GES has an online seminary. While the education is quite expensive, our donors are paying the cost of the faculty, teaching assistants, and administrators. Classes are free for the students if they maintain at least a B average.
Starting in January, Dr. Tony Badger, author of Confronting Calvinism, will be teaching a thirteen-week elective on Calvinism. New students can apply to the school by clicking here. Once accepted, they will receive an email inviting them to register. If you are a continuing student, simply email: classes@faithalone.org.
Calvinism can be remembered by using the acronym TULIP. In a series of six blogs, I will consider each of the five points. There will be six parts because the P in TULIP actually stands for two words.
The T in Tulip stands for Total Depravity. Many mistakenly think that Calvinists use this term as a way of saying that we are are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). That is not what Calvinists mean by Total Depravity.
Calvinists mean that our entire being is tainted by sin. As a result, we are unable to respond to God. Some use the expression Total Inability to explain the T in TULIP.
A favorite illustration of Total Depravity is a cadaver at the bottom of a well. Rescuers come. They don’t know that the person at the bottom is dead. They throw a rope down and ask the person to tie it around his waist so they can pull him to safety.
But dead men don’t hear anything. Nor can they grab the rope and tie it around their waists. It is a waste of time to talk to a dead man or to throw him a rope.
What the dead man needs is to be made alive.
The T in TULIP means that regeneration must precede faith.
The Lord taught in John 3:16 that faith precedes regeneration. But Calvinism says that this is impossible in light of Total Depravity.
In my book, Is Calvinism Biblical? I consider two verses that disprove Total Depravity: John 6:35 and Acts 10:4.
The Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He did not say, “He who never hungers will come to Me, and he who never thirsts will believe in Me.” Believing in Jesus comes first. Belief precedes regeneration and eternal security.
Cornelius was a God-fearing centurion. He worshipped in a Jewish synagogue, though he was a Gentile. Luke tells us that he was “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the [Jewish] people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:2). Luke says that God sent an angel to speak to Cornelius. The angel said, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4). The angel went on to tell the unsaved centurion to send for Simon Peter (Acts 10:5) “who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved” (Acts 11:14).
The angel was talking to that dead man at the bottom of the well. But the man heard him! The man understood and responded to him. Cornelius sent three men to get Simon Peter. And when Peter came, Cornelius believed and was born again.
Spiritual death does not mean total inability. It does not mean that regeneration must precede faith. It means that the unbeliever lacks the life of God. That is what spiritual death is. But the unbeliever can seek God (Matt 7:7-11; Acts 10:1-8; 17:27; Heb 11:6).
If an unbeliever is willing to believe in Christ, he will receive the message he must believe in order to be born again. The Lord Jesus rebuked some legalistic Jews saying, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).
Notice the words: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you have life.” According to Calvinism, cadavers can have no willingness to believe in Jesus. But the Lord Jesus said otherwise.
Don’t be duped by the T in Calvinism. Its explanation of total depravity is unbiblical.
Keep grace in focus and you will not be led astray by unbiblical philosophies.
