Biblical Soteriology

The doctrine of salvation encompasses a large and complex area of biblical teaching and of
human experience. Most of the debates within Evangelical Christian circles are centered in this
doctrine. Through plain reading of the Bible we can learn the basic truths about salvation.

Basic Salvation

1. God’s Initiative

The Bible teaches us that God made the effort to reconcile sinners to Himself. The
Bible is divided into two parts. First is Gen. 1-11, where it teaches us how the world has gone wrong
and the second part is Gen. 12- Rev. 22 where it shows us how God carry out his plan of redeeming
mankind and restoring the original glory of His creation.

We know that man has fallen into sin and he is now subject to God’s wrath and
judgment. God made the effort to save man from Himself. He provided the means for salvation and
that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. He became the atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind and the
basis of God’s forgiveness. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus was made for the sins of all people (2 Peter
3:9, 1 John 2:2, and 1 Tim. 2:1-6). And because this atonement is for everyone, God extended the
invitation to all people (2 Cor. 5:19-20, John 5:40, Acts 16:31)

2. Man’s Responsibility

Though God already made salvation readily available through His Son Jesus, He also
set the condition for man to be able to receive salvation. The Bible says it is only through faith (Eph.
2:8, John 3:16-17, Romans 10:9). When a person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is
now freed from the penalty of sin and is eternally secured in the hands of God (1John 5:13, Romans
8:35-39, John 10:28-29)

Explaining Calvinism and Understanding the Biblical Position

Rationale

Calvinism is one of the most controversial topics among evangelical churches in the
Philippines, especially here in Region 8. The idea that advocates of this view would come to churches
accusing that church leaders are teaching is wrong or inadequate doctrines and then create division
in the church, is simply unacceptable and intolerable. This lecture aims to educate the church people
about what are the basic teachings of Calvinism and to present the Biblical view that we should
uphold. This lecture, though not exhaustive, will present the basic teachings of Calvinism and the
important points of contention that should be addressed using a careful examination of the
Scriptures.

Introduction

Calvinism should be understood together with Reformed Theology. Reformed Theology

started with the Protestant Reformation against the Roman Catholic Church and its popes around
the late 1400s. Martin Luther was one of the prominent names of this movement because of his
efforts in Germany. Ulrich Zwingli also led the movement in Switzerland and John Knox in Scotland.
The theology that the Protestants held was called Reformed Theology. It was called Protestant
Theology in its beginning then later Reformed Theology. Today, many would refer to it as Covenant
Theology. As a theology it is made up of doctrines such as God, Christ, Salvation, Sin, Church, Last
Things and the Holy Spirit. Calvinism is the Doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology) of the Reformed
Theology.

Calvinism was known as the Doctrines of Grace, the five points of Calvinism and TULIP. The
basic teachings of were taken from the book written by John Calvin which was published in 1536
with a title “Institutes of Christian Religion”. It was considered as the defining book of the
Reformation and a pillar of Protestant Theology.

The term TULIP did not come from Calvin but rather from the Synod of Dort when Protestant
representatives from different Reformed churches gathered and systematize the contents of Calvin’
Institutes of Christian Religion. This was done about 55 years after John Calvin’s death.

The doctrine of Calvinism became popular when Calvin and his followers emerged as the
more dominant force against Jacobus Arminius and his followers.

In summary, Reformed Theology is the systematized doctrine of the Protestants and

Calvinism is its Soteriology.

We will now go to examination of the 5 points of Calvinism

I. Total Depravity/Total Inability

A. Definition

Total depravity means that every individual is so sinful as to be unable to respond to any
offer of grace.

As a result of Adam’s transgression in Eden, all his progeny are born spiritually dead, our
soul, flesh, will and intellect are thoroughly corrupt and naturally incapable of seeking God
or rightly understanding the revelation of God and respond to it.

