If you're a Calvinists or follower of reformed theology, can you explain to me why you believe what you believe, and explain the TULIP to me?

What is TULIP in short?

Thanks

http://calvinistcorner.com/tulip

Ok, let me check this out for a bit, and see what the deal is here.
Jim

btw--thanks for the link!

The Five Points of Calvinism

There are two mains camps of theology within Christianity in America today: Arminianism and Calvinism. Calvinism is a system of biblical interpretation taught by John Calvin. Calvin lived in France in the 1500's at the time of Martin Luther who sparked the Reformation.

The system of Calvinism adheres to a very high view of scripture and seeks to derive its theological formulations based solely on God’s word. It focuses on God’s sovereignty, stating that God is able and willing by virtue of his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, to do whatever He desires with His creation. It also maintains that within the Bible are the following teachings: That God, by His sovereign grace predestines people into salvation; that Jesus died only for those predestined; that God regenerates the individual where he is then able and wants to choose God; and that it is impossible for those who are redeemed to lose their salvation.

Arminianism, on the other hand, maintains that God predestined, but not in an absolute sense. Rather, He looked into the future to see who would pick him and then He chose them. Jesus died for all peoples' sins who have ever lived and ever will live, not just the Christians. Each person is the one who decides if he wants to be saved or not. And finally, it is possible to lose your salvation (some arminians believe you cannot lose your salvation).

Basically, Calvinism is known by an acronym: T.U.L.I.P.

Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)

These five categories do not comprise Calvinism in totality. They simply represent some of its main points.
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Ok.

What is it here that you are finding in error with the Biblical Scriptures?
What cannon of Biblical reference do you normally use (a very important question)?
Can you personally find in the word of God (any cannon), any Scriptural references that either partially or fully refutes this apologetic referral to "Calvinism" as it has been presented.

I have no opinion about this proclamation or any other, except to come out of the darkness and into God's light of understanding and through His Son and my personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and through the genuine truth and the teachings through God's inerrant word for us.
In other words, earnestly attempting while in this life, to accomplish the mastery of God's word if it be His will; and to remain in a continual humble state of being before Christ the Lord, as this feat is mete out by God concerning us!

So what is your general opinion about these things presented?

Thanks,

SAE

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The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented by David Steele is the book you seek.

Short enough to read in one sitting, detailed enough to give quite a bit of info on the subject.

Here is a great audio/video seminar on TULIP from John Piper.  http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/new-course-on-calvinism-from-john-piper

OP, ask your friends if total depravity is true for believers.

Speaking of Arminians, Whitfield said, “We are all born Arminians.” It is grace that
turns us into Calvinists, grace that makes Christians of us, grace that makes us free,
and makes us know our standing in Christ Jesus.  

The love of God therefore existed before there was any good thing in man, and if you
tell me that God loved men because of the foresight of some good thing in them, I
again reply to that, that the same thing cannot be both cause and effect. Now it is
quite certain that any virtue which there may be in any man is the result of God’s
grace. Now if it be the result of grace it cannot be the cause of grace. It is utterly
impossible that an effect should have existed before a cause; but God’s love existed
before man’s goodness, therefore that goodness cannot be a cause.

C.H Spurgeon

My apologies guys, I've been REALLY wrapped up in work, and have been unable to get back to this topic.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, 'Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Farher who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?'

Then I will announce to them, 'Depart from Me you who do iniquity (or continual lawless activity) for I never knew you!'

The Words of Christ in Red
The Gospel of Saint Matthew; 7: 21-23
Entering the Kingdom: The Wicked Never To See The Kingdom Of God

This is the judgment and it is right.
If not, better then that you should consider yourself an atheist.

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position (or the religious elite) exercise power over them. However, it must not be that way among you.
On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life-----a ransom for many."

The Words of Christ in Red
The Gospel of Saint Matthew; 20: 25-28
Suffering and Service: A Ransom Not For All

SAE,

Tappage

Why do you think?

What are the spiritual origins of people?
Just where does this part of man, the eternal part formed and created by God to commune with God originate?
From your parents?

You know…I'm going to go elsewhere.  This is the exact same line of question and answers I get from my friends.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ; for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1: 3-6

Not everyone gets adopted here.
If the Bible states that a person cannot receive Jesus Christ unless He knocks first upon the door of our hearts, then what does this really mean?
That He knocks on the door of everyone's heart and some don't answer that knock or call?

God always gets exactly what He wants by design every time.
He has never been off dead center of the target that He created, not even just once.
It is not possible.

