TULIP
is the acronym used to describe Calvinism.
“I” stands for "IRRESISTABLE GRACE".
Consistent with their usual methods of interpreting scripture, they immediately add a word to the Word of God. “Irresistible” and “grace” are stranger bedfellows than any political union based on expediency ever produced!
As RC Sproul openly admits, grace can be resisted, as the scriptures clearly reveal. This problem is solved for RC Sproul, not by changing his theology, but by simply renaming the doctrine! “I have a little bit of a problem using the term irresistible grace, not because I don’t believe this classical doctrine, but because it is misleading to many people. Therefore, I prefer the term effectual grace, because the irresistible grace of God effects what God intends it to effect.”
Not only does RC’s doodling with “irresistible grace” mess up the acronym TULIP (TULEP?) it also avoids some potentially embarrassing questions. For instance, where was “irresistible grace” when Adam could have used it? And thereby saved everyone a lot of pain? Or how about in Heaven, where sin really began…in the heart of Satan? That would have been something.
And how does this doctrine work? Apparently, it only works on really big stuff, like salvation, as RC has honestly admitted it can be successfully defeated in other areas of life. Yet why doesn’t the God of love just set the grace ‘o’ meter on super-high-irresistible and direct it toward every person ever born? God’s loving character must also submit to the Calvinist’s misconception of His Sovereignty or the Reformed teachings would be wrong…and that simply must not be.
“I” stands for "IRRESISTABLE GRACE".
Consistent with their usual methods of interpreting scripture, they immediately add a word to the Word of God. “Irresistible” and “grace” are stranger bedfellows than any political union based on expediency ever produced!
As RC Sproul openly admits, grace can be resisted, as the scriptures clearly reveal. This problem is solved for RC Sproul, not by changing his theology, but by simply renaming the doctrine! “I have a little bit of a problem using the term irresistible grace, not because I don’t believe this classical doctrine, but because it is misleading to many people. Therefore, I prefer the term effectual grace, because the irresistible grace of God effects what God intends it to effect.”
Not only does RC’s doodling with “irresistible grace” mess up the acronym TULIP (TULEP?) it also avoids some potentially embarrassing questions. For instance, where was “irresistible grace” when Adam could have used it? And thereby saved everyone a lot of pain? Or how about in Heaven, where sin really began…in the heart of Satan? That would have been something.
And how does this doctrine work? Apparently, it only works on really big stuff, like salvation, as RC has honestly admitted it can be successfully defeated in other areas of life. Yet why doesn’t the God of love just set the grace ‘o’ meter on super-high-irresistible and direct it toward every person ever born? God’s loving character must also submit to the Calvinist’s misconception of His Sovereignty or the Reformed teachings would be wrong…and that simply must not be.
Calvinism
doesn’t have to make sense, it just must stay true to its own doctrines, which
are held together with the duct tape of philosophy, educational elitism and
misplaced loyalty to its own traditions. What to do about its weak points? The
saying is, if duct tape doesn’t work, you haven’t used enough duct tape.
This crazy doctrine! Why go to all the trouble of imparting faith to a select few in such a convoluted way? Why not just activate the choice sinners without all the rigmarole? The main problem with such a procedure is the Bible.
The Bible clearly states that God has provided salvation for all sinners through the death of His Son. He has done this in such a way as to make it simple and effectual. Man must decide to trust Christ or die in his sins. To the Calvinist, man deciding to believe is unthinkable, as such is considered a work added to salvation and thus nullifying grace.
However, as Romans 4 illustrates, faith is not a work added to salvation, but rather the access to it. Salvation, not faith, is the gift of God and simply receiving God’s gift can only be twisted into a grace-denying work by the loyalist blindness of the Reformed persuasion. The work of God is to produce true faith in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel.
This crazy doctrine! Why go to all the trouble of imparting faith to a select few in such a convoluted way? Why not just activate the choice sinners without all the rigmarole? The main problem with such a procedure is the Bible.
The Bible clearly states that God has provided salvation for all sinners through the death of His Son. He has done this in such a way as to make it simple and effectual. Man must decide to trust Christ or die in his sins. To the Calvinist, man deciding to believe is unthinkable, as such is considered a work added to salvation and thus nullifying grace.
However, as Romans 4 illustrates, faith is not a work added to salvation, but rather the access to it. Salvation, not faith, is the gift of God and simply receiving God’s gift can only be twisted into a grace-denying work by the loyalist blindness of the Reformed persuasion. The work of God is to produce true faith in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Romans 10:17 (NKJV)
The Calvinist has misunderstood predestination as including initial salvation. It does not. All believers are included in the eternal, glorious plans God has for them. God knows, of course, who we are, but has not REWARDED us with salvation because He knew we would believe. All these glorious promises are part and parcel of all the Bride of Christ will enjoy with Him in eternity.
Honest Calvinists will admit they don’t see how God’s salvation by grace alone (their understanding of same) can be justly compatible with God holding unsaved man responsible for rejecting Christ. Of course, these two things are irreconcilable to average people. But here the Calvinist retreats to a scriptural oxymoron. He takes the high ground by playing the humble card! He talks about us with “finite minds trying to understand the unfathomable God”.
This seems a strange argument to me. Here are people who speak of some amazing things about God and His will, His power and His glory like they helped write His book. Yet when their own theology lands them on the rock of this contradiction, they suddenly claim the charts they confidently relied on don’t address the such things and we shall have to wait to see a compatibility in eternity, unseen here.
