Theological Term of the Week: Compatibilism

compatibilism

The belief that God’s exhaustive sovereignty, or his meticulous providence, is compatible with human free agency. 

• As seen in scripture:

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger;

the staff in their hands is my fury!

Against a godless nation I send him,

and against the people of my wrath I command him,

to take spoil and seize plunder,

and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

But he does not so intend,

and his heart does not so think;

but it is in his heart to destroy,

and to cut off nations not a few… (Isaiah 10:5-7 ESV).

When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes (Isaiah 10:12 ESV).  

Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,

or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?

As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,

or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! (Isaiah 10:15 ESV) 

• In the The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 10:

All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, a by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds, spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is compatibilism?
2. Matt Perman: The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
3. Shawn D. Wright: A Plea for Calvinistic Compatibilism
4. Monergism: What Is the Difference Between Hard Determinism and Soft Determinism?
5. James N. Anderson: Calvinism and Determinism
6. The Analytic Christian: Compatibilism and Christian Freedom with Guillaume Bignon (video)
7. John C. Winegard Jr.: Why I Am a Compatibilist about Determinism and Moral Responsibility

Related terms:

• author of sin
• decrees of God
• free agency
• libertarian free will
• open theism
• sovereignty of God

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Theological Term of the Week: Solus Christus

solus Christus

Literally, “Christ alone.” The reformation slogan which emphasises the truth that salvation is based entirely in the mediatorial work of Christ, and no other work or merit contributes to human salvation. It highlights Christ’s sinless life and substitutionary death as the sufficient and sole grounds on which those who are being saved receive every benefit of salvation.

• From scripture:

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 1:5-6 ESV).

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 8:

Of Christ the Mediator

I. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed,and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

V. The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience, and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of His Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for those whom the Father has given unto Him.

VIII. To all those for whom Christ has purchased redemption, He does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by His Spirit to believe and obey, and governing their hearts by His word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by His almighty power and wisdom, in such manner, and ways, as are most consonant to His wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.

• From The Institues of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, Book 2, Chapter 16, Section 2:

But again, let him be told, as Scripture teaches, that he was estranged from God by sin, an heir of wrath, exposed to the curse of eternal death, excluded from all hope of salvation, a complete alien from the blessing of God, the slave of Satan, captive under the yoke of sin; in fine, doomed to horrible destruction, and already involved in it; that then Christ interposed, took the punishment upon himself and bore what by the just judgment of God was impending over sinners; with his own blood expiated the sins which rendered them hateful to God, by this expiation satisfied and duly propitiated God the Father, by this intercession appeased his anger, on this basis founded peace between God and men, and by this tie secured the Divine benevolence toward them … [W]e are so instructed by divine truth, as to perceive that without Christ God is in a manner hostile to us, and has his arm raised for our destruction. Thus taught, we look to Christ alone for divine favour and paternal love.

Learn more:

1. Blair Smith: What Does “Solus Christus” Mean?
2. Sinclair Ferguson: Here We Stand in Christ Alone
3. Michael Horton:  Solus Christus: Christ Our Only Mediator
4. Derek Thomas: Knowing Our Only Mediator
5. J. C. Ryle: Beware of Mingling Anything of Your Own With Christ
6. Stephen J. Wellum: Solus Christus: What the Reformers Taught and Why It Still Matters

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• five solas
• passive obedience of Christ
• sola fide
• sola gratia
• sola scriptura
• soli Deo gloria
• threefold office of Christ

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Theological Term of the Week: Augustinianism

Augustinianism

The theological position that since the fall, all people have been corrupted by original sin, and are unable to love God or follow his commands. It is only by God’s gracious work that anyone can truly obey God or excercise faith in him, so human salvation is a work of God from start to finish.

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 6:

Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof.



1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.

2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

3. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.

4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

• From Outlines of Theology by A. A. Hodge, on the Augustinian view of grace:

If nevertheless man in his present state, wills and does good, it is merely the work of grace. It is an inward, secret, and wonderful operation of God upon man. It s a preceding as well as an accompanying work. By preceding grace, man attains faith, by which he comes to an insight of good, and by which power is given him to will the good. He needs cooperating grace for the performance of every individual good act. As man can do nothing without grace, so he can do nothing against it. It is irresistible. And as man by nature has no merit at all, no respect at all can be had to man’s moral disposition, in imparting grace, but God acts according to his own free will.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is Augustinianism?
2. Matthew Barrett: The Battle of the Will, Part 1: Pelagius and Augustine
3. Monergism:  Comparing Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Arminianism, and Augustinianism
4. A. A. Hodge: A Comparison of Systems: Pelagianism, Semipelagianism, and Augustinianism

Related terms:

• Pelagianism
• Semi-Pelagianism

Filed under Reformed Theology

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.