"To deny Calvinism is to deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. - Charles Spurgeon

"Arminianism is not something hidden under a stone, but lives in full view, and in direct opposition, to the Gospel. It is a deceiving doctrine of demons wrought up from the pit of hell, where, in the consummation of the age, it will be cast for all eternity with the devil that spawned it and the false teachers who propagated it." - Dr. C Matthew McMahon, Introduction to Arminius: The life of the arch-heretic of the Christian church responsible for reviving the heresy of Semi-Pelagianism.

"That exalted system of Pauline truth which is technically called Calvinism, compels an earnest student to profound thinking, and when pursued with a combination of systematic thought and fervent experience, makes him at home among the most inspiring and ennobling views of God and the universe He has made." - John A. Broadus, Cited in "Will Calvinism Kill Evangelism?"

"What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ - the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else... nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."- Charles Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism (Sermon).

"By those who dislike controversy, it is often alleged that Arminianism and Calvinism only differ in respect of the fact that while the former chiefly stresses man's responsibility, the latter lays all the weight upon Divine Sovereignty. This is not a correct presentation of the facts. The Arminian does indeed stress man's responsibility to the exclusion of the sovereignty of God, and this is a fruitful cause of more than one error. The man, on the other hand, who stresses the sovereignty of God to the exclusion of man's responsibility is a hyper-calvinist and is in error on this aspect of truth just as surely as the Arminian. The true Calvinist lays stress on both doctrines as they are unfolded in the inspired and infallible Word of God... Arminianism appears as the gospel of Christ, but in reality is 'another gospel.' It is a heresy, deadly and soul-ruining, and all the more so because subtle, plausible, and popular. 'It is a scheme,' in the words of Dr. Cunningham, the renowned theologian, 'for dividing or partitioning the salvation of sinners between God and sinners themselves, instead of ascribing it as the Bible does, to the sovereign grace of God, the perfect and all-sufficient work of Christ, and the efficacious and omnipotent operation of the Holy Spirit.'" - William MacLean, Arminianism Another Gospel

"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach today, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again." - Charles Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism

"Arminianism is not something hidden under a stone, but lives in full view, and in direct opposition, to the Gospel. It is a deceiving doctrine of demons wrought up from the pit of hell, where, in the consummation of the age, it will be cast for all eternity with the devil that spawned it and the false teachers who propagated it." - Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, Introduction to Arminius: The life of the arch-heretic of the Christian church responsible for reviving the heresy of Semi-Pelagianism.

"We hold - we are not afraid to say that we believe - that Christ came into this world with the intention of saving 'a multitude which no man can number;' and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom He died must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood, before the Father's throne. We do not believe that Christ made any effectual atonement for those who are for ever damned; we dare not think that the blood of Christ was ever shed with the intention of saving those whom God foreknew never could be saved, and some of whom were even in Hell when Christ, according to some men's account, died to save them." - Charles Spurgeon, Particular Redemption (Sermon).

"As blessed Athanasius sighed out in his day, "The world is overrun with Arianism;" so it is the sad sigh of our present times, the Christian world is overrun, yea, overwhelmed with the flood of Arminianism; which cometh, as it were, out of the mouth of the serpent, that he might cause the woman (the Church) "to be carried away of the flood" thereof (Rev. 12: 15). Thirdly, lest this overflowing deluge of Arminianism should bring destruction upon us, there is great need that some servants of Christ should run to stop the further spreading of this plague and leprosy." - Christopher Ness, An Antidote Against Arminianism (1700)

"Smeaton says of the work of the Synod of Dort that 'it may be questioned whether anything more valuable as an ecclesiastical testimony for the doctrines of sovereign, special, efficacious grace (the five points of Calvinism-ed.) was ever prepared on this important theme since the days of the apostles.' - George Smeaton, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 320 , as cited in Steele, Thomas and Quinn, "A Brief Survey of the Origin and Contents of the Five Points of Calvinism," in The Five Points Of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented.

"The term 'Calvinism' is often used to refer to the doctrines of grace in contemporary circles. This is misnomer. A Calvinist is one who follows the Religious Teachings of the Reformed Church, exemplified in Reformed Theology. This theological view is clearly seen in the Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (the most widely read Reformed document besides the Bible ever read), and other documents such as the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith penned later on following both Calvin and Francis Turretin." - Dr. C Matthew McMahon, The Reformation: The greatest revival of the church and its aftermath.

"Arminianism is the very essence of Popery. Christopher Ness of St. John's College, Cambridge, a Puritan divine, in his treatise 'An Antidote Against Arminianism,' recommended by the great Dr. John Owen, writes, 'As blessed Athanasius sighed out in his day, 'The world is overrun with Arianism; so it is the sad sigh of our present times, the Christian world is overrun, yea, overwhelmed with the flood of Arminianism; which cometh as it were, out of the mouth of the serpent, that he might cause the woman (the Church) to be carried away of the flood thereof.' [Rev. 12.15.] He quotes Mr. Rous, Master of Eton College, as saying, 'Arminianism is the spawn of Popery, which the warmth of favour may easily turn into frogs of the bottomless pit,' and Dr. Alexander Leighton who calls Arminianism 'the Pope's Benjamin, the last and greatest monster of the man of sin: the elixir of Anti-Christianism; the mystery of the mystery of iniquity; the Pope's cabinet; the very quintessence of equivocation.'

