Calvinism is a system of Christian theology that derives from the teachings of John Calvin. Calvin, who lived from 1509 to 1564, was a contemporary of Martin Luther and helped drive the Protestant Reformation in France. Like Luther, Calvin had initially set out for a career in the Roman Catholic Church. However, Calvin changed his studies towards law and became influenced by the humanist intellectual movement that was popular in France at the time. After a religious conversion in his early twenties, he broke away completely from the Roman Catholic church and embraced Protestantism.

At the age of 25, he published the first edition of what would become his magnum opus, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin’s Institutes would undergo several editions and provided an early defense for the Protestant reformers. It still provides the framework for Reformed Theology today.

Calvin was a controversial figure. He governed Geneva, Switzerland with mixed results and not without controversy. Notwithstanding the Roman Catholic Church, there were others who vehemently disagreed with Calvin on either theological or practical grounds, or even both. Martin Luther disagreed with Calvin on the meaning and practice of the Lord’s Supper. The Anabaptists disagreed with Calvin on the sacrament of Christian Baptism, Calvin branded them heretics and several were sentenced to death. Michael Servetus, an exiled Spanish scientist, disagreed with Calvin on numerous theological points—one of which was the Trinity—he was eventually burned at the stake as a heretic.

The “Five Points of Calvinism” outline five major propositions that tend to summarize Calvin’s theology. Broadly these are the hallmarks of “Reformed Theology.” However, the five points do not include all the aspects of what is now understood as Reformed theology, for they do not make any mention of church governance, sacraments, end times understanding, etc. They are, however, a good starting point to understanding the Reformed perspective of Christian theology.

The Five Points of Calvinism

The Five Points of Calvinism are remembered with the word “tulip”. Each letter represents one aspect of Calvinism:

T

T stands for Total Depravity. This is the teaching that man is utterly depraved and there is nothing good in him that endears him to God. Man is born this way and therefore he is totally dependent on God’s grace for any kind of salvation. Nothing man does can in any way bring him closer to God and any attempt for man to try to make himself more acceptable to God is futile and an abomination. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

U

U stands for Unconditional Election. Unconditional Election means that in eternity past God has chosen those who will be saved regardless of their actions. To put it another way, there is nothing that someone can do so that God will choose to save them. The Bible calls this ‘predestination.’ The act of God’s choosing—or predestining—someone to be saved is something that is wholly within the mind of God and stems from the good pleasure of God. This point is closely related to the point above (total depravity) since it underscores that it is God who must act for a person’s salvation and man is totally unable to make himself “save-able.” Ephesians 1:4-5 says, “…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…” Jesus himself told his disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

L

L stands for Limited Atonement. Limited Atonement refers to the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It teaches that Christ’s redemptive work is only for believers. In other words, Christ’s atoning work is limited to those who are the elect of God. In John 10:15, Jesus says, “…just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

I

I stands for Irresistible Grace. Irresistible Grace means that when God chooses to call someone to salvation, that person is unable to resist God’s sovereign call and will be saved. In John 6:37, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

P

P stands for Perseverance of the Saints. Perseverance of the Saints means that once a person is truly saved, they are saved for all eternity. There is no falling away of the saints. If a person does happen to fall away from the faith, that is evidence that the person was never saved in the first place. It is impossible for a person to undo the work that God has wrought in his or her life, no matter how great the sin. Another way to put this doctrine is “once saved, always saved.” God’s elect will persevere to the end and only God’s elect will persevere until the end. Jesus says in John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Philippians 1:6 reassures the believer, saying, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

As you may have noticed, these five points mostly concentrate on the doctrine of man (anthropology) and salvation (soteriology). You will notice that there is no explicit mention of any view on the nature of Scripture (bibliology), the nature and purpose of the church (ecclesiology), the nature and person of Christ (Christology), the nature of God (theology proper), the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), nor the end times (eschatology). Because of this, it is good to keep in mind that Reformed Theology is more than the five points of Calvinism.

You might find someone who describes himself as a “four-point” Calvinist which means that he only subscribes to four of the five points of Calvinism. There are 3½-point Calvinists and 3-point Calvinists, as well. All these people could be considered broadly Reformed in their theological outlook but not strict Calvinists on all points. The denominations that directly flow out of the Calvinist stream are the Dutch Reformed Church and most conservative Presbyterian denominations. But there are Reformed Baptist congregations and some Anglican congregations which are also more Reformed in outlook.

All five points of Calvinism have their counter-arguments, by the way, which are also supported by Scripture. The theological counterpart to Calvinism is Arminianism. (Note the first ‘i’ in Arminian, because Armenian—with an ‘e’—is someone from the country of Armenia.) We will leave the subject of Arminianism for another post but, like Calvinists, some denominations find themselves mostly in the stream of Arminianism, including the Methodists and the Nazarene church.

The five points of Calvinism are the most reliable starting point for discerning Reformed Theology. The closer a person’s beliefs are aligned with the five points, the more likely he or she is to be Reformed and, therefore, Calvinist. But, like we noted, since the five points don’t touch on issues such as ecclesiology or eschatology (among many others), there remains great diversity within the Calvinist spectrum. Even when a person may agree with the majority of the five points, he or she may disagree with the traditional Reformed practices of infant-baptism or the amillennial viewpoint on the Lord’s return, both of which are historically taught in Reformed theological circles. The point of all this is to say that Calvinism is a broad stream that might include some very diverse groups but who all generally believe that it is God who powerfully works to draw individuals to himself and then who in turn saves them and keeps them as his own. To be Calvinist is not to say that someone supports some of the questionable actions of John Calvin when he governed Geneva, rather to label someone Calvinist means that he or she believes a certain paradigm of God’s work in salvation among men—a paradigm that exalts the glory and infinite wisdom of God through Jesus Christ and counts man as hopeless without God’s grace. 

So, where do you fall on the spectrum? Are you a Calvinist? Is your church a Calvinist (or Calvinistic) church?