Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (Acts 7:42).
WELL-MEANT OFFER ARGUMENT:
“These unbelieving reprobates who rejected
the gospel and stoned Stephen are said to have always resisted the Holy Spirit,
as did their unbelieving Israelite fathers who constantly resisted the prophets
of old. One of course can only resist a ‘drawing’ influence, as God
continually sought to draw Israel to Himself in the Old Testament and these
Jews to Himself through the ministry of the apostles.”
(I)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
It is the plain testimony of Scripture that God’s predestination, or will and desire to save some only, is the source of all salvation. Thus does God receive the glory in the salvation of the sinner—not the sinner himself, who, on the view of the well-meant offer, distinguishes himself from other sinners by virtue of his accepting the offered salvation. This is the issue; it must not be forgotten.
As for Acts 7, the context clearly shows that Stephen accuses the Jews of opposition to the Word of God and those who brought it (see vv. 52, 53). The text could more accurately be translated, “ye do always oppose the Holy Ghost.” In fact, the Greek verb translated “resist” is antipiptoo, which means “oppose, contradict” and the like. What the deacon charges his opponents with is opposing the Holy Ghost in His presence in the Word and in the preachers of it. No desire for the salvation of these men is expressed or implied. One can oppose another without the implication that that other wishes one to accept him. The devil opposes God and Christ by contending against the Word and the church (antipiptoo). But God has no desire that the devil be saved by accepting the Word. Nor is the devil’s saving acceptance of the Word a motive of God in sending the Word out.
Men ought
to understand the truth of Acts 7 by reading it in light of Romans 9. God
sends the gospel forth with the determination that it save some but harden
others. This chapter is clear and decisive. (DJE, 03/01/2020)
COMMON GRACE
ARGUMENT:
This text is quoted in favour of a common, gracious,
inward restraint of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the unregenerate, and also
interpreted to mean an gracious attempt by the Spirit to try and save an
individual, but ultimately is thwarted by the resistance of that individual.
Others use this passage to support the
notion that grace is not “irresistible” after all.
(I)
British Reformed Journal
[Source: Issue 9 (January - March 1995), p. 9]
[The
Calvinist] interpretation of such verses as Acts 7:51 [is that] the resistance
made by these persons was not to a direct working of the Spirit in them, but
rather to the working of the Spirit in His ministers—not any operation of grace, but the
external call of the Word. Furthermore, as Zech. 7:11-12 and other verses
clearly show, to refuse the Spirit of God is to reject the words spoken by His
ministers. This resistance is not a refusal to accept the offer, but simply a
refusal to hear the preaching of the Word of God. And it is this external and
objective proclamation of truth that the Holy Spirit uses in addressing and, by
irresistible grace, drawing His elect.
Rev. Martyn McGeown
[Source: Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 41, no. 1 (Nov. 2007), p. 66.]
The sense in which the reprobate “resist the Holy Ghost” needs to be clarified. They resist Him as they resist the preaching (Acts 7:51). They resist Him by opposing preaching and persecuting preachers, but the inward gracious works of the Spirit in the heart are irresistible and particular to the elect. The inward works of the Spirit in the heart of the reprobate are not gracious. They harden the wicked in their sins.
More to come! (DV)
ARMINIAN
ARGUMENT:
“How is grace irresistible if the Holy
Ghost Himself, who is the Spirit of grace, is resisted?”
(I)
Ronald Hanko & Ronald Cammenga
[Source: Saved By Grace: A Study of the Five Points of Calvinism (RFPA, 2002), pp. 136-137]
Stephen’s accusation against the unbelieving Jews was that their fathers had always resisted the Holy Ghost, and so did they. This does not imply that grace is irresistible. Stephen is not talking about these wicked Jews effectively resisting the grace of the Holy Spirit working within them to save them. Not at all! He is rather talking about their opposition to the Holy Spirit in the sense that they constantly opposed the Word of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and the prophets who were the instruments of the Holy Spirit to bring that Word. As their fathers resisted Moses and Aaron, so did the Jews of Stephen’s day resist Jesus and His apostles. They did not resist the Holy Spirit within them, for they were devoid of the Holy Spirit. The proof of that is their rejection and stoning of Stephen. But their resistance was to the external call, commands, reproofs, and teaching of the servants of God sent by the Spirit
(II)
Robert C. Harbach (1914-1996)
[Source: pamphlet: Calvinism … the Truth (Arminianism, the Lie)]
Calvinism
rejoices in the truth that saving grace is irresistible. God does not save any
against their will, it is true. Nevertheless, “it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16).
The counsel of God as to its precepts the wicked do invariably and consistently
disregard. But the counsel of God as to its eternal purpose, which embraces sin
itself in its Divine place, is incapable of being set at nought. “For who hath
resisted His will?” (Rom. 9:19). Man’s will is always subservient to God’s
sovereign will. God is always Almighty God! Therefore, they who did resist the
Spirit did not resist the Spirt in them, for they were devoid of
the Spirit. But that resistance is to the Spirit in the prophets, and in the
ministers of the Lord; it is resistance to the external calls and reproofs
through the preaching of the Word. But when the Spirit is in men in His
grace of conversion, and so acts with a will to convert, He thus makes them
willing, and turns them forever to Himself. “Thy people shall be willing in the
day of thy power” (Ps. 110:3). Unregenerate men may and will refuse and
repudiate God’s Word all they please, disregard His admonitions years on end,
but when the time comes for God’s counsel to be fulfilled in their conversion,
then God’s mercy—at the precise moment decreed—shall invincibly overcome their
obstinacy, causing them gladly to trust and obey Him. “Thou shalt arise and
have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time,
is come” (Ps. 102:13).
Gordon H. Clark (1902-1985)
[Source: Predestination (Philipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1987), pp. 139-140]
This verse is supposed to be inconsistent with irresistible grace, and to imply therefore that man has ability to convert himself.
In reply it may be said that of course the workings of the Holy Spirit in some circumstances can be resisted. What the opponents must show is that the intention of the Holy Spirit to convert a particular individual can be resisted. Not all of the Spirit's workings aim at the conversion of someone. There is no evidence in Acts 7 that the Holy Spirit was trying to convert Stephen's persecutors. They were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart. They give no evidence of having even what the Arminians call sufficient grace to accept Christ by free will. They are hardened against God and resist the Spirit as he directs Stephen what to say. There is no reference in the chapter to any internal working of the Spirit in the hearts of the Pharisees. They resisted the Spirit as he worked in Stephen.
Suppose, contrary to the tone of the whole chapter, that the Spirit actually intended to regenerate these Pharisees, or some of them. The Arminians would then have to show that these persons were not later regenerated. It is clear from Scripture that often God prepares a man for conversion through prior vicissitudes. The man at first resists. But in the fulness of time, God regenerates him. As a matter of fact, though it is not mentioned in this chapter, this could have been God's intention with respect to the young man who guarded the Pharisees' clothes while they were stoning Stephen. Young Saul resisted, along with the others. But he did not so resist that the Spirit was compelled to capitulate. It was not yet the moment for Paul's conversion, but nonetheless God was working irresistibly. In general, although it is quite improbable that the Pharisees of this chapter were ever converted, the Arminians would have to prove two points before they could use such a verse as this. They would have to prove that the particular working of the Spirit was for the purpose of regenerating a man, and that the man was never regenerated. These two things cannot be proved.
More to come! (DV)
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