I can't believe my post (from a couple days ago) didn't make it through. What a disappointment. Much of what I had said in that post has now been said by others so I won't bother reposting it. Instead, I'll write an original post.
intricatic said:
I was wondering whether Calvinism isn't just the 5 T.U.L.I.P. statements, or is it something more?
It is something considerably 'more'.
One must understand that the acrostic TULIP is an extremely condensed mnemonic of
The Canons of Dort (or by its full and proper title,
The Decision of the Synod of Dordrecht on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, a synod which took place for seven months in 1618); the
Canons of Dort, of course, served as the five articles (or "heads of doctrine") against the
Remonstrants of 1610. These canons ("decisions, judgments") are very lengthy, very precise, but perhaps more importantly they are very
specific. In other words, these canons were never intended to present Protestant Reformation theology; they were intended to addressstrictly and specificallythe semi-Pelagian heresies of the Arminians (Remonstrants) that were beginning to spread throughout the Dutch Reformed churches (referred to as the Quinquarticular Controversy). As W.J. Seaton describes it, these five heresies were:
1. "Free will, or human ability. This taught that man, although affected by the Fall, was not totally incapable of choosing spiritual good, and was able to exercise faith in God in order to receive the gospel and thus bring himself into possession of salvation."
2. "Conditional election. This taught that God laid His hands upon those individuals who He knew (or foresaw) would respond to the gospel. God elected those that He saw would want to be saved of their own free will and in their natural fallen statewhich was, of course, according to the first point of Arminianism: not completely fallen anyway."
3. "Universal redemption, or general atonement. This taught that Christ died to save all men; but only in a potential fashion. Christ's death enabled God to pardon sinners, but only on condition that they believed."
4. "The work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration limited by the human will. This taught that the Holy Spirit, as He began to work to bring a person to Christ, could be effectually resisted and His purposes frustrated. He could not impart life unless the sinner was willing to have this life imparted."
5. "Falling from grace. This taught that a saved man could fall finally from salvation. It is, of course, the logical and natural outcome of the system. If man must take the initiative in his salvation, he must retain responsibility for the final outcome."
Most people are surpised to learn that it was Arminianism that first developed the "five points," not Calvinism. The five heads of doctrine of
The Canons of Dort were simply a
response to the five articles of the Remonstrance. (It should also be noted that the acrostic TULIP was a much later development; that acrostic did not exist in the 17[sup]th[/sup] century.) But the theology of the Protestant Reformation encompasses much more than these five issues. For instance, TULIP does not tell us anything about the nature of Christ, the powers of the civil magistrate, the canon of Scriptures, the nature of church life, the obligations of marriage, and so forthyet Reformed theology engages all these issues and more.
To get a more complete view of Reformed theology, I would recommend reading their creeds and confessions of faith. The most recognizable in name, of course, would be
The Westminster Standards (
The Westminster Confession of Faith plus the
Larger and
Shorter Catechisms, 1647); I would also recommend
The Belgic Confession (1561),
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and
The French Confession (1559, prepared by John Calvin and his pupil Antoine de la Roche Chandieu); this is in addition to the other recommendations you have received so far (e.g. Calvin's
Institutes of the Christian Religionwhich, by the way, is available in MS Help file format
here).
I would also recommend downloading the
Reformed Confessions 3.0, which is an MS Windows Help file "that contains many of the historic and Reformed Christian creeds, confessions, and catechisms":
The Apostles' Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Athanasian Creed, The Chalcedonian Creed, The Three Forms of Unity, The Belgic Confession, The Canons of Dort, The Heidelberg Catechism, The Westminster Standards (The Westminster Confession of Faith, The Larger Catechism, The Shorter Catechism), The French Confession, The Second Helvetic Confession, The Waldensian Confession, The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order, The London Confession of Baptist Faith, The Children's Catechism, The Shorter Catechism, The Lausanne Covenant, The Manila Manifesto, The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.