A nice dodge which will be acceptable to many for various reasons. However, when scripture speaks of deep things being unfathomable, it only means no man, unaided by the Spirit, can understand God and His ways. By the grace of God, we believers can claim this promise of God though His Apostle, Paul:
The Calvinist has misunderstood predestination as including initial salvation. It does not. All believers are included in the eternal, glorious plans God has for them. God knows, of course, who we are, but has not REWARDED us with salvation because He knew we would believe. All these glorious promises are part and parcel of all the Bride of Christ will enjoy with Him in eternity.
Honest Calvinists will admit they don’t see how God’s salvation by grace alone (their understanding of same) can be justly compatible with God holding unsaved man responsible for rejecting Christ. Of course, these two things are irreconcilable to average people. But here the Calvinist retreats to a scriptural oxymoron. He takes the high ground by playing the humble card! He talks about us with “finite minds trying to understand the unfathomable God”.
This seems a strange argument to me. Here are people who speak of some amazing things about God and His will, His power and His glory like they helped write His book. Yet when their own theology lands them on the rock of this contradiction, they suddenly claim the charts they confidently relied on don’t address the such things and we shall have to wait to see a compatibility in eternity, unseen here.
A nice dodge which will be acceptable to many for various reasons. However, when scripture speaks of deep things being unfathomable, it only means no man, unaided by the Spirit, can understand God and His ways. By the grace of God, we believers can claim this promise of God though His Apostle, Paul:
But God has revealed them to us through His
Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 1
Corinthians 2:10 (Please read the
whole chapter)
All we know about God has been revealed to us by Him in His book. There are simply no contradictions in God’s revelation and we can know His character and His agenda for all things by reading and studying it. We have the mind of Christ as revealed in His word and in us in embryonic form when we are born again. We can grow from immaturity to maturity understanding more and more accurately through the Spirit’s ministry using His Word.
This awful “doctrine of grace” is added into their teachings to shore up their shaky scheme of salvation. The purpose of this teaching is to somehow get dead sinners saved with no participation on the part of the spiritual corpse. This way, (so goes the thought) and only in this way, salvation is 100% of the Sovereign God.
And ultimately, the Calvinist/Reformed/Sovereign Grace Movement is all about establishing in the Christians’ thinking, God is supreme in all His ways. Even if those ways (as delineated by the Calvinist) are illogical and contradictory to foundational truths of scripture. And even if Reformed doctrines assault the character of God. A blatant example of such fixated blindness is A.W. Pink’s claim in The Sovereignty of God. “Even if God lied, it would not be a lie.” (paraphrased by me)
I believe in the sovereignty of God, but I certainly do not believe Calvinism is scripturally accurate in it's description of how God saves sinful, rebellious men. He saves them through the preaching of the Gospel, a message that is easily understandable to the worst of sinners.
All we know about God has been revealed to us by Him in His book. There are simply no contradictions in God’s revelation and we can know His character and His agenda for all things by reading and studying it. We have the mind of Christ as revealed in His word and in us in embryonic form when we are born again. We can grow from immaturity to maturity understanding more and more accurately through the Spirit’s ministry using His Word.
This awful “doctrine of grace” is added into their teachings to shore up their shaky scheme of salvation. The purpose of this teaching is to somehow get dead sinners saved with no participation on the part of the spiritual corpse. This way, (so goes the thought) and only in this way, salvation is 100% of the Sovereign God.
And ultimately, the Calvinist/Reformed/Sovereign Grace Movement is all about establishing in the Christians’ thinking, God is supreme in all His ways. Even if those ways (as delineated by the Calvinist) are illogical and contradictory to foundational truths of scripture. And even if Reformed doctrines assault the character of God. A blatant example of such fixated blindness is A.W. Pink’s claim in The Sovereignty of God. “Even if God lied, it would not be a lie.” (paraphrased by me)
I believe in the sovereignty of God, but I certainly do not believe Calvinism is scripturally accurate in it's description of how God saves sinful, rebellious men. He saves them through the preaching of the Gospel, a message that is easily understandable to the worst of sinners.
Scriptural examples
abound proving sinful man can understand our Holy God. We have given the
examples of Cain Abel as a case in point. Now let us look at a whole
NATION of spiritually dead sinners whom God invites to REASON with Him! This
call to sinners to reason with God debunks the whole theory unsaved man cannot
hear God and respond in faith. Such is the supposition IRRESISTABLE GRACE
requires to be valid.
Isaiah 1(NKJV)
4 Alas,
sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the Lord,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.”
A gracious invitation to REASON and to RECEIVE. This is the Gospel and this is what saves. We are included when we admit the obvious. We are sinners for whom Christ has already died and thus reconciled us to God. Now God Himself, proving His love for the lost, BEGS sinners to be reconciled to this way of being saved. Trust Christ and His sacrifice to have settled your sin debt with God and enter into peace and joy. Determine to know this Christ even as He knows and loves you!
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the Lord,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.”
A gracious invitation to REASON and to RECEIVE. This is the Gospel and this is what saves. We are included when we admit the obvious. We are sinners for whom Christ has already died and thus reconciled us to God. Now God Himself, proving His love for the lost, BEGS sinners to be reconciled to this way of being saved. Trust Christ and His sacrifice to have settled your sin debt with God and enter into peace and joy. Determine to know this Christ even as He knows and loves you!
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