The Tulip of Calvinism

From an article in our Church magazine , The Messenger.

The ‘Tulip’ of Calvinism -

 The Bible teaches us that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, but after the split with Roman Catholicism, Protestant Christians divided into two broad camps – the Arminians and the Calvinists.

The URC is a broad church – we do not demand that everyone agrees on absolutely every point of doctrine, and there will very likely be some members who fully support Calvin’s ideas, as well as those who totally disagree.  For the record, our Reformed tradition is Calvinist in its approach, whereas the Methodist church was founded by John Wesley, and he was an Arminian (the name derives from the Dutch theologian, Jakob Arminius, and has nothing to do with Armenia, the former Soviet state in the Caucasus Mountains).

Now, Arminius held that when it came to accepting Jesus as Saviour, mankind had total free will. That was all very well, insisted the Calvinists, but how could God be in control of everything if people were able to accept or reject God and do just as they pleased? What about God’s sovereignty?

Calvinist’s argued along five main points that are known by the acronym, ‘TULIP’

Their beliefs can be summarised as :-

Total depravity of mankind – Everyone was fallen and imperfect in God’s sight.

(see Psalm 14:2-4.)

Unconditional election – God chose to save some and not others, and God does not favour any on their own merit. ((see Acts 13:48, where this is strongly implied .  Calvin, of course, saw the implications and developed his argument on the basis that it logically followed).

Limited atonement – Only the Chosen Few are saved in Christ(Acts 20 28 says that Christ bought’ the church’ with his blood – Calvin implies that this does not include all mankind.

Irresistible grace – If God chooses someone, they are saved, no matter what.

( See Acts 16:14, in discussing Lydia’s conversion it emphasises that God opened her heart).

No one can resist God’s call when it comes.

Perseverance of the saints – True Christians never fall away no matter what.

Romans 8: 38 – 39 clearly teaches that nothing can separate ‘us’ – Paul speaks here as a believer to believers – from God.

So, this is fine if one is one of the ‘Chosen Few’ – but how can you tell if you are someone whom God has chosen? What if I feel that my faith is weak, or that I am not as good as I ought to be, or even as good a Christian as someone else who seems to be a far kinder, wiser and more Christ like person than I could ever hope to be? Does this mean I am not saved after all? And if everyone is wicked and God chooses to save some people and not others, isn’t God being a bit unfair – why does God not save everyone?

For anyone who takes their faith and their Christian life seriously, these are questions that have to be answered. But, as we  know, the Bible does not encourage us to accept anything as fact until we have seen the other side of the story. (Proverbs 18:17)

Arminians would agree that all have fallen short of God’s glory, but remind us that John the Baptist had not just one , but two righteous parents-  Luke speaks highly of both his father and mother. ( Luke 1:6) And Jesus said that the rain fell upon the righteous and the unrighteous( Matthew 5:45) –so perhaps righteousness itself is relative thing – nobody is absolutely good in the same sense that God is, but goodness is not totally lacking from people generally, according to the New Testament writers.

And are the totally wicked excluded in some way from hearing the Word of God and coming to repentance?  Well, Paul gives a long list of the sort of people that will not make it into heaven – and ends up by saying “yet that is what some of you were”. (1Cor. 6: 9-11) Clearly, people of the worst sort can change with God’s help. And Jesus said plainly that He wanted to gather the people of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings – yet they didn’t want that.  (See Matthew 23:37. Luke13:34, 35). Clearly, God’s will was that these very people should be saved – yet they clearly resisted. It would seem that human Free Will is one of the forces that God gave to mankind, and that this God given power does enter the reckoning.

Now cynics may say that this simply shows that the Bible itself is contradictory and cannot be relied upon at all. But, as believers, are we all obliged to take this view? George Macdonald, a noted theologian of the 20^th century, and whose ideas greatly influenced C.S. Lewis, is someone who explored these issues in great depth.  We may also look to the teachings and traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church to resolve this issue, for they too are our fellow believers, and have an unbroken tradition that goes back to the very beginnings of the Christian Church .

What I say next is a brief summary of my own studies in each – the Western and Eastern traditions, from a 21^st century standpoint; a possible way to reconcile Calvin‘s emphasis on the Sovereignty of God and Arminius’s insistence on ordinary mortals having Free Will.

If we imagine God being outside Time, looking down above it, as it were, we can accept that God knows what our choices are and where they will lead us. Hence God can say that he loved Jacob yet hated Esau before either one was even born. It was not that God had written a script for them , or had intended either one to turn out the way they did – but God could see the future as though it had already happened – for Him, the future is already known.

So some people, although being quite imperfect, choose to accept God’s love of their own free choice, although they know they are quite unworthy. And other people, equally free to choose, reject God. God forces nobody’s hand, so we cannot accuse God of being unfair.