Soteriology – Should we be Calvinist, Arminian, or something else?

Before I begin, I want to note that you can view our church's full doctrinal statement of faith at capernaumbaptist.com/doctrine.

The first section outlines the six major tenets of our theological approach: Evangelical, Fundamental, Baptistic, Dispensational, Provisional, Compassionate.

Let me quote the second-to-last:

Provisional
We are not Calvinist and not Arminian. God does not hand-select who will and who will not be saved, but He does draw all men to Himself (providing grace to all, thus provisional). All must then choose to yield to that drawing by faith in the Gospel to become a Christian.

And much to my shock literally one minute before writing this, I thought I'd look up Provisionalism, since I've never seen it called that (most pastors just say they're not Calvinist or Arminian, "We're balanced," they say...).

Much to my shock, I discovered there is a similarly-named theology, and I feel compelled to canonize my refusal to ascribe to it.

There is a heretical theology called Provisionism. This is different from our POV, Provisionalism. Note the spelling differences in the latter half:
ProvisionISM (bad)
ProvisionALISM (good)

If you want to read about the heresy called Provisionism, you can click here.

The first point of this post is to say we DO NOT ascribe to Provisionism.

Now to the second point of this post...

So what do we believe?

Provisionalism (the good one) holds to these major tenets of soteriology:

• God is just, merciful, and sovereign. By His own character, He must punish sin (Romans 6:23a), He must love sinners (Romans 6:23b), and He must have sovereignty over all things (Psalm 103:19).

• God's sovereignty allows for humans to make choices (free will). Arminians assert that free will means a man can seek God, but that's not true. "There is none who seeks after God" (Romans 3:10). However, God seeks us first (John 6:44 and John 1:7, 9; Romans 11:32; Mark 7:14; Romans 5:6; John 12:48).

• God provides salvation for all (provisionalism's namesake) and wants all to be saved (Jn. 3:16; 12:32; 1 Tim. 2:4, 6; 1 Jn. 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:14; 2 Pet. 3:9). Although Calvin would argue that the "ransom for many" proves limited atonement, he must have forgotten that "many" is still part of "all."

• So, if God is in control, He allows us to make choices, and He provides salvation for us, Mankind must be able to accept or resist God's grace (Rom. 1:20; Acts 7:51; John 12:48; 2 Pet. 2:1).

Bottom line:

God provides grace for all to be saved. He even draws all men unto Himself. And many will listen to that calling and repent of their sin. Those who don't will have rejected God's salvation and will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.

To quote our statement on the Doctrine of Salvation:

Jesus Christ's sacrifice for the entire world on the cross and bodily resurrection three days later allows people to believe in Him after the drawing of the Holy Spirit, thereby gaining access to the Father. Without this faith in Christ, unsaved people suffer eternal separation from God. With salvation by faith through Christ, God adopts Christians into His own family.

So no, we're not heretics.
And no, we don't just call ourselves "balanced" as a cop-out.

We believe Scripture.
And God wants you to be saved.
Accept the calling.

Repent.