A Primer on Calvinism

So, as most of you guys know, on January 21st, we're going to be having a conference on Calvinism here in this room. We're going to do breakfast and watch the presentations, but it's not going to be a conference that explains Calvinism.

The presentations are going to answer objections to Calvinism, answers to the problem of evil, how does Calvinism handle those things. So tonight what I wanted to do is just quickly go through the tenets of Calvinism just to get everybody up to speed and start refreshing our minds.

The Five Points of Calvinism

So what is the acronym we use to describe Calvinism? Tulip. What did you say? Bacon. Yes. Tulip. And what would the T stand for? Total depravity. What would the U stand for? Unconditional election. What would the L stand for?

Limited atonement. We're all on the same page. Beautiful. I. Irresistible grace. And the P? Perseverance of the saints. Okay, so that's our acronym. This gives us the structure of all five doctrines that we're going to talk about today.

Total Depravity

So let's start in with total depravity. What I'm going to do is just give a quick definition, a couple, two scriptures maybe to go through just to get everybody's mind going, and then we're going to go through a comparison because that's really what we need to know as Calvinists, how the other Protestant beliefs hold to some similar type of doctrine.

So definition of total depravity. Man is constituted a sinner by his relationship with Adam and is by nature unable to positively affect his salvation. Sin has touched every faculty of man such that he is dead in his sin and trespasses.

So total depravity doesn't mean that people are as evil as they could be. Okay, it's a total... I just lost my train of thought. Sin has touched every faculty, our mind, heart, soul, every bit of it. Okay, not to the depth that it could have.

A good verse to go through this is Genesis 6, verses 5 and 6. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Every and only. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and he grieved him to his heart. Right? So we see right out of the gate, out of Genesis, man's heart was corrupted, okay, such that every thought was evil and only evil.

Ephesians 2, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Our hearts are at enmity with God, such that when we come out of the womb, I think Votie Bauckham says, we're vipers in diapers, right? We are born in a state of sin. And we sin because that's our nature.

We don't sin and that becomes our nature. Follow? Okay. On to the U, which is unconditional election. God elects sinners to salvation apart from anything in the sinner himself and is based solely upon the mercy and grace of God.

Okay? It is not based on what a sinner does, who a sinner is. God is no respecter of persons. The only reason someone is saved, the answer to that question is found inside of God, not inside of man. Now, opponents of this, of this particular doctrine are going to say, well, that makes it frivolous or arbitrary.

And we'll go through in a little while why that's not true. So Deuteronomy 7, 6 and 8, the Lord, your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the people who were on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all the peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping an oath that he swore to your fathers.

So again, he's keeping an oath. He loves you not because of anything in you, but just because of who he is. He chooses, he chose Israel, right? Most people don't have a problem with God choosing Israel.

People have a problem with God choosing his church. Oddly enough, Romans 8, 29 and 30, we should all know this one. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. Notice in that verse who's doing all those verbs. Those are all accomplished by God, not by us.

He's the one foreknowing, he's the one predestining, he's the one calling, he's the one justifying, and he's the one glorifying. He's doing these things to us, okay? Such that he gets the glory for the work of salvation in us, and he does it unconditionally.

It's not based on anything we've done. L, limited atonement. This is the one that causes people all kinds of issues. It's also known as definite redemption, okay? God makes a full payment for his people.

God makes complete satisfaction for the sins of those he elects to salvation, while leaving others in their sins. Election is mercy, okay? So when God, when Jesus dies on the cross, he pays in full the sins for those people who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and have faith in him.

If he paid for everyone's sins, beginning to end, who would get into heaven? Everybody, but not everybody gets into heaven. Now again, the opponents to this position are gonna say, well that's because they didn't choose Jesus.

They didn't repent and place their faith in him, and the question would be, well is that a sin? Yes. Well wasn't that paid for on the cross? No. So Jesus didn't pay for all the sins. He didn't pay for the most important one, your unbelief, right?

Okay, so let's take a look at a couple of verses. Isaiah 53, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. So Jesus is going to see those whom he saved and be satisfied with the atonement, because it accomplished what it was supposed to.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one say, my servant make many to be accounted righteous. He shall bear their iniquities, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. He bore the sin of many, not all.

Okay, in John chapter 10, he says, I know my sheep, my sheep know me. I lay my life down for the sheep. He doesn't lay his life down for the goats. Ephesians five, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the words, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Now, are you to love your wife the way you love any other woman in the congregation? You better not, right? You love your wife differently than every other woman in the congregation. That's why the love Jesus has for his bride is a special love, a covenantal love, a marital love.

