Introduction
Two of the great leaders of the Reformation were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Martin Luther, while retaining many of the errors of Rome, nonetheless brought a major enlightenment to European Christianity in the mid-16th Century. While Calvin is regarded by Protestants as a great Reformer also, I have a very different opinion.
While Calvin repudiated the Roman Catholic Church and its corruptions, he actually, inadvertently, introduced even greater corruptions into Protestant Christian thought. My thesis is that though he contributed in many ways to the Reformation, a basic mistake he made in certain fundamental premises has led certain segments of Protestantism into even greater spiritual corruption than is found in Catholicism.
In Part One of this series, we will look at what Calvinism is, as generally accepted by scholars, along with the basic premise of its doctrines how that premise has led to a number of serious errors. In Part Two, we will look at how modern Calvinism emerged consider its doctrinal declension. In Part Three, we will look at how modern Calvinism has affected modern Protestantism and certain schools of thought within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
TULIP
The 5 key points of Calvinism are often summed up by the acronym TULIP. In summary they are:
T - Total Depravity
Man's human nature is so depraved that he is unable to even choose God. That is, we have no free will. Our will is totally controlled by our sinful nature.
So, the will, being inseparable from the nature of man, is not annihilated; but it is fettered by depraved and inordinate desires, so that it cannot aspire after anything that is good. [1]
U - Unconditional Election
Because man's nature and will are so depraved that he cannot choose God, God must effectively save man against his will. Salvation is by Christ's imputed righteous only. It is assumed that once man's nature is changed at resurrection or translation time, from that point people can never sin again and will be fit for heaven (more on that later).
If He wished, Christ could apply His grace to all humanity and save everyone in this way. This is known as universalism. However, the Bible is clear that not all humans will be saved, so Calvin was faced with a conundrum. His answer was that God arbitrarily chooses to whom He will apply His grace, and to whom He will not. This is known as predestination.
But since the communication of Christ offered in the gospel is not embraced by men in general, but only by those whom the Lord has favoured with the efficacy and peculiar grace of his Spirit, it obviates any supposition of absurdity, by subjoin-ing a necessary and appropriate dissertation on the doctrine of Divine election. [2]
L - Limited Atonement
This is simply an extension of the Total Depravity principle noted above. Obviously, in the Calvinist view, Christ’s atonement cannot be for all humanity because grace is applied only to the elect.
I – Irresistible Grace
This is an extension of both the Total Depravity and Unconditional Election principles cited above. Since humanity's nature is so depraved, our conduct cannot be perfected here on earth, even through heaven’s power. Thus our salvation must be accomplished by Christ's forensically-applied grace only. Thus it is assumed that moral purity on the Christian’s part will only be possible once our sinful nature has been changed at resurrection or translation.
Therefore, while on earth with our sinful natures, all sinful actions and thoughts on our part are negated by Christ's grace. Salvation is purely at the will of God, with no human input whatsoever. Therefore, those He chooses to save cannot become unsaved, and those not chosen cannot obtain salvation.
Here, therefore, boundless goodness is displayed, but not so as to bring all to salvation, since a heavier judgment awaits the reprobate for rejecting the evidence of his love. God also, to display his own glory, withholds from them the effectual agency of his Spirit. Therefore, this inward calling is an infallible pledge of salvation. [3]
P – Perseverance of the Saints
Again, a simple extension of the above principles. Obviously the "elect"—those whom God has chosen—can never lose salvation
The Total Sovereignty of God
In addition to the principles outlined in the TULIP acronym, but also as an extension thereof, was Calvin's assumption regarding the total sovereignty of God. Because humanity supposedly has no free will, everything that happens in this world is seen as God's will.
But whose has learned from the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his head are numbered (Mt. 10:30), will look farther for the cause, and hold that all events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God. [4]
The sum of the whole is this,—since the will of God is said to be the cause of all things, all the counsels and actions of men must be held to be governed by his providence; so that he not only exerts his power in the elect, who are guided by the Holy Spirit, but also forces the reprobate to do him service. [5]
The Fatal Flaw
Calvin, like Luther, accepted the Augustinian heresy of original sin. A whole article could be written on this subject, but for now, we will define it as having two concepts. (1) That humanity inherits the guilt of Adam's transgression; and (2) that our fallen nature is synonymous with sin. [6].
Calvin took the Augustinian concept of original sin even further than Augustine or Luther, and invented what I call a hyper-Augustinian view. Theologians such as Augustine, Calvin, and Jacobus Arminius have all discussed the effect of our fallen nature on our free will. These discussions could be labelled under the heading of Level of Depravity. Arminius proposed that our fallen nature had a limited effect on our free will [7]. Calvin, as noted above in TULIP, proposed that out fallen nature has such an effect on our fee will as to render it null and void. This is the fatal flaw in Calvinism that has led to so much theological error in the Protestant fold in the centuries that followed. There are many good things in Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, but the good things were ultimately nullified by this fatal flaw.
Augustine
Looking at the second part of Augustine's original sin doctrine (i.e. that our fallen nature is sin), we find that it was derived not from Scripture but from a Greek philosophy known as dualism. It led to the thought that the only component of the sin problem is our fallen nature. That is, if our fallen nature is removed, we will be perfectly sinless for eternity.
