Calvinism – Tiptoe thru the Tulips
A. MENTAL CONNECTION BETWEEN FUNDAMENTALISM AND CALVINISM.
1. Historically linked but not equated.
2. Linked thru certain sects of Protestantism.
B. FUNDAMENTALIST - "One who believes in the infallibility of the Bible as inspired by God,
and that it should be accepted literally, as distinguished from the modernist, who interprets the
Bible in accordance with more modern scholarship or scientific knowledge."
(Frank S. Mead, Handbook of Denominations in the United States).
1. Not so much a definite doctrine but a perspective in interpretation.
2. Fundamentalists often disagree on what the Bible teaches, but agree that it is the
innerrant Word of God, a literal history of actual events, and the perfect revelation of
His mind.
C. CALVINISM – A PECULIAR SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE – NO ROOM FOR
DOCTRINAL VARIANCE.
1. Hybrid Calvinists – decrying the illogic of the 5 point Calvinists.
2. If one point is true, the rest follows by logic.
3. If one point fails – the logic and, therefore, the entire system fails.
D. CALVINISM IS THE INVENTION OF John Calvin – 1509-64.
1. 5 points – resting on false assumptions and wrested Scriptures.
2. They rise not from fundamentalism, but the the mind of one fundamentalist.
E. CALVINISM AND SOVEREIGNTY.
1. "The sovereignty of God in His universe, the sovereignty of Christ in salvation, the
sovereignty of the Scriptures in faith and conduct, the sovereignty of the individual
conscience on the interpretation of the Will and Word of God" (Mead).
God’s right to rule absolutely!
2. God has planned everything that has ever happened.
3. No exercise of volition – No submission or rebellion.
4. Everything from the arrival of Africanized bees to what you’re thinking Right Now
determined apart from your input before the word was.
5. Everything done demonstrates God’s sovereignty.
G. GROWING OUT OF THIS ARE 5 POINTS THAT CALVIN PRESSED AS A MATTER OF DOCTRINE.
1. Total Depravity – Man inherits Adam’s sin, therefore is born condemne and lost,
incapable of doing anything good or right on his own, thus, Totally Depraved.
People in their natural, unregenerate state do not have the ability to turn to God. Rather it is the grace and will of God through the Spirit that causes men who are dead in sin to be reborn through the Word.
Rom. 3:10-11 "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."
John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."
1 Cor. 2:14 "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them." – Wikpedia
The unregenerate (unsaved) man is dead in his sins (Romans 5:12). Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the natural man is blind and deaf to the message of the gospel (Mark 4:11f). This is why Total Depravity has also been called "Total Inability." The man without a knowledge of God will never come to this knowledge without God's making him alive through Christ (Eph. 2:1-5). – Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics (CRTA)
2. Unconditional Salvation – Since man is incapable of doing good apart from the
impulse of the Spirit, there are NO conditons placed on salvation. Only God has a
role in man’s redemption.
Election means "choice". God's choice from eternity, of who He will bring to Himself, is not based on foreseen virtue, merit or faith in the persons He chooses but rather, is unconditionally grounded in His own mercy.
Rom. 9:16 "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."
Eph. 1:4 "Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him."
John 1:13 "born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." – Wikpedia
God has elected, based solely upon the counsel of his own will, some for glory and others for damnation (Romans 9:15,21). He has done this act before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4-8) … - CRTA
3. Limited Atonement – Predestination is meant. From before the world, certain ones
are appointed to salvation and certain ones are appointed for damnation.
Also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement" meaning that, Christ's death actually takes away the penalty of sins committed by those upon whom God has chosen to have mercy. (As opposed to Christ's death making redemption merely a possibility that we can perform). It is "limited" then, to taking away the sins of the elect.
John 10:15 "I lay down my life for the sheep."
Acts 20:28 "shepherd the church of God that He obtained with the blood of His own Son."
