No 14

(The TULIP – an overview)

John Calvin was one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation; he was born in Noyon, France and he lived from 1509 to 1564. His theology is the basis for most of the North American Christian doctrine and he put together a series of doctrinal statements that summarize what true Christian theology is all about; the word TULIP is an acronym for The Five Points of Calvinism. These five points are: (T) Total depravity – man cannot save himself (U) Unconditional election – we are predestined by the grace of God (L) Limited atonement – Jesus Christ died only for the true Christians (I) Irresistible grace – God’s Holy Spirit gives two callings, an inward one and an outward one (P) Perseverance – True Christians will never fall from salvation. At a glance, these 5 points seem quite logical but there has been much opposition to them over time. People would say : “why should we go out and evangelize, if a person is predestined, what’s the use?” That is exactly what the devil wants everyone to believe; this is called Hyper-Calvinism and it is deadly. There lived another man called James Arminius who also put together 5 points of doctrine. For a while, they were used but at a certain point in time there were considered non-Biblical. It was at this time that John Calvin wrote his five points to counter Arminius’ points. We will look at each point of Calvinism in detail in future studies.