John Calvin: “The will is so utterly vitiated and corrupted in every part as to produce nothing but evil” (Institutes, Bk. II, Chapter II, Para. 26)."
2Ch 31:20 Thus Hezeki'ah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.
Php 4:13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me
I don’t know much about Calvinism so this is really a learning piece for me.
Weird.
Why advertise denial of Christ’s propituary sacrifice?
Keep in mind John Calvin’s book Institutes of Christian Religion was updated a total of 5 times 1536, 1539,1543, 1550, and 1559.
Take the time to read Phillip Melancthon’s Loci Communes
, Huldyrch Zwingli’s Commentary on True and False Religion, Martin Bucer’s works and Martin Luther’s works. Before criticizing John Calvin’s works. The TULIP was a good part of Christianity for many years. The scholastic theologians argued with one another for years over the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter Reformation.
The church that we have have today is an aspect of what came about over the years of the arguments. Liberalism of the church came about by yet another movement that spread through the world over other aspects of Christian thought.
Also take a look at Augustine’s City of God, Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.
Remember Martin Luther started a the Protestant Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg. He wanted a debate with other church scholars over theological abuses and heretical view points.
Calvin was influenced by Luther, Zwingli, Bucer and melancthon.
But keep in mind Calvin was a catholic theologian whom became a lawyer and became a protestant theologian too. Calvin dedicated his first Christian Institutes to King Francis of France because the Catholic King was killing the Hugenounts (Protestant) believers in droves.
“Over my next five blog posts, I am going to critique the famous “five points” of Calvinist theology.”
This certainly is not a good start for the “next five blog posts.” It is obvious this author does not fully grasp the presuppositions of Calvinism, and as such makes straw man claims about Calvinism.
This does not bode well for the rest of blog posts critique.
At least enjoy the “next five blog posts” for its humorous mischaracterizations and misrepresentations.
You must differentiate between the redeemed will of a believer and the corrupt will of a lost man, a man dead in trespasses and sins. Be careful of what the Apostle Paul referred to as “will worship” in Colossians 2:23. Below is what Pastor Don Fortner has written on “will worship.”
“I can think of nothing in all the world more foolish, more debasing to humanity, more dishonoring to God and more assuredly damning to the souls of men than idolatry. It is pathetic to see men and women worship- ping gods that other men have made, dumb gods made by the hands of ignorant men! Idolatry is hideously evil! “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they,but they see not:They have ears,but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them” (Psa. 115:4-8). I have seen poor people in Mexico crawl on their knees before a statue of Mary, burning candles before it as they prayed. The pope of Rome attributes his life to Mary. I repeat, idolatry is hideously evil! But the most abominable form of idolatry in the world is that which Paul calls “will worship.” Will worship is the worship of yourself!
“Those who attribute salvation, in whole or in part, to the will, the work, or the worth of man are the most abominably evil idolaters in the world, for they worship themselves. Free-willism is the worship of yourself. Legalism is the worship of yourself. Free-will, works religion makes man his own savior, for it makes the will, the work, and the worth of man to be the determining factor in salvation.
“If your salvation, in whole or in part, is looked upon by you as something that is dependent upon, or determined by, your will or your works, you are lost, a Christless, graceless soul, an idolater (Gal. 5:1-4). You may talk about God and grace, Christ and redemption, the Holy Spirit and regeneration, but you really worship yourself. Your trust is in your decision. Your confidence is in your goodness. Your peace is derived not from what Christ has done, but from what you have done. In your opinion the thing that separates you from the damned is not the will of God, the work of Christ and the grace of the Spirit, but your own will, your own work, and your own worth.
“I urge you to flee from your idolatry. Smash to pieces the gods of free-will, good works and human worth. And trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. Seek salvation on the basis of grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone!”
The context of the texts Calvin used actually demonstrate the opposite of his claim. For example, if we read forward just four verses in Genesis 6, we find this:
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord… Noah was a righteous (“just”) man, blameless in his generation (Gen. 6:8-9).
While we Catholics agree that God’s grace or “favor” was absolutely essential for Noah to be truly “just” before God; nevertheless, Noah was truly just, according to the text.
