formalized their beliefs into five articles that came to be known as the Five Articles of Remonstrance. The Five Articles affirmed universal grace, conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, and the possibility of a believer’s apostasy. The Five Articles were rejected at the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619, which codified Calvinist orthodoxy. But Arminian theology later spread through the writings of Arminius’ followers and taken up by John Wesley, becoming influential in Methodism. The Five Articles proclaimed:
1. Conditional Election – God’s election of individuals to salvation is conditioned upon His foreknowledge of their future faith. God does not arbitrarily predestine some people to salvation and some to damnation; election is conditional on the individual’s free choice to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation.
2. Universal Atonement – Christ’s atoning death on the cross was intended for and is effective in redeeming all humankind. Christ died for everyone, not just for the elect. God desires the salvation of all people.
3. Saving Faith – Man has free will to cooperate with God’s grace and respond in faith to God’s call to salvation. Salvation is not irresistible or inevitable. Individuals can freely choose to resist God’s saving grace.
4. Resistible Grace – The grace of God that brings salvation can be resisted and rejected by humans. People have the free will to either cooperate with God’s grace or reject it. God’s desire to save all does not result in the salvation of all.
5. Uncertainty of Perseverance – There is no certainty that all those who are truly saved will persevere to the end. There is a real possibility that a regenerate believer can abandon their faith and lose their salvation. Apostasy is possible.
The Synod of Dort convened in 1618 to adjudicate the theological disputes between Calvinists and Arminians. The Synod rejected the Five Articles of Remonstrance and affirmed the Calvinist doctrines of unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. The Canons of Dort were adopted as the official Calvinist response to the Five Articles.
The Canons of Dort respond to the Five Articles of Remonstrance as follows:
1. Unconditional Election – God’s election of individuals to salvation is not conditioned by anything in them or done by them, but is based solely on God’s sovereign choice. Before the foundation of the world, God predestined some to eternal life and others to eternal damnation.
2. Limited Atonement – Christ died savingly only for the elect. The atonement is intended only for and is effective only in redeeming the elect, not all humankind. Christ did not die for everyone without exception.
3. Irresistible Grace – The saving grace of God is effectually applied to the elect and cannot be resisted or rejected. The inward call of the Holy Spirit that brings regeneration cannot be thwarted or refused. The elect will be brought to faith.
4. Perseverance of the Saints – All those who are elected, redeemed, and regenerated will continue in faith and will assuredly persevere to the end. There is certainty about the perseverance of the elect. The elect cannot fall away.
5. Total Depravity – Humans are affected by total depravity and unable to save themselves. They cannot cooperate with God’s grace or exercise faith without regeneration. God must first regenerate the sinner before they can believe.
So in summary, the Five Articles of Remonstrance affirmed conditional election, unlimited atonement, the resistibility of saving grace, and the uncertainty of perseverance. This conflicted with Calvinist orthodoxy which proclaimed unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. The Synod of Dort rejected the Five Articles and formally codified Calvinism in response to the Arminian Remonstrants. Though condemned by the Synod of Dort, the Five Articles of Remonstrance articulated the essential beliefs of Arminianism which would later become influential in Methodism and other denominations. They represent an attempt to modify Calvinism to affirm God’s universal saving will and make more room for human free will in responding to the gospel call.
The background to the conflict:
Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) studied theology in Leiden and under Calvinist Theodore Beza at Geneva. He served as a pastor in Amsterdam from 1588. As he studied Scripture, he began to doubt some tenets of Calvinism related to election, atonement, and predestination. Arminius came to believe that Calvinism made God the author of sin by making the Fall a necessary effect of God’s decrees. Arminius taught that God’s election was based on His foreknowledge of an individual’s faith, that Christ died for all men but only believers benefited, and that saving grace was resistible. Arminius died in 1609, but his followers formalized his theology and brought it into open conflict with Calvinism.
Around 1610, Dutch Remonstrants led by Simon Episcopius, successor to Arminius, published a document stating their disagreements with the official state Calvinism. In 1618, the Remonstrants convened a national synod and produced the Five Articles of Remonstrance, systematically articulating Arminian objections to Calvinism. In response, Calvinists convened the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619 which condemned Arminianism and produced the Canons of Dort that affirmed and codified Calvinism in response to the Five Articles.
At the time, the Dutch Republic was religiously divided between Calvinists and Arminians. The state favored Calvinism, so the Synod of Dort was stacked with Calvinist representatives. Representatives of Reformed churches from Germany, Switzerland, and Britain were also invited. No Arminians were allowed to be voting members of the Synod. Predictably, the Synod of Dort rejected the Remonstrants’ Five Articles and firmly upheld Calvinist orthodoxy on all points of dispute. The Synod went even further to condemn and forbid the public teaching of Arminian tenets. However, persecution of Arminians only succeeded in scattering adherents of the Five Articles across Europe.
In 1620, forty-three Reformed ministers who rejected the Canons of Dort were removed from office. Some Arminians were imprisoned. The controversy had a polarizing effect on Protestant churches across Europe. Reformed churches affirmed the Canons of Dort while Arminian theology spread through the writings of Episcopius and the Remonstrant minister Philip van Limborch whose Complete System of Christian Theology (1715) widely disseminated Arminian doctrines.