Important Points:

1. Our first parents have fallen into sin and were separated from God.

2. All of Adam’s descendants are born spiritually dead (copse-like dead). Eph. 2:1-3 – John 11

“I’ve done a lot of funerals. I’ve seen a lot of dead people. I’ve never asked any of
them to do anything, nor has anybody else. Especially would I never say to a dead
man, “Bill, come forth.” I mean, you wouldn’t waste words. You’d look foolish.
Dead men can’t hear. Dead men can’t think. Dead men can’t respond because
they’re dead and dead means the absolute inability to do anything in response to
any stimulus.” (John Macarthur, the Doctrine of Absolute Inability, GTY.org)

3. Every part of man – his mind, will, emotion and flesh – have been corrupted by sin.
1 Thess. 5:23, Jer. 17:9

4. Men are naturally incapable of seeking God because his will was corrupted.

Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:2-3

 “Fallen man is still free to choose what he desires, but because his desires are only
wicked, he lacks the moral ability to come to Christ. As long as he remains
unregenerate, he will never choose Christ” (R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God, page 75)

“…man has no remaining good in himself and is beset in every side by the most
miserable destitution, and then teaches him to aspire to the goodness of which he is
10devoid and the liberty of which he has been deprived.” (Calvin, ICR, volume I, page

223).

“The effect of Total Depravity on a person is his total inability to freely choose to
come to Christ, trust in his Lordship, and be delivered from his sins. The
unregenerate person is free to choose to do whatever he desires to do, but he will
choose to act in a manner that is consistent with his sinful, fallen nature. In other
words, no unbeliever left to his sinful free will, will ever choose to become a
Christian.” (Matt Slick, What is total depravity and is it biblical? Oct. 1 2014,
CARM.org)

5. Men are naturally incapable of rightly understanding the revelation of God because his
mind was corrupted.

1 Cor. 2:14

“The Bible teaches that because unregenerate man is “dead in transgressions”, he is

held captive by a love for sin so that he will not seek God because he loves the
darkness and does not understand the things of God. Therefore, men suppress the
truth of God in unrighteousness and continue to willfully live in sin.”
(Gotquestions.org)

6. Men are naturally incapable of responding to God’s revelation.

1 Cor. 2:14, John 6:44

Martin Luther said, “A man is like a pillar of salt. He’s like Lot’s wife. He’s like a log.
He’s like a stone. He’s like a lifeless statue which has neither eyes, nor ears, nor
mouth, neither senses nor heart, unless he is enlightened, converted and
regenerated by the Holy Spirit.”

B. Points of Contention and Biblical Considerations

Note: Not all of the Calvinistic understanding was objected in this presentation. I’ll be pointing only
the points where we disagree with the view. I call them the points of contention.

1. Understanding of Spiritual Death

Calvinists view spiritually dead people like physical dead people (corpse-like dead) to
mean cessation of existence or incapability of doing something even responding to
the message of salvation.

 The Bible teaches that death is separation

Point of contention: Does the Bible teach that spiritual death is the same as
physical death (corpse-like dead unable to respond to any offer of God)?
Calvinist teaching: People are spiritually dead like those who are physically dead
(corpse-like dead)

 Physical Death (e.g Ecclesiastes 12:7, Phil. 1:23) – separation of the

material (Body) and the immaterial (Soul or Soul and Spirit) parts of
man
 Eternal Death (e.g Revelation 21:8) – this is the second death that is
being separated from God for eternity
- Spiritual death then as mentioned in Eph. 2:1 does not mean absolute inability
but separation from God spiritually. That’s why people do things that are
unpleasing to God because they are separated from God. That’s why Paul
termed this in Eph. 4:18 as being “alienated from the life of God”. This is what
happened to Adam and Eve when they fell into sin, they were spiritually
separated from God. Spiritual death is nothing else than the alienation of soul
from God.
- Look at how Luke 15:24 illustrates this
- The illustration of Lazarus doesn’t have any connection to this area. Never did
John intend to show that the story illustrates the spiritual condition of people.
John’s intention was clear, he included this story to show that Jesus is indeed
the Messiah since one of the signs of the Messiah is His ability to raise the dead.
John’s purpose in writing his gospel is to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God (John 20:21). Lazarus’ story is not about teaching the spiritual condition of
people but to show that Jesus is the Christ.

