“Can you justify the five points of Calvinism?”

Steve Brown:
Can you justify the five points of Calvinism? Yes, on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He’s no guru, but he does have honest answers to honest questions about the Bible. God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase and worship. So, here’s Steve and Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com with street smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown:
Hey Pete. Now, I should have said, in the teaser when I said, can you justify the five points of Calvinism? I should have said yes, Pete can. That’s why you’re here, Pete. I just want you to know that.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Steve Brown:
You know, we get a lot of questions and we’ll talk about it in a minute, but we get a lot of questions on the five points of Calvinism. And generally we don’t deal with them because it’s just a lot more complicated and a lot more difficult than most people think. But we decided that we’re going to do it on this broadcast. And after it is done, it will be accomplished for all time. People will reference this broadcast and you’re very fortunate to be listening to this particular broadcast. And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. By the way, that other voice was Pete Alwinson and he has a dynamite men’s ministry, cold Forge. And if you go to ForgeTruth.com you can find out all about it. A lot of great teaching, a lot of good stuff, or you can read the book Like Father, Like Son. And you can get that at Key Life or any place where good books are sold. And Pete comes in on Fridays and we answer questions and we like your questions. We like you. You can go 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, record your question. And sometimes we put it on the air. Or you can write

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Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Sounds good. Our Great God, we come to ya on this Friday. And so thankful that we can come into your presence Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so freely and quickly because of Jesus, Lord, you know us, and you know that it’s been a long week and we’ve sought to follow you, but Lord, we haven’t always. You know where we’ve sinned, where we’ve stumbled, you know our fears, you know where we’re frustrated about life. So, we come to to you. And, we just rest for a moment in your grace and Lord Jesus, that we are fully accepted because of your work and your work alone. And we do ask that you continue to work in us. We pray that your grace by your Spirit could be worked so deeply into our hearts that we just recognize that we’re okay. And our standing is good with you. Be with our pastors and teachers and priests and leaders and worship directors this week-end. Lord, be with them in a powerful way. Holy Spirit enable them to speak to us that we could be set free and that we would have allowed the joy of the Lord to be our strength. We commit this time of Q&A to you now, as we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Alright, Pete, this is the question. And this is how it’s asked. Can you justify the five points of Calvinism? And some of our listeners are saying, what’s that? So, and we’re not going to go into a lot of history, but it’s the basis of reformed theology. It was a response to the Remonstrance. Let’s just go over them or we’re not going to have time to get through these. What’s the first point of Calvinism.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Total depravity. Which, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. Boom. TULIP.

Steve Brown:
And, there is a sense in which every Christian believes these things. They believe it one degree or another. But we say, we believe in the sovereignty of God and everybody who is Arminian in their theology. They say, I believe in the sovereignty of God, too. So, it’s a matter of degree., I think and emphasis. The first one on sin and radical and pervasive depravity. Does that mean that I’m as bad as I could be?

Pete Alwinson:
In your case. Yes. See, you always make me the bad guy. So, I had to do a one time.

Steve Brown:
What does that mean?

Pete Alwinson:
Simply, it means that sin, that you inherited from Adam, it affects

Steve Brown:
Everything

Pete Alwinson:
the core of your ability think, reason, feel and act. So, your intellect, emotions and wills.

Steve Brown:
So, in order to be saved. It’s gotta be God’s action in our lives.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Ephesians 2:1 you’re dead in your trespasses and sin.

Steve Brown:
And, radical and pervasive depravity, Romans 7 is something we all deal with even now, but before we are saved, we’re dead.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And so, there isn’t any good thing you can do, that’ll get you to heaven. You can’t be that good.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Alright, “U’.

Pete Alwinson:
“U”, unconditional

Steve Brown:
This is a TULIP. It’s the acrostic. Ok, go ahead.

Pete Alwinson:
Unconditional election, is the reality that we have to be chosen. If we’re spiritually dead, we have to be called by God.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
We can’t, a dead person can’t make themselves come alive.

Steve Brown:
Now, I personally don’t believe you can teach that doctrine without teaching God’s love. You know, some people say that God chooses because he chooses. I don’t like you. I like you, but I don’t like you. And I don’t believe that’s true. I believe his active creation was this act of election and he knew the implications of it. And he elected with tears in his eyes. Does that mean we’re not responsible?

