I will write more later on the origins of Arminianism.
Calvinism Made SimpleIntroduction: The PCA is a church of the Reformation. We believe in the doctrines of Calvinism. There is much mis-understanding about what that means. Some people equate Calvinism with stern Puritanism. Others think Calvinism is cold-hearted fatalism. Actually, Calvinism is nothing more than an outline of what the Bible teaches about salvation. Usually there are five statements, and these have been called the "five points" of Calvinism. I'm going to give them to you this morning as multiple choice questions for each of the five points, and you will be able to see if you are a Calvinist or not. Most, if not all, of you believe in the Bible, so you are probably all Calvinists already. Let's find out.....I. The first point has to do with the sinfulness of mankind.A. The Choices1. People are basically good, and we don't need a Savior.
2. People are sinners. But we are still good enough to choose to repent of our sins and believe in Christ for salvation without any help from God. Everyone is capable of doing enough good deeds to merit salvation.(Every religion or philosphy except for biblical Christianity holds to a variation of either of these statements.)3. We all come into this world spiritually dead in sin; and sin is so serious that we are both unwilling and unable to repent and believe in Jesus unless God in mercy creates repentance and faith in our hearts.Number three is the Calvinist answer, and what the Bible teaches.B. Some Bible verses...Rom 3:10-12 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.John 6:44, 64, 65 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Yet there are some of you who do not believe...." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."Eph 2:1-5 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath....But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.C. Illustration: A man has fallen overboard on a large vessel. He struck his head on a railing, as he fell into the ocean. He is now motionless and unconcious in the water. His lungs are filled with water. His heart has stopped beating. He is sinking fast. How can he be saved? 1) Throw him a float, and yell at him to grab on, and then pull him up to safety? But he cannot hear, nor understand. Or, 2) Someone must jump in and grab him, pull him to safety, empty his lungs of water, do "mouth to mouth" resuscitation and shock his heart back to life. That's what God did for us. That's Calvinism.SUMMARY STATEMENT ONE: All men and women are lost sinners who are spiritually unable to save themselves.II. The second point has to do with Who becomes a Christian, and Why.A. The Choices...Choice #1 we have already showed to be unbiblical, but here it is....1. People are not really dead in trespasses and sins, just a little bit sick. People have a natural ability to repent and believe without any special help from God. So, it's up to each individual, by exercising his/her own free will, to decide if he/she will repent and receive Jesus as Savior.
2. The Bible is right when it says that people are really spiritually dead in their sins. But God is a merciful and gracious God, and is unwilling to see the entire human race go to Hell. Therefore He makes up His mind to choose and save a very large number of individuals, and to supernaturally create repentance and faith in their hearts, and bring them to Christ.Number 2 is Calvinism.B. The Bible verses....1 Th 1:4-5 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.1 Pet 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect (chosen ones), strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...SUMMARY STATEMENT TWO: God graciously chose to rescue a large number of individuals from destruction.III. The third point has to do with God's Purpose in Jesus' death on the cross.A. The Choices...1. Jesus died to actually pay for the sins of every individual, and therefore every individual will go to Heaven. No one will be damned. (Universalism)
2. Jesus died on the cross to set us a good example of how to do what's right no matter what the consequences.
3. Jesus died on the cross to create a kind of "treasury of salvation." He died for mankind in general, but not for any individuals. He has thus made salvation POSSIBLE for anyone who of his own free will would choose to repent and believe in Jesus.