Many of these dualistic ideas, especially the Orphic and Pythagorean ones, are also found in writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, such as the Timaeus, Phaedo, Gorgias, and Cratylus. In these writings a divine part of the human soul that is directly infused by the divinity and a mortal part (passionate and vegetative) are defined and considered. The mortal part is assigned to humanity by inferior divinities, charged to do so by the supreme divinity; and the appetitive passions involved, if followed, are held to be responsible for the punishments that the soul will suffer during various periods of habitation in the other world and reincarnations in this one. [8]
That is, humanity has a "divine" spirit and a sensual (or sinful) body. At death, the sinful body is discarded and the "divine" spirit lives on, having been instantly perfected. This is the heart of the once-saved-always-saved gospel.
Hyper-Augustine
Calvin, with his total depravity doctrine, effectively "super charges" Augustine's and Luther's teachings back to the original Greek concept of humanity’s total depravity while in an earthly body, as opposed to the total perfecting of humanity while existing as a spirit only. All the points of TULIP and the total sovereignty of God are derived from this premise.
Calvin and the Bible
Firstly, the basic premise of Calvin that humans have no free will is totally unbiblical. As mentioned above, it comes from Greek philosophy. There are an untold number of texts in the Bible making it clear we have free will and can freely choose to accept or reject God’s grace. Here are but a few texts along these lines:
Math 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Contrast this with Calvin's assertion that God has predestined some to be saved and others to be lost.
Irresistible grace is likewise unbiblical. It is clear from the parable of the seeds and the sower in Mathew 13 that we are not “once saved always saved.” The growth of the plant from the seed symbolizes genuine Christian growth, but at any time this growth can be choked off by the poor soil or the growing weeds symbolizing persecution, adversity, or worldliness. It is clear that an initial walk with Christ does not guarantee a successful conclusion. [9]
The other premise, that the only component to the sin problem is our fallen nature, is clearly refuted by the biblical concept that sin began in a morally perfect being who had an unfallen nature when it occurred (Eze. 28:15). Adam and Eve likewise sinned while possessing perfect natures.
The Bad Logic of Calvinism
Calvin seems to have been unaware that his theology, besides being unbiblical, contained several logical problems that would lead to the errors that have afflicted those following his teachings ever since.
The first point of poor logic is, if God has predestined some to be saved—regardless of their will, thoughts and actions—and others to be lost—likewise regardless of their will, thoughts, and actions—then why have church or do evangelism at all? Logically, Calvinist churches should not exist at all. It appears they see their role being primarily to "collect" the "elect" from the world into the church for fellowship and worship.
You see, a Calvinist may argue that evangelism in general is necessary for the salvation of the elect in general, but logically your individual responsibility to evangelize any particular elect person is not necessary for the salvation of that elect person. After all, if you weren’t ordained to evangelize that elect individual, someone else was, otherwise they wouldn’t be elect. [10]
While there appears to be logic in what they assert, overall, the logic is bad and points to a disordered and illogical "god.”
Since according to Calvinism, salvation is accomplished by God willing people into heaven regardless of choice (which in theory they don't have), then why does God not do that for everyone? A God that arbitrarily chooses who to save and who not to save would not be a fair and loving God. It gets worse, though. In Calvinist theology, the lost do not simply die; they are tortured by God in hell forever (more on this later). This means that the Calvinist god creates some people for the sole purpose of torturing them in hell forever. Not even Rome has blasphemed God that badly.
There also arises the question of how can I know I have been "elected"? Calvin, in a number of places in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, claims that only the "elect" experience regeneration.
All this being admitted, it will be beyond dispute, that free will does not enable any man to perform good works, unless he is assisted by grace; indeed, the special grace which the elect alone receive through regeneration. [11]
So, in effect, if you’ve experienced conversion and regeneration, you are among the "elect.” This leads to a kind of "Christian narcissism" in that "Christians" are "real special.” Later distortions of the doctrine, which we will address in Part Two, extend this narcissism to God allegedly showing His approval by making you materially rich and successful in this present life. However, to be fair to Calvin, that is not found in his writings.
Returning to the notion of God’s total sovereignty, we have the following problem: God is made responsible for evil. Because everything that everyone does is the will of God, then in effect Dylan Roof was carrying out God’s will when he slaughtered the worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina. In effect, this doctrine makes God and the devil one. Worse still, those who are lost are tortured in hell forever for committing the sins God willed them to commit. Again, a blasphemy far worse than anything Rome ever came up with.
Conclusion
In summary, while Calvin's writings contain a significantly good material relative to Christian piety, he "short circuits” himself by denying that human beings possess free will. This "short circuit" has, over the years, constrained Calvinism to develop from being a reform movement to morphing into something darker than the Roman Catholic Church from which it stepped out.
Part Two of this series will consider the doctrinal distortions of modern Calvinism
REFERENCES
1. The Project Gutenberg EBook of Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) by John Calvin. (February 24, 2014 [Ebook 45001]), p. 315
2. Ibid, p. 644
3. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin, John (1509-1564) Beveridge, Henry (Translator). Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Grand Rapids, MI (31 Oct 2002), p. 594
4. Ibid, p. 127
5. Ibid, p. 147
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Arminius
8. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dualism-religion/Historical-varieties-of-religious-dualism
9. Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 33-61.
10. https://soteriology101.com/2020/03/09/if-calvinism-is-true-then-why-evangelize/
11. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 164
Tony Rigden, a former atheist/deist, came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1980 as the result of a miraculous conversion and the reading of the book The Great Controversy by Ellen G White. He has since been a regular Sabbath School teacher, very part-time lay preacher, elder and briefly head elder. Formerly an electronics technician and computer programmer, Tony is currently still part-time programming but mostly retired. Former hobbies included diving and private flying. Currently he is a volunteer guard (train conductor) for one of New Zealand's leading vintage railways.