Question:

What is five point Calvinism? I hear that you call yourself a four and a half point Calvinist? What is that?

Answer :

Five Point Calvinism, also known as reformed theology, originally countered the Five Points of Arminianism at the Council of Dort (Holland) in 1618-19. The Five Points of Arminianism (based upon the teachings of Jacobus Arminius) are, simplified, and not necessarily in the original order:

1. Free will of man.
2. Election by God’s foreknowledge not God’s sovereign choice.
3. Christ died for all people.
4. Grace can be resisted by man’s will.
5. Saved people may or may not persevere to the end.

The Five Points of Calvinism – rejecting the above - are a slight embellishment of Calvin’s own teaching by some of his followers. Simplified, using the acrostic TULIP, the Five Points are:

1. Total depravity of man.
2. Unconditional election by God’s choice of some but not all.
3. Limited atonement; Christ died only for the elect [not Calvin’s view].
4. Irresistible grace; God’s grace will ultimately prevail in his elect.
5. Perseverance of the saints; the elect will persevere to the end. [This became known as the eternal security of the believer – once saved, always saved.]

My own position is that Christ died indiscriminately for all, a view Calvin himself strongly and consistently held. This (with the other four Dort statements, taking out limited atonement) would commonly be called Four Point Calvinism, a position held by people such as Jonathan Edwards, Bishop J.C. Ryle and John Newton. But since Christ’s heavenly intercession at God’s right hand was made for the elect only, a point that most Four Point Calvinists have not often stressed but would almost certainly agree with, I have given this a ‘half point’. This comes to four and a half points, hence my Four and a Half Point Calvinism. Jesus died for the world (John 3:16, 2 Cor.5:15; 1 Tim.2:6; Heb.2:9). But Jesus also said that he did not ‘pray’ for the world but only for the elect (‘those you have given me’ – John 17:9), a point Calvin focused on in both his commentary and also his sermon on Isaiah 53:12. Christ is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe (1 Tim.4:10). Only the elect believe, since only those ‘appointed to eternal life believed’ (Acts 13:48). Christ intercedes for those – and only those - who come to God by him (Heb.7:25), and those who do this are those prompted by the Holy Spirit’s effectual call (John 6:44). In a word: Four and a Half Point Calvinism – which I take to be Calvin’s own position - subscribes to all of the Synod of Dort conclusions except limited atonement, only adding the intercession of Christ for the elect – believers - only.

If you ask, what does it matter? I reply: (1) as an evangelist I can say to anybody, ‘Jesus died for you’. The Five Point Calvinist cannot say this because if Jesus did not die for everybody, there will always be a doubt whether he died for the person you are witnessing to. (2) As a pastor I can say to anybody, ‘Jesus died for you’ and if you struggle with assurance of salvation you can say, ‘Jesus died for me’. Those who adhere to Five Point Calvinism are a bit presumptuous to say ‘Jesus died for me’ if he did not die for everybody. The only way you can be sure Jesus died for you is if the Gospel is indiscriminately offered through Jesus’ universal death, as John Calvin himself put it in his commentary on John 3:16. But if you ask, ‘How can I know Jesus is interceding for me?’, I reply: if you come to God through Christ it shows he has indeed interceded for you, as in Hebrews 7:25 – or you would not have had the desire to come to God through him. Only the elect respond effectually by coming to the Father through his Son.

For those who care to go into this more deeply, do please read my Oxford D. Phil. thesis, Calvin and English Calvinism to 1648 (first published by Oxford University Press, later reprinted by Paternoster Press).


R T Kendall.