Disclaimer: Some postings contain other author's material. All such material is used here for fair use and discussion purposes.

Monday, September 14, 2026

The Five Points of Calvinism -The Doctrines of Grace, Defined and Defended from Scripture

Found here. Our comments in bold.
-----------------------------------

We have been devoting a lot of blog space to Calvinism, since it seems to us that its most vociferous defenders are getting increasingly loud. So once again we find ourselves examining another defense of Calvinism.

At almost 5000 words (including footnotes but not including charts), this is perhaps the most extensive defense of Calvinism we have seen on the internet. However, extensive does not mean thorough. Or Biblical. 

The author examines only a single, though significant, hostile source, The Five Articles of the Remonstrance. We are gratified that the author actually quotes from it, pretty unusual for a Calvinist. But there are also many thoughtful critiques of Calvinism subsequent to this 500 year old document.

In addition, the author quotes various sympathetic sources to explain his doctrines, but when it comes to the Bible he tends to quote it without commentary. The problem is, many of those Scriptures do not speak to Calvinism, while others are misinterpreted or taken out of context.

But the bottom line is, the author, like most Calvinists, devotes a lot of energy explaining and defending his Calvinism. In fact, Calvinists will never talk about Scripture unless they can insert their Calvinism. Their entire world revolves around the continual reinforcement of these doctrines.

This is very nearly cultic behavior.

Lastly, it continually strikes us that the "Doctrines of Grace" actually don't matter.  Everything about these doctrines is from the "now" looking back. Everything Calvinists are arguing about is a matter of the past for Christians. How we were included, who is included, and our prior status as lost men, all of that is the past and makes no difference at all to those who are already saved. Therefore, Calvinism is moot to the saved, and irrelevant to the lost. 

Much of what the author offers has been answered elsewhere in our blog, but we will nevertheless attempt to offer succinct commentary.
----------------------------

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:16

Overview

Bring up the five points of Calvinism at the wrong dinner table and you'll have an argument before the plates are cleared. (Many Calvinists begin with this. Why might people be offended at Calvinism? Perhaps it is because the doctrines are offensive, or that the Calvinist himself is offensive?)

Few summaries of the faith get quoted more often or understood less. (Ah, the problem is that people who oppose Calvinism are all misinformed or ignorant. But sir, what if they're informed and have thoughtfully concluded that Calvinism is false? Do such people come in under your radar?)

Strip away the heat, though, and they say something settled: this is how the Reformed church confesses that God saves sinners. (We comment on the linked article here.)

They aren't five slogans bolted together. They're one answer to a single question, who actually accomplishes salvation, God or man, (No Christian disagrees that the answer is God.)

and that answer runs through every point. It is God's work from first to last. (No Christian disagrees, it is God's work.)

The churches defined these truths at the Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity confess them still. The English acronym TULIP came much later, popularized in the early twentieth century as a memory aid rather than something handed down from Dort itself. This page walks the five points one at a time and lays the Scripture for each one on the table.

Contents

Dort and the Remonstrant Controversy

The five points are not a freestanding system. They are the Reformed answer to a specific challenge. In 1610 the followers of Jacob Arminius drew up the Remonstrance, five articles that revised the Reformed doctrine of salvation at its center. The Synod of Dort, an international assembly of Reformed churches, met from 1618 to 1619 to weigh those articles against Scripture and issued the Canons of Dort in reply. This was no local squabble. Delegates came from the Dutch churches and from Britain, Switzerland, and the German territories, and after months of deliberation they answered the Remonstrants with one voice. The familiar five points are a summary of that reply, which is why it helps to set the two positions side by side.



(Notice, please, the complete irrelevance of each of these points. None of it matters to the any privilege or obligation of Christians.)

Seen against that background, the five points mark the places where Reformed theology would not yield. Each one guards a single conviction: that salvation is the work of God from first to last. (This must be a loaded phrase, since the author repeats it. 