 The Bible teaches that death in the spiritual sense does not mean inability
- The Bible never teaches that being dead in a spiritual sense means inability or
incapacity to do something. In Romans 6:2 being dead does not mean absolute
inability. Paul says, we spiritually “died to sin”. But, in the passage it obviously
doesn’t mean that we are now incapable of doing sin because Paul still exhorted
the Romans to stop living in sin. We who are spiritually dead to sin are not
totally or absolutely incapable of committing sin, we can still commit sin but we
need to choose not to live by it any longer.

2. Understanding the condition of unregenerate people

Point of contention: Do people have the capacity or capability to understand and

respond to God’s revelation and the gospel message?

a. Mind/Understanding

Do unregenerate sinners have the capacity to understand God’s revelation

or the gospel message?
 Many Calvinists will affirm that man’s understanding was so corrupt that
people cannot understand the things of God, thus it will be impossible for
them to respond to it.

 The Bible teaches that man can still understand God and the gospel or the
appeal of God to be reconciled to Him

Important Considerations:

1. Romans 1:18-20 clearly states that God’s revelation to those who are
without the Law was clearly understood by the things He has made.
However, these people suppress the truth and exchange the glory of the
Creator God for His created things. The passage is clear that they
understood who God is.

2. If people are dead and cannot understand the things of God, the why is
there a need that people will be blinded or the message of God to be
obscured?

 By Satan blinding the unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:4) – why do

Satan needs to blind them when they are incapably dead?
Are there cemetery caretakers that blindfolds the corpses
for them not to be able to respond to what was happening
in their surroundings? What is the use of double blinding?
 God closing the eyes of unbelieving people of Judah (Isaiah
6:10)
 Jesus using parables (Matt. 13:10-15)

3. If people cannot understand the things of God, why Paul would endeavor
to reason and persuade people regarding the message of the gospel and
why would people think Paul has to persuade or convince them?

 Reasoned – Acts 17:2, 18:4, 18:19

 Persuade/Persuaded/Convinced – Acts 17:4, 18:4, 19:26,
26:28, 2 Cor. 5:11

4. Unregenerate Jews clearly understood the gospel message Romans 10:19

b. Will

Calvinist Teaching: Man’s free will to do what is right was lost. He can basically do
anything according to his will, except the things of God, especially responding to the
gospel. Calvinists subscribe to compatibilism.

Compatibilism – believes that people are free and thus morally responsible as long
as they do what they want to do

“Furthermore, this total depravity means that the unregenerate will not, of their
own free will, choose to receive Christ because they are enslaved to sin (Rom. 6:14-
20), cannot receive spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14), and can do no good (Rom. 3:10-12).
 They have free will to choose but they will freely choose to do what is contrary to
God.” (Matt Slick, Total Depravity Sept. 22, 2016, CARM.org)

Calvin said (as taken from Augustine), “Again, the free will having been captive can
do nothing in the way of righteousness… man at his creation received a great degree
of free will but lost it by sinning” (Calvin, ICR, Volume 1, page 229)

 The Bible teaches that our will was corrupted but never diminished or
disabled to respond to God’s call or appeal

Important Considerations:

1. Verses like 1 Thess. 5:23, Jeremiah 17:9 and Gen. 6:5 never say that our
will was disabled or diminished after the fall. What is clear is that people
were so inclined to do evil things, but these verses do not say that our will is
lost.

2. In Genesis 4:7, God said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be
accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it
desires to have you, but you must master it." Cain has the choice whether to
do what is right or wrong, but he chose to do the wrong. God said he had
the choice, and he had the capacity to choose.

3. The Bible is filled with God’s appeal for man to respond.

2 Cor. 5:21, John 5:40, Isa. 55:7, Matt. 11:28-30, Jer. 18:8, Jer. 29:13, Acts
16:31, Deut. 30:19

- These appeals do not make sense if man has no capacity to respond. It’s
like telling a newborn baby to clean the room or a paralytic to play
basketball.

- Whatever man’s response, positively or negatively, God holds him

responsible for his choice. The blameworthiness will be upon man if he ends
up in hell. 2 Thess. 2:10, John 5:40

4. In the verse Romans 3:11 that says, “No one seeks God”, it says “no one”
not “cannot” so it means that men have the ability to seek God it’s just that
no one did. They were so inclined to do wicked things rather than seek God.

