Calvinism

John Calvin

Background Christianity St. Augustine The Reformation Calvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes Gods sovereignty in all things. ... From [1], in the public domain This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ... // Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... Augustinus redirects here. ... “Reformation” redirects here. ...

Distinctives Calvin's Institutes Five Solas Five Points (TULIP) Regulative principle Confessions of faith Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvins seminal work on Protestant theology. ... The Five Solas are five Latin phrases (or slogans) that emerged during the Protestant Reformation and summarize the Reformers basic beliefs and emphasis in contradistinction to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church of the day. ... The Five points of Calvinism, sometimes called the doctrines of grace and remembered in the English-speaking world with the mnemonic TULIP, are a summary of the judgments (or canons) rendered by the Synod of Dordt reflecting the Calvinist understanding of the nature of divine grace and predestination as it... The regulative principle of worship is a Christian theological doctrine teaching that the public worship of God should include those and only those elements that are instituted, commanded, or appointed by command or example in the Bible; that God institutes in Scripture everything he requires for worship in the Church... The Reformed churches express their consensus of faith in various creeds. ...

Influences Huldrych Zwingli Theodore Beza John Knox Synod of Dort The Puritans Geneva Bible Jonathan Edwards Princeton theologians Abraham Kuyper Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli (January 1, 1484 – October 11, 1531) was the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other persons named John Knox, see John Knox (disambiguation). ... xxx cciiiox The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618/19, by the Dutch Reformed Church, in order to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. ... The Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation. ... The Geneva Bible was a Protestant translation of the Bible into English. ... Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was a colonial American Congregational preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. ... The Princeton theology is a tradition of conservative, Christian, Reformed and Presbyterian theology at Princeton Seminary, in Princeton, New Jersey. ... Portrait of Abraham Kuyper by Jan Veth Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was born in the town of Maassluis and was a Dutch Calvinist theologian, scholar, and statesman. ...

Churches Reformed Presbyterian Congregationalist -1... Presbyterianism is a form of Protestant Christianity, primarily in the Reformed branch of Western Christianity, as well as a particular form of church government. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ...

Peoples Afrikaner Calvinists Huguenots Pilgrims Puritans Scots Afrikaner Calvinism is, according to theory, a unique cultural development that combined the Calvinist religion with the political aspirations of the white Afrikaans speaking people of South Africa. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists. ... Pilgrims is the name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony, MA. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled religious persecution in the East Midlands of England for the relative calm of Holland in the Netherlands. ... A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. ... The Scottish people are a nation[6] and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. ... This box: view • talk • edit

Total depravity (also called total inability and total corruption) is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian doctrine of original sin and is advocated in many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of Lutheranism,¹ Anglicanism and Methodism,² Arminianism, and Calvinism.³ The doctrine interprets the Bible as teaching that, as a consequence of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered. Theology (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογια, logia, words, sayings, or discourse) is reasoned discourse concerning religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... Augustinus redirects here. ... According to Christian tradition, original sin is the general condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) into which human beings are born (Psalm 51:5). ... Lutheranism is a movement within Christianity that began with the theological insights of Martin Luther in the 16th century. ... The term Anglican (from Medieval Latin ecclesia anglicana, meaning the English Church) is used to describe how the people, institutions and churches as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the state established Church of England, the Anglican Communion. ... For the Methodist school of ancient Greek medicine, see Methodism (history of medicine) Methodism or the Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... For the Armenian nationality, see Armenia or the Armenian language. ... Calvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes Gods sovereignty in all things. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... In Abrahamic religion, The Fall of Man or The Story of the Fall, or simply The Fall, refers to humanitys fall from a state of innocent bliss to a state of sinful understanding. ... Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule or the state of having committed such a violation. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... In theology, salvation can mean three related things: freed forever from the punishment of sin Revelation 1:5-6 NRSV - also called deliverance;[1] being saved for something, such as an afterlife or participating in the Reign of God Revelation 1:6 NRSV - also called redemption;[2]) and a process...

Summary of the doctrine

The doctrine of total depravity teaches that people are by nature not inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength, as he requires, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbor and to reject the rule of God. Even religion and philanthropy are destructive to the extent that these originate from a human imagination, passions, and will. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Selfishness is, at base, the concept and/or practice of concern with ones own interests in some sort of priority to the interests of others; it is often used to refer to a self-interest that comes in a particular form, or above a certain level. ...

Total depravity does not mean, however, that people are as bad as possible. Rather, it means that even the good which a person may intend is faulty in its premise, false in its motive, and weak in its implementation; and there is no mere refinement of natural capacities that can correct this condition. Although total depravity is easily confused with philosophical cynicism, the doctrine teaches optimism concerning God's love for what he has made and God's ability to accomplish the ultimate good that he intends for his creation. In particular, in the process of salvation, it is argued that God overcomes man's inability with his divine grace and enables men and women to choose to follow him, though the precise means of this overcoming varies between the theological systems. Cynicism (Greek ) was originally the philosophy of a group of ancient Greeks called the Cynics, founded by Antisthenes. ... In theology, salvation can mean three related things: freed forever from the punishment of sin Revelation 1:5-6 NRSV - also called deliverance;[1] being saved for something, such as an afterlife or participating in the Reign of God Revelation 1:6 NRSV - also called redemption;[2]) and a process... In Christianity, divine grace refers to the sovereign favor of God for humankind, as manifest in the blessings bestowed upon all —irrespective of actions (deeds), earned worth, or proven goodness. ...