As we mentioned, no Christian would disagree. But as we will discover, Calvinism redefines and reinterprets the Bible to conform to its doctrines, so the ordinary language used doesn't actually mean what we think it means.)


Point by Point: The Remonstrance and the Reformed Reply

Take the five articles one at a time, in the order the Remonstrants gave them. For each, here's the claim they made, the answer the Reformed churches returned, and the Scripture that carries the most weight in that answer.1
***************

1 Election 
(That is, Unconditional Election,)

Remonstrant claim. Election is conditional, resting on the faith God foresaw in those who would believe and persevere. The ground of God's choice lies in what he saw in the creature. · Remonstrance, Article I

Reformed reply. Election is unconditional. God's choice is the cause of faith, not its reward, set on his people in free mercy before they were born or had done anything good or bad, so that salvation rests on the God who calls. · Canons of Dort I.10

Ephesians 1:4-5 "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world ... he predestined us for adoption." (Um, no. Paul was talking about a specific group of people:
Eph. 1 11-12 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
Only the first Christians 2000 years ago can be "the first to hope in Christ," and that's not us.)

Romans 9:11-12 God's purpose of election stands "though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad." (This chapter of Romans is tracing out the lineage of God's chosen people and His purpose with Israel. It's not about us.)

Romans 9:16 "it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (Not a predestination statement.)

Acts 13:48 "and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." (Again, the early church, those who were "the first to hope in Christ," is not us.)

2 Thessalonians 2:13 "God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit." (The "firstfuits" is the very first of the harvest, particularly the Jewish remnant. We are not the firstfruits, the firstfruits of the harvest was 2000 years ago. It's not about us.)

Romans 8:29 "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." (Those he foreknew and predestined were the early Jewish believers. A few verses before Paul identified these people:
 Rom. 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Contemporary Christians do not have the "firstfruits of the Spirit," so we are not predestined.)

2 Timothy 1:9 God "saved us and called us ... not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace." (Not a predestination statement.)

We shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the wellspring of God's free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which illumines God's grace by this contrast: that he does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others. (Hmm. If God elects some to salvation and denies everyone else, that means God decided people will go to hell before they were even born.)

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.1
*****************

2 The Atonement 
(that is, Limited Atonement.)

Remonstrant claim. Christ died for every person without exception, obtaining redemption for all, though only believers come to enjoy it. The cross made salvation possible for all and certain for none. 
- Remonstrance, Article II

Reformed reply. Christ's death was definite in design. He died to actually secure the salvation of his people, and what he purchased he certainly applies. His cross does not merely open a door; it saves the sheep for whom it was offered. The One who died for them also prays for them, and his cross and his intercession reach the very same people. · Canons of Dort II.8

John 10:11, 15 "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ... and I lay down my life for the sheep." (The sheep is a direct allusion to the remnant faithful of Israel [Psalm 100:3].)

Ephesians 5:25 "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." (Not a Limited Atonement statement.)

Acts 20:28 the church of God, "which he obtained with his own blood." (Not a Limited Atonement statement.)

Matthew 1:21 "he will save his people from their sins." (His people is Israel.)

John 17:9 "I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me." (His disciples, who were sitting right there in the same room.)

Romans 8:32-34 "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all ... Christ Jesus is the one who died ... who indeed is interceding for us." ("Us all" is not a limited group. Not a Limited Atonement statement.)

Isaiah 53:11 "by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities." (Not a Limited Atonement statement.)

It was the will of God that Christ ... should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father.

The Canons of Dort 
Second Head, Article 8

A Classic Defense

John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ

The fullest classic defense of this point is John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647). Owen's case turns on the design of the cross rather than its worth. He presses it with a famous dilemma: Christ bore the wrath (He did not bear wrath if that means to experience God's wrath. Calvinist/Reformed people misunderstand the word "bore":
1 Pet. 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
The word "bore" is anapheró, from ana and phero; to take up (literally or figuratively) -- bear, bring (carry, lead) up, offer (up). He took up lifted, carried, our sin away. 

