In the modern context, Amyraldism (or Amyraldianism, also aka Four-Point Calvinism, Hypothetical Universalism) refers to the theological idea that God's eternal decree of predestination concerns only those who are to be saved (i.e., a modification of the Calvinist concept of predestination which teaches that God has decreed some to be saved and others to be damned—hence the alternative monider 'Four-Point Calvinism'). According to Andrew McGowan, writing in the Dictionary of Historical Theology, "Amyraldianism . . . implies a twofold will of God, whereby he wills the salvation of all humankind on condition of faith but wills the salvation of the elect specifically and unconditionally. The theological difficulty of God's will having been frustrated by the fact that not all are saved is met by the argument that God only willed their salvation on the condition of faith. Where an individual has no faith, then God has not willed the salvation of that person?"
The term derived its name from the Latin form of the name of French Protestant theologian Moise Amyraut (1596-1664). In its original context, Amyraldism involved a series of other issues (raised by the theological faculty at the French Protestant Academy of Saumur, which was famed for the quality of its faculty until it was abolished by the Edict of Nantes of 1685) and caused a considerable amount of heated debates in its time. Its impact remains a matter of scholarly debate.
Further Reading:
"What is Amyraldism / Four-Point Calvinism?" gotquestions.org.
See also B. B. Warfield, Plan of Salvation, Chap 5: Calvinism.
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