Just because Noah "found favor in the eyes of the Lord" and was a "righteous man" doesn't prove he was without a sin nature. Abraham also found favor with God because he sought to know the true God, denying the false gods that were part of his heritage. Both Noah and Abraham, Scripture tells us, committed many acts that were sinful in God's eyes but were forgiven them, just as we are forgiven, by faith. Besides, any righteousness man is capable of having is NO match for the righteousness of God and which God REQUIRES for anyone entering heaven. So, wrong, Tim, Noah was not a "just" man in the sense that he was sinless. ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory (perfection) of God. (Rom. 3:23)
Further,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death…in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).
Notice the emphasis on the fact that man is truly made just so much so that he can fulfill “the just requirement of the law.” It doesn’t get any more just, or righteous, than that!
Thus, Romans 3:10ff simply does not teach total depravity in a Calvinist sense. It cannot when the context is understood.
Quite revealing what Staples OMITTED from his quote of Romans 8:1-4. Here is that passage:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The righteous requirement of the law CHRIST fulfilled and fully met by His perfect and sinless life and by His sacrifice on the cross FOR US. Jesus didn't die for us so that we could turn around and fulfill the requirements of the law and be made just - HE justified us through faith and NOT by our works. It's too bad Staples doesn't see the context clearly because his view is fogged up by the Roman Catholic accursed gospel of salvation by faith AND our works.
Calvin WAS correct and Scripture backs him up over and over on this point. We cannot ever be as righteous as we need to be in order to merit salvation. Even one sin makes us guilty of the whole law and all the good deeds cannot pay for the tiniest sin. Only by the shedding of blood is there remission/forgiveness of sins and atonement. If righteousness comes by the law, Christ is dead in vain.
Calvin’s “Total Depravity” means that every human, without exception, must experience physical death; and that, though possessing the knowledge of good and evil, cannot initiate communication with The God at any level.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
A very wise elder once told me “When speaking of things of God, use His words”.
John Calvin: “The will is so utterly vitiated and corrupted in every part as to produce nothing but evil” (Institutes, Bk. II, Chapter II, Para. 26)." 2Ch 31:20 Thus Hezeki'ah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. Php 4:13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me
While I question some things Calvin held to, the above does not contradict Total Depravity, as what Christ did and a believers does is due to God's quickening grace, not because he has inherent goodness of his own.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (Romans 3:10-11)
Thus man must be given grace to come to Christ and by Him be made righteous.
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)
...This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17)
In conversion, man does what he otherwise could not and would not do.
1. It is God who chooses the elect, they do not choose Him.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:19)
We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened , that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (Psalms 40:2)
2. It is God who grants repentance and gives faith to souls who were dead in sins and trespasses:
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1)
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:5)
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. (Acts 11:18)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8)
3. The believer is justified by faith thru grace, though this is the kind of faith that is expressed in baptism.
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 10:43-45)
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should the word of the gospel, and . And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith . (Acts 15:7-9)
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)
Note here that while Cornelius did many objectively good things by God's grace before he was saved, he was not saved by them, but needed the believe on the Lord Jesus to be saved, by their hearts being purified by faith .
Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. (Acts 11:14)
And because it is by faith alone ( (sola fide, yet not a faith that is alone in what it effects) and not the degree of merit one has, that appropriates justification, thus all believers are made "accepted in the Beloved" at conversion, and made to sit in heavenly places were Christ is, (Eph. 1:6; 2:6) being translated into the kingdom of God, (Col. 1:13) and baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, (1Cor. 12:13) the one entirely true church and bride of Christ. (Eph. 5:25) And thus all who die in faith will go to be with the Lord. (Lk. 23:42,43; Acts 7:59; Rv. 20:6; 2Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23,24; 1Ths. 4:17)
The damning difference btwn Scriptural justification and that of Rome is that in the former faith is counted for righteousness, justifying the UnGodly, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." (Romans 4:3; Gn. 15:6) Which was before he offered up Issac, (Gn. 22) which act justified him as one having true faith, for faith without works is dead. But it is not the effects of faith that justifies, but faith appropriates justification on Christ's expense and righteousness.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
"The Law" is used here because if any system of salvation by merit could be salvific it would be the Law, "or if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." (Galatians 3:21) and thus it encompasses all systems of works-righteousness as being salvific, ,and thus Titus 3:5, being written to a Gentile, broadly disallows all "works of righteousness" as salvific.