He took away our sin:
Col. 2:13-14 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
"Took" is airó, raise, lift up, take away, remove. He was our burden-bearer. He was the vehicle by which our sin was transported. He carried it like a bag of garbage to be thrown into the trash. The Father did not punish Him for our sin, because He packed our sin to the cross and nailed it there.) 
 
due to either all the sins of all men, all the sins of some men, or some of the sins of all men. If only some of the sins of all men, then sins remain unpaid and no one is saved. (Jesus did not pay for sin, He paid for us:
1 Cor. 6:20 you were bought at a price.

How many are included in this statement? 

1 Tim. 2:6 ...who gave himself as a ransom for all men...

Sir, does "all men" mean "some men" or "all men?")

If all the sins of all men, then why are not all saved? (Sighhh. All are not saved because all do not believe. Elementary. 

By way of analogy, if I buy everyone a ticket to a Seahawks game but only some go to the game, did I not still pay for everyone?)  

Should anyone answer that their unbelief condemns them, Owen replies that unbelief is itself a sin; either Christ bore its punishment, (Christ did not bear our punishment, He carried our sins to the cross, as we mentioned.) 
 
and they go free, or he did not, and then he did not die for all their sins. Only the middle option stands: Christ "suffered for all the sins of all the elect."2  (So this is the famous dilemma? Trite and puerile.)

In his introductory essay J. I. Packer drew out what is at stake. Owen shows, he wrote, that "Christ did not win a hypothetical salvation for hypothetical believers ... (No Christian believes this.)

but a real salvation for his own chosen people," a death that "actually saves his people, as it was meant to do." Read this way, definite atonement is not a narrowing of grace but the assurance that the cross accomplished exactly what God designed.3 (Another theologian's opinion. No Bible verses in sight.)

Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, Book III; Packer, introductory essay to the 1959 Banner of Truth edition.

Owen's Trilemma: For Whose Sins Did Christ Die?

From The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647)

Christ satisfied God's justice for one of three. Every option but one collapses.
  • Some of the sins of all men
All men still have some sins left to answer for, so none could be saved.
FAILS
  • All the sins of all men
Then why are not all saved? If the answer is their unbelief, unbelief is itself a sin: if Christ paid for it, they go free; if not, he did not die for all their sins. (This of course is a false dilemma, since Christ's sacrifice for all mankind does not require all mankind to be saved.)
PROVES TOO MUCH
  • All the sins of some men (the elect)
Christ certainly secured the full salvation of all his people.
WHAT WE AFFIRM

Owen's argument for definite atonement. (It seems very clever to reduce the equation down logically, but as the author must know, all logic is based on assumptions. And sometimes those assumptions lead the logic to a wrong conclusion.

One problem is the framing. Jesus did not, in fact, die to satisfy God's justice, to pay for sin, or to receive the Father's wrath. In fact, all men are already dead. They have ALREADY been condemned: 
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already... 
Rom. 5:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
Adam's sin resulted in the death of all men. God has already has rendered judgment. The death and condemnation is in the past, and it's what we are all born into, death. 

And sinning is what dead people do. We were dead in our sins.

Therefore, like the OT animals, Jesus' blood sacrifice was to wash us clean from sin. And like the OT, the blood deals with the sin of the person who is offering the sacrifice [i.e. the repentant], not anyone else. So anyone who is not part of the offering remains condemned. Thus Jesus' blood cleanses only the repentant, but is offered to all.

The idea that the forgiveness of sin is synonymous with salvation is the author's second error. The blood satisfied God's wrath against sin, but He will still examine the Book of Life to ascertain whose names are written there.

