What is Calvinism (TULIP)?

Calvinism, in the confessions quoted here, is the Reformed teaching that God chose particular people for salvation by grace, not because he foresaw their faith, that Christ’s death is sufficient for the world and savingly effective for the elect, that fallen people cannot turn to God unless the Spirit renews them, and that those whom God has accepted cannot finally fall away. TULIP is a later English name for those points. The Canons of Dort do not use that word. The Remonstrance of 1610 states the other side. This page quotes both. It does not decide.

Key points

• The Christian Reformed Church’s introduction (1) says the Synod of Dort “set forth the Reformed teaching” on the five points of the Remonstrance. It also says the Canons have four main points because the third and fourth are combined.
• Canons I.9 (1) says election took place “not on the basis of foreseen faith.” Remonstrance I (3) says God determined to save those who “shall believe on this his Son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith.”
• Canons II.3 (1) says Christ’s death is “more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.” Canons II.8 (1) says its saving effectiveness works in “all those and only those who were chosen from eternity.”
• Remonstrance III (3) says a person “has not saving grace of himself.” Remonstrance IV (3) says this grace “is not irresistible.”
• Westminster 17.1 (2) says those whom God has accepted “can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace.” Remonstrance V (3) leaves the question of falling away to be “more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture.”
• Ephesians 1:4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:Ephesians 1:4 · King James Version (9): “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16 · King James Version (8): “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
• What does the Bible say about predestination? sets the same confessions beside the verses each side cites. Can you lose your salvation? is the fifth point at full length.

What the name refers to

The CRC introduction (1) says that after Jacob Arminius died, his followers “presented their views on five of these points in the Remonstrance of 1610.” It says, “In this document and in later more explicit writings, the Arminians taught election based on foreseen faith, the universal application of Christ’s atonement available to all who freely choose to accept it, limited human depravity, the resistibility of God’s grace, and the possibility of a fall from salvation.” The same introduction says the Canons “rejected these views and set forth the Reformed teaching.”

The five-letter name TULIP is not in that text. Readers use it for total inability, unconditional election, a limited saving effectiveness of the atonement, grace that effectively converts, and perseverance. The articles below are the sentences the confessions actually print. The Reformed shelf on this site is for Presbyterian and continental Reformed churches. It is not a second confession beside Dort and Westminster.

The Remonstrance’s own Article III, quoted below, says a person has no saving grace of himself. That article does not say people save themselves. The CRC introduction’s phrase “limited human depravity” is the synod’s later description of the Arminian side, and the introduction says it is drawn from “this document and in later more explicit writings.” Both are printed here.

Election

Ephesians 1:4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:Ephesians 1:4 · King James Version (9): “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Romans 8:30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.Romans 8:30 · King James Version (10): “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Canons I.7 (1) says God “chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race,” and that those chosen “were neither better nor more deserving than the others.” Canons I.9 (1):

This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on.

Westminster 3.5 (2) says God chose them “out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto.”

Remonstrance I (3) says God determined “to save in Christ, for Christ’s sake, and through Christ, those who, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, shall believe on this his Son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace, even to the end,” and “to leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath.”

Article XVII (5) of the Church of England says, “Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind.” The same article says, “we must receive God’s promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture.” It does not use the word TULIP.

The death of Christ

John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.John 3:16 · King James Version (8): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 1 John 2:2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.1 John 2:2 · King James Version (12): “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Canons II.3 (1): “This death of God’s Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.” Canons II.5 (1) says the promise “ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel.” Canons II.8 (1) says it was God’s will that Christ “should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father.”

Westminster 3.6 (2): “Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.”

Remonstrance II (3) says Christ “died for all men and for every man, so that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemption and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins except the believer,” and it cites John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article IV (4) says salvation “is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.” That article does not use the word TULIP.

Grace and the human will

Ephesians 2:8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Ephesians 2:8 · King James Version (11): “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” John 6:37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.John 6:37 · King James Version (14), words of Jesus: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Acts 7:51Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.Acts 7:51 · King James Version (13): “ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.”

Canons III/IV.3 (1): “Without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.” Canons III/IV.8 (1) says all who are called through the gospel “are called earnestly,” and that God “earnestly promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who do come and believe.” Canons III/IV.14 (1) says faith “is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for people to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on them, breathed and infused into them.” Canons III/IV.16 (1) says this grace “does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms, and—in a manner at once pleasing and powerful—bends it back.”

Westminster 9.3 (2): “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.” Westminster 10.1 (2) says God effectually calls the predestinated, “yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.”

Remonstrance III (3): “man has not saving grace of himself, nor of the energy of his free will, inasmuch as he, in the state of apostasy and sin, can of and by himself neither think, will, nor do any thing that is truly good.” Remonstrance IV (3) says grace “is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of all good,” and then: “But as respects the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible, inasmuch as it is written concerning many, that they have resisted the Holy Ghost. Acts vii., and elsewhere in many places.”

Perseverance

Westminster 17.1 (2): “They, whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.” Canons V.8 (1) says “it is not by their own merits or strength but by God’s undeserved mercy that they neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost.”

Remonstrance V (3) says Christ “keeps them from falling” if they “are ready for the conflict, and desire his help, and are not inactive,” so that they “can be misled nor plucked out of Christ’s hands.” It then says whether they can forsake “the first beginnings of their life in Christ” “must be more particularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full persuasion of our minds.”

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article V (4) says, “All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.” That article does not use the name TULIP. Methodist Article XII (6) says, “After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives.” Ask The UMC (7), a signed analysis and not a synod, says “once saved, always saved” “is a kind of Americanized short-hand for the fifth of the core theological principles of Calvinist theology (perseverance of the saints) articulated by the Synod of Dort (1618-1619).” Can you lose your salvation? quotes the longer texts.

Comparison

Dort’s Rejection of Errors uses hard names for the views it refuses, including “the proud heresy of Pelagius.” Those words stay inside the quotation. This page does not use them as its own name for the Remonstrants.

Frequently asked questions

Is Calvinism the same as Reformed?

The CRC introduction calls the Canons “the Reformed teaching.” Westminster is the confession linked from the Reformed shelf. TULIP is a later way of naming the five points. It is not a second confession. The same introduction says the Canons have a narrower scope than the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism. Those two confessions’ election paragraphs were not fetched for this article, so they are not quoted.

Do Baptists believe TULIP?

The Baptist Faith and Message offers salvation freely to all who accept Christ, and Article V says all true believers will persevere. It does not print the five Dort points or the word TULIP. Can you lose your salvation? also quotes the Free Will Baptist Treatise, which says a saved person may cease to trust and be lost. Baptist churches are not one answer.

Do Arminians teach that people save themselves?

Remonstrance III says a person has not saving grace of himself and cannot think, will, or do any truly good thing of himself. Remonstrance IV says grace is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of all good, and that the mode of that grace is not irresistible.

What is hyper-Calvinism?

The word does not appear in the Dort text, the Westminster Confession, the Remonstrance, the Articles, or the Baptist Faith and Message passages fetched here. This page does not supply a definition. Dort II.5 does say the gospel promise is to be declared to all nations to whom God sends it.

The churches on this site

• Reformed
• Methodist
• Anglican
• Baptist
• Christianity
• What does the Bible say about predestination?
• Can you lose your salvation?
• What do Protestants believe?
• Common arguments