Though condemned by Reformed churches, Arminian theology flourished and became influential in Methodism, the Church of England, General Baptists, and others. John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, embraced Arminian teachings of conditional election, unlimited atonement, and resistible grace. Arminianism provided theological grounds for Wesley’s belief in universal redemption and the ability to fall away from salvation. The establishment of Methodism expanded the reach of Arminian theology.
Though Arminianism was rejected by the Synod of Dort, it did succeed in modifying Calvinism and stimulating theological debate over the issues of grace, election, free will, and apostasy. The Five Articles gave the Remonstrant movement a theological foundation to object to the rigid determinism of High Calvinism in favor of universal atonement and a measure of free will in conversion. The Synod of Dort may have condemned the Five Articles, but it did lead Calvinists like Louis Berkhof to admit adjustments to Calvinism such as acknowledging God’s universal saving will and common grace. In the end, the Five Articles served to mitigate the harshest implications of Calvinism.
The Five Articles of Remonstrance in detail:
Article 1 – Conditional Election
The first article states that God chose to save those He foreknew would have faith in Christ, based on His foreknowledge of their free response to the gospel call. The election to salvation is therefore not arbitrary or unconditional but based on the individual’s free choice:
“That God, by an eternal and unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ his Son, before the foundation of the world, hath determined, out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save in Christ, for Christ’s sake, and through Christ, those who, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, shall believe on this his son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace, even to the end; and, on the other hand, to leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath, and to condemn them as alienate from Christ.” (Article 1)
Arminius argued that unconditional election made God arbitrary, unjust, and the author of sin. He believed that God’s foreknowledge of our faith or unbelief (a foreknowledge of human free will) is the basis for election. This conditional election is based on God’s foreknowledge, not His foreordination. Those who God foreknew would believe are predestined to be saved.
Article 2 – Universal Atonement
The second article affirms that Christ died sacrificially for all people, not just for the elect. The benefits of His atonement are received through faith:
“That, agreeably thereto, Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemption and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins except the believer.” (Article 2)
Arminius believed that Scripture taught that Christ died for the whole world, for all people without exception. The benefits of Christ’s death are only received through faith, but Christ’s atonement is unlimited in its extent. This affirms God’s universal saving will.
Article 3 – Saving Faith
The third article states that man has free will to resist or embrace God’s saving grace. But the ability to exercise saving faith is through God’s grace:
“That man has not saving grace of himself, nor of the energy of his free will, inasmuch as in his state of apostasy and sin he can of and by himself neither think, will, nor do any thing that is truly good (such as saving Faith eminently is); but that it is needful that he be born again of God in Christ, through his Holy Spirit, and renewed in understanding, inclination, or will, and all his powers, in order that he may rightly understand, think, will, and effect what is truly good, according to the Word of Christ, John 15:5, “Without me ye can do nothing.” (Article 3)
Though depraved, man is not forced to believe against his own will. The exercise of saving faith is still the free response of the individual enabled by God’s grace. This upholds free will against Calvinist irresistible grace. Humans must cooperate, but the grace to believe also must be granted by God.
Article 4 – Resistible Grace
This article says that the grace of God that brings salvation can be resisted and rejected by man. Not all who hear the gospel end up believing:
“That this grace of God is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of an good, even to this extent, that the regenerate man himself, without prevenient or assisting, awakening, following and cooperative grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil; so that all good deeds or movements, that can be conceived, must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ, but respects the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible.” (Article 4)
Grace is necessary for salvation but can be resisted. The inward call of the Spirit can be rejected. Arminius argued that irresistible grace invalidated the summons to believe and reduced faith to a mechanical and involuntary response devoid of meaning. Grace must be cooperated with, not irresistibly imposed.
Article 5 – The Uncertainty of Perseverance
The fifth article argues that true believers are able to fall away from faith and forfeit their salvation. Apostasy is possible:
“That those who are incorporated into Christ by a true faith, and have thereby become partakers of his life-giving Spirit, have thereby full power to strive against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and to win the victory; it being well understood that it is ever through the assisting grace of the Holy Ghost; and that Jesus Christ assists them through his Spirit in all temptations, extends to them his hand, and if only they are ready for the conflict, and desire his help, and are not inactive, keeps them from falling, so that they, by not craft or power of Satan, can be misled nor plucked out of Christ’s hands, according to the Word of Christ, John 10:28: ‘Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.’ But whether they are capable, through negligence, of forsaking again the first beginnings of their life in Christ, of again returning to this present evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine which was delivered them, of losing a good conscience, of becoming devoid of grace, that must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with full persuasion of our minds.” (Article 5)
While God provides enabling grace to persevere, the believer can still abandon their faith through willful apostasy and neglect. Arminius believed Calvinism undermined ethical incentives and deterrents to apostasy by teaching the perseverance of saints. He held that the warnings against apostasy made no sense if in fact apostasy was impossible for the elect.
Conclusion:
The Five Articles of Remonstrance formalized the Arminian theological objections to Calvinist orthodoxy. They affirmed conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible saving grace, and the possibility of apostasy from true faith. While firmly rejected by the Synod of Dort, the Five Articles provided an alternative to strict Calvinist predestination and articulated doctrines that later gained wide influence through Methodism and other denominations. They represent an attempt to modify Calvinism to uphold universal atonement and a meaningful role for human free will in conversion. Though they were condemned by many Reformed churches in the 17th century, today the Five Articles present a system of doctrine that many evangelical Christians would affirm.