In their text, Boyd and Eddy introduced the “Calvinist View” by saying “The Calvinist view of salvation is customarily organized around five points, signified by the acronym TULIP.”[4] They went on to explain that each of the five letters in the word “TULIP” represent a fundamental aspect or facet in the doctrine of salvation. The “T” stands for total depravity, i. e., that because of the Fall of Adam, human beings are no longer able to respond positively to God on their own.[5] The “U” stands for unconditional election, indicating that the elect are chosen by God without regard to any merit, actual or foreseen, in the elect themselves. Instead, “the reason for (God’s) doing so (choosing them) must lie in God . . . .”[6] “L” in TULIP stands for limited atonement, meaning that “Christ’s death is sufficient for all the sins of the world, but it was intended to save only those whom the Father has predestined to be saved.”[7] Christ died, not for everyone, but only for His elect. “I” then represents irresistible grace. “God’s grace is irresistible because God changes the wills of those who would otherwise resist it.”[8] Finally, the “P” in TULIP stands for perseverance of the saints. “When people have been elected by God and changed by God’s irresistible grace, they cannot fall away.”[9]
To summarize, then, “God’s unconditional choice, Jesus’ sufficient death, and the Spirit’s irresistible work transform sinners into secure believers,”[10] according to the Calvinistic View. Boyd and Eddy also pointed out that the particular theological position summarized by the acronym “TULIP” has and has had many notable adherents among leaders in the church. They include Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, R. C. Sproul, and John Piper.[11] I would add other names too like John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, William Carey, considered the founder of modern missions, Charles Spurgeon, the late D. James Kennedy, Erwin Lutzer, Pastor of the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, and John MacArthur.
In his examination of the biblical data regarding God discussed in Week 3 of this course, the author of our other text, Thomas Schreiner, had much to say that bears directly on the validity of the Calvinist View. Schreiner informed us that the salvation God gives and Christ brings through His death upon the cross is something that God alone does, according to the New Testament. It cannot be accomplished by human beings.[12] Human beings are incapable of saving themselves. This salvation is God’s gift. God does all the saving and the believer does all the being saved. Furthermore, “those who come to the Son in belief are given by the Father to the Son (John 6:37). Jesus grants eternal life only to those whom the Father has given to him (John 17: 2). . . .”[13] The implications are obvious: faith in Christ occurs only in the hearts of those the Father has given to the Son.
This act of giving by the Father is clearly the prerequisite for faith. “If people are not drawn by the Father to the Son, they will be unable to come to Jesus for life (John 6: 44).”[14] In the Garden before His arrest, Jesus interceded, not for the world at-large, but only those that the Father had given to Him, including believers yet future.[15] In the course of that intercession, Jesus prayed that His Father would keep and preserve His people until the last day (John 17: 11, 15). As a result, they will never apostatize but will persevere until the end.[16] All the people that the Father has taught will come to Jesus for they are the sheep the Father has given to Him. Meanwhile, “those who failed to believe were not given by the Father to the Son (John 6:64-65).”[17] The evidence is leaning in favor of the Calvinistic View at this point.
Schreiner did not only evaluate John’s Gospel in his examination of the New Testament. Indeed, many other passages support the Calvinist View. In Acts, Schreiner noted, “Luke recounts again and again that the acceptance of the gospel by the Gentiles is due to the sovereignty of God.”[18] A clear case in point is Acts 13: 48, which reads “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”[19] Regarding this passage, Schreiner commented “Luke does not write that those who believed were appointed to eternal life, but rather that those who were appointed by God to experience eternal life subsequently believed. He thereby underlines God’s grace that secures the response of belief in the hearts of Gentiles.”[20] So the Book of Acts, too, supports the Calvinistic View, according to Schreiner.
