Thursday, April 4, 2024

It is the 4th of April 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

In church history shorthand, when we speak of debates in the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, it is common to hear of the “Calvinists” vs. the “Arminians.” The Calvinists follow John Calvin's theology and lean into the doctrines of predestination, while the Arminians stress the freedom of the will in accepting or denying God's grace. It’s a complicated issue and almost always oversimplified.

When we refer to one side as “the Arminians,” we start off on the wrong foot. Jacob Arminius was a professor at Leiden University and elder statesmen in the movement opposing what they called “scholasticism,” but he would die before the consequential synod of Dordt. The group is better referred to as “the Remonstrants,” and their head was Simon Episcopius, an often overlooked and very influential leader who died on the 4th of April in 1643.

He was born Simon Bisschop in 1583. His parents were poor, but on account of his academic aptitude, he was sent to school by benefactors. He entered the University of Leiden in 1600. In 1603 he lost both his parents to a plague and the University lost two faculty members. Arminius was called to teach and he and Episcopius became fast friends. He received his MA in 1606 and continued to attend lectures from theology faculty increasingly divided over the question of predestination.

When Arminius died in 1609, Episcopius became the de facto leader of the movement. They would be called “the Remonstrants” after the document “the Five Articles of Remonstrance,” which were affirmed by dozens of pastors and professors. They were written as a formal document to be presented at the National Synod, which was initially called to debate theological questions.

At an earlier convention, Episcopius, who had been called to be a professor at Leiden, gave an address calling for toleration that was published and spread throughout the Netherlands and beyond.

But the Synod of Dordt in 1618 was a one-sided affair. Unsatisfied with the arrangements at the Synod, the Remonstrants complained and were expelled. Episcopius and the others were exiled to Antwerp, where Episcopius was charged with writing a confession of faith.

He and others did have hesitations about writing a confession of faith as part of their concern with the Calvinists was their supposed “scholasticism” and slavish adherence to man made confessions. The subsequent Arminian Confession of 1621 reads more as a defense against the charges from Dordt and as a general framework for doing theology rather than a confession to which one would be required to subscribe.

Episcopius would be in exile until 1626. When Prince Maurice of Orange, a Calvinist, died, his half-brother Henry, who was sympathetic to the Remonstrants, came into power. Episcopius would be called both a pastor in Rotterdam and the first professor of theology at the new Remonstrant Seminary.

His most important arguments involve the nature of Remonstrant theology and the doctrine of Perspicuity. First, he argued that the theology of the Remonstrants was thoroughly in the Reformation tradition and that it was the Calvinists who had gone further in trying to establish their particular emphases as normative for all Reformed Christians. He argued that they were not “Pelagian” and that, on the essentials, they were thoroughly orthodox- and, in my opinion, pretty decently.

Secondly, Episcopius played an important role in the development of the doctrine of perspicuity. Scripture. “Perspicuity” means “plain to understand,” and Episcopius argued that one could understand the clear meaning of Scripture’s main points. Supernatural work is essential in the act of conversion and justification, but no supernatural light is necessary to read the text plainly. This, as one scholar has pointed out, led the Reformation traditions from late Medieval forms of exegesis to the “hegemony of the so-called historical-critical method”.

Episcopius further argued that much of the debate was theoretical, wherein theology was meant to be practical. Perhaps the greatest praise that could be offered of Episcopius was the near-universal praise for his amiable character; even in disputes, his opponents recognized him as a man without guile. He would die after a brief illness on the 4th of April in 1643; born in 1583, Simon Episcopius was 60 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary in Eastertide but pointing ahead to Pentecost with a reading from Acts 2:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of April 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by one who likes the Arminians, especially with their Dolma, Baklava and Xorovats. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man reminding you that one has an “e” and the other an “I,” and I’m sure they all have delicious food- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.