Tiptoeing Through the "TULIP"

Contrary to what you may think from reading the title, this is not about Tiny Tim. This post is about "Big Bad John". No, not the Big Bad John from the song made popular by Jimmy Dean, but the Big Bad John known as John Calvin who started the Calvinist movement and his false teachings. There are 5 main points of Calvinism and they are often remembered by the Acronym "TULIP" and they are as follows:

1) Total Depravity
2) Unconditional Election
3) Limited Atonement
4) Irresistable Grace
5) Perseverance of the Saints


Much like 4 out of 5 dentist would recommend Trident gum, 4 out of the 5 points of Calvinism are not scriptural and therefore are wrong.


Total Depravity is the one point that he got right. All of mankind is in a depraved state without Christ. Romans 3:10 & Romans 3:23 say that there is none good, no not one and that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Of this, Mr. Calvin was correct. The only way for us to break free of this depravity is through Jesus Christ and having His righteousness imputed to us based on our belief in His death, burial and resurrection as satisfactory payment for our sins.

Unconditional Election. This false belief teaches that God has already elected you whether you want to be saved by Him or not it is all based on God's will. We have no say in the matter which is what supposedly makes up the "elect". If this were true, then trying to evangelize to people would be futile. We could tell people all that Jesus did on the cross but we would not know if they were the so called "elect" or not.

Limited Atonement. This may be the worst of them all. This says that Christ died on the cross, but only for certain people, the elect (see the previous point on unconditional election). We know this to be false because the Bible says in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He sent His son. It does not say God so loved the "elect". Anyone who has ever been born on earth as a human being has the possibility of being saved. Will they all? Of course not. People have free will to reject Christ and many do. Speaking of rejection, that leads to the next point, Irresistable grace.

Irresistable Grace. When God calls his elect into salvation, they cannot resist. God offers to all people the gospel message. This is called the external call. But to the elect, God extends an internal call and it cannot be resisted. This call is by the Holy Spirit who works in the hearts and minds of the elect to bring them to repentance and regeneration whereby they willingly and freely come to God. You are like a robot saying "yes master". The Bible shows this to not be true in Acts 7:51 where Stephen, just before being stoned to death, is addressing the religious leaders after they crucified Christ. "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did." This shows the Holy Spirit can be resisted.. it is all a matter of free will.

Perserverance of the Saints. This is completely backwards. We are not Saints because we perservere, we perservere because we are Saints. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to perservere in the tough times. We don't perservere in order to be saved. After we are saved, there will be times when we don't always stay connected to God like we should.. we can drift away from serving Him and fellowshipping with the Saints. The key is we may drift away but we don't stop believing. The scripture that best illustrates this is in Hebrews 10:39 "But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."
What Paul is saying here (and yes I believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews but that is another posting for another time) is that yes, we may draw back or fall away or as some call it "get in a spirtual funk" but not to the point where we lose our inheritance in Christ. The true Christian may fall away but they will always come back. If they never come back, they were never Christians to begin with. 1 John 2:19 explains this "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

Also Peter mentions those who pretend to be Christians but end up going back to their old ways eventually. 2 Peter 2:20-23 "20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Believers in Christ are known as sheep. If a sheep falls into a mud puddle, it does everything it can to get out and get clean, but a pig once it goes in the mud, enjoys it and stays there.

So unlike the Meatloaf song that says "2 out of 3 Ain't Bad", the 4 out of 5 flaws in Calvinism are very bad. Not even Trident or a good dentist can help with that either.