The entire essence and aim of these doctrines can be summed up like this: they are meant to display, magnify, and glorify the sovereignty and majesty of God in the work of Christ in His life, death, and resurrection for sinners: as Ephesians states and Revelation presents so clearly, the glory of the grace of God. In addition, they are meant to show us from Scripture that the roots of our salvation begin with God, not us, in order that He gets credit for every step of salvation, including the origination of faith in the heart. I believe that if a Christian becomes prideful after believing these doctrines with their minds, or takes on an attitude of "I am more Calvinistic and Reformed than anyone else," becoming a source of self-righteousness for them, they have not understood these doctrines in the least. They show you your sinfulness, desperation, hopelessness, apart from the sovereign work of God in the Gospel.

These doctrines are meant to humble man, not inflate his pride. They are meant to highlight, from the Scriptures, the absolute work of God through Christ in the Gospel to save wicked sinners like myself, put all of us in our proper place, and bring us to the foot of the cross where we find eternal mercy and pardon. They are meant to humble us before the throne of God as the Sovereign Creator and show man his utter inability to save himself, and even after salvation to sanctify himself, apart from the powerful work of the cross.

I personally believe this is one of the best explanations of Calvinism with many Scripture references to cite where these doctrines came from. I have gone through and formatted the text to make it easier to jump around to particular doctrines faster. In addition, I have linked every scripture reference to www.biblegateway.com, so no one has any excuse to not read the Scripture citations and deal with the Scripture itself. :] :] :]

This particular article is easily read and has few terms that you cannot understand. It is important to note from the outset, as stated in this article, that, "the so-called Five Points were not chosen by the Calvinists as a summary of their teaching. They emerged as a response to the Arminians who chose these five points to oppose." The Five Points, as they have come to be called, are simply a doctrinal rebuttal against what was proposed by the Arminian Remonstrance in the early 1600's.

Why is this important? Why should I spend my time reading this?

Because, as the article states, "Where we stand on these things deeply affects our view of God, man, salvation, the atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, and missions" along with how we relate to others, unbelievers, our communities, service, etc. So don't think these things are unimportant to practical Christian life. For instance, with evangelism, how do you think you would be changed if you really saw that God has individual people out there He has already determined to save through the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel? We have no idea who they are. But God has a people He is gathering to Himself and we get to be apart of that through witnessing the power of the Gospel to all we come in contact with, not knowing who God will effectually change by His omnipotence. These doctrines have ramifications in all facets and areas of life. If you want to gain a full, clear understanding about the Five Points from a Calvinist himself who is on fire for the Gospel, evangelism and missions, and undo misconceptions many may have presented you concerning them, this is the article to read.

If anyone disagrees with these doctrines,

1) I do not expect everyone to either grasp these right away, nor really agree with them initially. Just as Christ is patient with us, so we should be with one another. As one of my best friends Jon Dansby has said, "Democracy makes for a great country to live in. But it makes for terrible theology." And is that not the cultural lens we Americans look at salvation through? God votes for us, Satan votes against us, and we cast the deciding vote. Well, that is just not the way the Scriptures speak of salvation, really at all. Regardless, our view and understanding of who God is, how He works , and the nature of salvation (from what He has revealed to us in Scripture), deeply affect everyday practical Christian life and experience. Theology is meant for doxology, or in other words, the knowledge and understanding of God from Scripture is meant to affect our hearts, that we may glorify God in all areas of life.

2) Arminianism is the prevalent theological thinking of the church in America, because as with most things in America, it feels good to think we have voter control over our lives, especially when it pertains to our eternal destinies; And therefore, to have a paradigm shift in your theological convictions, namely that God is sovereign in salvation, can take time, the solo work of the Holy Spirit to change your heart, your own personal hard work in studying the Scriptures, and much prayer. To be honest, some people struggle for years over some of the implications of these doctrines; Election makes really makes God God and puts us in our place as begging sinners before the throne of God, in bondage to our sin. Our only hope to be rescued from our sinfully entangled affections and will is that God chooses to move in us through the preaching of the Gospel.

3) Please do not think all those (like myself) who claim the name Calvinist think they have it all figured out and have arrived. No, we are sinners, and as such, though we have the revealed Word of God in the Scriptures, we see through a mirror dimly. But at the same time, we do have infallibly inspired concrete statements in Scripture and God has revealed certain things to us that we may know Him greater as well as the depths of our salvation. Any Calvinists claiming to have it all figured out is not a Biblical Calvinist. Why? Because they lack the humility which is the real effect of having grasped these doctrines in the heart;

4) We (I) believe Calvinism is simply the most well-expressed doctrinal statement concerning what the Scriptures say about who does what in salvation, and how this fundamentally affects all aspects of Christian life and practice;

To sum up, I just ask you who love Christ from the heart and yet disagree with these things (who I am calling friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ!) to take the time to thoroughly read this and pray over whether these things are true from the Scriptures, difficult or not (what isn't difficult in the Scriptures? Is this not why we come to the Word of God, to be changed and conformed to Christ, even when it grates against our flesh? Sanctification is not easy on our sinful flesh). In addition, if you who disagree do not have a solid grasp on what we believe, how can you possibly understand your own doctrinal positions?

If you prefer to listen to mp3 lectures on the history and theology of Calvinism by John Piper, which I highly recommend, go here. Piper does a fantastic job of being very fair and presenting both sides of the argument, showing Scriptures that present problems for us as well, and addressing them. In addition, here are some other resources pertaining to what Calvinists actually believe, versus what many may have told you, because there are those out there who take the name Calvinist who may "get it" with their heads, intellectually, and be Pharisees in their hearts (i.e. "we have the right doctrine and this makes us righteous in ourselves"); I find their arrogance toward you very repulsive and ask for your forgiveness:

> The Practical Implications of Calvinism - Albert Martin
> Some Things Non-Calvinists Should Know About Calvinism
> Calvinist Rejections of Hyper-Calvinist Beliefs - Hyper-Calvinism Section on Monergism.com
> Calvinism Mega-Section on Monergism.com

- David Westerfield