Biblical support for the doctrine

A number of passages are put forth to support the doctrine, including (quotations are from the ESV except where noted): The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible. ...

• Genesis 6:5: "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."
• Jeremiah 13:23 (NIV): "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."
• John 6:44a: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."
• Romans 3:10-11: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."
• Romans 8:7-9: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."
• Ephesians 2:3b: "[We] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
• 1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... Bold text The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah (יִרְמְיָהוּ Yirmiyahu in Hebrew), is a book that is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaisms Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianitys Old Testament. ... The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Christian Bible which is the most popular of the modern translations of the Bible made in the twentieth century. ... The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. ... The Epistle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. ... The Epistle to the Ephesians is one of the books of the Bible in the New Testament. ... The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. ...

Objections to the doctrine

There are many Christian groups that disagree with this interpretation of the Bible and of Augustine. The term Conditional Preservation of the Saints is used to describe the belief that a Christians salvation can be lost. ... Christians believe that Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (see Hebrews 8:6). ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ...

Writing against the monk Pelagius, who argued that man's nature was unaffected by the Fall and that he was free to follow after God apart from divine intervention, Augustine developed the doctrine of original sin and, Protestants contend, the doctrine of total inability. Augustine's views prevailed in the controversy, and Pelagius' teaching was condemned as heretical at the Council of Ephesus (431) and again in the moderated form known as semi-Pelagianism at the second Council of Orange (529). Augustine's idea of "original" (or inherited) guilt was not shared by all of his contemporaries in the Greek-speaking part of the church and is still not shared in Eastern Orthodoxy. Also, some modern day Protestants who generally accept the teaching of the early ecumenical councils (for instance, followers of Charles Finney) nevertheless align themselves more with Pelagius than with Augustine regarding man's fallen nature. Munichs city symbol celebrates its founding by Benedictine monks—and the origin of its name A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, the conditioning of mind and body in favor of the spirit. ... Pelagius (c. ... According to Christian tradition, original sin is the general condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) into which human beings are born (Psalm 51:5). ... The Council of Ephesus was held in Ephesus, Asia Minor in 431 under Emperor Theodosius II, grandson of Theodosius the Great. ... Semi-Pelagianism is a softer form of Pelagianism, which taught that man has the capacity to seek God in and of himself apart from any movement of God’s Word or the Holy Spirit. ... The Councils of Orange (or the Synods of Orange) comprised two synods held at Orange, France. ... ... In Christianity, an Ecumenical Council or general council is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. ... Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), often called Americas foremost revivalist, was a major leader of the Second Great Awakening in America that had a profound impact on the history of the United States. ...

Catholicism registers a complaint against the Protestant interpretation of Augustine and judgements of the Council of Orange,⁴ and they claim that they alone have been faithful to the principles taught by Augustine against the Pelagians and Semipelagians, though they freely admit to some "gradual mitigation"⁵ of the force of his teaching. Their doctrine, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that "By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free."⁶ At the Council of Trent they condemn "any one [who] saith, that, since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished; or, that it is a thing with only a name."⁷ Thus, in the Catholic view, man is not totally unable to follow God apart from divine influence. The Jansenist movement within Catholicism held a very similar interpretation of Augustine compared to the Protestants, and the Jansenist view of man's inability, the necessity and efficacy of divine grace, and election was quite close to that of Calvinism but was condemned as heretical by the Church. The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic Church (see terminology below) is the Christian Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus Christ and led by the Twelve Apostles, in particular Saint Peter. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Catholic Church, first published in French in 1992 by the authority of Pope John Paul II.[1] Subsequently, in 1997, a Latin text was issued which is now the official text of reference... The Council of Trent is the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Free-Will is a Japanese independent record label founded in 1986. ... Jansenism was a branch of Catholic thought tracing itself back to Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585 – 1638), a Flemish theologian. ...

