What Is Calvinism?

Calvinism versus Arminianism, election versus free will. I think maybe the question needs to be more

Senator Ron, how do I know I'm saved? Am I saved because I know God saved me and he never fails his promises or I know

I'm saved because I chose God or maybe I didn't. I don't know, it's a good question.

Let's get into it. Hi, I'm Jon Moffitt.

I'm the pastor of Grace Reformed Church and host of Theocast. This is Ask Theocast where we answer your questions from a

Reformed and pastoral perspective. Calvinism really is a fireball word.

You throw that into a Bible study, I'm a Calvinist, I'm not a Calvinist and all of a sudden the temperature in the room rises.

And I think a lot of that has to do with not understanding history, really not understand the teaching and a lot of people thinking it's about one man's theology and I don't really care about what

John Calvin taught or Jacob Sarminius, I just care about what the Bible teaches which I agree with you and we are going to get into that.

But the whole reason you're watching this video is most likely you typed in what is Calvinism so we're gonna get into that.

Calvinism is, it's been changed. The word, it doesn't mean what it used to mean and it's developed over time.

A good illustration, if you were to go to this website, almanac .com or you could

Google this article, believe it or not, during the 16th century, it was illegal in France to eat potatoes.

I know, it's crazy to think that, but it's true. They believed that it gave you leprosy.

So they said, don't eat it, don't grow it and if you do, you're going to be breaking the law.

And it wasn't until the 17th century after the Seven Year War that a French pharmacist started to cook it and started to show people that one, it's not only not going to give you leprosy, but it's also good to eat.

The same thing has happened with Calvinism. It has morphed over the years into something that it's this big boogeyman and it's a false teaching.

It's a doctrine of demons. You should stay away from it and it's bad. Well, let's talk about, first of all, where it came from and then we're gonna talk about why it really does matter what you think about this teaching.

And it affects not only salvation, but it affects a lot of areas in your life and your church and how you think about God.

So the Roman Catholic Church, most of you probably have heard of the five solas, which birthed out of men wanting to move away from the

Roman Catholic Church because the Roman Catholic Church, which was teaching, you are saved by, yes,

Jesus, yes, grace, but it's grace plus your obedience to these set of sacraments, the seven sacraments.

And the reformers said, no, this is not accurate. And they started to reform away or to try to change the teachings.

And really what was the foundation of that were the five solas. And you can look that up. We'll do a whole nother video on that later.

But part of the five solas was sola fide. And it was by faith alone that we believed that we were justified.

Well, more and more as the church began to reform, the congregations that were being formulated wanted to know like, what does the

Bible say about this and about men, about the nature of God, about the nature of church, about prayer.

So they created a confession to clarify what the church has believed throughout history.

Speaking of history, the debate between free will and sovereignty didn't happen between John Calvin and Jacob Arminius.

It happened way before. The church has been arguing about this and deeming it heretical. And we'll find out which one here in a minute for many, many years.

We could go all the way back to Augustine who in the sixth century was debating with Jacobus Arminius, I'm sorry,

Pelagius, who was teaching that we were born without a sin nature and we chose to sin and we could choose

God which would then save us from our sin. That was deemed heretical. And so this debate's been going along for a long time.

Well, let's fast forward. You have the reformers who've been writing and who've been clarifying, looking at scripture, ad fontes is the word, but going back to the original sources to see this is where the

Roman Catholic Church went off course. This is now what we confess. And so we have the Belgic Confession.

This is what the churches, the Dutch Reformed churches were all embracing saying, yes, this is what we believe the

Bible teaches. Well, Jacobus Arminius had a problem with this. He was a professor and he had a problem with some of the points.

And he began to teach and teach his students that, yeah, I don't think election and predestination is really what the

Bible is teaching. And I think Jesus died for everyone, not just a select few people. And I think you can lose your salvation.

And so the church was very concerned with his teaching in the university.

Well, when he died, his students decided to make a case that the confession that these churches, that all of these hundreds of churches were embracing should change.

So at one point Calvinism, believe it or not, as we will know it today, was the common belief and free will or Arminianism was not, which it seems reversed today in the

United States. So these men presented it to the churches and they formed the

Senate of Dort or this big council of the Senate of Dort. And they had these long meetings.

And just for the sake of time and the history, that's where the five points came from. These students presented five points to the church council.

This church council examined them in light of scripture and said, no, we are not changing the council.

We are, I'm sorry, we are not changing the confession because we find them to be biblical. Later on, because John Calvin is probably the most famous writer, they got deemed as the five points of Calvinism.

Even though he didn't write them, it was the council of the Senate of Dort that was rejecting

Arminianist students' writing. But what they were getting at was a very important debate.

And this is where I think we need to think about it before we jump in to the five points, which we are, and examine them according to scripture.

What they were really dealing with is the nature of God and his promises against the nature of man and his ability.

And the last point, which is, you know, the perseverance of the saints that they're really dealing with, can someone lose their salvation?

Once someone is saved by God, eventually can they get to the point where they're not saved by God?

Because think about it, if you had the free will to choose God, does that mean you also have the free will then to not choose

God or to walk away from him, to no longer be a part of his family, to no longer be his child?

That's what the debate came down to is, how do I really know that I am saved and that one day when

I die, I'm going to see God? It's a debate on assurance is what this comes down to. Now, not everyone agrees with the

Arminian teaching, but this debate matters because it does affect two things, which we are going to examine in all of our videos.

You're gonna learn how to look at scripture and adjust the way that you read the Bible, realizing that maybe your position is off and it needs to be adjusted.

This is going to challenge your thinking on who God is and what are his promises, and number two, how to study your

Bible, because this comes down to a bait on what does the Bible say? Because we've all seen the list, right? Here's all the lists from the

Calvinist of all the verses that teach Calvinism, and here's all the lists of the free will, or Arminians, who teach, and then how is it that they're opposing each other, actually not, there's not an opposition.

The Bible is very clear on this position. So going forward in the future videos,

I'm hoping to present to you a very important debate, because where you land on this will affect either trusting in God for my assurance to know that he has saved me, or trusting in yourself to know that, yes,

I know I made the right decision, therefore I am saved, and then reconciling that to what the

Bible actually teaches. At the end, you can decide as we look at Scripture, whether it is biblical or not.

So in the next videos, you're gonna learn two things. You're gonna learn how to compare

Scripture with Scripture, when Scripture contradicts each other. Wait a minute, this one says elect, and this one says free will.

How do we reconcile those two? The second thing you're gonna learn is what's called presuppositionalism, or presupposing.

Do I read the text from one position, or am I reading it with,

I'm unbiased. I'm just gonna let the text read how it is. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.

No one reads the Bible without a position ahead of time. And we're gonna figure out which one position that you have, and do we need to adjust it?

So I look forward to walking through Scripture, helping you think through the

God's sovereignty, man's free will, the historical debate, and what does the Bible really teach.

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