Theological Term of the Week: Five Points of Calvinism

five points of Calvinism

Five points summarizing the major doctrines affirmed in the Canons of Dordt (1618) to counter the errors of Arminianism; also called the doctrines of grace, or TULIP (an acronym formed from common names for the five points—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints).

• From Reformed Confessions Harmonized edited by Joel R. Beeke and Sinclair B. Ferguson, page xi:

The Synod of Dordt was held to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), a theological professor at Leiden University, differed from the Reformed faith on a number of important points. After Arminius’s death, forty-three of his ministerial followers presented their heretical views to the States General of the Netherlands on five of these points in the Remonstrance of 1610. In this document and even more explicitly in later writings, the Arminians, who came to be called “Remonstrants,” taught (1) election based on foreseen faith; (2) the universality of Christ’s atonement; (3) the free will and partial depravity of man; (4) the resistibility of grace; and (5) the possibility of a lapse from grace. They asked for the revision of the Reformed church’s doctrinal standards and for government protection of Arminian views. The Arminian-Calvinism conflict became so severe that it led the Netherlands to the brink of civil war. Finally in 1617 the States General voted four to three to call a national Synod to address the problem of Arminianism.

The synod held 154 formal sessions over a period of seven months (November 1618 to May 1619). Thirteen Arminian theologians, led by Simon Episcopius, tried to delay the work of the synod and divide the delegates. Their efforts proved unsuccessful. Under the leadership of Johannes Bogerman, the Arminians were dismissed. The synod then developed the Canons which thoroughly rejected the Remonstrance of 1610 and scripturally set forth the Reformed doctrine on these debated points. These points, known as the five points of Calvinism are: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of saints. Though these points do not embrace the full scope of Calvinism and are better regarded as Calvinism’s five answers to the five errors of Arminianism, they certainly lie at the heart of the Reformed faith, particularly of Reformed soteriology, for they flow out of the principle of absolute divine sovereignty in saving sinners. They may be summarized as follows: (1) Unconditional election and faith are sovereign gifts of God. (2) While the death of Christ is abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world, its saving efficacy is limited to the elect. (3, 4) All people are so totally depraved and corrupted by sin that they cannot exercise free will toward, nor effect any part of, their salvation. In sovereign grace God irresistibly calls and regenerates the elect to newness of life. (5) God graciously preserves the redeemed so that they persevere until the end, even though they may be troubled by many infirmities as they seek to make their calling and election sure. 

• From Living for God’s Glory by Joel R. Beeke, page 50:

These five points are integrally linked; they stand or fall together. They are all rooted in two inescapable truths of Scripture: man’s complete ruin by sin and God’s perfect, sovereign, and gracious remedy in Christ. These part of salvation fit together to provide us with a biblical, consistent view of grace revealing how God saves sinners to His glory. They show how great God’s grace is, how it directs everything in this world, and how salvation is ultimately not dependent on anything that man can offer. The really heart of Calvinism is that God sovereignly and graciously loves sinners fully and unconditionally in Christ.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What are the doctrines of grace?
2. R.C. Sproul: Tulip and Reformed Theology: An Introduction
3. Sinclair Ferguson: The Doctrines of Grace
4. Reasonable Theology: What Are the Five Points of Calvinism? A Clear and Concise Explanation (video)
5. Nicholas Batzig: Five Biblical Points of Dordrecht
6. Monergism: Doctrines of Grace — Categorized Scripture List
7. Reformed Study: A Brief History of the Doctrines of Grace (pdf)

Related terms:

• Canons of Dordt (1618)
• irresistible grace
• limited atonement
• perseverance of the saints
• total depravity
• unconditional election

Filed under Reformed Theology

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Sunday Hymn: Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed

Alas! and did my Sav­ior bleed
And did my So­ver­eign die?
Would He de­vote that sac­red head
For such a worm as I?

Thy bo­dy slain, sweet Je­sus, Thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all ex­posed to wrath di­vine,
The glo­ri­ous Suf­fer­er stood!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned up­on the tree?
Amazing pi­ty! grace un­known!
And love be­yond de­gree!

Well might the sun in dark­ness hide
And shut his glo­ries in,
When Christ, the migh­ty Mak­er died,
For man the crea­ture’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blush­ing face
While His dear cross ap­pears,
Dissolve my heart in thank­ful­ness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er re­pay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

—Isaac Watts

Theological Term of the Week: Covenant

covenant

A solemn agreement, “negotiated or unilaterally imposed, that bind[s] the parties to each other in permanent defined relationships, with specific promises, claims, and obligations on both sides.”1

• Two examples from scripture: 

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lordhas spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:3-8 ESV).

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

8 For he finds fault with them when he says:


“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”


13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:6-13 ESV).

• From the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689, Chapter 9:

1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.

2. Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe. 

3. This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect; and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.

• From Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung, page 135: 

Biblical covenants come out of an ancient world where political treaties and formal relational agreements were well known. The various covenants in Scripture, like many of the covenants of the same era, are composed of identifiable elements. In general, we see seven elements associated with biblical covenants. There are three p-words: promises, prescriptions, and penalties. And four s-words: swearing (of an oath), seeing, statements, and signs. These seven elements aren’t present in every covenant, and they aren’t the only way to categorize things, but taken together these elements represent a common template. In biblical covenants, God makes promises, lays out commands, and threatens punishment. And in establishing the covenant relationship, there is often and oath, eyewitnesses, written documents, and symbols of ratification. Everywhere throughout the Bible, God relates to his creatures by way of these promissory agreements.

Learn more:

1. Simply Put: Covenant
2. Bible Study Tools: Covenant
3. Michael Horton: Covenant
4. Keith A. Mathison: What Is a Covenant?
5. Paul R. Williamson: The Biblical Covenants
6. Meredith Kline: What Is a Covenant?

Related terms:

• decree of God
• redemptive history

1Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 87.

Filed under Reformed Theology

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.