Calvinism Overview

HELLO!!!

Hope you all are doing well this week!

SO...in our AU Student Center Study last friday, we set up what will be about a 3 week study on the doctrine of Calvinism. We didn't get into too much detail on any one point or practice, so this entry won't need to be very long.

Just as a refresher:
Main-Stream Calvinism is based on 5 central points; these points can be denoted by the acronym T.U.L.I.P.

T - Total Depravity
This first point asserts the idea that each person is born enslaved by sin, and that, apart from direct intervention through the grace God, no man can choose to do what is right. Understand that this doctrine can be and is either exaggerated or downplayed by various sects of Denominational Christianity; even so, by and large this is the basic idea.
A few of the Bible Passages that are used to support this idea are...
Genesis 6:5
Job 25:4-6
Jeremiah 17:9
Mark 7:21-23
Romans 8:7-8 ; 3:10-11
This point is very important to the entire Calvinist idea set. If this point is not true, most of the other points lose their merit.

U - Unconditional Election
This is the idea that God, for reasons only known to him, has preselected those who are to receive his grace, and those who will not. Those who are selected receive mercy, and those who are not, justice. I'm sure you can see the correlation between this idea and the idea of predestination. We will discuss this in more detail soon.
Passages used to support this idea are...
Ephesians 1:1-11
Romans 9:15-16
Philippians 1:29
2 Timothy 1:9

L - Limited Atonement
Limited Atonement hinges almost entirely on the last point, unconditional election. The belief here is that Christ's atonement through the cross is limited in scope, effective only for those that have been unconditionally selected. Thus, Christ's sacrifice is not for everyone.
The main passage used to support this idea is John 10--The good shepherd metaphor.

I - Irresistible Grace
This doctrine follows that since one is so depraved that one cannot do anything good, the only way that God can save one is to change that person. This is done by the direct operation of the Holy Spirit.
Passages in John 6 are used to back up this belief...
v. 37, 39, 44-45, 69

P - Perseverance of the Saints
This doctrine is very similar to the more recognizable "once saved, always saved" school of thought. When studied side by side, its apparent that these two doctrines, while ending the same, arrive at their conclusions through very different paths. We will likely spend an entire lesson on this point.
Passages cited to defend this point are as follows...
Romans 8:1, 35, 38-39
1 John 5:4-5
Isaiah 46:3-4


Now understand that these are just a few of the verses cited for these points. As you can imagine, all proponents of this doctrine would undoubtedly claim that their point of view is based heavily in scripture. We are going to spend our time looking at each one of these points closely and hold it up in view of the entire Word of God. These ideas seem to hold up pretty well next to these select verses, but will they remain justified when looked at through an understanding of the context surrounding these verses? We'll see!

Our topic this Friday is Total Depravity. Take a look at these verses listed here, reading into the context of the book.
I'm looking forward to our discussion!

Seth (this post is longer than i thought)