Amyraldianism

James Macgregor (1830-1894)

The question of the attitude of the United Presbyterians as the heirs of the New Light Seceders to the doctrine of the atonement came into the filed of discussion again when the Old School minority of the Free Church, in their critical attitude to proposals for the union of their Church with the United Presbyterians, raised the matter. In the course of these negotiations there was published, over and above an earnest tract from the pen of Dr J. Julius Wood of Dumfries, an elaborate pamphlet discussing the subject from the pen of James Macgregor, who was one of the school of Cunningham. In this work, from the standpoint of the older Calvinism, he treats of the situation created by the decision arrived at by the United Secession Synod in the case of Dr Brown. He was of one mind with his master, Cunningham, that on the side of Brown and his friends there was a renewal substantially of the tendency of Amyraut and his school in the French Protestant Church of the 17th century. These are the terms in which Macgregor canvasses and criticises the value of the Amyraldian scheme: “The more malignant aspects of Amyraldianism are as follows:-First, the notion of any saving purpose of God that does not infallibly determine salvation; or, in other words, of a frustrated intention or a disappointed desire of His; this notion is not only on the face of it unscriptural, but, in the heart of it, offensive even to our natural reason, because inconsistent with the very nature and perfections of Deity. Nor does the notion gain anything, in respect of spiritual seemliness, when transferred from God’s eternal decree to the execution of that decree in time on the Cross. For the notion of any substitution of Christ that does not infallibly secure by purchase the salvation of all for whom He died, is deeply dishonouring to the personal work of the adorable Substitute.

Again, the two notions alike (or the notion in its two applications alike) must, when seriously entertained, tend to undermine the believer’s assurance of hope. For that assurance is ultimately founded on the truth, that all God’s purposes are unchanging and effectual, and that no sinner can ever perish for whom Christ gave His life on the Cross. The assurance, therefore, is fatally undermined by the notion, that there is a changeable or ineffectual purpose of God, and that many of those for whom Christ gave His life shall nevertheless fall into death eternal.

Once more the two notions alike (or the notion in its two applications alike) must tend, when seriously entertained, to prevent unbelievers from coming to God in ‘full assurance of faith.’ It is at this third point that the Amyraldians deem themselves strongest. Hence, as I have said, in France they assumed the name of Methodists under the impression that their doctrine constitutes a method or way, more excellent than had previously been known among Calvinists, of leading sinners to salvation through faith, and particularly of helping them over the difficulty, already referred to, in the way of believing. And it is at this point–their strongest–that I find them weakest.”

(In: John Macleod, “Scottish Theology”)