CALVIN'S TULIP

How does it stand?

TOTAL DEPRAVITY - True

Total depravity must be seen from a Biblical point of view, and the Apostle Paul sums that up with his dissertation in Romans 3:9-23

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: is no fear of God before their eyes.

We know that what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

We attempt to mollify this in our thinking by looking at the extremes of sin and saying to ourselves I have never done that, but as the Scriptures point out if we have committed these things in our heart we have committed them before God.   Therefore we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We may not be vicious people openly venting our selfishness at the expense of others, but we are selfish in the area of our ego, our sense of personal identity.  The best of human beings do things because of personal desire.  Charitable things are done to and for others because of personal desire; we could identify this as ‘feel good’ motivation.  How often do we do things for others in opposition to our desires, and when we do, doesn’t our reluctance prove the fact of inherent selfishness?

We live with ‘I’ as the centre of our universe; what I think, what I feel, what I want.  This selfishness is mostly held in check by acquired standards but if those standards decay, selfishness will break out openly and it will be materially evident that we are sinners fallen short of the glory of God.  Selfishness in any form is evil; therefore whether we do to others for pleasure or personal gain, doing it in the power of self is not ‘good’ as God is good, but evil. 

Depravity is not a certain level of evil but the existence of evil.  Depravity is not to be measured by human standards but by the standard of perfection - God’s glory.  Total depravity is total only in as much as no part of our being is untouched by it; it is not total in that we cannot choose otherwise.

This task of the Law is to show us our shortcomings and to drive us to The Saviour, Jesus Christ.

UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION - False

Unconditional election could be called arbitrary election as it is said to be entirely dependent on God’s will and has nothing to do with the will of men.  If this were so then the word of God becomes void for it says in 2 Peter 3:9 that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”.

This one verse alone is sufficient to destroy the Calvinists claim to unconditional election because in their theology God wills the non-elect to hell.  They will not say this in as many words but their doctrine states it nevertheless.  They use such terms as ‘God leaves the non-elect reprobate’.  What does that mean?  It means that God gives the non-elect no offer or opportunity to be saved; a direct rejection of the above passage from 2 Peter.

Unconditional Election is an ugly doctrine and as John Wesley said, it makes God out to be an arbitrary devil. 

But Election is a true doctrine and it is God who does the electing… so how can it be God’s sovereign choice when man obviously has a say in the matter?  Why do I say obviously… because every passage (and they are innumerable) which commands or exhorts or encourages unbelievers to repent and believe is a call to exercise volitional choice. 

Every human being remains an unbeliever until they either exercise their volitional choice and accept the truth of Jesus Christ… or enter into sheol at physical death (for as someone has said “there are no unbelievers in hell/sheol”).  If a man goes to his death without positively exercising that choice, he will go to hell and eventually to the eternal lake of fire.  So what is it that condemns a man to hell other than unbelief and wilful rejection of God?  Elsewhere in the Bible it says men are without excuse in their rejection of God because creation shouts aloud his eternal power and Godhead (Romans 1:20) and there is no language in which this voice is not heard.

The basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election is the belief that man has no merit whatsoever and no power or entitlement that affects God’s sovereign will; therefore by this reasoning if any are elected (and we know there are) it must be because election is God’s arbitrary choice.  But is this a true assumption?   

Man has been made in God’s image and because God is Spirit and we are flesh, that likeness is almost certainly in the non-material, the spiritual part of our being, in our soul and our spirit.  Even if this argument is not conclusive, man’s innate capacity to think and to make rational and moral choices is, and therefore God given: Yet in the reckoning of this Calvinistic doctrine this God given capacity in mankind to make rational and moral choices suddenly becomes meaningless, irrelevant.

Faith is simply the natural God-given ability to comprehend a thought and accept it as true, even the atheist exercises faith in believing evolution.  All normal human beings exercise faith, therefore it is non-meritorious and since it is the convicting and enlightening ministry of the Holy Spirit which leads a man to repentance saving faith is also non-meritorious (it is through faith and not of works). Faith is clearly seen throughout scripture as the only means by which a person can approach God and in this context is simply the acceptance of what God has done on his/her behalf. 

God is not willing that any should perish, but because many do, logic demands there is something that restricts God’s absolute will from operating in that person’s life.  Free volitional choice is the answer.  The Spirit of God convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment but never forces himself upon a person’s negative will.  Men exercise their right of choice in rejecting the call of the Holy Spirit and remain un-reconciled to God and so the opposite is also true… men accept the call of the Holy Spirit and are reconciled to God, they are saved ‘not of works’ but through faith.

Election then must depend on something else other than God’s arbitrary will.  In the KJV of 1Peter 1:1-2 we have this statement:

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied”.

The defenders of Unconditional Election will probably point out the more correct word order of the original Greek as seen in the ESV version:

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you”.

At face value it would appear these believers have been elected to be exiles to those lands, but not only so they are exiles in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.  Are these people exiled in sanctification, obedience and cleansing, or are these people… “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” as the KJV has it? 

Yes we are saved by God’s grace and abilities and not our own, but we are elect according to his foreknowledge and we are delivered through sanctification and the constant cleansing afforded by Christ’s once and for all sacrifice.  God is an eternal God who sees the end from the beginning as all prophetic scripture proves; so why can we not accept the fact that election is according to this same prophetic ability.

LIMITED ATONEMENT – False

Limited atonement is a natural extension to unconditional election, for if God arbitrarily elected some to repentance and left all others reprobate then he would be at cross purposes to die for the non-elect.

But again there is a single verse sufficient to destroy this false doctrine.

1John 2:2 “And he (Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

And there are others:

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”

It does not say ‘whosoever of the elect that believes shall be saved’; indeed it would be foolish to do so.  Whosoever is an all inclusive term and means just that ‘whoever will believe’, with this statement also being a nail in the coffin of unconditional election.

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE - As named this is false.

Irresistible Grace is particularly associated with Calvinism, which teaches that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (the elect), and in his timing God overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to faith in Christ. 

(We have seen that it is God’s determination that ‘none should perish’, so why doesn’t he ‘overcome all resistance’ and bring everyone to faith in Christ?)

Efficacious Grace however does away with this sense of the arbitrary and is therefore more accurate to the truth of scripture.

It is a fact that no one comes to faith in Christ unless drawn of the Father

John 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:45  It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement to come (John 16:8), yet it is clear men can and do reject that conviction.  It is through the Spirit’s convicting power that men are drawn to the Truth, the Truth being Christ.  To reject Jesus Christ is to reject the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS – True

This is another name for Once Saved Always Saved and it is true because God categorically says so (John 10:28-30; Romans 8:31-39; Hebrews 7:25; 1Peter 1:5; Jude 1:24).

Every passage that seems to show loss of salvation can be aligned to teaching on sanctification not salvation. 

Salvation i.e. forgiveness and regeneration (born again) is once for all and is accomplished by the indwelling Spirit of God.   John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wills, and thou hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell from whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit”.  The Spirit is the Comforter Christ promised to his disciples: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:16).