This verse is about the church, and what does Jesus do? He cleanses her. He presents her to the church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Holy, without blemish. That's what the atonement of Jesus does for us.

It cleanses us. It purifies us. Okay, I, irresistible grace, or I like to call it invincible grace, because this is a grace that conquers. It actually accomplishes what it's intended to do. It's not a grace that gives you an opportunity to be saved.

It's a grace that actually saves you. The new birth or regeneration is the monergistic work of God apart from man's effort that accomplishes what it sets out to do. You're saved by grace through faith.

Okay, salvation is by grace. It's not the opportunity by grace, and then you choose. It's salvation by grace. Deuteronomy 36, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.

Why does he circumcise us? So that we would love him with all our heart and soul and live. He doesn't wait for our hearts to be circumcised and then say, okay, now, now I'll save you. He saves you. He circumcises your heart, which is alluded to in Romans, not alluded to, quoted in Romans chapter 2, 28 and 29, that circumcision is circumcision of the heart, not done by the hands of man, but done by the Spirit, right?

So spiritual circumcision changes your heart so that you would love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, because you're unable in and of yourself to do that apart from the Spirit changing your heart.

God doesn't wait for you to change your heart or change your mind and then say, oh, I'll save you now. Ezekiel 36, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Okay, again, I think Romans 8, 28 alludes to Ezekiel because these are all the I will statements. These, again, are all things that God is doing.

We're not doing these things. He's the one who gives us a new heart. He's the one who compels us to keep his laws. He's the one who puts his spirit within us and causes us to walk with him. Ephesians 2, you know this one very well.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of your own doing, underline, and this not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Now, if it was that God's grace opened your understanding, okay, and then you were able to choose at that point, somebody chooses Jesus, the other one rejects Jesus, would that person be able to boast in their decision?

Of course. This says so that no one may boast. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord. It's the Lord's work from beginning to end. He's the one who opens our eyes, our ears, and our hearts so that we believe.

God doesn't wait for dead men to get sight, hearing, and a voice. Dead men don't speak. Dead men don't see or hear. That's the I. Last is the preservation of the saints or the perseverance of the saints.

God will preserve all those whom he sovereignly elects, regenerates, and adopts through to the very end. In other words, once a son, always a son. Some people like to throw out the phrase once saved, always saved.

I don't quite like it because you don't know who's saved and who's not, but once you're adopted, once you're God's son, that can never change. My wife and I gave birth to two kids. No matter what they do, they will always be my children.

They could rob a bank. I'm not giving you any ideas. They could do all these bad things. They will just be my children, my disobedient children, but they're my children. That can't change. Once God gives birth to his children, that can't change either.

There's nothing you can do at that point that makes you not his child. It's very important. Ezekiel 36, again, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules, and I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.

Now listen, this is really important again. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. God is doing this for the sake of his name.

He's redeeming a people for his glory, not for yours. Okay, this is not like Amway. You work the circles to go direct, right? This is God rescuing you for what? For the sake of his name. He's the savior.

He's the redeemer. He gets the glory. Philippians 1 .6, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, right? Who begins the work?

God. Who completes the work? God. It's his work from beginning to end. He's the one who begins the work. We don't begin that work. Jude 24 and 25. I love this benediction. Now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He keeps us from stumbling so far away from him, right? People can and do sin. Christians can and do sin and may fall away for a period, but ultimately if the spirit of God lives within them and they are God's children, they will repent and eventually come back to God, acknowledging their sin and asking for forgiveness, okay?

All right, so that covers all five doctrines pretty succinctly. So now what I want to do is go through each of these doctrines. There's three major positions. Calvinism, Arminianism, and then the third on the scene is provisionism and traditionalism, okay?

Calvinism we just went through. Arminianism actually was the impetus for Calvinism to be codified the way it was. Jacob Arminius came up with five points of Arminianism, okay? They held a council, a synod, synod of Dort, and reformers went in and countered each one of the points that he made and came up with the five points of Calvinism, okay?

And then there's also a position called provisionism or traditionalism, and this was actually birthed in the Southern Baptist Convention. They tried to come up with a lot of people are opposed to Calvinism because it takes away man's free choice and that's not fair, right?

So they try to make it more fair, although they think, they believe in their heart of hearts that they're holding a biblical position. They believe that Calvinism is unbiblical, okay? So we'll go through this step by step, and I'm going to read right from their literature to tell you exactly what they believe, because I don't want to misrepresent it.