Those whose names are written in the Book of Life are there because we have been made alive, i.e., born again:

1Pet. 1:23 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

2 Cor. 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 
 
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Jesus' sacrifice was for all: 
1 Tim. 4:10 ...we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

John 1:7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 

He is the savior of all men, but faith is the separator as to who gets saved.)
*************

3 Human Ability 
(that is, human inability or actually, Total Depravity)

Remonstrant claim. The third article granted that fallen man can do no true good of himself, yet the Remonstrants coupled it with a grace that restores a freed will, able then to cooperate with God or to refuse him. · Remonstrance, Articles III-IV

Reformed reply. The inability runs all the way down. The natural man is not merely weakened but dead in sin, (True, Rom. 5:12) 

hostile to God, (True, Rom. 8:7) 

unable to submit to him (True. Actually, "God's law"... Rom. 8:7) or even to grasp the things of the Spirit (True, 1 Cor. 2:14) 

until God himself acts to make him alive. (True, 1 Cor. 15:22)

Even the faith that saves is God's gift, (Hmm. The weak link in the chain. What verse tells us that saving faith is a gift? Well, we recall one verse Calvinists have cited: 
Eph. 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.
But notice here that faith is not the gift, salvation by faith is the gift. This is a separate matter from the subsequent spiritual gift of faith.)

not the one thing the sinner brings to the table. · Canons of Dort III/IV.3

Ephesians 2:1 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins." (All Christians would agree.)

Romans 8:7-8 "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God ... it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot." (All Christians would agree.)

1 Corinthians 2:14 "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God ... he is not able to understand them." (All Christians would agree.)

John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." (All Christians would agree. But being drawn is not predestination. Unless of course all men are predestined: 

Jn. 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”)

Romans 3:10-11 "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." (All Christians would agree.)

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (All Christians would agree.)

John 3:3 "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (All Christians would agree.)

Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.

The Westminster Confession of Faith
Chapter 9.3

(All Christians would readily assent that we are sinful and cannot save ourselves. Only God can save us. No one disputes this.

So why the big stink about something everyone agrees with? Because there is an element the author never directly explains. Calvinists believe that making a decision for Christ is itself a work. That is, if God does everything in the salvation process, we cannot make such a decision. This would be a work, and for Calvinists this means we saved ourselves. That is where all the author's weird claims come from.

Hopefully this clarifies.

This is a key premise, and a surprising omission.)


4 Grace 
(that is, irresistible grace.)

Remonstrant claim. Grace is necessary for every good work, yet it is resistible. The Holy Spirit may be finally refused, so the decisive turn rests with man's free response. · Remonstrance, Article IV

Reformed reply. God's saving grace is effectual. It does no violence to the will (Emphasis added.) but renews it, giving a new heart, so that the sinner whom God draws certainly and willingly comes. The new birth comes first; a man believes because the Spirit has made him alive, not in order to become alive. · Canons of Dort III/IV.1 (Catch that? We are born again BEFORE we are saved. This astonishing claim is not supported by any Bible verse. In fact, being born again is indistinguishable from salvation: 
1Pet. 1:23 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Our new birth put us in a category, that of being in possession of a living hope. Thus, separating new birth from salvation violates this Scripture.)

John 6:37 "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." (This is about the Jewish remnant, the first to believe in Christ.)

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." (A repeat verse from above.)

Ezekiel 36:26-27 "I will give you a new heart ... And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." (Not an irresistible grace statement.)

Acts 16:14 "The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul." (Not an irresistible grace statement.)

Romans 8:30 those he predestined "he also called ... justified ... glorified." (A repeat verse. Again, this is the remnant of Israel, the earliest believers who were saved. This is not us. We are not the firstfruits [Rom. 8:23].)

John 3:6-7 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh ... You must be born again." (Not an irresistible grace statement.)

John 6:45 "Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." (Not an irresistible grace statement.)

God regenerates the minds of the elect by a certain intimate and wonderful operation and creates them as it were anew by infusing his vivifying Spirit, who, gliding into the inmost recesses of the soul, reforms the mind itself, healing its depraved inclinations and prejudices.

Francis Turretin
Institutes of Elenctic Theology 2.523 (Dennison) 
 
(This section was about Irresistible Grace. Once again the author doesn't bother to actually demonstrate the doctrine.)

