Thus, Arminians (from Jacob Arminius) are Christians who are strong on ‘free will’. They want to know that it is all up to them, it is all up to the choices they make, thus no-one cannot be sure of anything ‘til the end. I bought a book of ‘Daily Readings.’ I read it quite a lot, nearly the whole year through. The writer was obviously an Arminian. It may even be his book that started me thinking. I got so tired of it, because he was constantly mentioning his free will, so much so that I said to myself: ‘my dear man your ‘free will’ is your God’. He most probably hoped that he had done enough to be safe on judgment day! 

Thus, I know the distress I have lived in, under this ideology! I thank the Lord for bringing me out of the trauma of uncertainty into the freedom of truth. I am not now a Calvinist, people like labels to stick on their foreheads. I am just a simple believer in Christ, in what Jesus and His apostles taught to their flocks, that were and are, safe and saved forever in His sheepfold! I have a dear friend, who was also in the ministry! One day, as we were talking, He realised what I believed. He exclaimed quite loudly, totally surprised: ‘You are a Calvinist then’? So, surprised as I was at his reaction, I started quoting the Lord’s prayer that we find in John chapter seventeen, being only one of the strong statements of Christ our Lord concerning the subject of assurance, and His relationship with His sheep as written in the Gospel of John chapter ten. 

My friend’s answer out of it was that Jesus, was talking about the apostles only, which He did, but it is absolutely clear, as one reads the whole chapter seventeen of the gospel of John, without prejudice, that Jesus was talking about all those that were his disciples at the time, and also, all those that would believe in Him through the words of His apostles and His servants throughout time, to this day! His prayer as recorded there, is still being answered. For it is only faith in Christ’s teaching, and that of His apostles, that people in the whole wide world still get saved forever, without any doubt! And to it, unreservedly, the Holy Spirit bears witness by various signs and miracles!

All Christians, if they are truly Christians, at one point in their life were lost sinners, as everyone else! They did not descend from heaven as some self-righteous people would have us think that they did! I met some of them in the churches I have pastored. But, in His great wisdom, God has ordained a day when all that changed, and in Jesus Christ they are now as perfect as He is, as stated previously! Because of these great truths, such Christians are led by the Holy Spirit until they are absolutely convinced that their eternal salvation has been decided by God before the world began, as the verses I have quoted in previous Links confirm so plainly. Christians cannot just believe what they hear without being sure that what they hear is the faith of the apostles, what they experienced and also proclaimed, as stated so perfectly in the book of Acts.

Christians must not just follow what they feel, for faith is not controlled by our feelings, but it comes powerfully in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and true assurance is the work of the Holy Spirit who uses the word of God, as it is written faith comes by hearing the word of God, Words like those written by the apostle Paul to the Ephesians, still the truth unchanging to this very day: ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To the saints in Ephesus, (believers who are) the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with the pleasure of His will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves! In Him (In Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.’ (Ephesians 1: 1-7) I may have quoted these verses before, but it does not hurt anyone to hear them again and again! I urge you to read your Bible daily not just five minutes as quickly as possible, but at least an hour of prayer! For your faith has no other foundation, and nothing else can make your faith grow!