Intro to the Five Points of Calvinism, Part 1

This post and the ones to follow on the 5 Points of Calvinism are in response to a request from Diane Roberts at Crossroads that I address this subject. I had thought about doing something like this in the past and Diane’s words have spurred me on.

Whenever I talk about or defend anything related to Calvinism I am always reminded of H. L. Mencken’s obituary for J. Gresham Machen. In this obituary, Mencken said that, though he admired Machen he had filed Machen’s Calvinism away in his little cabinet of horrors right next to cannibalism.

So, when I speak of Calvinism I can’t help but think there are those out there who think of me as if I am defending cannibalism. I almost feel like I’m saying “hey, we cannibals are actually pretty nice people once you get to know us – we’ve just been a little misunderstood.”

Like so many other things, Calvinism often suffers at the hands of it’s advocates and it’s critics. Many critics have a knee jerk reaction that thinks of Calvinism with all of the affection they would think of cannibalism. At the same time there are plenty advocates of Calvinism who defend their beliefs with all the warmth, compassion and charm of a cannibal.

So, that’s in the back of my mind as I embark on this subject. I assume that, though there are some folks out there who agree with me, there will probably be many more who disagree. There will be those who flat out disagree and think that Calvinism is evil and unbiblical. Then there are the calvinists vs. the CALVINISTS! The CALVINISTS! are always on the lookout to for those wimpy, compromising girlie-calvinists who just aren’t quite as pure as they should be. Apparently, Rob at the Discerning Reader, who seems to be a calvinist stopped selling a bunch of his calvinistic literature because he got tired of dealing with all of the CALVINISTS! So, the way I figure it, if I get a few calvinists who agree with me, a bunch of anti-calvinists who disagree with me and then take a few shots from a few CALVINISTS! I’ll be hitting right about where I need to be. 

Along those lines I highly recommend the book Spurgeon vs. Hyper Calvinism by Ian Murray. The thing about Spurgeon is that he was too Calvinistic for the Arminians of his day so he was rejected by them as a hyper-Calvinist. But, he was too evangelistic for the hyper-Calvinists of his day so they thought of him as an Arminian, or as one with Arminian sympathies. Although Spurgeon never shied away from telling people he was a Calvinist he made it clear that his goal was not to be consistent with the Calvinistic system, his goal was to be consistent with Scripture.

So, with that as a background I want to begin this with a somewhat long winded discussion of a few preliminary principles. My apologies to those who want me to get straight to the point, but I think what I have to say here is helpful as a beginning point.  Since this is a “long-winded” discussion I’ll serialize these preliminary principles over the next several days.  Tomorrow I’ll start with a discussion of terminology.

The rest of the series:

Intro to the Five Points of Calvinism

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The Five Points of Calvinism

Part 1 - T - Total Depravity
Part 1a - Total Depravity and Free Will
Part 2 - U - Unconditional Election
Part 3 - L - Limited Atonement
Part 4 - I - Irresistible Grace
Part 5 - P - Perseverance of the Saints