4. While Jesus' death DOES have some value for everyone in the world, the chief purpose of Jesus' death was to ACTUALLY PURCHASE REDEMPTION for those individuals chosen by God for salvation. Jesus did not die just to make salvation POSSIBLE for all. He died to make salvation CERTAIN for the elect.Number four is the Calvinistic answer.B. What does the Bible say about it? For whom did Jesus die?Eph 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
(Do good shepherds die for wolves as well as for their sheep? Would it not be a foolish shepherd who said he loved the wolves and the sheep equally?)Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.There are some Bible verses which SEEM to say that Jesus died for every individual in the world....1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.But the word "world" in the Bible often does not mean each individual in the world. For example...John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"People today often use all-inclusive language in the same way. For example: Someone might say to you "George Bush is from Texas." You might reply, "Oh, everyone knows that!" But, literally speaking,everyone doesn't know that George Bush is from Texas.If Jesus truly paid for everyone's sins in his death on the cross, then no one would ever go to Hell. Yet we read in the Bible that many people don't go to Heaven. Therefore the verses which seem to teach a universal atonement must be using the word "world" in a non-literal way.Calvinism is biblical. The main purpose of Jesus' death on the cross was to make a real atonement for the sins of God's people. Jesus shed His blood for the Church. The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep, not for the wolves. However, even those who reject Christ derive great benefit from the cross in what theologians call "common grace." It is expressed in Matthew 5:45......Be like "...your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."SUMMARY STATEMENT THREE: Jesus' death powerfully purchased redemption for God's chosen people.IV. The fourth point has to do with the power of God over a person's heart; and the inevitability of His plan of salvation.A. Choices...1. God never forces anyone to become a Christian. If you are determined to resist God's Holy Spirit, then God is helpless to save you from your sins. You are stronger than God, because God will never violate your free will. He can only plead and hope you will come to Him.
2. God powerfully works in the hearts and circumstances of those He chose to become believers, and none of God's elect is allowed by God to resist His saving grace.Number two is the Calvinist choice.B. The Bible Verses...The conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20) is an illustration of God changing a man's free will. Saul had no choice in the matter of his salvation or his ministry. He was forcibly converted by God and made into God's apostle to the Gentiles.Prov 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.Phil 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.SUMMARY STATEMENT FOUR: All who are chosen by God for salvation will definitely become Christians.V. The fifth point has to do with the believer's security in salvation.A. The choices....1. You became a Christian by your own power and free will. Therefore, you can stop being a Christian also by your own power and free will. You can run away from God and lose your salvation. Maybe you were bound for Heaven yesterday, but if you do something wrong, you can be bound for Hell tomorrow.
2. You became a Christian because God chose you, Jesus died for your sins, and the Holy Spirit created in you a new heart with repentance and faith. You have been made by God Himself into a child of God. You were irresistably saved by God's power, and you will inevitibly be kept saved by the power of God. Your eternal security is not in your power to change. You can never lose your salvation because that would defeat the plan of God for your life, which is impossible.B. The Bible Verses...John 10:27-29 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (If you were saved in 1995, and lost your salvation in 2000, did you have "eternal" life, or "5-year" life?)John 6:37-39 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.Mat 18:12-14 What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.Phil 1:6 ...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.SUMMARY STATEMENT FIVE: Those who are saved will never lose their salvation.Conclusion: What we have discussed today is a simple summary of what the Bible says about salvation. Let's list these five points again....1. All men and women are lost sinners who are spiritually unable to save themselves.2. God graciously chose to rescue a large number of individuals from destruction.3. Jesus' death powerfully purchased redemption for God's chosen people.4. All who are chosen by God for salvation will definitely become Christians.5. Those who are saved will never lose their salvation.Now if we take all those first capital letters and make an acrostic to help us remember the five points we come up with A G J A T. "Agjat." Several hundred years ago some English speaking Calvinists tried to come up with an acrostic for these five points; and they hit upon T U L I P, which is a lot easier to remember. TULIP is also appropriate because these five points were first outlined in 1618 at the Synod of Dordt, in Holland (home of the tulip flower).Final Question: So what? What good is Calvinism, and why should anyone care? The answer is threefold:1) Calvinism is good because it is simply a summary of what the Bible says about salvation, and all Christians need to know what the Bible says.
