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FAQ – The Well-Meant Offer’s Origins in Amyraldianism.

Q. 1. “Can you prove that the Free/Well-Meant Offer has origins in the teaching of Moses Amyraut?”

[The] teaching of a double will in God, the use of human logic, and [the] appeal to mystery as a defence of the free offer are echoed [in the writings of Amyraut]:

When He has revealed something to us in His word having to do with the dispensation of His will towards men, it is not our business to explore this in order to see whether or not this puts two wills in God which are opposed as if His nature were something which could be comprehended by our understandings. His nature is an abyss which not only men’s spirits, but even the intelligence of angels, cannot thoroughly examine … No, my brethren, when on the one hand the Word of God will teach me that He has reprobated some and consigned them to eternal punishment, and that on the other hand this same Word will teach me that God wills all men to be saved, that He invites them to repent, that He extends His arms to them, that He goes before them and calls them with a lively voice … although my reason found there some things which seemed to be in conflict, although whatever effort that I exert I am not able to harmonize nor reconcile them, still I will not fail to hold these two doctrines as true. Nor will I undertake to resolve the opposition of these two wills of God which seem so repugnant (Source: Moses Amyraut quoted in Brian G. Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969).

(Philip Rainey, “Calvinism Cast Out: The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland and the Free Offer of the Gospel”)

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