My Take on the Tulip - The Five Points of Calvinism

There are two common theological positions in evangelical theology: Calvinism and Arminianism. I want to highlight the beliefs of Calvinism and then explain why I come out as an evangelical Arminian.

The five teachings of Calvinism form an acrostic called T-U-L-I-P. The T stands for Total Depravity. Because Adam and Eve fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, we are totally depraved and lost in our sins apart from the grace of God. We have fallen and we cannot get up. The scriptures to support this teaching are Psalm 51:5, Romans 3:10-23, Galatians 3:22-25, and many others.

Although I do not think that we are as bad as we could be, I agree that we are depraved to the point where we cannot lift a hand or a foot toward our own salvation. Titus 3:5 says that "He saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy."

The second teaching of the T-U-L-I-P is Unconditional Election. This teaching says that before the creation of the world, God chose certain individuals out of the mass of humanity to be saved, and he passed by everyone else. These people are elected to salvation not because of their response to the gospel or because of their own efforts, but simply because of God's own purpose and sovereign grace. Calvinists appeal to Acts 13:48, Romans 8:29, and Romans 9:16, and 9:22-23 and Ephesians 1:3-14 to support this teaching.

I do not believe in unconditional election. I believe in CONDITIONAL election. Number one: I believe that God chose Christ to be the Savior of the world (Luke 23:35, Hebrews 1:2). Secondly, I would say that before the creation of the world, God looked into the future and He saw the people who would repent and turn to Christ for salvation, and these are the ones who have been chosen for eternal life. 1 Peter 1:2 talks about those "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God," and Romans 8:29 says that "Those He foreknew, He predestined."

In other words, God looked into the future and saw that on September 13th, 1985, Marc Axelrod would get down on his knees in his dormitory room, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of God's people. Based on this foreknowledge, God made the decision to elect me to salvation.

You may want to ask me at this point, "How can we repent and turn to Christ for salvation if we are totally depraved?" The answer is that God gives us the grace to respond. Jesus says in John 6:44 says that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him." I believe that God draws the depraved sinner to Himself so that He can respond to the gospel. Ephesians 2:4-5 says that "He made us alive in Christ while we were dead in our trespasses."

Another problem I have with the second point of Calvinism is that it makes God appear insincere. God says in 1 Timothy 2:4 that He wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. But how can this be a sincere offer if God has arbitrarily decided to pass by millions of people? It doesn't make sense! But it does make sense if people are chosen based on how they would respond to the gospel. In other words, conditional predestination makes more sense than unconditional predestination.

The third teaching of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is Limited Atonement. Since only a certain number of people have been chosen for salvation, Jesus died only for these chosen people, not for the whole world.

But this teaching flies against the Bible verses that teach that Jesus tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9), and that He died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2, John 3:16).
I would say that the death of Christ is universal in its scope. It is SUFFICIENT for everyone, but EFFICIENT only for those who repent of their sins and trust in Christ for their salvation.

The fourth point of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is Irresistible Grace. Since Jesus died only for a certain number of chosen people, these people will not want to resist the grace of God, indeed, when the time comes, they WON'T be able to resist it.

I would say that anyone who has heard the gospel but has not accepted it is currently resisting the grace of God. Eventually, those who are predestined will come to a place in their lives where they stop resisting. You may have a cousin or a son who resisted the grace of God for years, but got to a point in life where they realized their need for God and their need for the church. I think about the apostle Paul in Acts 9, who resisted Christianity furiously until he had a personal encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Many others can give a testimony of how they resisted the Holy Spirit for years until they came to an hour when they realized their great need for the Savior (Augustine, John Wesley, etc).

The fifth point of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is the Perseverance of the Saints. Those who are unconditionally chosen to salvation and respond to the grace of God will persevere in their faith. In other words, they will hold on to their salvation without losing it.

It is not crystal clear what Jacob Arminius thought on this issue, but a good case can be made for it. Philippians 1:6 says that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Furthermore, John 10:28 says that "I give them eternal life and they will never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand." What we have here is not so much the perseverance of the saints as it is the PRESERVATION of the saints. God preserves His people and delivers them safely into His heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).

Now I realize that there are many warnings in Scripture aimed at those who do not live for the Lord the way they ought to be living. Galatians 5:21 warns that these people will not inherit the kingdom of God, and many similar warnings can be found in John 15:1-6, Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-29, 2 Peter 2:20-22, and 3:17, and in many other places. I take these warnings very seriously, and so I strive to work out what God is working within my life.

Nevertheless, I believe that those who truly repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Savior will endure to the end (Matthew 24:10-13). Those who don't will be told "I never knew you (Matthew 7:21-23, 1 John 2:18-19)," not "I knew you at one time, and now you are lost again." I am not rock solid one way or the other, but I think a person can believe in the preservation of the saints while taking seriously the warnings of Scripture about falling away.

When all is said and done, even though I find some things in the Calvinist system that I admire and agree with, I would have to say that I am a moderately conservative evangelical Arminian Christian. Arminians like to emphasize the goodness and grace of God. They teach that God wants everyone to be saved, but that man, in response to the prevenient grace of God, must accept the gospel message and believe in Christ for him or herself.