Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Fall Edition 2000
On The Relationship Between Human Free Will And Divine Foreknowledge In Bible Prophecy
"God lays no restraint on the freedom of man, and he would be constrained to do so with respect to certain prophecies it they were couched in literal and historical terms, otherwise the enemies of the faith would conspire to prevent their accomplishment, while the friends of truth would combine to insure their fulfillment. In general, God would have His creatures fulfill the prophecy, without being aware of it themselves" (Benjamin Fields, Profiles In Wesleyan Theology, Leslie Wilcox, editor, vol. 1, p. 48).
You Arminians dig this: is the modern Calvinistic theory of dispensational premillennialism, through its inculcation of antinomianism in the church of God, unwittingly creating the conditions of last days' apostasy sovereignly foretold in the New Testament? Is God actually "foxing" the antagonists of second blessing holiness' "gizzards", so to speak, by using Scofield/Darbyism this way to effect a vast self-fulfilling prophecy?
I think so. Remember, it's God himself who sends the rejecters of righteousness "strong delusion" in II Thessalonians 2:11. We would contend, then, that the modern-day prophetic system of Scofield/Darbyism is indeed the literal fulfillment of that very prophecy.
Here is just one more good reason for self-consistent Wesleyan-Arminians to give the theory up.
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