(ABP) — Theologians past and present have used a “bouquet” of initials and analogies to describe Calvinist doctrine.
Historically, the Reformed Synod of Dort in the Netherlands delineated the differences between Calvinism — named for the Genevan reformer John Calvin — and Arminianism, after the teachings of James Jacobus Arminius. For the sake of simplicity — and playing on an association with the best-known Dutch flower — those teachings have been summarized through the TULIP acronym.
TULIP stands for:
— Total depravity: The belief that human beings are dead in their sins, and they stand justly condemned before God, unable to do anything to save themselves.
— Unconditional election: From eternity, God in his sovereignty chose specific human beings to be saved. That salvation was entirely determined and willed by God; he didn't simply have foreknowledge of who would freely respond to his offer of grace.
— Limited atonement: Also known as “particular redemption,” the doctrine teaches that the death of Jesus Christ was intended for the remission of the sins of a finite number of elect human beings only; in other words, the intention of the atonement and its effects are the same.
— Irresistible grace: Many Calvinists prefer the term “effectual calling” to express the idea that God's call to salvation will not fail to bring about the repentance and faith of the elect.
— Perseverance of the saints: This doctrine teaches that all true believers in Christ will be saved because God grants them faith to persist in their belief to the end of life.
Timothy George, founding dean of Samford University's Beeson Divinity School, has proposed an alternative floral acronym. George, a Reformed Baptist theologian, recommended a change in terminology from TULIP to ROSES, which denotes radical depravity, overcoming grace, sovereign election, eternal life and singular redemption.
James Leo Garrett, emeritus distinguished professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has noted Dortian Calvinists and early Arminians may not have differed on total depravity. Rather, he said, the key difference may have been whether faith and repentance were gifts from God — as the Calvinists taught – or, as the Arminians insisted, human duties.
“That would call for FULIP [for faith] or RULIP [for repentance], not TULIP,” Garrett said.
Without benefit of a floral reminder (the first letters add up to SCENA), Garrett also has delineated the five points of “Hyper-Calvinism,” or Reformed theology taken to the extreme:
— Supralapsarianism: God's decree to elect some human beings for salvation and to damn others eternally is logically the first of God's eternal decrees.
— Covenant of redemption: An eternal covenant exists among God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the redemption of elect humans through the Son.
— Eternal justification: The elect are justified in eternity whether or not they demonstrate requisite faith in earthly history.
— No offers of grace: Preachers should be discouraged from offering grace indiscriminately to their hearers, who presumably would include both the elect and the damned.
— Antinomianism: Christians are not obligated to obey the moral laws of the Old Testament.
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