5 Perseverance
(that is, Perseverance of the Saints. This is a particularly useless doctrine, because no one can know if one is part of the Elect. Thus the doctrine is merely theoretical. There are a group of people, only God knows who they are, who will persevere because they are the Elect. They might be false converts.)

Remonstrant claim. The article was left open; later Arminian teaching concluded that a truly regenerate believer can fall away from faith and be finally lost. · Remonstrance, Article V

Reformed reply. Those whom God truly saves he preserves to the end. Their security rests not on the strength of their grip on God but on the strength of his grip on them, and nothing can pluck them from his hand. · Canons of Dort V.

John 10:28-29 "they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father ... is greater than all." (His sheep is the remnant of Israel.)

Philippians 1:6 "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (No one knows if they are false converts.)

Romans 8:38-39 nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (No one knows if they are false converts.)

1 Peter 1:5 "who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed." (No one knows if they are false converts.)

John 6:39 "I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day." (Jesus was talking to and referring to Jews, the Remnant.)

Ephesians 1:13-14 believers "were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance." (Hmm. Oddly, or perhaps deviously, the author doesn't quote the first part of verse 13: 
Ep. 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Some were predestined, but our inclusion was when we heard the word of truth. Hmm again.)

Jude 24 "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory." (No one knows if they are false converts.)

I ... am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who ... so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation.

The Heidelberg Catechism
Question and Answer 1

Notice how the five points lock together. (Notice how all five points form a house of cards. All are built on predestination. Upon that shaky foundation the whole of Calvinism is built. So the author is quite right: it all links together.)

The Father chose a people, the Son died for that same people, and the Spirit brings that same people to faith and keeps them home. Paul traces the chain with no broken link: "those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Romans 8:30). (Repeated verse.)

Not one is lost between election and glory. Pull a single point and the chain breaks, which is why they stand or fall together. (The author never explained how someone who is a long-standing, faithful Christian can fall away. We see it every day. 

That fact must be explained. The author never raises the issue, but Calvinists answer that these people are false converts who were never saved. It's a convenient dodge, a derivative of their doctrine. 

But the real issue is, what difference does it make to anyone?)



TULIP in Confessional Perspective

(Ugh. He's still going. He's going to go over the same ground again.)

The five points are usually remembered by TULIP, the English mnemonic. The mnemonic is a teaching aid, not a creed. The Canons of Dort, where these doctrines were confessionally defined, don't follow the TULIP order at all; they fold the third and fourth points into a single head. With that caution noted, the framework remains a faithful summary of what the Reformed churches confess, and each letter can be anchored in the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards.

I'll put in a word for it. When I first came to these doctrines, TULIP was the thing that finally made them stick, and I still think it's one of the better teaching devices we have. There's a happy irony in it, too: a Dutch synod settles the doctrines of grace, and the acronym that carries them turns out to spell the most Dutch flower of all. It taught me Calvinism and introduced me to a flower I had somehow never seen before, which is more than most mnemonics can claim.

TULIP

The Five Points of Calvinism · Canons of Dort 1618-1619
T
Total Depravity
Sin corrupts every part of human nature, so no one can turn to God on his own.
DORT III/IV · WCF 6

U
Unconditional Election
God chooses his people in free mercy alone, not on any foreseen merit or faith.
DORT I · WCF 3

L
Limited Atonement
Christ's death actually secured the salvation of his people; particular, definite redemption.
DORT II · WCF 8

I
Irresistible Grace
God's saving grace renews the will and effectually brings the elect to faith; effectual calling.
DORT III/IV · WCF 10

P
Perseverance of the Saints
Those whom God truly saves he keeps to the end; they will never finally fall away.
DORT V · WCF 17


T · Total Depravity

U · Unconditional Election

L · Limited Atonement

I · Irresistible Grace

P · Perseverance of the Saints
Confessional anchor: Canons of Dort V.3; Westminster Confession of Faith 17.1; Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1.

Read this way, the five points are not a competing system bolted onto the gospel. (Of course they are. They are irrelevant to the Gospel, they are only an argument over process.)