3. The instruments God uses to aid a sinner to salvation

Can a man come to God through his own efforts alone? Absolutely not! Because of his
sinfulness, not total inability, he is more inclined to do wicked things than to seek God. He has the
ability to understand, reach out to and seek God but left on his own will choose not to do so. This is
the reason why he needs help from God. God helps people to come to Him and he uses several
means to accomplish this.

a. The Law – Romans 3:19-20, Galatians 3:24

Through the Law, Paul wrote, no one will be made righteous. However, he was also clear in
saying that the Law has a specific purpose especially to those who have it and that is to make them
conscious of their sins and thus point them to trust God alone for salvation.
 b. The Old Testament – John 6:44-45

The Father is drawing men (The Jews 6:52) to Jesus by teaching them the things about the
coming of the Messiah (the Savior prophesied in the OT). Nobody acknowledges and comes to Jesus,
that is to understand the things He has been doing, unless he understands what God has been
teaching His people in the Scriptures. The issue in this passage is that a lot of people are following
Jesus because of the miracles that He performed but sadly they were not able to recognize the
significance of those miracles in light of the Scriptures. The point here is simple. The Father through
the Scriptures is teaching the people. This is the Father’s way of drawing people to the Son because
the ones that understand and learn of the Father’s teaching will surely come to the Jesus, the Son.

c. The Gospel – Romans 1:16-17, 10:17

This is the message that Christ live a sinless life, died for man’s sin, buried and was
resurrected on the third day, and anyone who believe in this message will be saved. This is the
power of God for the salvation of everyone. The Bible teaches that one must hear this message for
them to exercise faith in Jesus.

Jesus said in John 12:32 that when he will be lifted up, that is his crucifixion, he will draw all
men to Himself. This is a similar drawing with that of the Father but the difference was it will not be
limited only to the Jews but it will be for all people and that includes the Gentiles. I would say that
the fulfillment of this is when the message of the gospel will be preached not only to the Jews but to
the Gentiles as well. All people from different parts of the world will be given this opportunity
(Matthew 22:1-14). I should say that the drawing here is the enabling of people to come to Christ
through the preaching of the gospel.

d. The General Revelation (Creation, God’s law in the hearts of man, and conscience)
– Romans 1:20-21, Psalm 19:1-6, Acts 17:27, Romans 2:14-15

Calvin said, “Creation exhibits so many bright lamps lighted up to show forth the glory of its
author. Though they beam upon us from every quarter, they are altogether insufficient of
themselves to lead us into the right path” (Calvin, ICR, Volume 1, page 62). But I would disagree to
this opinion since it was very clear in the Bible that General Revelation’s message can lead a person
to seek and reach out to God. And we know that God will never reject people who seeks Him (Jer.
29:13, Acts 17:27, Hebrews 11:6).

e. Holy Spirit - John 16:7-13

One of the important roles that the Holy Spirit functions is convicting the sinner of his sins.
This working goes hand in hand with Him being the Spirit of truth. When a sinner hears the truth of
the gospel, the Holy Spirit convicts him of his sins and guides him to the truth of Jesus. This working
is not only limited to the gospel because back in the Old Testament He has already been actively
working in the hearts of people who were confronted with the truth from God through the
preaching of the prophets. This working is not irresistible because people whom the Holy Spirit has
worked can still resist Him (Acts 7:51).

C. Points of Clarification

1. We affirm that all human beings are sinful.

2. We believe that human beings cannot save themselves.
3. We do not teach that everyone deserves to be saved.
 4. We do not deny humanity’s bondage to sin and that those who are in bondage are still
responsible to humbly confess their bondage.
5. We believe that humans are responsible for their actions and have the ability to respond in
faith to the inspired truth.
- This is in disagreement with Calvinism’s view of total inability that states that
because of the sin of Adam, God decreed that all people from that point forward be
born in a fallen condition whereby they can only hate and reject God’s own appeals
to be reconciled to Him.

Total Depravity - As descendants of Adam, we are born with an inherited nature and an environment
inclined towards sin. Our whole being was corrupted by sin but still has the remaining capacity to
respond in faith to God’s offer of salvation.