I want to paraphrase, and I'm going to read it. There's a website called the Society of Evangelical Arminians, okay? So this is, I'm going to read right from there, and for the provisionist position, I'm going to read right from Leighton Flowers' Soteriology 101 website, and he codifies all these things real easy.

Calvinism, Arminianism, and Provisionism on Total Depravity

So, total depravity on Calvinism. Yes, right? We hold to total depravity. We're dead in our sins and transgressions, and apart from God moving upon our minds and hearts and raising us to new life, we would never choose Him, right?

We would never have any affection, any inclination towards God except that He open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts and draw us to Him. Now, on Arminianism, they actually hold to what they call total depravity, and they say it like this.

Same as Calvinism, thus human beings are not able to think, will, or do anything good in and of themselves. We are unable to do anything that merits favor from God, and we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin.

So far, so good. We cannot even believe the gospel on our own. John 6, 44. If anyone is to be saved, God must take the initiative. God uses, here's their phrase, prevenient grace to enable the sinner to respond.

He or she can then freely accept or reject the offer. So they're going to use the same term, total depravity, okay, with a slightly different meaning. The grace that God shows the sinner on Arminianism is a grace that enables and gives man the choice.

Now, the question is this. If the man is dead in his sins and transgressions, and God, by His grace, does something to illuminate their mind, is their mind, are they now spiritually alive in order to make this decision?

Right? Do they actually know who Jesus is at that point in order to be able to accept or reject Him? Because if they know who He is, what is the definition of eternal life? This is eternal life that they may know you, the one true God in Jesus Christ whom you sent.

So they would actually have to receive eternal life in order to reject it. They would have to be brought to spiritual life in order to know who Jesus is and actually reject Him. And then at that point, now they're still not Christians.

So this is a grace of enablement, not a grace that conquers your heart and actually saves you. You see the difference? Okay. So the question that I have when I'm talking to Arminians or even provisionists is, when the Spirit does that, when the Holy Spirit moves upon the heart and is using the gospel to illuminate you, the question you want to ask also is, are you in the flesh or are you in the Spirit?

If you're in the Spirit, then you're born again. If you're in the flesh, what does Romans 8 tell us you can't do in the flesh? You can't please God. So if you're still in your flesh, you can't please God.

You cannot make the decision to choose Christ because that would be a good decision. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They will not submit to God's law, nor can they. That's why we believe that God has to do something greater than just enable us.

He has to raise us to new life. The provisionist, he does not believe in total depravity. What they affirm is that because of the fall of Adam, every person inherits a nature and an environment inclined towards sin, and that every person who is capable of moral action will sin.

Each person's sin alone brings the wrath of a holy God, broken fellowship with him, even worsening selfishness and destructiveness, death and condemnation to an eternity in hell. They basically don't hold to original sin.

They don't hold to federal headship. You're not born in Adam. You don't have God's wrath abiding on you until you actually sin. They say, we deny that Adam's sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person's free will or rendered any person guilty before he has personally sinned.

While no sinner is remotely capable of achieving salvation through his own effort, we deny that any sinner is saved apart from the free response to the Holy Spirit's drawing through the gospel. So God is going to save you based on your response, not his election of you in Christ before the foundation of the world.

It goes on to say, we affirm that God as an expression of his sovereignty endows each person with actual free will, the ability to choose between two options, which must be exercised in accepting or rejecting God's gracious call to salvation by the Holy Spirit.

We deny that the decision of faith is an act of God rather than a response of the person. We deny that there is an effectual call for certain people that is different from a general call to any person who hears and understands the gospel.

So you see the difference in the three positions. One, God monergistically, one energy, he's the one who opens your eyes, ears and hearts and births you on Arminianism. The provenient enabling grace gives you the opportunity to choose on provisionism.

You have to choose. I don't even think they believe that the Holy Spirit needs to be there. You have the free will and the ability to choose. Yes.

For the provisionists, what is, do they believe the man has like just the inclination to always sin or because if they don't believe that we receive original sin from under Adam,.

Do they just believe that all mankind is just... They believe that something happened in the nature. It says every person inherits a nature and an environment inclined towards sin. But because you have free will, and this is what Layton Flowers would say, you have a responsibility.

Responsibility. You have the ability to respond. How could you have responsibility if you don't have the ability? That would be his argument. The problem is he's saying that you could do this apart from the Holy Spirit doing anything in the heart of man.

At least the Arminian admits that apart from the Holy Spirit doing something in you, you would be left on your own. So a couple of questions to ask the Arminian. When the Spirit opens your eyes, your ears, your heart, are you in the flesh or in the Spirit?

