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09/05/2018 Comparative Soteriology (Salvation): A Handy Chart

Dave Armstrong
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2018/09/comparative-soteriology-salvation-a-handy-chart.html?


John Calvins Notion, On Total Depravity:

Calvinism: Yes

Arminianism: See note

Lutheranism: See note

Catholicism: No

All these belief-systems accept original sin and sola gratia: absolute necessity of God’s grace to be saved and to have the results of the Fall overcome (“total inability”), and deny Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism: the doctrine that man can initiate salvation.

www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/01/biblical-evidence-for-original-sin.html
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/01/grace-alone-perfectly-acceptable-catholic-teaching.html
vwww.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2015/11/council-of-trent-canons-on-justification.html
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/06/does-catholic-merit-works-salvation.html

Classic Arminians and Lutherans (along with Catholics) are often falsely accused of semi-Pelagianism because they believe in human free will.

Lutherans also falsely accuse Catholics of same, in their confessions, because we deny imputed justification, refuse to formally separate justification and sanctification, and assert merit.
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2015/10/st-paul-on-grace-faith-works-50-passages.html
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2015/12/justification-not-by-faith-alone-ongoing.html
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2016/08/catholic-bible-verses-on-sanctification-merit.html

Arminians and Lutherans posit a fall that is distinct from Catholicism and Calvinism, but closer to the latter.

The main difference is that they would deny the notion that even good acts of an unregenerate person are evil, as Luther and Calvin taught.

This is the strict definition of “total depravity” and relatively few brands of Christians hold it.


Universal Atonement:

Calvinism: No

Arminianism: Yes

Lutheranism: Yes

Catholicism: Yes


Irresistible Grace:

Calvinism: Yes

Arminianism: No
Lutheranism: No
Catholicism: No


Free Will:

Calvinism: No

Arminianism: Yes

Lutheranism: Yes

Catholicism: Yes

Luther denied this, but Lutheranism decided to follow the thought of Melanchthon and others back to a more Catholic understanding.
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2018/01/luther-god-predestines-reprobation-damned.html
www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2018/01/luther-unlike-lutheranism-taught-double-predestination.html


Unconditional Election: 

Calvinism: Yes

Arminianism: No

Lutheranism: No

Catholicism: See Note 


Thomist Catholics, believe in unconditional election; Molinists and Congruists believe it is conditional only in the limited sense that God takes into account foreseen actions of man by means of Middle Knowledge.

Man is still not causing his election even in Molinism and Congruism, because any good thing he does is always enabled by God in the first place.
I am a Congruist, myself (a variation or modification of Molinism). But it is ultimately a mystery why one man chooses to accept grace and another does not, within a paradigm of free will.

All views boil down to how one relates God’s sovereignty and providence to the free choices and free will of man:
One of the most complicated questions in theology.


Predestination (To Salvation):

Calvinism: Yes

Arminianism: Yes

Lutheranism: Yes

Catholicism: Yes


Predestination (To Damnation):

Calvinism: Yes 

Arminianism: No
Lutheranism: No 

Catholicism: No


Eternity Security of Perseverance:

Calvinism: Yes

Arminianism: No
Lutheranism: No

Catholicism: No



Baptismal Regeneration

Calvinism: No

Arminianism: Mixed
Lutheranism: Yes 

Catholicism: Yes

Some Arminians, such as some Methodists and Anglicans, accept baptismal regeneration.


Infant Baptism:

Calvinism: Mixed

Arminianism: Mixed
Lutheranism: Yes 

Catholicism: Yes

“Reformed Baptists” practice adult “believer’s” baptism; most Calvinists: such as Presbyterians and Reformed, baptize infants. Groups such as Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ; combine baptismal regeneration with a belief in adult baptism. Methodists and Anglicans baptize infants. Pentecostals generally believe in adult baptism.


Sacramentalism:

Calvinism: No 

Arminianism: Mixed
Lutheranism: Yes 

Catholicism: Yes

Calvinists — except for Reformed Baptists — speak of sacraments, but in the end, their baptism and communion are mere signs of God’s mystical presence.

Without actually accomplishing anything themselves, which is the usual definition of “sacrament”: a physical means to obtain God’s grace.

Methodist and Anglicans can be sacramental to various degrees; some believe in the Real Presence.

Lutherans are highly sacramental, but have only two sacraments. Confirmation for them is sort of “semi-sacramental”.

Catholicism and Orthodoxy alone retain the seven sacraments of historic Christianity, Sacred Tradition and the Bible.