2) Calvinism is good because it gives us a handy yardstick to measure the truth of what is being preached at us by the multitude of false teachers around us, and who are confusing millions of Christians; and
3) Calvinism is good because it reminds us that our salvation is truly a gift of God. If you find yourself with faith in Jesus Christ, you should say "Thank you!" You didn't make that faith happen, God gave it to you as a gift. He has made you His child. May God be praised for His kindness and mercy which He has given to us abundantly in Christ Jesus. Amen.
2. People are sinners. But we are still good enough to choose to repent of our sins and believe in Christ for salvation without any help from God. Everyone is capable of doing enough good deeds to merit salvation.(Every religion or philosphy except for biblical Christianity holds to a variation of either of these statements.)3. We all come into this world spiritually dead in sin; and sin is so serious that we are both unwilling and unable to repent and believe in Jesus unless God in mercy creates repentance and faith in our hearts.Number three is the Calvinist answer, and what the Bible teaches.B. Some Bible verses...Rom 3:10-12 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.John 6:44, 64, 65 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Yet there are some of you who do not believe...." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."Eph 2:1-5 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath....But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.C. Illustration: A man has fallen overboard on a large vessel. He struck his head on a railing, as he fell into the ocean. He is now motionless and unconcious in the water. His lungs are filled with water. His heart has stopped beating. He is sinking fast. How can he be saved? 1) Throw him a float, and yell at him to grab on, and then pull him up to safety? But he cannot hear, nor understand. Or, 2) Someone must jump in and grab him, pull him to safety, empty his lungs of water, do "mouth to mouth" resuscitation and shock his heart back to life. That's what God did for us. That's Calvinism.SUMMARY STATEMENT ONE: All men and women are lost sinners who are spiritually unable to save themselves.II. The second point has to do with Who becomes a Christian, and Why.A. The Choices...Choice #1 we have already showed to be unbiblical, but here it is....1. People are not really dead in trespasses and sins, just a little bit sick. People have a natural ability to repent and believe without any special help from God. So, it's up to each individual, by exercising his/her own free will, to decide if he/she will repent and receive Jesus as Savior.
2. The Bible is right when it says that people are really spiritually dead in their sins. But God is a merciful and gracious God, and is unwilling to see the entire human race go to Hell. Therefore He makes up His mind to choose and save a very large number of individuals, and to supernaturally create repentance and faith in their hearts, and bring them to Christ.Number 2 is Calvinism.B. The Bible verses....1 Th 1:4-5 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.1 Pet 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect (chosen ones), strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will...SUMMARY STATEMENT TWO: God graciously chose to rescue a large number of individuals from destruction.III. The third point has to do with God's Purpose in Jesus' death on the cross.A. The Choices...1. Jesus died to actually pay for the sins of every individual, and therefore every individual will go to Heaven. No one will be damned. (Universalism)
2. Jesus died on the cross to set us a good example of how to do what's right no matter what the consequences.
3. Jesus died on the cross to create a kind of "treasury of salvation." He died for mankind in general, but not for any individuals. He has thus made salvation POSSIBLE for anyone who of his own free will would choose to repent and believe in Jesus.
4. While Jesus' death DOES have some value for everyone in the world, the chief purpose of Jesus' death was to ACTUALLY PURCHASE REDEMPTION for those individuals chosen by God for salvation. Jesus did not die just to make salvation POSSIBLE for all. He died to make salvation CERTAIN for the elect.Number four is the Calvinistic answer.B. What does the Bible say about it? For whom did Jesus die?Eph 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
(Do good shepherds die for wolves as well as for their sheep? Would it not be a foolish shepherd who said he loved the wolves and the sheep equally?)Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.There are some Bible verses which SEEM to say that Jesus died for every individual in the world....1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.But the word "world" in the Bible often does not mean each individual in the world. For example...John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"People today often use all-inclusive language in the same way. For example: Someone might say to you "George Bush is from Texas." You might reply, "Oh, everyone knows that!" But, literally speaking,everyone doesn't know that George Bush is from Texas.If Jesus truly paid for everyone's sins in his death on the cross, then no one would ever go to Hell. Yet we read in the Bible that many people don't go to Heaven. Therefore the verses which seem to teach a universal atonement must be using the word "world" in a non-literal way.Calvinism is biblical. The main purpose of Jesus' death on the cross was to make a real atonement for the sins of God's people. Jesus shed His blood for the Church. The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep, not for the wolves. However, even those who reject Christ derive great benefit from the cross in what theologians call "common grace." It is expressed in Matthew 5:45......Be like "...your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."SUMMARY STATEMENT THREE: Jesus' death powerfully purchased redemption for God's chosen people.IV. The fourth point has to do with the power of God over a person's heart; and the inevitability of His plan of salvation.A. Choices...1. God never forces anyone to become a Christian. If you are determined to resist God's Holy Spirit, then God is helpless to save you from your sins. You are stronger than God, because God will never violate your free will. He can only plead and hope you will come to Him.
