Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone's having a wonderful day. Today we are going to talk about tulip or what is known as the five points of Calvinism, which is really the heart of the biblical theology that I hold.

They describe how we view God, how we view man, how we view salvation, Christ atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, missions. These are really focused on the central act of God saving sinners. So we discussed in our five solas episode Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, a German monk turned accidental kind of revolutionary who spoke out against corruption in the Catholic Church at the time.

He pointed people to the word of God and showing the world that salvation is not through indulgences, is not through works, but is by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone according to scripture alone for God's glory alone. Now if you have any questions about that or if you have any push back on that or questions, if you really have any questions regarding this episode or anything that you hear me say that's like, I wish she would have explained that more or I don't believe that or whatever.

I would go back before you email me, you're always welcome to email me, but before you email me, I would go back if you haven't listened to the five solas episode, I would listen to that and if you haven't listened to the predestination episode, I would listen to that. So I recommend before listening to this podcast, listen to the predestination episode and listen to the five solas episode. And because a lot of what we're talking about in this, we don't get as in depth on those things as we did in the past.

As we did in those podcasts, so that's just going to be my primer.

So we're going to talk about a specific branch of Protestantism that grew from the Protestant Reformation called Calvinism.

The reason this is important is because Calvinism accounts for the views of the vast majority of reformed Protestants today.

So reformed Protestants hold to the five solas that we discussed and most also hold to tulip, which came from those who adhere to the theology of John Calvin, who was a French theologian at the time of the Reformation, who was also influenced by Martin Luther, who created a system of theology that was founded on the spirit of the Reformation and the five solas that we have discussed.

So let us set up a tool up with a quote from John Calvin or not sorry, not from John Calvin, but from Martin Luther himself in his work, bondage of the will.

I condemn and reject as nothing but error, all doctrines which exalt our quote free will as being directly opposed to this mediation and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for since.

Apart from Christ sin in death are our masters and the devil is our God and prince, there can be no strength of power, no wit or wisdom by which we can fit or fashion ourselves for righteousness and life.

And that is a very good summation of what reformed Protestants in Calvinist believe. Of course, we know that these words that Martin Luther uttered to be true according to scripture of Ephesians 2 says that we are dead apart from Christ and that neither the grace that we're given nor the faith that we hold our own doing, but are a gift from God so that no one may boast.

So it's even says that the good works that we do were actually prepared beforehand by God, Romans 5 says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, we talked about this in the previous episodes.

We don't get to take credit for our salvation because even the faith that we hold was given to us by grace.

John Piper, we're going to refer by the way a lot to John Piper's work in this. He has a whole work on to look the five points of Calvinism.

So we're going to refer to a lot to his quotes in this book that he wrote.

John Piper interprets what Martin Luther meant in the quote that I just read that says is long as someone insists on ultimate human self determination.

They fail to grasp the depth of our need and the obscure greatness of the free and sovereign grace of God which alone can give life and faith.

So to give ourselves any credit for our salvation fails to or allows us to it does not allow us to really understand our lostness, our corruption to the core, our absolute and utter inability to save ourselves.

Now Martin Luther is best known for the idea of so la fide however you want to pronounce that or by faith alone so being justified by faith given to us by grace rather than good works works of righteousness or indulgences in that one simple thought which is founded in the word of God had a profound impact on other thinkers throughout Europe which of course is the cause of the reformation and John Calvin was a city.

Calvin was a significant player in this reformation.

Inglekin author J. I. Packer wrote about John Calvin. It is doubtful whether any other theologian has ever played so significant apart in world history Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said the longer I live the clear does it appear that John Calvin's system of theology is the nearest to perfection American historian John Fisk wrote.

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