You’ve probably never heard of Jacob Arminius, yet he played a pivotal role in restoring vital truths lost during the Dark Ages.
He wasn’t a martyr. He never did anything heroic. He was no Luther, Huss, or Wycliffe. He was Jacob Harmenszoon, a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and a professor at the University of Leyden. Yet he played an important part in the chain of events that restored truths lost during the Middle Ages.
So much truth had been forgotten during that dark millennium that God could only gradually restore truth, gradually remove error. His people could take only small amounts of light at a time. An example of this is God’s use of the Reformer John Calvin. Today we are hard on him for his predestinarian views (the belief that God alone decides whether a person will be saved; humans have no choice in the matter).
As flawed as this belief was, during the Reformation, the view that your eternal destiny was in the hands of a just God rather than a fallible priest was a step in the right direction.
But God still had to move His people forward in truth. Another one of His instruments to do this was Jacob Harmenszoon, more commonly known as Jacob Arminius.
Arminius was a student of Beza, who had studied under Calvin. But Arminius embraced neither of their views. First as a pastor, and then as a professor, he became known in Calvinist Holland for his controversial belief that man could choose to reject or to accept God’s grace. After his death this became known as Arminianism. Under the Wesleyan revivals of the 18th century, it spread to North America. Arminianism helped pave the way for the great religious revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, including the great Advent awakening begun by William Miller, and culminating in the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the mid-19th century.
The controversy between Calvinists and Arminianists had only just begun when Arminius died in 1609 at the age of 50. This controversy still rages today among Christians, yet the Bible is clear. Joshua in the Old Testament commands, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Joshua 24:15. John in the New Testament pleads, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. …he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17 (RV). How grateful we should be for brave men who were willing to advance the light of truth against popular opinion. And how grateful we should be that God has given us a choice. Choose Him today!