If you're in the Spirit, that means you're born again. If you're not, you're in the flesh. In the flesh, you can't please God. And if this is true and somebody rejects Jesus after he actually reveals himself to them, wouldn't that be their testimony?

Oh, I know who Jesus is. I just don't want him. Right? What does Matthew 11, 27 say? No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to those whom he chooses to reveal him to.

The scripture plainly says God chooses to reveal himself to some people, not all people. Okay? So those are the three positions for total depravity. Unconditional election. Obviously Calvinists hoped for unconditional election.

We don't believe to unconditional election. It's not the monergistic choice of God alone. It has something to do with man. And let's read what they have to say. For election to be unconditional means that God's choice of those he will save has nothing to do with them, that there was nothing about them that contributed to God's decision to choose them, which seems to make God's choice of any particular individual as opposed to another arbitrary.

That's their critique of our view. God's choice must be arbitrary then. It also implies unconditional and arbitrary reprobation. God's choice of certain individuals to not save but to damn for their sin for no reason having to do with them, which seems to contradict the spirit of numerous passages that emphasize human sin as the reason for divine condemnation, as well as God's desire for people to repent and be saved.

Anybody see what the problem with that is? That makes election mandatory. It's an entitlement. It's not mercy. Three things you can get justice, mercy, and grace. What is justice? Getting what you deserve.

What is mercy? Not getting what you deserve. What is grace? Getting what you don't deserve, what you've demerited, right? So mercy for it to be considered mercy has to be offered freely by God and not by obligation.

He's not obligated to give mercy to anyone. In fact, Romans 9 quotes God saying, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will harden whom I will harden. See, the truths in the scripture are not difficult to understand.

They're difficult to swallow because they poke at the pride of the human heart, the depravity of the human heart. No, no, no, I have some say in this. Actually, you don't. If God gave you your say, you'd be exiled from him forever.

So let me go on. They say a little bit more about unconditional election. For election to be conditional, this is their position, means that God's choice of those he will save has something to do with them.

That part of his reason for choosing them was something about them. Concerning election into salvation, the Bible teaches that God chooses for salvation those who believe in Jesus Christ and therefore become united to him, making election conditional on faith in Christ.

So what they're saying is in in the final arbiter, it's because they chose Christ that they're saved. Now what did we just say about total depravity? You can't choose, all right? And in the in the verses that we read about unconditional election, especially Ezekiel 36, he circumcised your heart so that you would believe.

He doesn't wait for your heart to be circumcised. Then you believe and he says, oh, I'll choose you now. What would be the sense of choosing someone in Christ before the foundation of the world if you had to wait until to find out if they were elected, right?

God elects ahead of time. Why? Because election is mercy. If God didn't elect one, anyone, you know how many people would be saved? None, okay? So their election for Arminian is based on their choice.

For provisionists, we're gonna have to move a little quicker. Provision says, we affirm in reference to salvation, election speaks of God's eternal, gracious, and certain plan in Christ to have a people who are his representatives by repentance and faith.

We deny that election means that from eternity God predestined certain people for salvation and others for condemnation. Now there's a handful of scriptures that say specifically that. Before the twins were born or yet had done anything good or evil so that God's purpose in election might stand, not because of him who works but because by him who calls, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.

Therefore it does not demand, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. So again, all these competing systems to Calvinism have to insert man's effort, ability, something in there, even just his choice, so that it's fair.

All right, any questions? All right, let's keep going. Limited atonement, this is the big one. As Calvinists we believe, we believe that the Bible teaches that God's, Jesus's death on the cross actually secured salvation for those whom were previously given to him by the Father in eternity past.

God the Father promised Jesus a bride, Jesus dies on behalf of the bride he loves, the Holy Spirit raises them to life and walks them down the aisle in preparation for the wedding supper of the Lamb. It's Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together in perfect unity to bring about the guaranteed salvation, the definite salvation of his people.

On Arminianism and provisionism, God's working with one set of people, he chose a people in Christ, Jesus is dying for everybody and the Holy Spirit is wooing whoever he can. It shows disunity in the Godhead.

So what do Arminians say? They say no, atonement is not limited. Oh here we got it, okay. The provision of atonement has been made for as many as sin, which is all people. But even though Jesus died for all and has provided atonement for all, the intent of the atonement provided was that its actual application, which grants the forgiveness of sins, righteous status with God and salvation, be conditioned on faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus even died for those who reject him and his word, deny him and perish. So now is the condition to have your sins paid for repentance and faith in Christ? It's an easy one. Is the condition for your salvation based on repentance and faith in Christ?