They are the same confession set down at Dort and echoed at Westminster, summarized for memory.

Ten Hard Questions about the Doctrines of Grace

The five points tend to draw the same honest objections, the questions that rise in the mind of almost anyone who meets Reformed theology for the first time. (That is, someone who has no acquaintance with Calvinism, perhaps a Long-standing Christian, would be shocked to discover Calvinistic doctrines, because these doctrines are so foreign to Bible understanding.)

None of them is new, and each has a Scriptural answer. Here are ten, briefly addressed.4

1.If God ordains everything, including our choices, how can we be held responsible for our sin?

Scripture holds both truths at once and never apologizes for it. Peter says of the greatest crime in history that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," and in the same breath that "you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men" (Acts 2:23). (These two Scriptures do not contradict. And, the eternal purpose of the Father to send His Son is not controversial and has nothing to do with predestination.)

God ordained the cross; wicked men committed it, and the guilt was wholly theirs. (No Christian would disagree.)

He is never the author of sin, for "God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). (No Christian would disagree.)

He ordains all that comes to pass without ever staining his own hands. (Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1) (Um, wait. This is the primary assertion, undocumented with Scripture. 

And the author moves on without answering the question.)


2.Does this make us robots with no free will?

No. The will is not abolished but freed. (Bare assertion.)

Fallen man already chooses exactly what he wants, which is sin; (Bare assertion.) 

grace does not override the will but renews it, (Bare assertion.)

so the sinner now wants Christ and comes gladly. (Bare assertion.)

Paul commands obedience and grounds it in God in a single breath: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). (How does one work out their salvation if God predestined everyone?)

God gives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), and the renewed will runs to him freely. (Bare assertion.)

What Reformed theology denies is a will independent of God, not a will that genuinely chooses. (Westminster Confession of Faith 9.4) (A nonsense statement. A will dependent on God cannot choose.

And again the author does not answer the question.)


3.If only the elect are saved, how can the gospel be offered sincerely to everyone?

The offer is as wide as the command to preach. (This is a dodge. The question is not about the command to preach, the question is about preaching to people whose destiny is already chosen.)

Christ calls without restriction: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28), and the last invitation in Scripture still stands: "let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Revelation 22:17). God even declares, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). Election is God's secret; (Ohhhhh. It's a secret. The author can't explain the contradictions so he deems it a secret.)

the invitation is his open word, and the promise holds for everyone who comes. We preach to all because we do not know whom he has chosen. (Canons of Dort II.5) (Why not preach to none because we do not know whom he has chosen? It will have the exact same result.

Again the author does not answer the question posed.)


4.If we are saved by grace and not by works, why pursue holiness at all?

Grace does not cancel good works; it creates them. (Bare assertion.

But now we are talking about grace and not predestination. The author has moved the goalposts.

And of course, every Christian believes that we are saved by grace and not works.)

The same passage that rules works out as a ground of salvation names them as its goal: "For by grace you have been saved through faith ... not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:8-10). We obey not to earn life but because we already have it, out of gratitude. (No Christian would disagree.)

Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14). A faith that saves is never a faith that stays idle. (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 86) (No Christian would disagree.

But no one doubts grace brings salvation. The question is actually, if God predestines everyone, why try to live a holy life? If someone is predestined, how he lives his life makes no difference.)


5.If God has decreed all that will happen, why pray or evangelize?

God ordains the means together with the ends, so the decree establishes prayer and preaching rather than cancels them. (The words are in English, but make no sense.)

He chose his people "to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth," and then adds, "To this he called you through our gospel" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14). The salvation and the gospel that brings it are decreed together. That is why Paul asks how anyone is to believe "in him of whom they have never heard," and "how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Romans 10:14). We pray and preach because God saves his elect precisely through these appointed means. (Sighhhh. The author just doesn't want to answer these questions. He just bobs and weaves. The question is not if God has decreed evangelism, the question is why evangelize at all if everyone is predestined? The tension between the command and the doctrine need to be resolved, not avoided. 

