Introduction - Calvinism
is a theology which emphasizes the sovereignty
of God. The 5 points
of Calvinism are: The total depravity of man,
unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace and
perseverance of the saints.
The goal of this study is to describe what a
Calvinist means by the terms
and then to comment on each of the five
by comparing them with the
Scriptures.
Total depravity of man
- Total depravity to the Calvinist means the total
inability of a human to participate
in their eternal salvation in any fashion.
Because of total inability
in humanity, God gives saving faith to those
whom He wishes.
Comments:
Humanity is spiritually dead in sin (Romans 5:12).
Humanity is greatly defiled
in heart (Mark 7:20-23). However, humanity
is not so depraved that they
do not have volitional choice (for example
see John 7:17 and 1 Corinthians
7:37) or volitional accountability before
God (see Revelation 20:13).
“Total depravity” is not a Biblical term.
“Total depravity” is theological
vocabulary framed to defend God’s
sovereignty and the avoidance
of works in salvation. This theological
vocabulary framing is unnecessary.
God is so sovereign, even human
freewill is included in His
plan. There is no merit to human volition in
and of itself. God gave
volition to all humans. Humans did not create
the volition which they use.
Where Calvinists go too far is to state that
God gives man the faith to
believe in Christ. See “irresistible grace”
below. John 3:16 is
a genuine offer of salvation to “whoever believes”
for “eternal life.”
Unconditional election
- Unconditional election to the Calvinist means
that God sovereignly elected
some to heaven and others to hell with no
conditions considered.
Comments:
“Unconditional election” is also theological vocabulary
framing. “Unconditional
election” is not a Biblical term. Just the
opposite is expressed in 1
Peter 1:1b-2a, “chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father”
(NASB). God’s choosing (eklego - to
choose out, gather out or
elect) was not arbitrary but according to His
omniscient foreknowledge.
God’s sovereignty does not function apart
from His other essence characteristics.
To say that God does things
arbitrarily, attacks the truth
of His other attributes. Justice,
righteousness, love and veracity
for examples. God’s foreknowledge is
not synonymous with His sovereignty.
There is some semantic overlap,
but prognosis (before,
to know) is not whatever Koine Greek or Hebrew
word you can find to translate
“sovereign.” Incidentally, the Calvinist,
coloring so much of their
theology with God’s sovereignty, should try to
find a particular Biblical
Hebrew or Greek word to translate “sovereign.”
It will be an interesting
exercise. I believe God is sovereign because of
passages such as Daniel 4:35,
but the lack of a definitive Biblical
sovereignty vocabulary is
interesting. Foreknowledge is not sovereignty.
It is heresy to think of God
as sovereignly arbitrary. This is why the
prognosis vocabulary exists.
It is impossible for the omniscient God of
the Bible to not know about
the nonmeritorious faith choices of
humanity from eternity past.
I would like to comment on
Romans 9:12-13 in relationship to
God’s unconditional election,
as this is one of the proof texts used by
Calvinists. These verses
are a citation of Genesis 25:23 and Malachi
1:2-3. The context of
each of these Old Testament passages concerns
the nations of Israel and
Edom. Romans 9:12-13 concerns God’s
promotion of faithful Israel
versus unfaithful (works) Edom. God’s
arbitrary salvation of individuals
is not the subject of these verses. God’s
omniscient foreknowing plan
to promote the faithful nation Israel is the
context. ‘Promotion of the
faithful versus works’ is also the theme of the
other examples in Romans 9
- Isaac over Ishmael (vv. 6-9), Jacob over
Esau (vv. 10-11), Israel
over Edom (vv. 12-13), Israel over Pharaoh (vv.
14-18) and the Potter over
the clay (vv. 19-23). The climax and
conclusion of Romans 9 is
found in verses 30-33. These verses contrast
faith for righteousness with
works for righteousness, not God’s arbitrary
unconditional election of
some for salvation and some for hell.
Romans 9:30-33 (NASB) - 30What
shall we say then? That
Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, attained
righteousness, even the righteousness
which is by faith; 31but
Israel, pursuing a law of
righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
32Why? Because they did not
pursue it by faith, but as though it
were by works. They
stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33just
as it is written, “Behold,
I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offense, and he who
believes in Him will not be
disappointed.”
Limited atonement: -
Limited atonement to the Calvinist means that
Christ died only for the sins
of the elect.
Comments:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life” (John 3:16,
NASB). “So then as through one transgression
there resulted condemnation
to all men, even so through one act of
righteousness there resulted
justification of life to all men” (Romans 5:13,
NASB). “Who desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4,
NASB). “Not wishing for any to perish but
for all to come to repentance”
(2 Peter 3:9b, NASB). There is no
exegetical warrant to understand
“world,” “whoever,” “all” or “any,” in
the verses above, as anything
other than genuine statements of “love,”
“justification” and “eternal
life” available to humanity. Calvinistic
theology may read-in “elect”
to the plain sense of these verses, but that is
eisegesis (reading in) not
exegesis (reading out). “Only for the elect” is
not found in or near these
verses or anywhere else in the Bible. In an
effort to defend God’s sovereignty,
let us not attack the sufficiency of
Christ’s work on the Cross!
Irresistible grace:
For the Calvinist, irresistible grace is the sovereign
forcing of the elect to be
saved.
Comments:
More theological vocabulary framing. “Irresistible” is
never found with grace in
the Bible. Having studied the context of every
use of charis (grace), the
following is my Biblical definition: “Grace is
God’s beneficial opportunity
for mankind to approach Him for eternal
salvation and spiritual growth
based on the Person and work of Jesus
Christ.” See Romans
5:1-2 and Acts 20:32. One could say, “Grace is
irresistible because God is
sovereign.” One can better say, “God is so
sovereign, salvation by faith
in Christ through grace is offered to any.”
Human volition is a nonmeritorious
gift from the God of the Bible. Only
the object of one’s faith--Jesus
Christ--is worthy of any merit in God’s
eyes.
Perseverance of the saints:
Calvinistic perseverance of the saints means
that the saint whom God has
elected to salvation is both eternally secure
and will grow spiritually.
Comments:
Ephesians 4:30, John 10:28 and Romans 8:34-39 are
just a few of the many Biblical
references to the Believer’s eternal
security. However, “perseverance
of the saints” is the final example of
Calvinistic vocabulary framing.
It usually carries a connotation such as
this: ‘Because God is sovereign,
those that He gives faith to be saved will
automatically persevere and
mature until the end of their earthly life.’
With this interpretation is
the following application: If a person commits
any one of a subjective list
of sins (depending on the list of the Calvinist
you are dealing with),
then they were not really initially saved. In an
effort to defend God’s sovereignty,
a subtle system of works to prove
one’s salvation can develop.
Doubting one’s salvation because one still
sins, can hinder the Christian’s
spiritual growth.
Conclusion: The
five points of Calvinism have the admirable goal of
portraying God as sovereign.
He is. However, the theological vocabulary
framing used by the five points
of Calvinism lead to greater problems
than they solve. Sovereignty
is not more important than any of God’s
other essence characteristics.
God’s essence characteristics do not include
being arbitrary. Sovereignty
is not synonymous with foreknowledge.
Human volition is not synonymous
with works for salvation. Volition is
nonmeritorious before God,
it is simply the vehicle by which He
appropriates real glory for
Himself. All the credit, merit and glory is in the
object of our faith: Jesus
Christ. God is sovereign over human volition
having created it. God’s sovereign
plan from eternity past included
human volitional choices--impressive
sovereignty.