Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 7041 “The perseverance of the saints” is a technical term from Reformed and Calvinist theology where it forms the fifth point in what has become known as the five points of Calvinism. But the underlying question it addresses, whether genuine believers can lose their salvation and what the relationship is between present faith and…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7043 Did Christ die for every human being who has ever lived, or only for those who would ultimately believe? The question of the extent of the atonement is one of the most theologically significant in Christian history, and the answer has practical consequences that reach all the way into how the gospel is…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7045 Scripture repeatedly and plainly states that Jesus died for all people, and yet it is equally plain that not everyone will be saved. For some, this seems like a genuine tension requiring a theological resolution. Understanding how the biblical picture holds together not only resolves the apparent difficulty but opens up the full…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07039 Limited atonement — also called particular redemption or definite atonement — is the third point of the Calvinist TULIP system and, arguably, the most contested. Even within Calvinist circles, this doctrine has generated significant debate, with many who accept the other four points declining to follow the argument here. The doctrine claims that…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7040 “Prevenient grace” is a term drawn primarily from Wesleyan and Arminian theology, and it addresses a question that no serious theology of salvation can sidestep: given that the fall has seriously affected human nature, how is it possible for any person to respond to the gospel at all? Understanding what the doctrine claims,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07036 The debate between Calvinism and Arminianism is one of the most enduring in Protestant theology, and it touches on questions that cannot be avoided by anyone who takes Scripture seriously: Is salvation ultimately God’s choice or the human’s? Does God’s rule over all things override human freedom, or do they coexist? Can a…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07038 Irresistible grace — sometimes called effectual grace or efficacious grace — is the fourth point of the Calvinist TULIP system. It is the doctrine that God’s saving work in the elect cannot fail and cannot be resisted: when God determines to bring a person to salvation, He works in them in such a…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07034 Predestination is a word that makes many people uncomfortable, whether because it suggests a rigid determinism that leaves no room for human freedom, or because popular presentations of it have been unnecessarily harsh. But the discomfort is not a good reason to avoid a concept that appears repeatedly in the pages of Scripture….
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07035 The doctrine of effectual calling is one of the five points of Calvinist soteriology, and whilst the terminology is distinctively Reformed, the underlying question it addresses is genuinely biblical: how does a person come to respond to the gospel? Why do some hear the same message and believe whilst others hear it and…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07108 Arminianism is the theological tradition named after Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch Reformed theologian who challenged certain aspects of the Calvinist system from within the Reformed tradition itself. It is often presented as the opposite of Calvinism, but this oversimplifies both traditions. Understanding what Arminius actually taught, where his followers developed his ideas,…