Why an Arminian Can Like Francis Schaeffer

Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer was an ordained Presbyterian minister, which makes him a Calvinist officially. He had to pass muster with a Presbyterian ordaining council. Nevertheless, in some of his writings, he sounds Arminian.

For example, in True Spirituality, he says that a person can respond to God by saying "no" to what He requires. It is one option among others that he discusses. This seems to indicate that he believed in free will and resistible grace. Calvinism teaches that God's sovereignty trumps free will, and that grace is irresistible.

Schaeffer also commends Wesley for addressing the concept that Christians can and should have a conscious awareness of their relationship with God, actually knowing that they are Christians. Calvinists shy away from this, and teach that a Christian cannot know whether he or she is elect until death. Faith, for them, is based on the written Word only, though the Word is also a Person.

When Schaeffer wrote True Spirituality, he was addressing, at least in part, what he thought to be a lack in Reformed theology, and indicated that he had gone through a spiritual crisis before writing it. I guess if anyone could critique Reformed theology, it would be a Calvinist.