I can try to help you understand Reformed Theology - I don't know that I can deal with numerous of the things you posted all at once.  I certainly understand your many questions and the basis of your reasoning; I don't agree with it but I do understand it.

Reformed Theology is comprehensive, not just soteriology (e.g., doctrine of salvation) or what you are identifying as "calvinism."  I don't really care for the TULIP though, not because it is inaccurate or anything, but because it arises from the polemic and trials of the synod of Dort and I just don't find today that the majority of average folks have really been taught theology at any depth where they are "epistemology self-conscious."  What I mean by that, I have found that people beleive what they believe because it's been taught to them, generally very superficially, most folks don't do much study or go very deep into anything and they very seldom do the hard work of examining their pre-theoretical axioms laying at the foundation of their knowledge.  In other words, how do you know what you know - what are your presuppositions that everything that goes into brain operates upon?   If you consider an analogy, the mind is sort of like a computer, we all have an "operating system' of thought that all other things are interpreted by, most people never do the hard work to know what their pre-theoretical "operating system" even is.  The TULIP comes out of a heresy trial in response to the five points of Arminius.  Arminius was an ordained man and teaching and changed his mind on what he believed, then started teaching what he believed subject to his ordination.  He ended up in a heresy trial.   He should have let some folks know that he had changed his mind and stepped down instead of violating his ordination vows, then advanced his beliefs from a position where he wasn't violating ordination vows.   I just don't think it is fair to presume one is an epistemologically self-conscious arminian and sort of place them on "trial."  In turn, I don't think getting thrown into a battle of centuries ago is very productive, it wasn't for me, I think it is better to start where a guy is now, not where someone else was five hundred years ago.

I say that because when I first dealt with these things it was kind of like I was an "accused" and had to defend myself against this other system, Calvinism, and was incessantly labeled this and that - when the truth was I didn't really have a system, or even knowledge to know why I believed what I believed.  I simply believed that I believed the Bbile, but it was just what I was taught from childhood in the "southern baptist" persuasion which kind of a mixture of the two, but heck I had never even heard the terminology.  Never been exposed to contrasting theological opinions and was not taught a systematic theology in a comprehensive way where my mind was doctrinally developed where I knew what I believed was true as against some other belief.  I had a massive amount of unlearning and then learning to do, I decided I just wanted to know the truth and I wanted to believe what the Bbile actually taught and I was willing to go throught the hard work to find those answers.  I just wanted to figure out what God wanted me to believe, comprehensively, I was confident in my salvation - although I did come to admit that I didn't know for certainly how it worked, but was confident that my faith was genuine.

When someone said something about "Calvinism" I thought they were talking about Calvary, when they talked about Martin Luther, I thought they meant Martin Luther King Jr.  That is how ignorant I was - so I went and studied stuff out for myself and read some of Calvin's Institutes and a book on the early Christian creeds explaining how they developed them from Scripture - I finally accepted Reformed Theology as the clearest expression of a biblical systematic theology.  I never would have if it was based upon other "calvinists" though, because many of them are learning their theology just like I learned mine - it's what their taught on Sundays and it competes with six days of living and being educated in a secular humanist world, where greek philosophical presuppositions are programmed into just about everyone that went to public school.  So you might find that many so called "calvinists" may hold to this soteriology but are often very superficially "Reformed," they learn this in the context of this synod and the heresy trials and then go out and have their own heresy trials and do more harm than good.

In the end, what I've found over the last few decades is that the vast majority of people I come across are just like I was.

Before trying to dive into this, can you explain your basic beliefs - if you subscribe to some particular Confession of Faith - then we've got a starting point of where you are now and can contrast it to Reformed Theology and contrast the different presuppositions first.  That way it is also not an attack upon what you believe presently, as I don't think it is fair or right to pull a rug out from under a guy - rather I prefer to examine things in light of Scripture and try to understand what God is desiring us to believe and how He intends us to understand it.  Otherwise, the tendency is like trying to walk up a slipping hill and have the ground give way under your feet, all a guy can do it try to get a foothold based upon what he knows.  A lot of "calvinists" will then use that as an opportunity to attack an "opponent" instead of teach a brother in Christ, that ticks me off - that is not how we are supposed to do things.  We are supposed to be gentle, patient and apt to teach, using reason and persuasion of Scripture, bear one anothers burdens and build each other up.

Sorry to be so verbose, but if you want to start there I will try to help you undestand Reformed Theology insofar as I am able and explain the differences to you, then you can figure out where you stand and be convinced in your own mind.  In the end I think it is best if a man has a clearn conscience and a strong conviction of faith and not seek to be "right' about everything, but seeking out the truth of what God requires us to believe.