Yet again, as James shows, one can be said to be justified by works since works are faith in action, yet is the faith behind works that actually instrumentally appropriates justification, on Christ's expense and credit.
In contrast, justification under Rome begins with a soul being formally justified via the act of sprinkling, even if the soul is morally incognizant and incapable of fulfilling the stated requirements for baptism, that of whole hearted repentant faith. (Acts 2:38; 8:36-37)
As the Catholic Encyclopedia>Sanctifying Grace states,
Although the sinner is justified by the justice of Christ, inasmuch as the Redeemer has merited for him the grace of justification (causa meritoria), nevertheless he is formally justified and made holy by his own personal justice and holiness (causa formalis),
And except in the rare case of perfect contrition (contritio caritate perfecta), "then the sanctifying grace can only be imparted by the actual reception of the sacrament" of baptism.
Thus having begun with a soul actually becoming good enough to be accepted by God, so this process of salvation typically ends with a soul atoning for sins and becoming good enough to enter Heaven thru the fire of "purgatory" commencing at dead, which is not Scriptural.
Rome rails against salvation by faith (sola fide) alone by charging that it merely covers up sin but does not make the sinner actually righteous, as well as rendering all believers equally as righteous as the Mary of Catholicism. However, under sola fide while it is faith alone that actually appropriates justification, this only occurs in the conversion of regeneration, in which the souls is forgivnes and washed of all his sins, as Peter said, "purifying the hearts by faith." Thus the souls is washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)
And rather than ignoring distinctions of virtue btwn believers, sola fide upholds this, as while one has his essential acceptance with God by true faith, so that both the "good thief" and pious Cornelius are "accepted in the Beloved" and "made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and have "boldness to enter the holiness" by the sinless shed blood of Christ, (Heb. 10:19) yet there are differences btwn believers "which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness" (Rm.5:17) in how much this imputed righteousness and washing of regeneration has its practical outworking.
Thus the exhortations to continue in the faith, and against drawing back into perdition, (Gal. 5:1-4; Heb. 3:19,12,14; 10:38,39) and which faith God rewards in grace, via recognition of what it effects. (1Cor. 3:8ff)
Works, "things which accompany salvation" attest to true faith, thus believers are judged by their works, yet no one enters Heaven due to the merit of works done, unlike under Rome. Thus while in Scripture, besides Paul stating "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord," and looked forward "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," (2 Corinthians 5:7,8)" all the Thessalonians were told that they would immediately go to be forever with the Lord if He returned in their lifetime, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
Trying to argue these all had atoned for all the sins and became holy enough for Heaven as those in purgatory as held as having to do, is absurd. Instead, while Christ will reward each person according to their labor, it is not because they attained a certain level of works and holiness that they gain eternal life with God by, but because they are justified by faith on Christ's expense and righteousness, a faith that is manifest as true by their works. That is the best i see it, which is giving God the glory, not man.
While I have many disagreements with RCC theology, I find the contents of this particular article to be very Biblical.
1 Corinthians 5:6
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
This is actually in line with Catholic teaching from the Council of Orange:
Our Lord Himself stated that we were evil but, even in this state we knew how to give "good gifts". It isn't that we are basically good but only do a little bit of evil. Rather it is that we are basically evil but we do a little bit of good-but not godly good. If there is any doubt about this all one has to do is look around at the world today.
Man is depraved. As the Council of Orange reminds us, we can do nothing apart from God's help. Noah was made righteous not because he was living a spiffy life style. Rather because God was pleased to show Noah grace.
Likewise, God opens all our ears and eyes to hear the truth. Otherwise, we remain in our depravity. And we who are saved should never forget this fact.