What Is Calvinism?

sometimes you'll be at a Bible study or a small group and someone will use a theological word and you have no idea what it means and you don't even know how to spell it so you can't look it up well I want to deal with one of those words in this video I want to deal with the word Calvinism maybe you've heard someone say well I'm a Calvinist and someone else said well I'm not a Calvinist and you're like what is Calvinism well we're gonna tell you Calvinism comes from the teaching of John Calvin John Calvin was one of the reformers he lived in the 1500s and John Calvin's teaching is best remembered in the five points of Calvinism that's what I'm going to introduce you to the five points of Calvinism now Calvin didn't write down these five points they came from his followers as they debated other Christians on the nature of salvation but they're a helpful way for us to understand what Calvin taught now for Christians who are Calvinists it emit doesn't matter that Calvin came up with Calvinism because they'd say he didn't come up with Calvinism it's really rooted in the Bible but Calvinism is the term we use to describe this theology or sometimes a reformed theology now before we get into what Calvinism is I want to let you know that we have another video called what is our minion theology and our minion theology is the opposite of Calvinism in many ways and so if you're interested in this debate go ahead and check that video out too now let's get to Calvinism as we said that there are five points to Calvinism and if you remember the word tulip you can remember the five points because tulip is a handy acrostic so let's look at the T in tulip total depravity total depravity means that humans are completely messed up by sin sin affects every part of us it affects our actions and our attitudes it affects the way we think it affects our emotions it really messes us up and because of the sin the Bible teaches according to Calvinist that we can do no spiritual good that we don't have the ability to do anything good towards God now a lot of times people get confused by total depravity because it makes it sound like well humans are just as bad as they possibly could be but that's not what Calvinists teach that's not what Calvinists say they understand that there are plenty of people who are not Christians who do some good things but before God sin is so great that we are depraved we're messed up sin taints everything and there's a lot of verses that point in this direction and one of those is found in Jeremiah the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it so total depravity means that humans are really messed up we can't come to God on our own we need God's help and that leads us to the you unconditional election the Bible teaches that God elects Christians this means that before God created anything he chose Christians to be his people now the debate between Calvinists and Armenians is on what bassist has got elect people most Armenians are going to say something like well God looked into the future he knew who would respond to Jesus and faith and so he elected them while Calvinists teach unconditional election that means that God chose them he chose Christians on no other basis than just his own will his own pleasure his own desire they got elects people not because he looks into the future and knows that they'll choose him but he chooses them just because that's what he wants to do and so it's certainly not because he looks at Christians and thinks they're smarter or they're wiser or they be like better churchgoers or anything like that God's election is unconditional it's not based on anything and that's the you in tulip the Ln tulip stands for limited atonement the atonement refers to the work of Jesus on the cross paying the penalty of sins and limited atonement means that the penalty of sins that Jesus paid was limited to God's people limited to Christians or you might even say limited to the elect that Jesus in some sense didn't die for the whole world or at least he didn't pay the penalty of sins for the whole world in fact he only paid the penalty of sins for a particular group of people God's people Christians the elect and so when a Calvinist who believes this says that Jesus died for the world he might mean in some sense that Jesus died for the world but really jesus paid the sins of only of Christians not for the whole world and they would say well think about it if Jesus really paid the sins of everybody in the whole world and that would mean that everyone is saved but clearly when you read the Bible not everyone is saved it's only the elect and so that's where limited atonement comes from now there are several verses that point towards limited atonement Calvinists would argue including this one from Jesus in the book of Matthew Jesus said for this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins okay let's move on to irresistible grace irresistible grace refers to what happens in the moment of salvation the fact that God effectively calls you that God calls out to you he calls out to you to be saved he calls out to you to respond to him and he regenerates you regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit coming into your life giving you a new heart making you a new creation and Calvinists would teach that in the moment God effectively calls you meaning he summons you to be a Christian he overwhelms your sinfulness and there's nothing you can do to resist him nor would you want to resist him and in that moment you are regenerated you're made new and that is why God's grace is irresistible because you can't say no God I don't want to be regenerated it's God's work and he's gonna do it he's gonna make you alive it's irresistible grace God's calling on your life and again there's a lot of passages that Calvinists point to including this one so then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy Calvinists would argue that this is really more the big tenants of the Bible that salvation is not based on your ability to respond because you're dead in your sin you can't respond it's based on God's call on your life God's irresistible grace his effective calling and that means we're down to the last letter P perseverance of the saints within Calvinism the question arises well how do you know if you're saved if it's sort of based on God's election and one of the things that Calvinists would point to is the perseverance of the saints and this is the teaching that if you are truly born again if you're truly regenerated by God then God will keep you close to him throughout your life and you will persevere to the end that only those who are truly born again will persevere to the end of their lives because God has changed you got it regenerated you and certainly you sin certainly you're not perfect but at the end of the day you will continue to grow closer to Jesus and you'll walk faithfully with him and this is a found for Calvinists and passages like this one and I am sure of that that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ okay so that's tulip that's the five points of Calvinism now I should say not every Calvinist believes in all five points of Calvinism a lot of people reject limited atonement or maybe people are like I'm a three and a half point Calvinist I don't know but really the point for you is to understand you know what does the Bible teach is Calvinism true is our minion ism true what is the right theology and here's what I'd encourage you to do I'd encourage you to really think about this to really study it to talk with a mentor about these issues and to open your Bible when you do so we've got a lot more verses in the notes below in the linked conversation where you can really figure out you know what does the Bible teach on these things because at the end of the day we don't want to follow John Calvin we don't want to follow Jacob Arminius we want to follow Jesus we want to know what he teaches and that's found in the Bible

Channel: Scott Creps

Views: 269,878

Rating: 4.691545 out of 5

Keywords: Calvinism, John Calvin, Romans, Election, Predestination, Salvation, Reformed Theology

Id: _RQhIr6tKyQ

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2016