FIVE-POINT CALVINISM
(EXPLAINED)
Five Point Calvinism Explained – The explanation of these concepts will be quoted out of or refer to The Synod of Dordt (Dordrehct) 1618-1619 and “The Westminster Confession” 1643. Note: The great Reformed theologian Herman Hanko asserts: “our fathers at Dordrecht knew well that these truths set forth in the Canons could not only be traced back to the Calvin Reformation: They could be traced back to the theology of St. Augustine…For it was Augustine who had originally defined these truths” (Herman Hanko, “Total Depravity” in Herman Hanko, Homer C. Hoeksema, and Jise J. Van Baren, The five Points of Calvinism (Reformed Publishing Association, 1976. In addition, Arthur C. Custance insists that the Five Points were ‘formulated implicitly by Augustine. (The Sovereignty of Grace, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co. 1979, page 71.
T – Stands for Total Depravity; that man, because he is spiritually dead to God “in trespasses and in sins” (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13), is incapable of responding to the Gospel, though able to make other moral choices.
The Westminster Confession of Faith declares: “Our first parents… became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all faculties and parts of soul and body… wholly inclined to evil…Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation…being altogether averse from that good, and dead to sin, is not able by his own strength, to convert himself thereunto.”
“Paul’s assessment of persons apart from Christ may justly be summed up in the theological categories of total depravity and total inability…”(Douglas Moo in his book “The epistle to the Romans (1996).
This inability means that regeneration must precede salvation. R. C. Sproul declares “A cardinal point of Reformed theology is the maxim, ‘Regeneration must precede faith…”
Engelsma (another Reformed writer) acknowledges, “Deny this doctrine and the whole of Calvinism is demolished.”
Homer Hoeksema says: “regeneration can take place in the smallest of infants… in the sphere of the covenant of God, He usually regenerates His elect children from Infancy.”
Scriptures opposing this view of Total Depravity as Inability. Acts 17:30, Psalm10:4, Acts 20:21, Titus2:11, John 5:40, Jeremiah 29:13, Isaiah 45:22, Acts 17:24-28.
U - Unconditional Election – “That God decides on no basis whatsoever but by the mystery of His will to save some, called the elect, and to allow all others to go to hell even though he could save them all if He so desired.”
The Canons of Dort declare: “That some receive the gift of faith from God, and others do not receive it proceeds from God’s eternal decree… [by] which decree, he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect in his past judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy.”
Scriptures refuting this position: 1 Peter 1:2, Romans 8:29
L – Limited Atonement – that these elect are the only ones for whom Christ died in payment of penalty for their sins and that His death is efficacious for no others.
The Canons of Dort declare: For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that…the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect…all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation…he purchased…by his death.”
Scriptures refuting this position: John 3:16, John 3:36, John 7:37, Romans 1:16, 1 Timothy 2:4-6, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 2:1-2.
I – Irresistible Grace – That God is able to cause whomever He will to respond to the gospel, that without this enabling no one could do so, and that He only provides this Irresistible Grace to the elect and damn the rest.
The Westminster Confession states: “All those who whom God has predestinated unto life, and to those only, He is pleased, in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death…effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so, as thy come most freely, being made willing by His grace.”
Scriptures refuting this position: 2 Chronicles 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17,31; Psalm 86:15; Ezekiel 33:11
P – Perseverance of the Saints – “That God will not allow any of the elect to lose the salvation He has sovereignly given them.
The Westminster Confession states; “They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Holy Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will but upon the immutability of the decree of election.