The author has extended predestination into every facet of existence. He thinks God controls, dictates, and decrees everything. This is hyper-Calvinism, usually rejected by Calvinists. But in fact if one takes Calvinism to its logical conclusion, hyper-Calvinism is the result. 

But Calvinists reject this, and therefore must have these various work-arounds, caveats, and reinterpreted Bible verses in order to compensate for their cognitive dissonance.)

6.If God is both sovereign and good, why is there evil, and is he its author?

God ordains and governs evil without doing it or approving it, always bending it to a holy end. (Here is one of those caveats. Unable to allow their Calvinism to be brought to its logical conclusion, they cut short the application of their doctrine because they cannot accept the logic that if God controls everything it can only mean He created evil.)

The clearest case is the cross, where men did "whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28), the worst evil ever committed and the means of the world's redemption. Joseph saw the same pattern in his own suffering: "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). He is never the author of sin; the creature alone bears the guilt, while God remains perfectly good. (Westminster Confession of Faith 5.4) (The author again dodges the question. Will he actually give an honest answer to one of these questions at some point?)

7.Is it unjust for God to pass over those he does not choose?

No one is wronged, because no one is owed. (Who has claimed someone has been wronged??? What does someone being owed have to do with anything? 

It seems the author is happy to demolish strawmen.

The question is simple, sir. Stop dodging and answer it!)

All have sinned, and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), so strict justice for anyone would be condemnation. (No Christian would disagree.)

Paul raises this very objection and rejects it: "Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy'" (Romans 9:14-15). Mercy shown to some is not injustice to the rest, for mercy by definition is undeserved. "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" (Romans 9:20). That he saves any at all is pure grace. (Westminster Confession of Faith 3.7; Canons of Dort I.15) (Arrrrgh! We are tiring of this man's dancing around the questions.

In predestination God chose men for hell. Period. That matter is established and is not the question. The question is about justice. How is just to condemn a man who had no choice in the matter?)

8.Does definite atonement mean God does not love everyone?

God shows real kindness to all people and a particular, saving love to his own. To everyone without exception he is generous: "he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). But the love that actually redeems lays down its life for particular people: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). "God so loved the world" names the breadth of those he saves, gathered from every nation, not that every individual is redeemed. (Sighhh. "Loved" and "redeemed" are separate topics.)

The cross is not a wide love made weaker; it is the deepest love made sure. (More flowery nonsense.

What about the question, sir? Does God love everyone or not?)

9.How can I know whether I am one of the elect? (You can't know. You might be a false convert. You might think you're one of the Elect and one day just decide to walk away. It happens every day. Someone who seems to be a solid Christian rejects his religion. So you cannot know, at least until you actually make it to heaven.)

Do not climb into heaven to read the secret decree; look to Christ. He promises, "whoever comes to me I will never cast out" (John 6:37), so the one who comes may know he is received. John wrote for exactly this assurance: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). Peter points to the fruit: "be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Faith in Christ, rest in him, and growing holiness are the evidence of election; assurance is found there, not in speculation. (Canons of Dort I.12; Westminster Confession of Faith 18.2) (Every false convert believes these things. Election is one of those irrelevant doctrines that changes nothing about how we walk out our faith.)

10.If people are born totally depraved, where do infants who die go? (This is a question that is irrelevant to Calvinism.

So we are done with our commentary. There is only so much smoke blowing we are able to tolerate.)

Scripture gives no blanket statement, but it gives solid ground for hope. Salvation is by grace through Christ, who is able to save apart from a conscious profession, and the Lord welcomed the little ones: "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). David, grieving his dead infant, comforted himself with reunion rather than despair: "I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" (2 Samuel 12:23). The Canons of Dort encourage godly parents not to doubt the election and salvation of their children who die in infancy. (Canons of Dort I.17)

Ten Essential Books on the Five Points

The doctrines of grace have been served by a long shelf of trusted books. These ten are among the most influential, the titles Reformed teachers most often commend. Where a book is in print, the link goes to the publisher or its ministry; one title without a clean publisher page is linked to a trusted bookseller.