Schreiner completed his survey of the New Testament teaching on God by noting a few more passages relevant to the topic at hand. God will preserve His saints unto the end according to Jude 24-25. Indeed, according to Jude, “God is the one who saves. He sets his love on believers and guards them from apostasy.”[21] In 2 Peter, we learn that God’s love is expressed in the election and calling of believers, “and calling likely refers to the grace that secures a believing response to the message of the gospel.”[22] God’s love is demonstrated also in the divine preservation of believers according to this epistle. In his letters, too, John affirms his commitment to the divine initiative. As a result, human love for God “is an answering love. Human love for God is always a response to God’s love, which is demonstrated in the cross of Jesus Christ.”[23] Furthermore, those who are born of God overcome the world, which is to say among other things, they persevere to the end. “John does not teach that people first show love and then are born of God, or that they are born of God after believing in Jesus; in every case he uses a perfect tense, so that being born of God precedes believing, loving, or overcoming the world.”[24] After evaluating the New Testament evidence, it becomes increasingly clear that Schreiner too holds to the Calvinist View.
Yet, the fact that many notable evangelical writers and scholars throughout the history of the church, including the author of our primary textbook, have embraced this view of salvation does not, in and of itself, prove it to be true. When tempted, the Lord Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8: 3 saying, “. . . ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[25] Christians are commanded to test everything and prohibited from going beyond what stands written.[26] So what is the scriptural evidence to support the Calvinistic View over that of the Arminian View?
Holy Scripture is replete with evidence demonstrating the truth of the total depravity of man. In fact, it clearly teaches that total depravity results in a total inability for sinful man to respond to God in any positive way. The following taken from the English Standard Version of the Bible are exemplary:
i. Genesis 8: 21 the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
ii. Isaiah 64: 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, / and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. / We all fade like a leaf, / and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
iii. Ecclesiastes 9: 3 the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
iv. Romans 8: 7 – 9 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
v. Galatians 5: 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
According to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as neutral ground, spiritually.[27] It is obvious, then, from these and other scriptures outlining the depravity of man that the only way in which anyone will come to faith in Christ is if God intervenes in the human heart and creates the faith that is required to please Him (Hebrews 11: 6). The lost do not seek God and cannot please Him (Isaiah 64: 6; Romans 3: 10 – 12; Hebrews 11: 6). In fact, they are incapable of exercising saving faith (John 6: 63; Romans 8: 8).
Some might object at this point to God’s intervention because they believe that a free will decision is necessary to make a person’s choice for the gospel a meaningful one. They do not believe that God would intervene or interfere with the human will in a coercive way. “God desires a love relationship with his human creatures, and love – real love – must be chosen.”[28] In reply, the Calvinist would agree that it should be chosen. That said, a brief discussion of the human will, before and after the Fall, is necessary at this point.
In his book Chosen By God, R. C. Sproul examined the issue of the human will in relation to salvation and the sovereignty of God. In the course of that examination, Dr. Sproul proposed the following as one preliminary definition of what some people mean when they speak of free will: “the ability to make choices without any prior prejudice, inclination, or disposition. For the will to be free,” Sproul continued, “it must act from a posture of neutrality, with absolutely no bias.”[29] Sproul went on to demonstrate, however, that this popular definition is ultimately inadequate because it implies that decisions are made without cause, without motivation, without an underlying reason. Further, if our choices are utterly spontaneous, then they have no moral significance.[30] Pure volition is meaningless apart from the motivation(s) behind it. The neutral-will theory, therefore, is unacceptable. Indeed, it is irrational. It implies the existence of an effect without a cause. Without motivation or inclination one way or the other, there is no explanation for why any choice is made at all. Clearly a better definition is needed.