The doctrine of total depravity was affirmed by the Five articles of Remonstrance and by Jacobus Arminius himself, and John Wesley, who strongly identified with Arminius through publication of his periodical The Arminian, also advocated a strong doctrine of inability.⁸ The term Arminianism has also come to include some who hold the Semipelagian doctrine of limited depravity, which allows for an "island of righteousness" in human hearts that is uncorrupted by sin and able to accept God's offer of salvation without a special dispensation of grace.^{[citation needed]} Although Arminius and Wesley both vehemently rejected this view, it has sometimes inaccurately been lumped together with theirs (particularly by Calvinists) because of other similarities in their respective systems such as conditional election, unlimited atonement, and prevenient grace. The Five Articles of Remonstrance were given by followers of Jacobus Arminius who, ironically, did not want to adopt Arminius name, instead choosing to call themselves the Remonstrants. Background Forty-one preachers and the two leaders of the Leyden state college for the education of preachers met in The Hague... Jacobus Arminius Jacobus Arminius (aka Jacob Arminius, James Arminius, and his Dutch name Jacob Harmenszoon or Jakob Hermann) (1560–1609) was a Dutch heretical theologian and (until 1603) professor in theology at the University of Leiden. ... For the Armenian nationality, see Armenia or the Armenian language. ... Semi-Pelagianism is a softer form of Pelagianism, which taught that humanity has the capacity to seek God in and of itself apart from any movement of God’s Word or the Holy Spirit. ... Limited depravity is the doctrine that denies original sin and its tainting effects on human free will. ... Conditional election is the doctrine that states that Gods election (or choosing) is not determined arbitrarily or according to some hidden motive undiscernable to humans. ... The Atonement is the central doctrine of Christianity: everything else derives from it. ... Prevenient grace is a Christian theological concept rooted in Augustinian theology[1] and embraced primarily by Arminian Christians who are influenced by the theology of John Wesley and who are part of the Methodist movement. ...

Some oppose the doctrine because they believe it implicitly rejects either God's love or omnipotence.^{[citation needed]} That is, it is posited that if God is loving and omnipotent, then either he would not have allowed mankind to become totally corrupt or he would have immediately restored humanity to its original state. Thus, the argument goes, if the doctrine of total inability is correct, God must either be not loving or not omnipotent. Advocates of total depravity offer a variety of responses to this line of argumentation. Wesleyans suggest that God endowed man with the free will that allowed humanity to become depraved and he also provided a means of escape from the depravity. Calvinists note that the argument assumes that either God's love is necessarily incompatible with corruption or that God is constrained to follow the path that some men see as best, whereas they believe God's plans are not fully known to man and God's reasons are his own and not for man to question (compare Rom. 9:18-24; Job 38:1-42:6). Some particularly dislike the Calvinist response because it leaves the matter of God's motives and means largely unresolved, but the Calvinist sees it merely as following Calvin's famous dictum that "whenever the Lord shuts his sacred mouth, [the student of the Bible] also desists from inquiry."⁹ The Epistle to the Romans is one of the epistles, or letters, included in the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. ... The Book of Job (איוב) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. ... John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and was a central developer of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism or Reformed theology. ...

The Unity Church considers this concept to be blasphemous, arguing that the consisted creation of beings with the same flaw is also an argument for an imperfect, faulty creator.^{[citation needed]} Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Look up blasphemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

See also

• History of Calvinist-Arminian Debate

The history of the Calvinist-Arminian debate arguably extends back to the first century church but was not formulated until the fifth century. ...

Footnotes

1. The Book of Concord, "The Thorough Declaration of the Formula of Concord," chapter II, sections 11 and 12; The Augsburg Confession, Article 2
2. See the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles, Articles 9 and 10, and the Methodist Articles of Religion, Article 7.
3. Canons of Dordrecht, "The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine"; Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 6; Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 25; Heidelberg Catechism, question 8
4. Judgements of the Council of Orange
5. "Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo" from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
6. Item 407 in section 1.2.1.7. Emphasis added.
7. Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 5.
8. Sermon 44, "Original Sin."; compare verse 4 of Charles Wesley's hymn "And Can It Be".
9. Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.3

The Book of Concord or Concordia is a compilation of the major theological documents of early Lutheranism. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustana from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Lutheran reformation. ... The Thirty-Nine Articles are the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. ... The Articles of Religion are an official doctrinal statement of American Methodism. ... The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618 / 19. ... The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition. ... The Westminster Larger Catechism along with the Westminster Shorter Catechism is the catechism of Presbyterians througout the World. ... The Heidelberg Catechism is a document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by The Encyclopedia Press. ... Charles Wesley (12 December 1707 - 29 March 1788) was a leader of the Methodist movement, the younger brother of John Wesley. ... A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ... Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvins seminal work on Protestant theology. ...

External links

• The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
• On the Freedom of the Will, a book treating the extent of man's corruption by Jonathan Edwards
• "Original Sin", a sermon by John Wesley
• "The Circumcision of the Heart", a sermon by John Wesley
• "Original Sin", a section from Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology (2.8.13) discussing the corrupting effects of the Fall
• "Human Inability" by Charles Spurgeon
• The Total Depravity of Man by Arthur Pink
• "Total Inability" from Loraine Boettner's The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
• "Human Depravity" from R. C. Sproul's Essential Truths Of The Christian Faith
• "Total Depravity" by John Piper
• "What do the Protestant Reformers Mean by 'Total Depravity'?" by Victor Shepherd
• Many articles from a variety of authors supporting total depravity