Pete Alwinson:
No, we still are. And I think that’s important to bring up that we are responsible for our sins. We’re born sinners, so we sin and we’re responsible for that.

Steve Brown:
You know, the most controversial one of the five points of Calvinism is called limited atonement.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And it’s the least controversial. Isn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
It really is, limited atonement or particular redemption. Jesus died for those that he has called to be his.

Steve Brown:
And those who come to him.

Pete Alwinson:
And those who come to him.

Steve Brown:
And everybody, all Christians believe those who don’t won’t.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
So it’s limited.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
So, if you can believe in election, but you can’t believe in limited atonement. And there are a lot of people who call themselves four point Calvinists. And they’re talking about the atonement issue. They, you know, they swallowed the horse and they got caught up on the fly. It’s just not, that’s not the big one. Alright.

Pete Alwinson:
So, Jesus said, I lay down my life for the sheep. He’s very clear about that.

Steve Brown:
T U L I

Pete Alwinson:
Irresistible grace, that means if you’re called, you will come, his will called you.

Steve Brown:
It means whatever God decides to do, he does it right well.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And, you can relax a little bit on that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And P.

Pete Alwinson:
P perseverance of the saints or preservation of the saints. In other words, he holds us and keeps us because left to ourselves, we would be lost.

Steve Brown:
Our Baptist friends call that eternal security.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And it, and it means that if you’re his, you’ll be his and he’ll never let you go.

Pete Alwinson:
Even, if we sin. And that’s why I John 1:9 is so often used, right?

If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And the stand at the door and knock in Revelation is the same thing. It’s for people who are his, who sin. And, and are convicted of it and come back to him.

Steve Brown:
So true. And, you know, we could spend broadcast after broadcast on this. And there are books written on the, but these, by the way are not what you go down to the mall when you’re witnessing and you share with a person with whom you’re trying to lead to Christ, or for whom you’re trying to lead to Christ. These are family secrets. These are meant, so you can sleep in night.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. In fact, I agree and I love the way we could call them the doctrines of grace. In other words, as we understand God’s grace, these are some of the key ideas, based on Biblical teaching. Everyone has Biblical support that shows God’s grace to us.

Steve Brown:
That’s a really true. So, a lot of people and there, and I’ve got to apologize for my brothers and sisters because I do as much bad as they do. But sometimes this is used as a hammer, you beat up Christians over the head with, it’s not, it’s a gift that reformed people bring to the table, to the body of Christ. And every heritage brings that. And what we’ve just gone over is what reformed people bring. And we bring it as a gift so that our brothers and sisters will be able to sleep better at night.

Pete Alwinson:
I like that. That’s good.

Steve Brown:
Alright, this will be fairly easy. Does the Bible have errors in it due to different versions?

Pete Alwinson:
No. Well, no, no errors. There are some transcription discrepancies that we have, but the different versions, now there’s a lot of different versions these days. And so, we have to know what versions are you talking about because some of them have agendas in them.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. They really do.

Pete Alwinson:
But the good, mainstream, you know, RSV, NIV, New American Standard, ESV. Did I say that? You know, no, no, there’s no errors.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. And, there are scholars constantly working on trying to get the translations as close as they can to the original.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And a lot of great work is done by a lot of godly people.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh. You’re right. And language does change. So, to keep up with how our language is changing, that’s why we need some of these new versions.

Steve Brown:
And even in a bad translation, there’s enough there to lead you to Christ. And as soon as you’re a Christian, we’ll give you another Bible.

Pete Alwinson:
There you go.

Steve Brown:
Let me see. We’re kind of close to the end of this. I don’t have time to bring up another question. What do you use?

Pete Alwinson:
I use English Standard Version.

Steve Brown:
Me too.

Pete Alwinson:
And the New American Standard is what I memorized out of.

Steve Brown:
Did you memorize that out of the New American Standard.

Pete Alwinson:
The New American Standard.

Steve Brown:
That’s the most literal version.

Pete Alwinson:
It is, very wooden, but I like it.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, but you wouldn’t read it from the pulpit.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I actually do sometimes.

Steve Brown:
Do you? I love the English Standard Version. It’s as close as I can get to the King James Version I grew up with. Guys that’s enough. We got to get out of here. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.