2. God powerfully works in the hearts and circumstances of those He chose to become believers, and none of God's elect is allowed by God to resist His saving grace.Number two is the Calvinist choice.B. The Bible Verses...The conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20) is an illustration of God changing a man's free will. Saul had no choice in the matter of his salvation or his ministry. He was forcibly converted by God and made into God's apostle to the Gentiles.Prov 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.Phil 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.SUMMARY STATEMENT FOUR: All who are chosen by God for salvation will definitely become Christians.V. The fifth point has to do with the believer's security in salvation.A. The choices....1. You became a Christian by your own power and free will. Therefore, you can stop being a Christian also by your own power and free will. You can run away from God and lose your salvation. Maybe you were bound for Heaven yesterday, but if you do something wrong, you can be bound for Hell tomorrow.
2. You became a Christian because God chose you, Jesus died for your sins, and the Holy Spirit created in you a new heart with repentance and faith. You have been made by God Himself into a child of God. You were irresistably saved by God's power, and you will inevitibly be kept saved by the power of God. Your eternal security is not in your power to change. You can never lose your salvation because that would defeat the plan of God for your life, which is impossible.B. The Bible Verses...John 10:27-29 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (If you were saved in 1995, and lost your salvation in 2000, did you have "eternal" life, or "5-year" life?)John 6:37-39 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.Mat 18:12-14 What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.Phil 1:6 ...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.SUMMARY STATEMENT FIVE: Those who are saved will never lose their salvation.Conclusion: What we have discussed today is a simple summary of what the Bible says about salvation. Let's list these five points again....1. All men and women are lost sinners who are spiritually unable to save themselves.2. God graciously chose to rescue a large number of individuals from destruction.3. Jesus' death powerfully purchased redemption for God's chosen people.4. All who are chosen by God for salvation will definitely become Christians.5. Those who are saved will never lose their salvation.Now if we take all those first capital letters and make an acrostic to help us remember the five points we come up with A G J A T. "Agjat." Several hundred years ago some English speaking Calvinists tried to come up with an acrostic for these five points; and they hit upon T U L I P, which is a lot easier to remember. TULIP is also appropriate because these five points were first outlined in 1618 at the Synod of Dordt, in Holland (home of the tulip flower).Final Question: So what? What good is Calvinism, and why should anyone care? The answer is threefold:1) Calvinism is good because it is simply a summary of what the Bible says about salvation, and all Christians need to know what the Bible says.
2) Calvinism is good because it gives us a handy yardstick to measure the truth of what is being preached at us by the multitude of false teachers around us, and who are confusing millions of Christians; and
3) Calvinism is good because it reminds us that our salvation is truly a gift of God. If you find yourself with faith in Jesus Christ, you should say "Thank you!" You didn't make that faith happen, God gave it to you as a gift. He has made you His child. May God be praised for His kindness and mercy which He has given to us abundantly in Christ Jesus. Amen.
I have seen the trailers, and the Widows Might. Widows Might is an amazing movie, and Ace Wonder hopefully will be just as good. I don't post much, but I have a paper I wrote on Darwin and Margaret Sanger I am about to post.
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