The Calvinism Debate
The Calvinism Debate Updated January 27, 2009 (first published December 12, 2001) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, http://www.wayoflife.org/database/calvinismdebate.html. Calvinism is a theology that was developed by John Calvin (1509-64) in the sixteenth century. He presented this theology in his Institutes of Christian Religion, which subsequently became the cor- nerstone of Presbyterian and Reformed theology. It is also called TULIP theology. Calvin himself did not use the term TULIP to describe his theology, but it is an accurate, though simplified, repre- sentation of his views, and every standard point of TULIP theology can be found in Calvin’s Insti- tutes. Calvinistic theology was summarized into five points during the debate over the teachings of Jaco- bus Arminius (1560-1609). Arminius studied under Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor at Geneva, but he rejected Calvinism and taught his non-Calvinist theology in Holland. Arminius’ followers arranged his teaching under the following five points and began to distribute this theology among the Dutch churches in 1610: (1) Free will, or human ability, (2) Conditional election, (3) Universal Redemption, or General Atonement, (4) Resistible Grace, and (5) Insecure Faith. These points were rejected at the state-church Synod of Dort in Holland in 1618-1619 (attended as well by representa- tives from France, Germany, Switzerland, and Britain), and this Synod formulated the “five points of Calvinism” in resistance to Arminianism. Arminius’ followers were thereafter put out of their churches and persecuted by their Calvinist brethren. In the late 18th century, the five points of Calvinism were rearranged under the acronym TULIP as a memory aid.
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