Sproul then offered Jonathan Edward’s definition of the will as “the mind choosing.” Before a moral choice can be made by the will, the mind must have some concept of what is being chosen.[31] The value system of the person making the choice also enters into the process. Sproul continued, offering yet a third definition of free will as: the ability to choose what we want. “To have free will is to be able to choose according to our desires.”[32] Indeed, as Edwards pointed out, we must choose what we desire for a choice to be made at all. As Sproul explained “. . . Our choices are determined by our desires. They remain our choices because they are motivated by our own desires. This is what we call self-determination, which is the essence of freedom.”[33] The Bible makes it clear that wicked desires produce wicked choices and wicked actions. Godly desires produce godly choices and godly actions. Although human beings retained the capacity to exercise their wills after the Fall, because of sin human beings no longer have a natural desire for God (Romans 3: 10 – 12). Fallen humanity has lost the moral ability to choose God.[34] Yet human beings are still morally responsible, as outlined above, for the sinful choices that they make based upon their wicked desires.
So, those who would object to God’s intervention in the human heart and His creating the faith that He requires there, please keep this in mind. The human will is still free even after the Fall. It is still completely capable of choosing according to its desires. Tragically, it is spiritually dead to God, however, and is devoid of godly desires. At this stage, it is only free to sin. It is not forced to sin by anything outside of itself, however. It sins because it wants to sin. Ultimately, it will not choose God until God regenerates it, implanting godly desires within it again. Only then can the human will freely choose God - because only then will it desire God again. The divine act of regeneration does not violate the human will. It does not coerce it. On the contrary, it raises it from the dead.[35] It brings it back to life. It sets it free. By God’s grace, it is now a freed human will, no longer a slave to sin.
The remaining letters of the TULIP acronym flow logically then once the first is established. Since there is nothing of merit in sinners who are totally depraved, God’s electing them to salvation is unconditional (the “U”) on their part (Titus 3: 5). God does all the saving and the elect do all the being saved. Furthermore, as has already been amply established from looking at Schreiner, Jesus died only for His elect (John 10: 11, 15), defined as those the Father had given to Him in advance (John 6: 37; 10: 26 – 28; 17: 2). God only effectually calls those He has foreknown and predestined to save (Romans 8:30). The atonement of Christ is therefore limited (the “L”) in its scope.
Those who hold to an Arminian View often seize upon this limitation as a diminishing of the work of Christ by the Calvinist. Yet they too limit Christ’s atonement - in its effect. In the Calvinist View of the atonement, everyone for whom Christ died is actually saved. Within Arminianism, however, the atonement of Christ actually saves no one. It merely makes salvation possible. So, both views limit the atonement, not just the Calvinist View.
According to Romans 8: 29 and 30, all those God foreknew He predestined, then called, then justified, and then ultimately glorified. Although the word “all” does not occur in this series of events, sometimes referred to as the “Golden Chain of Redemption,” it is a logical inference from the text.[36] Because God’s foreknowledge leads inexorably to the salvation and glorification of those He foreknew, God’s grace in salvation is described in the TULIP acronym as “Irresistible.” As Sproul conceded in his book, this adjective is less precise than one would desire, since we have ample evidence that unbelievers resist God’s grace all the time.[37] Yet God’s grace always achieves its intended effect. In that sense it is irresistible or, better, effectual grace. As Sproul explained:
We are speaking of the grace of regeneration. We remember that in regeneration, God creates in us a desire for himself. But when we have that desire planted in us, we will continue to function as we always have functioned, making our choices according to the strongest motivation at the moment. If God gives us a desire for Christ we will act according to that desire. We will most certainly choose the object of that desire; we will choose Christ. When God makes us spiritually alive we become spiritually alive. It is not merely the possibility of becoming spiritually alive that God creates. He creates spiritual life within us. When he calls something into being, it comes into being.[38]
Because God’s work in redemption leads inexorably from foreknowledge to glory, it is proper, therefore, to describe His grace as “irresistible” (the “I”). His gracious purpose is unstoppable.
