Page "Arminianism" Paragraph 12

Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch pastor and theologian in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

He was taught by Theodore Beza, Calvin's hand-picked successor, but after examination of the Scriptures, he rejected his teacher's theology that it is God who unconditionally elects some for salvation.

Instead Arminius proposed that the election of God was of believers, thereby making it conditional on faith.

Arminius's views were challenged by the Dutch Calvinists, especially Franciscus Gomarus, but Arminius died before a national synod could occur.