TULIP – Calvinism, and the doctrine of election
Posted on : 14-08-2007 | By : Andy | In : Calvinism / Arminianism, TEDS, religion
0
I figure that I’ll certainly be behind some of my classmates entering school this fall, since I have no really formal Biblical training. (Unless you count a high school sunday school class and 18 years of listening to sermons)
So I decided that now was as good a time as any to start getting educated, and since I’ve had a few discussions about Calvinism/Arminianism in the past, I decided to start by reading John Piper’s position paper on the issue. If you aren’t familiar with the topic, [click here for a primer].
Arminianism
came about when a theologian named Jacob Arminius came to reject 5 specific aspects of the broad set of doctrines known in the 1500s as Calvinism (they were largely influenced by the work of John Calvin). When Arminius began to teach in opposition to these parts of Calvinism, his doctrine began to gather weight, and in 1610 a group of Arminianists published Five Articles under the name Remonstrance. As a result, the Calvinists came back with an official response that clearly defined the Five Points of Calvinism in opposition to these Articles.
Calvinism
is based on an overwhelming emphasis on God’s sovereignty, and at its core (from what I now understand of it) states that man really has nothing to do with becoming saved, and that said salvation cannot be lost once it is attained. It’s a very involved theology to get to that point, but the end result is that Calvinists believe in the doctrine of election, which asserts that: 1) God chooses (or “predestines”) all who will be saved, 2) if he chooses you, his Grace overwhelms you to the point where it’s impossible to NOT “choose” Him, and 3) if you’re not chosen, there’s nothing you can do to ever be saved, because you’re a worthless pile of sinning crap, incapable of believing. The five points start with letters that form the acronym TULIP.
This info was take from “TULIP: What We Believe about the Five Points of Calvinism” by The Pastoral Staff of Bethlehem Baptist Church, May 1997.
- Total depravity
- Unconditional Election
- Limited Atonement
- Irresistable grace
- Perseverance of the saints
These five points make up the most notorious bit of Calvinism, and are what people generally assume you to believe these days if you call yourself a Calvinist. This is not the whole entirety of what Calvin taught, but certainly the five points that have caused the biggest controversy, and the five that are in contrast to Arminianism.
Now, I am no expert on Arminianism. In fact, I’ve never read Remonstrances (although I hope to do it soon) and I don’t claim to be an Arminianist, because I’d hate to align myself with something that I don’t even know what it says. That being said, I’ve got some disagreements with Calvinism. I’ll be posting my way through the five points—please feel free to comment, and point out my logical fallacies. Please do not throw lots of scholarly references and high-faluting mumbo-jumbo at me, because I’m a simple guy, and I could care less what Saint whoever said 800 years ago unless it can be simply shown to be scriptural—and if it’s scriptural, just point at it in the Bible, and maybe comment that the idea started with said Saint holy-guy so he doesn’t come out of the grave and sue you for stealing his intellectual property.
I’ve got little respect for scholarship for scholarship’s sake alone: if the idea has merit, it shouldn’t have to stand solely on the reputation of some famous guy.