Total Depravity Total Depravity: The natural man is unable to do anything at all that is truly good, much less do anything to accomplish his own salvation.
Calvinism Friday
Calvinism Friday
Begin with Psalm 138:2 – I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. God has magnified His Word above His own name, above His own reputation. We are going to try to tackle a rather difficult subject tonight. Difficult in that there are many, many different ways we could go about looking at it. There are many different people that have as many different views on some of the finer details of the subject. Some of the topics, the Bible says lots about, some of the topics, it doesn’t say much. Our plan tonight is going to be: ‹#›
Calvinism Friday Brief History Walk through T.U.L.I.P. Questions and Answers PIZZA !
The agenda for tonight: First, a very brief history on the subject Next we’ll walk through TULIP , take some time for Questions and Answers… and then PIZZA! The real reason you all came. ‹#›
When I was first introduced to this topic for real, it was about a year ago. From people I had talked with and things I read online, I was hearing that the theology that I held, that my church held, and had been teaching me my whole life was a “Man-Centered theology.” I was told that not believing in Calvinism meant that I was “Taking glory from God,” that now I believed “I could save myself.” These were some pretty severe accusations made against my beliefs. When things like this are said about the beliefs of somebody else, you can see why it could get vigorous! I determined that these insinuations needed investigation. So I began to study. Tonight’s lesson is essentially the results of that study. That being said, let’s take a brief look at some history. ‹#›
John Calvin (1509-1564) Reformer, desiring to reform the Roman Catholic Church Emphasized God’s sovereignty in salvation, and that man could do nothing for their own salvation
John Calvin was a Roman Catholic that saw fault in the theology and jumped to the other side. ‹#›
Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) Also a Reformer, was a 3rd generation disciple of Calvin Rejected and taught against certain parts of “High” or Calvinism
Jacob Arminius was a Calvinist. He was a follower of John Calvin and held his commentaries to be second most profitable to Scripture. ‹#›
The point of this comic is this: I’m not going to attack John Calvin, I’m not going to attack Jacob Arminius. There are problems with all men… except for me, of course… ‹#›
In 1610… this debate formalized. Notice it was 1610… a year after Arminius died, and some 56 years after Calvin died. The debate began by their followers, not by the men themselves. So, some of the things we will be looking at may not belong directly to Calvin or to Arminius themselves, but have at times been taken beyond what they really believed. But in 1610, with a big church assembly in the Netherlands, the two systems clashed, [CLICK FOR THE CLASH] and out came 5 points of disagreement. Later these received TULIP. This is important, because when you try to pass off Calvinism as being false because John Calvin did some things that you don’t like, what are you going to do when faced with the rest of the Calvinists? I mean the list is pretty impressive: Martin Luther, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards; George Whitfield, Charles Spurgeon, Contemporary guys like John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul... When I first was confronted with that ‘list’ of names if you would, it had a serious impact on me. Immediately I began to give credibility to this doctrine, just because of who these guys were and what God used them to do. But, I realized something else too… All of them have points of doctrine with which we would disagree. Whether it be baby-baptizing, eschatology, or whether or not smoking is OK I also realized that there’s a list on the other side of the issue too: John Wesley is probably the most well-known Arminian. There’s also C.G. Finney, Adam Clarke, and more contem
The accusation here is that “Freewillers” or Non-Calvinists, just have heard that Calvinism is wrong, and therefore since they were told it was wrong, it must be wrong… that there aren’t any good arguments against it… I show this slide for a couple reasons – it’s kind of funny… but at the same time, you need to make sure you don’t make statements against something if you don’t know about it. You should know what you believe. You do need to read your Bibles and be fully persuaded in your own minds about what God says – not just because you heard someone say it. My point is this, if you know little about a doctrine, and you go out and discuss it with someone that has been well taught on the same doctrine, your weak arguments are going to just strengthen their position. ‹#›
TULIP
TULIP T: Total Depravity of Man U: Unconditional Election L: Limited Atonement I: Irresistible Grace P: Perseverance of the Saints
Total Depravity Total Depravity: The natural man is unable to do anything at all that is truly good, much less do anything to accomplish his own salvation.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; TULIP
Romans 3:10-12 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10-12) TULIP
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. TULIP
Ephesians 2:1-3 …who were dead in trespasses and sins;… and were by nature the children of wrath… TULIP
That is, our nature is sinful. We were born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ‹#›
Total Depravity Total Depravity: The natural man is unable to do anything at all that is truly good, much less do anything to accomplish his own salvation. TULIP
I would agree with this statement if you were to tack one more thing on the end. ‹#›
Total Depravity Total Depravity: The natural man is unable to do anything at all that is truly good, much less do anything to accomplish his own salvation… Apart from the grace of God. TULIP
The lost man is 'dead' spiritually, but a lost man is able of doing good in response to the Spirit's conviction and man's conscience. Romans 2:15... and Cornelius. Man is able to know good and bad. ‹#›
Unconditional Election Unconditional Election: God looked down at the mass of humanity and without regarding any condition in man, chose to save certain ones of them, for the purpose of manifesting His glorious grace.
Predestination Predestination: God determining ahead of time what would happen TULIP
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