Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
I. TOTAL DEPRAVITY
A. Reformed Position: Man is spiritually dead.
Because of the fall, man has become spiritually dead,
blind and deaf to the things of God and is therefore
unable of himself to choose spiritual good and determine
his own destiny.
The fall has resulted in spiritual death to all men.
Gen.2:16 - Gen.2:17 (NKJ)
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every
tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 "but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely
die."
Romans.5:12 - Romans.5:12 (NKJ)
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the
world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to
all men, because all sinned.
Jer.17:9 - Jer.17:9 (NKJ)
9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And
desperately wicked; Who can know it?"
(plus many more i can not fit and i had to delete)
II. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
A. Reformed Position: God's election is
unconditional. God's choice of certain individuals for
salvation was not based on any foreseen response of
obedience on their part, but was based solely in His
good and sovereign will.
God has an elect people whom He has chosen to
grant salvation.
Deut.10:14 - Deut.10:15 (NKJ)
14 "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the
Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.15
"The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them;
and He chose their descendants after them, you above all
peoples, as it is this day.
Matt.24:31 - Matt.24:31 (NKJ)
31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
John.6:37 - John.6:39 (NKJ)
37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and
the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own
will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the
will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given
Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day.
John.6:65 - John.6:65 (NKJ)65
And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one
can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My
Father."
John.17:9 - John.17:9 (NKJ)
9"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for
those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
III. LIMITED ATONEMENT
A. Reformed Position: Christ's death was designed
to actually secure the salvation of all of God's chosen
people. Christ's death secured and actually
accomplished the salvation of all of God's chosen
people. God has determined that all for whom Christ
sacrificed Himself will be saved.
B. Scriptural Support for the Reformed Position
1. Christ's death is set forth in scripture as that
which ACTUALLY accomplished salvation, not that which
merely made salvation possible.
Rom.5:8 - Rom.5:10 (NKJ)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much
more then, having now been justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we
were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death
of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life.
2Cor.5:18 - 2Cor.5:19 (NKJ)
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to
Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation,19 that is, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing
their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the
word of reconciliation.
Eph.2:15 - Eph.2:16 (NKJ)
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is,
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as
to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus
making peace,16 and that He might reconcile them both to
God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to
death the enmity.
John.10:11 - John.10:11 (NKJ)
11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His
life for the sheep.
IV. IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
A. Reformed Position: The Holy Spirit regenerates
every one of God's chosen people, enabling them to
believe. The Holy Spirit graciously regenerates every
one of God's chosen people, creating within them a new
heart and enabling them to freely and willingly believe
in Christ as Savior and Lord. The New Birth precedes and
makes possible Saving Faith. Life gives Faith.
B. Scriptural Support for the Reformed Position:
1. Every one whom the Father has chosen and for
whom Christ died, will certainly experience the
application of that salvation by the Holy Spirit.
John.6:37 - John.6:37 (NKJ)
37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and
the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
John 6:44 - John 6:44 (NKJ)
44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me
draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 10:16 - John 10:16 (NKJ)
16 "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold;
them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and
there will be one flock and one shepherd.
V. PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
A. Reformed Position: All who are chosen by God,
redeemed by Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit
are eternally saved. They are kept in Faith by the
Power of Almighty God and therefore continue to
persevere in faith.
B. Scriptural Support for the Reformed Position:
1. The person who truly believes in Jesus Christ
HAS new Life that is ETERNAL.
Jn.3:16 - Jn.3:16 (NKJ)
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
Jn.3:36 - Jn.3:36 (NKJ)
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and
he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abides on him."
Jn.5:24 - Jn.5:24 (NKJ)
24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word
and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life,
and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from
death into life."
