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James Arminius
James Arminius (October 10, 1560 – October 19, 1609) was a Dutch preacher and theologian whose calling from God within the Reformed Church challenged prevailing Calvinist doctrines, influencing Christian thought through preaching and teaching in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Born in Oudewater, Netherlands, to Harmen Jacobsz, a cutler, and Elborch Florisdr, he was the eldest of nine children in a modest family devastated by the Spanish massacre of Oudewater in 1575, leaving him orphaned at 15. Educated initially by Theodore Aemilius in Utrecht, he studied at Marburg (1575), the University of Leiden (1576–1581, earning an M.A.), and later Geneva under Theodore Beza (1582–1586) and Basel (1584), mastering theology and languages despite early hardship. Arminius’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1588 as pastor of a Reformed congregation in Amsterdam, where he served until 1603, preaching sermons that initially aligned with Calvinism but gradually questioned absolute predestination after engaging Petrus Plancius in debate. Appointed professor of theology at the University of Leiden in 1603, he continued preaching and teaching, advocating a theology of conditional election and resistible grace—later termed Arminianism—articulated in works like Declaration of Sentiments (1608). His sermons and lectures called for a faith rooted in human responsibility under God’s grace, sparking the Arminian-Calvinist controversy that persisted beyond his lifetime. Married to Lijsbet Reael in 1590, with whom he had nine children—including sons Harmen, Pieter, and Jacob—he passed away at age 49 in Leiden, Netherlands.
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James Arminius preaches on the grace of God, emphasizing that it is a gratuitous affection from God towards sinners, leading to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, justification, and adoption as sons. He describes grace as the infusion of gifts of the Holy Spirit for regeneration and renewal, enabling man to think, will, and do what is good. Arminius highlights that grace provides continual assistance through the Holy Spirit, guiding believers to will and act in accordance with God's goodness.
The Grace of God
IV. THE GRACE OF GOD In reference to Divine Grace, I believe, 1. It is a gratuitous affection by which God is kindly affected towards a miserable sinner, and according to which he, in the first place, gives his Son, "that whosoever believers in him might have eternal life," and, afterwards, he justifies him in Christ Jesus and for his sake, and adopts him into the right of sons, unto salvation. 2. It is an infusion (both into the human understanding and into the will and affections,) of all those gifts of the Holy Spirit which appertain to the regeneration and renewing of man -- such as faith, hope, charity, &c.; for, without these gracious gifts, man is not sufficient to think, will, or do any thing that is good. 3. It is that perpetual assistance and continued aid of the Holy Spirit, according to which He acts upon and excites to good the man who has been already renewed, by infusing into him salutary cogitations, and by inspiring him with good desires, that he may thus actually will whatever is good; and according to which God may then will and work together with man, that man may perform whatever he wills. In this manner, I ascribe to grace the commencement, the continuance and the consummation of all good, and to such an extent do I carry its influence, that a man, though already regenerate, can neither conceive, will, nor do any good at all, nor resist any evil temptation, without this preventing and exciting, this following and co-operating grace. From this statement it will clearly appear, that I by no means do injustice to grace, by attributing, as it is reported of me, too much to man's free-will. For the whole controversy reduces itself to the solution of this question, "is the grace of God a certain irresistible force?" That is, the controversy does not relate to those actions or operations which may be ascribed to grace, (for I acknowledge and inculcate as many of these actions or operations as any man ever did,) but it relates solely to the mode of operation, whether it be irresistible or not. With respect to which, I believe, according to the scriptures, that many persons resist the Holy Spirit and reject the grace that is offered.
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James Arminius (October 10, 1560 – October 19, 1609) was a Dutch preacher and theologian whose calling from God within the Reformed Church challenged prevailing Calvinist doctrines, influencing Christian thought through preaching and teaching in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Born in Oudewater, Netherlands, to Harmen Jacobsz, a cutler, and Elborch Florisdr, he was the eldest of nine children in a modest family devastated by the Spanish massacre of Oudewater in 1575, leaving him orphaned at 15. Educated initially by Theodore Aemilius in Utrecht, he studied at Marburg (1575), the University of Leiden (1576–1581, earning an M.A.), and later Geneva under Theodore Beza (1582–1586) and Basel (1584), mastering theology and languages despite early hardship. Arminius’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1588 as pastor of a Reformed congregation in Amsterdam, where he served until 1603, preaching sermons that initially aligned with Calvinism but gradually questioned absolute predestination after engaging Petrus Plancius in debate. Appointed professor of theology at the University of Leiden in 1603, he continued preaching and teaching, advocating a theology of conditional election and resistible grace—later termed Arminianism—articulated in works like Declaration of Sentiments (1608). His sermons and lectures called for a faith rooted in human responsibility under God’s grace, sparking the Arminian-Calvinist controversy that persisted beyond his lifetime. Married to Lijsbet Reael in 1590, with whom he had nine children—including sons Harmen, Pieter, and Jacob—he passed away at age 49 in Leiden, Netherlands.