Do you like acronyms? I love acronyms. Those handy aids to memory that help you remember lists of things you wouldn't otherwise remember.

I can even remember one from when I started to learn the piano at the age of 10.

Every good boy deserves fudge. I have no idea of the

significance of that phrase because I gave up piano before I got to grade 2, but I do know that the first letters of every good boy deserves fudge, E G B D F, are very important.

I also know that having now said the word fudge three times I'd quite like to have some fudge.

Here's another acronym Tulip T-U-L-I-P. Someone came up with it around the beginning of the 20th century as a way of remembering

the five distinguishing marks or points of Calvinism. These five points arose because of a theological controversy in the early 17th century.

Some were starting to follow the teachings of a Dutch theologian called Jacobus Arminius,

and these Arminians set out five places in which they disagreed with Calvinist teaching.

So, in an attempt to resolve the confusion, a meeting was convened in 1618 in the Dutch city of Dort and they call it the

Synod of Dort. The result was the so-called five points of Calvinism, an answer to five criticisms offered by the called five

criticisms offered by the Armenian theologians. First, there's total depravity, the T in Tulip

Armenians argue that although human beings are depraved and corrupt,

they have in themselves the ability to put their trust in God, given the general divine assistance

that God gives to everybody.

That divine assistance enables but doesn't ensure a person's acceptance of salvation.

By contrast, Calvinism says that although people are not as bad as they could possibly be

nevertheless our depravity affects every part of us to some extent that's why

it's called Total Depravity. This Depravity means that a person has no

power in themselves to put their trust in God. God must first change their hearts so that they willingly and necessarily believe in Christ.

Then there's the U in Tulip Unconditional election.

Arminius argued that God predestines people to salvation based on foreseeing those who would believe in him.

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