The 5 Points of Popular Calvinism

Calvinism, as a way of interpreting the Bible, can be summarized in five major points. Since the Five Points of Calvinism begin with the letters, T-U-L-I-P, Calvinism is sometimes known as TULIP.

Total Depravity

This means much more than the fact that we are all sinners. According to Calvinism, nobody is able to believe or to even want God without God first giving the person the supernatural ability to believe

Unconditional Election

The Calvinist God arbitrarily picked certain people from the human family to become His children. These are the people He loves and saves from their sin so they can go to Heaven. Everybody else is lost and will go to Hell because God doesn’t love them.

Limited Atonement

Calvinists teach that God only the people He hand-picked to be His elect. These are the lucky ones who will go to Heaven. Jesus died for their sins, but He didn’t die for the sins of the rest of the human population.

Irresistible Grace

Those who were hand-picked (elected) by Calvin’s God have no choice in the matter. They WILL become Christians, and they WILL go to Heaven. For that matter, the other people don’t have a choice either. They will go to Hell because God did not want to pick (elect) them

Perseverance of the Saints

Those who are hand-picked by God will not only believe in Christ, but they will also continue to live the Christian life until they die. They have no choice in the matter. They are predestined to go all the way with God, because they are His elect.

Why is this teaching so dangerous? Because it takes away from human responsibility!

If I have been arbitrarily chosen by God, I don’t have to worry about getting saved. It will happen in God’s time, because He has decreed it to be so.
If I have not been chosen by God, I will be better off to forget about religion entirely and get everything I can out of this life, because this life is all I will have before I go to Hell.
As a Christian, I don’t have to worry about winning the lost to Christ, because the Elect will be saved regardless of what I do, and the non-Elect will go to Hell whether I witness to them or not. So it doesn’t matter. Although some Calvinists have a passion for winning the lost to Christ, they are a decided minority.

See also, An Examinstion of TULIP, by Dr. Robert Sumner