Yes, absolutely it is. But what they're saying is you can do that apart from God predestinating that to happen, okay. And if the atonement is for every single person and you don't repent and you don't have faith, those are two sins, correct?

If Jesus paid for those sins, Jesus' death on the cross would nullify those sins and still make you innocent. Follow? So it either pays for all of the sins for some of the people or some of the sins for all of the people.

We believe that it pays for all of the sins for some of the people, whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, all right. Provisionism definitely doesn't hold to limited atonement. We affirm that the penal substitution of Christ is the only available and effective sacrifice for the sins of every person.

We deny that this atonement results in salvation without a person's free response of repentance and faith. We deny that God imposes or withholds this atonement without respect to an act of the person's free will.

We deny that Christ died only for the sins of those who will be saved, okay. So they just deny that it's limited in any sense. So the provisionists believe Jesus died for all sins. It's freely available to everybody who call upon his name.

Now the funny thing is, it is freely available to all who call on his name. The question is, who are going to call on his name? Apart from God's election, no one would call upon his name. But God in his mercy and grace chose a people who would, who he circumcises their heart so that they would believe.

God could have walked away from the whole thing and said, you're on your own. As these people are rebelling against him, spitting at him, he says, you know what, I'm going to show you my love, mercy, and grace, and I'm going to redeem you, even though you're at enmity with me.

Okay. Irresistible grace or, what's the word I used before? Invincible grace. Thank you. Bad when I do that, right? Invincible grace. On our mini-ism, they don't hold to irresistible grace. Unaided by grace, men cannot even choose to please God or to believe the promise of salvation held out in the gospel.

Provenient grace refers to God's grace that precedes salvation, including that part of salvation known as regeneration, which is the beginning of eternal spiritual life granted to all who trust in him.

Provenient grace is also sometimes called enabling grace or pre-regenerating grace. This is God's unmerited favor toward totally depraved people who are unworthy of God's blessing and unable to or trust him in and of themselves.

So, prevenient grace isn't a grace that saves, it's a grace that enables you to make a decision. How unfortunate. God's grace saves. You're saved by grace. You're not saved by the opportunity you get when God shows you this grace.

Okay. Because again, if God shows you this grace in the deadness of your sin with your heart at enmity with God, you're always going to choose against God. Scripture says, and they resisted the Holy Spirit.

Apart from God's grace, you would always resist the Holy Spirit. The fact that you haven't is evidence of a merciful and gracious God, okay, giving you, granting you repentance, granting you faith, granting you eternal life.

The provisionist also rejects irresistible grace. We affirm that grace is God's generous decision to provide salvation for any person by taking all of the initiative in providing atonement and freely offering the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and in uniting the believer to Christ through the Holy Spirit by faith.

We deny that grace negates the necessity of a free response of faith, a free response of faith, or that it cannot be resisted. We deny that the response of faith is in any way meritorious or works to earn salvation.

So, we deny that grace negates the necessity of a free response of faith or that it cannot be resisted. Obviously, grace can be resisted, but invincible grace is going to conquer the heart. It changes you from the inside.

It pulls out the heart of stone, inserts the heart of flesh, so that you can believe, right? And this is a phrase you'll hear R .C. Sproul and other Calvinists talk about. Regeneration precedes faith.

In other words, think about when a baby's born. Does a baby, when it comes out of the womb, take its first breath in order to become alive? No, it takes its first breath because it's alive already. It's the same thing with a born-again believer.

The person who professes faith in Christ, professes faith not in order to be born, he professes faith because he's been born, right? So, just think of a little baby coming out of the womb, taking its first breath.

It's taking its first breath because it's alive already. It would never have taken that breath had it not been born, right? So, the believer can't take credit for his own faith because it's been given to him.

He's been given, he's been regenerated by the Spirit so that he can profess faith in Christ. Make sense? Okay, last one, perseverance of the saints. Obviously, as Calvinists, we believe that. Arminians, yes and no.

It's a mixed bag. Some of them believe, no, you can't lose your salvation. Once a son, always a son. And then there are other people who say, no, you have to maintain your salvation. You have to be obedient, maintain your obedience, and God will, you know, show favor to you.

There's so many warnings in Scripture that if you don't do it without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. You won't, you know, they want warnings to make sure you don't fall away from the faith. So, it's a mixed bag.

They say it like this, an unconditional divine decree that cannot be known until the end of life or time does not provide for assurance of salvation and makes the security of salvation of no value for the confidence of believers.

That's a poke against Calvinism, right? What does the Gospel of John and 1st John both say? These things are written so that you may know that you have eternal life. The Scriptures say you can know, right?