Calvinism examined

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Calvinism is the theological system that developed from John Calvin (1509-1564) and was codified at the Synod of Dort (1618-19) against the followers of Arminius. Its five points are usually remembered by the acronym TULIP:

• Total depravity - fallen humanity is corrupted in every faculty and cannot turn to God unaided.
• Unconditional election - God chose the saved before creation, not on the basis of anything foreseen in them.
• Limited atonement - Christ died efficaciously for the elect alone.
• Irresistible grace - when God calls someone effectually, that person will certainly come.
• Perseverance of the saints - the truly regenerate cannot finally fall away.

None of the four traditions accepts all five. But it matters enormously which they reject and why, and a blanket dismissal will lose you the argument with anyone who has actually read Calvin.

On total depravity, confessional Lutherans agree almost entirely, and Article 9 of the Thirty-Nine Articles is close. Catholics speak of wounding rather than total corruption; Orthodoxy is furthest away.

On unconditional election, Catholics and Lutherans both have strong doctrines of predestination that are closer than most people realise - Augustine is the common ancestor. The four object not to election but to double predestination: God actively decreeing the damnation of the rest.

On limited atonement, all four reject it firmly and share the same texts. This is the point of clearest agreement among them.

On irresistible grace, all four insist grace can be resisted, though Lutherans hold that no one can cooperate in coming to faith.

On perseverance, the four hold that a believer can fall away.

Where Calvinism came from

Calvin was not the originator of most of this. The deepest roots are in Augustine, who in his controversy with Pelagius developed a doctrine of predestination that is uncomfortable reading for everyone, and which the medieval West never fully digested. Thomas Aquinas holds a doctrine of predestination that is closer to Calvin than most Catholics expect. Luther's Bondage of the Will is as strong on the enslaved will as anything Calvin wrote, and Luther valued it above nearly all his other books.

The five points are not Calvin's own arrangement. They are the Synod of Dort's response to the five articles of the Remonstrants, the followers of Jacobus Arminius, who had objected to the direction Reformed theology was taking. So TULIP is a set of answers, and to understand it you have to know what was being asked.

The acronym is later still - an English mnemonic from the early twentieth century. Calvin never saw it, and several Reformed theologians dislike it, arguing that it distorts the shape of the system.

The five points, examined

Total depravity

The claim: Not that every person is as bad as possible, which Calvinists do not teach, but that sin has affected every faculty - mind, will, affections - so that no one can turn to God by his own power.

The four traditions: The nearest thing to agreement in the whole list. Confessional Lutherans hold this almost identically; the Formula of Concord says the natural will is not merely weakened but dead in spiritual matters. Article 9 says man is very far gone from original righteousness. Catholics say human nature is wounded rather than totally corrupted: reason and free will remain genuinely operative in natural matters, though salvation is impossible without grace. Orthodoxy is furthest from the Calvinist formulation, holding that the image is darkened but that a real, if impaired, freedom remains.

Note that the practical conclusion is shared: nobody comes to God unaided.

Unconditional election

The claim: God's choice of the saved rests on His own purpose, not on anything foreseen in them.

The four traditions: Less distant than expected. Article 17 of the Thirty-Nine Articles is a genuinely predestinarian document: God has constantly decreed by His counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He has chosen in Christ. The Catholic Church teaches predestination and follows Augustine, while insisting God predestines no one to hell. Lutherans teach election to salvation and explicitly refuse to teach election to damnation - the Formula of Concord says the cause of damnation is human sin and unbelief, not God's decree.

So the objection is not to election but to double predestination - the symmetry in which God actively decrees the reprobate to damnation. Calvin taught this; he called it the decretum horribile, the dreadful decree, which is honest of him. The four object that it makes God the author of sin and contradicts 1 Timothy 2:4 - God will have all men to be saved.

Limited atonement

The claim: Christ died to secure the salvation of the elect, not to make salvation merely possible for all. A universal atonement that fails to save everyone would be an atonement that did not work.

The four traditions: Rejected by all four, unanimously and with the same texts.

• He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).
• Who gave himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6).
• Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
• The Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe (1 Timothy 4:10).

The four hold the classical formula: Christ's death is sufficient for all, efficacious for those who receive it. This is also where many Calvinists themselves are uncomfortable; four-point Calvinism exists chiefly because of this point, and Dort's own delegates argued about it.

Irresistible grace

The claim: Grace that God intends to save with is not finally refused. The effectual call always succeeds.

The four traditions: All four insist grace can be resisted, and cite Stephen in Acts 7:51 - ye do always resist the Holy Ghost - and Christ over Jerusalem: how often would I have gathered thy children together... and ye would not.

There is a subtlety worth getting right. Lutherans hold an asymmetry: a person cannot cooperate in coming to faith, but he can resist and reject. Salvation is entirely God's work; damnation is entirely the person's. This looks logically untidy and Lutherans regard the untidiness as faithfulness to Scripture rather than a defect. Catholics and Orthodox teach a genuine cooperation with grace which grace itself enables - synergy in the Eastern term.

Perseverance of the saints

The claim: The truly regenerate will certainly persevere; those who fall away were never regenerate.

The four traditions: All four hold that a baptised believer can fall away, and cite Hebrews 6 and 10, John 15's branches cut from the vine, and Paul's fear of being a castaway. This is treated at length in the section on assurance.

Where the four traditions stand