REFUTING 5-POINT CALVINISM (TULIP) “My wrath is kindled against thee….for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right.” Job 42:7. 2. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION If Total Inability be admitted, then Unconditional Election follows by the most inescapable logic, because if anybody is to be saved and if man cannot choose Christ, then God must choose those who shall be the objects of His grace. Election and predestination are Bible terms, but we object to Calvinists’ perversion of these terms. ELECT = Select or choose. PREDESTINE = Determine beforehand. Question: Who or what is elected? Why were they elected? What are they elected to? Calvinist Definition of Unconditional Election: ‘By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His own glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others are foreordained to everlasting death.’ (Westminster Confession of Faith, III:3). It is a sovereign, eternal decree where God chooses who is going to be saved & who is going to be lost. This second point of TULIP is the main teaching, and determines if one is to be classed as a Calvinist. Question 1: Are men elected to salvation or are they not? This is the issue. Key Basic Error of Calvinism is: Confusing election and predestination with salvation. If one denies Unconditional Election, Calvinists accuse us of: - ‘The reason we are prone to disbelieve this doctrine is that we are not humble enough.’ (Rose p.19). - ‘By making election conditional upon something that man does, even if what he does is simply to repent and believe the Gospel, God’s grace is seriously compromised.’ (Storms, Chosen for Life p.55) - ‘The bottom line is, if you deny election, you deny salvation by grace. To reject election is to reject salvation by grace and promote salvation by works.’ (Carl Marton, Does the Bible Teach Election? The Berean Baptist Banner, Jan 5 1995, p.19). Double predestination means predestining some to salvation and others to damnation. Well-known Calvinists are Louis Berkhof, A W Pink, Spurgeon, and Boettner Philosophical concepts in the Decree of Unconditional Election are: i) Unconditional Election was by a sovereign, eternal decree. It is eternal and singular, meaning: It is one decree for one purpose with many events. ii) Sovereignty of God, meaning that God is in sovereign control of every detail of history. The Calvinists, Talbot and Crampton, say: ‘The sovereignty of God is foundational to Christianity. It is the most basic principle of Calvinism.’ (p.14). iii) This singular, eternal, sovereign decree is also said to be all-encompassing. ie: God by His decree has foreordained everything that ever happens in time. Question 2: Does God really foreordain all things? Calvinists think so. Answer: Check the Westminster Shorter Catechism: ‘The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.’ Calvinists insist that God foreordained the Fall of man into sin, along with all the suffering. (See Boettner, Predestination, p.234, and Pink, Sovereignty, p.147). Calvinists also insist that God foreordained every other sin. ‘It is even Biblical to say that God has foreordained sin.’ (Palmer p.82). i) Question 3: What does the Bible say about decrees? TO BE CONTINUED....
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 09:26:43 +0000
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