Calvinism Part 1

What is Calvinism? Why should we care and why does it matter? Since the founding of the Christian church, countless men and women have ushered different and new doctrines they claim are derived from the bible, but few are. Here, we will dive into the doctrine of Calvinism and will try it according to the Word of God so that we can be ready and equipped against the fiery darts of the wicked.

Galatians 1:8 states, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto, let him be accursed.” What Paul is saying to the church of Galatia is to beware of false doctrines and gospels that don’t comply with what Paul had been preaching to them, which of course was the good message of Jesus Christ. Paul wasn’t the only one giving such a warning, Jesus Himself told His disciples in Matthew chapter 7 verses 15-23, saying in verse 15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Jesus knew that false prophets would come bearing false gospels and wanted His followers to be on the watch for such preachers. I give to you that one such preacher was John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism.

John Calvin was from Geneva, and was a bi-product of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin was a theologian and spent much of his time studying doctrine, in so he “discovered” what he thought to be a flaw in the way the gospel was traditionally preached. If you are at all familiar with Calvinism (or Reformed Protestantism), you may have heard of the acronym TULIP. TULIP gets its origins from a series of conventions held by the Dutch Reformed Church from 1618 to 1619. The purpose was to come to a conclusion amongst themselves concerning the rival doctrines of John Calvin’s Calvinism and John’s protege Jacobus Arminius’ Arminianism. During the said meetings, the church created the acronym TULIP as a way of memorizing the five points of the Calvinist doctrine that they believed. What are the five points? T: Total Depravity, U: Unconditional Election, L: Limited Atonement, I: Irresistible Grace, and P: Preservation of the Saints. For now I will debunk the first.

Total Depravity, in short, means that man is dead in his sins and because he is dead in his sins he is at enmity with God and cannot desire to change his evil ways so therefore must continue in them. First, it is true that man is dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-6) and we are at enmity with God (Romans 8:7), but I give to you that God is a just God and in His justness, He gave man the free will to choose. Man is capable of desiring salvation, this biblical truth is stated in possibly the most famous verse of the Bible! 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.” See, “that whosoever believeth in him” we get to choose to believe in Christ for salvation, it’s our own choice. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved” could God really be a just God if he didn’t give us a free will? We would all be robots, forced to do what God makes us do, even sin. But God tempteth no man to sin (James 1:13). This idea of Total Depravity is obviously not biblical and so must be counted as a false doctrine. In part 2 I will debunk the second point of Calvinism: Unconditional Election. Thank you for reading and as always, until next time!