Finally, referring again to Romans 8: 29 – 30, it is obvious that all those foreknown and called continue on into glory. In other words, they persevere to the end (the “P”). As noted earlier, the Calvinist View regarding salvation holds to the “Perseverance of the Saints.” Jesus described Himself as the Good Shepherd.[39] When He sets out with 100 sheep, He arrives with 100 sheep. If one strays, He will leave the other 99 and go find it. When He does, He will pick it up and bring it back.[40] Jesus is not only the Author, but also the Finisher of our faith.[41] As He Himself said:
38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.[42]
Jesus said He had come to do the will of His Father, that is, to save all those the Father had given Him and to raise them up at the Judgment Day. The Calvinist believes that Christ cannot fail to do this. Therefore saints persevere to the end.
One of the terms Schreiner discussed in the reading for this week is that of “Calling.” Romans 8: 29 – 30, mentioned earlier speaks of this call as leading inevitably to glorification. It is an effectual call. Sproul in his book distinguished between the external call and the internal call.[43] The external call is the preaching of the gospel. Everyone who hears the gospel receives this call. All who hear the external call are commanded to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, not everyone who hears this call responds to it. On the other hand, all those who do respond in faith to the external call are justified. Since Romans 8 tells us that all who are called are also justified, that calling must be something more than just the external call. It is no less than the external call, but it must be more so in the case of the elect.[44] God’s intervention in the inward call guarantees a positive response. Schreiner observed that God’s “calling creates faith, so that all those called are justified.”[45] He added that God’s call has an inherent, creative power, even as His call gave Abraham and Sarah the ability to produce a child where no such ability existed before. [46]
According to Chapter X of The Westminster Confession of Faith, God’s effectual calling is described, in part, as follows:
1. All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by his Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.[47]
God’s effectual call removes the heart of stone from those whom He has chosen and replaces it with a heart of flesh. Like Jesus’ call to Lazarus in the grave, this call raises the dead. The call itself is actually a part of the process of regeneration. It is by means of this call that a person is born again by the Spirit of God. We have evidence of this in scripture for when Paul, Luke, and his party were in Philippi, Luke recorded in Acts 16 as follows:
14One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.
God’s effectual calling recreates and revivifies our hearts by the Holy Spirit, opening them to even be able to understand spiritual truth.[48] In an act of His sovereign grace, He recreates the wills of those He has chosen, filling them with godly desires. As a result, they love and trust Him because that is what they freely choose to do, even as He is at work within them both to will and to do His good pleasure.[49]
[1] Ephesians 1: 11.
[2] John 6: 37; 10: 26 – 29.
[3] Gregory A. Boyd and Paul R. Eddy, Across the Spectrum, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 147.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid, 148.
[7] Ibid, 149.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid, 150.
[11] Ibid, 147.
[12] Thomas Schreiner, New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 134.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid, 135.
[15] Ibid, 134 - 135; see also John 17: 10, 11, and 20.
[16] Ibid, 135.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid, 139.
[19] Acts 13: 48, English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Good News – Crossway, 2002).
[20] Schreiner, 140.
[21] Ibid, 158.
[22] Ibid, 159.
[23] Ibid, 161.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Matthew 4: 4, English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Good News – Crossway, 2002).
[26] Acts 17: 11; 1 Corinthians 4: 6; 1 Thessalonians 5: 21.
[27] Matthew 12: 30.
[28] Boyd & Eddy, 147.
[29] R. C. Sproul, Chosen By God, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, Inc., 1986), 51.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid, 53.
[32] Ibid, 54.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid, 61.
[35] Ephesians 2: 1 – 6.
[36] Sproul, 120 and 130 – 133.
[37] Ibid, 120.
[38] Ibid, 121.
[39] John 10: 10 – 15.
[40] Luke 15: 3 – 7.
[41] Hebrews 12: 2.
[42] John 6: 38 – 40.
[43] Sproul, 131.
[44] Ibid, 135.
[45] Schreiner, 350.
[46] Ibid.
[47] The Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, The Confession of Faith and Catechisms, (Willow Grove, PA: Great Commission Publications, 2005), 45 – 47.
[48] 1 Corinthians 2: 14.
[49] Philippians 2: 13.