Eph. 5:25 "love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." – Wikpedia
Limited Atonement is a doctrine offered in answer to the question, "for whose sins did Christ atone?" The Bible teaches that Christ died for those whom God gave him to save (John 17:9). Christ died, indeed, for many people, but not all (Matthew 26:28). Specifically, Christ died for the invisible Church -- the sum total of all those who would ever rightly bear the name "Christian" (Eph. 5:25). … Christ's death was not a death of potential atonement for all people. Believing that Jesus' death was a potential, symbolic atonement for anyone who might possibly, in the future, accept him trivializes Christ's act of atonement. Christ died to atone for specific sins of specific sinners. Christ died to make holy the church. He did not atone for all men, because obviously all men are not saved. … - CRTA
4. Irresistable Grace – It is thru the operation of the Holy Spirit that we come to
believe and desire salvation. He is mightier than us, therefore irresistable.
The saving grace of God is not resistible. Those who obtain salvation do so because of the relentlessness of God's mercy. Men yield to grace, not finally because God found their consciences more tender or their faith more tenacious than other men. Rather, willingness and ability to do God's will, are evidence of God's faithfulness to save men from the power and the penalty of sin.
John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you."
Ephesians 1:11 "In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will."
1 Thes. 1:4-5 "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit."
Rom. 9:11 "though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad- in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call."
Colossians 2:13 "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him." – Wikpedia
The result of God's Irresistible Grace is the certain response by the elect to the inward call of the Holy Spirit, when the outward call is given by the evangelist or minister of the Word of God. Christ, himself, teaches that all whom God has elected will come to a knowledge of him (John 6:37). Men come to Christ in salvation when the Father calls them (John 6:44), and the very Spirit of God leads God's beloved to repentance (Rom. 8:14). What a comfort it is to know that the gospel of Christ will penetrate our hard, sinful hearts and wondrously save us through the gracious inward call of the Holy Spirit (I Pet. 5:10)! - CRTA
5. Preservation of the Saints – Once saved always saved. It is God’s will that saves
us, and since salvation is dependent on his strength, we can’t get away.
Also called the "Preservation of the Saints". Those whom God has called into communion with Himself through Christ, will continue in faith and will increase in faith and other gifts, until the end. Those who apparently fall away, either never had true faith to begin with, or else will return.
John 10:27-28 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish."
1 John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."
Philippians 1:6 "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." – Wikpedia
Perseverance of the Saints is a doctrine which states that the saints (those whom God has saved) will remain in God's hand until they are glorified and brought to abide with him in heaven. Romans 8:28-39 makes it clear that when a person truly has been regenerated by God, he will remain in God's stead. The work of sanctification which God has brought about in his elect will continue until it reaches its fulfillment in eternal life (Phil. 1:6). Christ assures the elect that he will not lose them and that they will be glorified at the "last day" (John 6:39). The Calvinist stands upon the Word of God and trusts in Christ's promise that he will perfectly fulfill the will of the Father in saving all the elect.
G. WHAT ABOUT THE CALVINIST CONCEPT OF SOVEREIGNTY?
1. God does have absolute authority – right to rule – in my life/
2. What do we do with “free moral agency?”
Calvinism Denies This, Naturally!
3. Predestination is a lynch pin of Calvinism. – "That all events are predetermined by
God, and that each person's eternal destiny is fixed by divine decree." (Mead).
4. The concept of "total depravity" falls right in. It is: "...every human faculty having an
innate evil taint." More simply, the innability of evil man to choose or do good
without God's decreeing it before Creation” (Mead).
H. CAN MAN CHOOSE? IS HE A FREE MORAL AGENCY.
1. Implied in God’s continued pleas for repentance, is offer of salvation, and its
rejection on the part of those invited.
2. Scripture place blame on the sinner for his sin (Matt. 23:37). Ye Would Not!
3. Man has the ability to choose salvation (Josh. 24:15; Rev. 22:17).
4. Obedience and salvation are both a matter of human salvation.