During the Arminian regime of Archbishop Laud, the persecutor of the Puritans and the Covenanters, zealous Arminians were promoted to the best bishoprics. A famous letter written by a Jesuit to the Rector of Brussels and endorsed by Laud himself was found in his study at Lambeth. A copy of this letter was found among the papers of a society of priests and Jesuits at Clerkenwell in 1627. The following is an extract: 'Now we have planted the Sovereign Drug Arminianism which we hope will purge the Protestants from their heresy; and it flourisheth and beareth fruit in due season. I am at this time transported with joy to see how happily all instruments and means, as well as great or smaller, cooperate with our purposes. But to return to the main fabric: OUR FOUNDATION IS ARMINIANISM.' (S.G.U. Publication No. 173, p. 142).

... In reference to the Calvinistic doctrines - the doctrines of free and sovereign grace held by the Reformers in England, Toplady observes, 'Queen Mary and her Spanish husband well knew that Calvinism is the very life and soul of the Reformation; and that Popery would never flourish till the Calvinistic doctrines were eradicated.' Her efforts to destroy by sword and fire those who upheld the Truth earned for her the unenviable appellation of 'Bloody Mary.' The charge on which many of them were burnt at the stake was that they held to the doctrine of predestination and rejected the Arminian and Popish doctrine of free-will.'

In the following century the Caroline period (the reign of the Stuart kings including Charles I and Charles II) Arminianism grew to be the prevalent faith of the Church of England, according to Dr. G. P. Fisher in his 'History of the Christian Church' (p. 430).

In Scotland, too, Arminianism was making serious inroads. The saintly Samuel Rutherford who occupied a professor's chair at St. Andrew's University, made use of his scholarship to defend the faith by publishing a notable book against Arminianism. 'It was this malicious spirit of Arminianism, writes the editor of 'The Contender' (Nova Scotia) 'that drove the episcopal leaders (in conjunction with the civil power of the king) to persecute the Covenanters to prison and to death.'

In the following century the Caroline period (the reign of the Stuart kings including Charles I and Charles II) Arminianism grew to be the prevalent faith of the Church of England, according to Dr. G. P. Fisher in his 'History of the Christian Church' (p. 430).

In Scotland, too, Arminianism was making serious inroads. The saintly Samuel Rutherford who occupied a professor's chair at St. Andrew's University, made use of his scholarship to defend the faith by publishing a notable book against Arminianism. 'It was this malicious spirit of Arminianism, writes the editor of 'The Contender' (Nova Scotia) 'that drove the episcopal leaders (in conjunction with the civil power of the king) to persecute the Covenanters to prison and to death.'

In a footnote to this letter, the editor Dr. Bonar, says:

Dr. Thomas Jackson, Dean of Peterborough, first held Calvinistic sentiments but afterwards became an Arminian, a change which recommended him to the favour and patronage of Archbishop Laud.

The character of Laud may be seen in relation to his part in the trial, sentencing, imprisonment, and torturing of Dr. Alexander Leighton at London. (Dr. Leighton's views on Arminianism are quoted above). A sketch of Leighton's history is given in the preface to a letter which Rutherford wrote him while in prison. The sketch says that Leighton, because of his 'zeal for Presbyterian principles and against the innovations of Laud,' was arrested in 1629 and kept in an abominable cell sixteen weeks before his trial by the Star Chamber. Because of this 'severe distress that had brought skin and hair almost wholly off his body,' he could not attend his trial. The Star Chamber 'condemned the afflicted and aged divine to be degraded as a minister, to have one of his ears cut off, and one side of his nose slit, to be branded on the face with a red-hot iron, to stand in the pillory, to be whipped at a post, to pay a fine of £1,000 and to suffer imprisonment until the fine was paid. When this inhuman sentence was pronounced, Laud took off his hat, and holding up his hands, gave thanks to God who had given the Church victory over her enemies! The sentence was executed without mercy, and Leighton lay in prison till upwards of ten years. When liberated he could hardly walk, see, or hear. He died in 1649.

In 1631, five years before he was condemned and banished to Aberdeen, Rutherford wrote to Marion McNaught from his parish at Anwoth concerning Dr. Henry Burton, whose footsteps he was later to follow. Says Rutherford in this letter, 'Know that I am in great heaviness for the pitiful case of our Lord's Kirk. I hear the cause why Dr. Burton is committed to prison is his writing and preaching against Arminians. I therefore entreat the aid of your prayers for myself, and the Lord's captives of hope, and for Zion. The Lord hath let and daily lets me see how deep furrows Arminianism and the followers of it draw upon the back of God's Israel - but our Lord cut the cords of the wicked! Arminianism was not more rampant than it is now in England, Scotland, and our own North American continent. Let us not think that the malignant spirit of persecution that moved the Arminians - led by Bishop Sydserff, Archbishop Laud, and others - died at the end of the Covenanting struggles of long ago. The Arminians of today hold precisely the same false doctrines, and are just as relentlessly opposed to the absolute sovereignty of God and unconditional election as were the Arminians of old. (The Contender - Nova Scotia, April, 1955.) - William MacLean, Arminianism Another Gospel