This column will conclude my brief foray into an examination of the Five Points of Calvinism as articulated in the Canons of Dordt, one of the Three Forms of Unity of Reformed churches, including the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA). The fourth point of the Calvinist TULIP is Irresistible Grace. The irresistibleness of…
Rather than “Tiptoeing through the TULIP(s),” I prefer to snip the TULIP. The acronym TULIP is an oversimplification and distortion of the nuanced teaching of the Canons of Dort. Despite the impression of a venerable Dutch heritage, the acronym TULIP makes no sense in the Dutch language, which spells the famous flower as tulp. TULIP…
The second and third of the Five Points of Calvinism (known by the acronym of TULIP) have to do with the time God decided or knew (past tense) about what would happen (future tense). As I said in my previous column, these doctrines violate the fact that God does not exist in time, which in…
As mentioned in my previous column, the Canons of Dort (1619) were formulated as an orthodox Calvinist response to purported errors in theology taught by Jacob Arminius (1560 – 1609). Although the theological differences between Arminians and Calvinists were (and are) complicated, they fundamentally hinge on different claims about the sovereignty of God. Calvinists claim…
The Three Forms of Unity is a collective name for the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Canons of Dort (1619) which reflect the teachings of Calvinism and which are accepted as official doctrinal statements by many Calvinist churches, including the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). Anyone seeking an official position (minister, elder, deacon) in the CRC must…
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