The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented, David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, and S. Lance Quinn (P&R Publishing). The standard concise primer on the five points.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Loraine Boettner (P&R Publishing). A classic full-length statement, where the five-point scheme found one of its earliest popular expositions.

Chosen by God, R. C. Sproul (Ligonier). The most accessible modern introduction to predestination, warm and clear.

The Five Points of Calvinism: A Study Guide, Edwin H. Palmer (Baker Books). A crisp primer that walks each point through its Scripture.

The Potter's Freedom, James R. White (Calvary Press). A vigorous defense of the doctrines of grace and definite atonement.

For Calvinism, Michael Horton (Zondervan). A clear, Christ-centered case for the doctrines of grace from a leading Reformed theologian.

The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, John Owen (Banner of Truth). The definitive defense of definite atonement; featured above.

What Is Reformed Theology?, R. C. Sproul (Ligonier). An accessible tour of Reformed theology that sets the five points within the wider faith.

The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering the Evangelical Gospel, James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken (Crossway). A warm, pastoral exposition that keeps Christ and his cross at the center.

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J. I. Packer (InterVarsity Press). Shows that sovereign grace fuels evangelism rather than hindering it.

Key Terms

A short glossary for the words that come up most when these doctrines are discussed.

Monergism 
Salvation is the work of God alone, who makes the sinner alive without any cooperating contribution from him. The opposite of synergism.

Synergism
The view that God and man cooperate in salvation, with man's free response the deciding factor. This is the Arminian position the five points answer.

Effectual (Irresistible) Calling
The Spirit's inward call to the elect that always brings them to faith, as distinct from the outward call of the gospel that goes to all who hear.

Definite (Particular) Atonement
Christ died to actually secure the salvation of his people, not merely to make salvation possible for everyone.Prevenient GraceIn Arminian theology, a grace given to all that restores the freedom to accept or reject God. Reformed theology denies it.

Reprobation
God's eternal decree to pass over those he has not chosen and to leave them in their sin, to the praise of his justice (Canons of Dort I.15).

Ordo Salutis
The "order of salvation," the logical sequence of God's saving acts: calling, regeneration, faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Perseverance and Preservation
The two sides of the fifth point. The saints persevere because God preserves them; their continuance rests on his keeping, not their strength.

A Note on Sources

This page teaches the five points of Calvinism from Scripture and the Reformed confessions. The John Owen citations are public domain, and the brief J. I. Packer lines are attributed quotations from his introduction to Owen. The Synod of Dort comparison reflects the public-domain history of the synod. Books still in print are linked to their publishers; please support them.

Why This Matters

I didn't grow up with any of this. I came to the doctrines of grace out of a Lutheran upbringing, slowly, and not without cost. There were conversations with family that didn't go the way I'd hoped. So I write as someone who remembers the resistance, not as someone scoring a point.

The five points aren't a club to swing or a badge to wear. They're five ways of saying one thing: your salvation does not finally rest on you. If God chose you before the world began, if Christ actually secured you, if his grace will not let you go, then your standing before him is as steady as he is. That's not cold doctrine. It's the ground you stand on at a graveside, at a baptism, on the worst night of your life. Hold it gently with those still finding their way in, and hold it firmly for yourself.

Footnotes

The Five Articles of the Remonstrance (1610) are quoted and cited from Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3 (New York: Harper, 1877), 545 to 549. The Canons of Dort (1618 to 1619) are cited by head and article. The Westminster Confession of Faith is quoted from the standard text; Scripture is given in the ESV. ↩︎
John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647); the dilemma on the design of the atonement appears in Book III. ↩︎
J. I. Packer, introductory essay to John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (London: Banner of Truth, 1959). ↩︎
The "Ten Hard Questions" section is modeled in form on Craig R. Brown, The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism (Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2007), expanded here to ten questions with our own answers. ↩︎

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)