TULIP
Mormonism is Far More Biblical:
Reformed Evangelism’s
Fatal Errors Compared to LDS Doctrine
By Robert Vukich
Is it really just a Divine crapshoot to
be saved? Reformed Christians, also commonly called
Calvinists, adhere to a belief that there are 5 basic
tenants of their faith, represented by the acrostic (fancy
word for a beefy acronym) TULIP. The most fatal error is
that it is unscriptural. We will see that in a moment. It
is also based on the false Trinitarian concept of God.
Before we address TULIP and its stark
contrast to Mormonism, here is what the parts stand for and
some related scriptures:
T is
for the total depravity of mankind.
No way for man to find his way out of the sinful nature he
has. Romans 7:18; Romans 3:9-10, 18; Romans 8:7-8; Eph
2:3,
U is
for Unconditional Election.
God chose whom he will save, and absolutely nothing we do
can change that determination. Because of total depravity,
you can do no good worthy of salvation. John 6:37,39, 44,
63-65; John 3:3,6; Romans 8:28-32; Eph 1:4-6, 11; Eph 2:1,
5, 8; Romans 9:11-26; 1 Cor 4:7.
L is
for Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption.
Christ only died for those he will save, not all mankind.
Mt 25:33; Mt 7:22-23; Luke 10:20; Col 3:1-6; Acts 20:28;
John 17:9; Eph 5:25.
I is for Irresistible Grace.
Even if you don’t want to be saved, and when you are
depraved you really don’t, God will drag you into salvation
and you will respond when you hear the message of
salvation. 1 Cor 4:6; Daniel 4:35; Ps 115:3; Romans
9:14-20; Jn 6:44, 64-65; 2 Cor 4:4-6; Acts 16:14.
P is for the Perseverance of the
Saints. Once you are saved, there is no way to lose your
salvation. Romans 8:30-39; Philippians 1:1-6; Hebrews
9:11-15; John 6:35-40; John 10: 22-30.
There is no Free Will or
Choice in Calvinism!
The first problem, which is totally
fatal to Calvinism, is the lack of Free Will or Choice.
They have argued this since Calvin cooked up this idea, and
it was affirmed at the Synod of Dordt.
But mankind is free.
It is a scriptural position: 1 Pet 2:16;
Matt.
7:11
If
ye then,
being evil,
know how to give
good gifts
unto your children,
how much more
shall your Father
which is in
heaven give
good things to them that ask
him?
Mark 8:34
¶
And when he
had called the people
unto him with his
disciples also, he said
unto them, Whosoever
will come
after me,
let him deny himself,
and take up
his cross,
and follow
me.
Galatians 5:1
¶ STAND fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage.
Paul is talking about our freedom to
chose to be righteous or sinful. Even if he is talking
about “saved” people, it would mean men could choose to sin
and fall away.
Luke 10:
42 But
one thing is
needful: and
Mary
hath chosen
that good part,
which shall
not be taken away
from her.
The Spirit had not come yet. So how
did Mary choose the good part, if corrupt mankind is
incapable of choosing good?
This is too silly in some ways to even
argue. Calvinists don’t really believe people are totally
depraved and incapable of doing good, or they would not be
able to actually participate in legal processes, elections
or believe in punishing their children.
God is Sovereign
Evangelicals believe God is so
powerful, he will overwhelm mankind’s freewill to complete
his ends. Thus, he always gets what he wants. The problem
is the tie-in to Free Will: God wants everyone to be
saved:
1
Timothy 2:4 [God] will have all men to
be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Not All Men Are Saved
Calvinists admit that all men are
obviously not saved. They are unable to explain Paul’s
statement in 1 Tim 2:4, but assert the rest of scripture
supports their position, so it must just be accepted on
faith that we are incapable of fully understanding.
Here is an illustrative quote:
“We should never give the unsaved the
idea that God loves them savingly or redemptively—for
that would imply that He gave Christ to die in vain for the
sins of the non-elect, or that He is powerless to
save those He wishes to save.” (by Mitch Cervinka, a
Calvinist explaining 1 Tim 2:4)
http://www.planetkc.com/puritan/Articles/1Timothy2_4.htm
Mr. Cervinka tries to force an interpretation to the Greek
words which effectively means the phrase “all men” really
means some men. Oy.
More devastating to this non-Christian
approach is the fact there is so very much scriptural
support of God’s desire to save all people. Aside from 1
Tim 2:4, there are similar passages in almost every book of
the New Testament:
2
Peter 2:
9
The Lord
is not
slack concerning his promise,
as some men
count slackness;
but is longsuffering
to us-ward,
not
willing
that any
should perish, but
that all should come
to
repentance.
Matthew 10:32
Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven.
Titus 2:11¶
For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared
to all men,
Romans 9:33
As it is written, Behold, I lay in
Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and
whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed.
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice,
and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.
Also Rev.
22:17 and Deut. 30:19
Faith
is Offered to All Men Through Preaching the Gospel
Romans 10:17
So then
faith
cometh by
hearing,
and hearing
by the word
of God.
For
Paul, belief meant obedience.
Romans 10:
16
But
they have not
all obeyed
the gospel. For
Esaias saith,
Lord, who
hath believed our
report?
Election
is Because God Knows Who will respond, Not because he does
not want everyone saved:
1 Peter 1:2
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through sanctification of
the Spirit,
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Did Christ Only Die For a
Few People?
The idea that men are free to choose,
but they will always choose evil because of their natures is
the same as not having a choice. The Bible actually taught
about this condition at some length. It is the argument of
MANSLAUGHTER.
In the Pentateuch, Moses taught that if a man accidentally
killed another man, he could run to a designated safe city
called a city of refuge. There he could wait until the
death of the High Priest, and emerge without penalty. If he
were to leave before the death of the high priest, and he
were caught outside by the family of the dead person, the
family had the right to kill him. (Numbers 35). It is clear
from the passage that motives matter. And if there is no
ability to sin, or in TULIP’s case, not sin, then there can
be no punishment. This is why Mormons hold that little
children are saved (Moroni 8:22). If you cannot comprehend
the act you perform, you cannot be held accountable. Jehova
says in Num 35:29 that these are “statute[s]
of judgment” for all generations. Did God’s Judgment
change?
Mormons hold that Christ died for all
mankind. First, he died to provide the resurrection for all
men (1 Cor 15:21-22). This act on Christ’s part justified
all mankind into God’s presence. Let’s examine two critical
passages:
Romans 3:22-25
22
Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there
is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25
Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Notice that because all have sinned,
all have Christ’s sacrifice extended to them. It is unto
all AND all that believe. Two classes are clearly taught
here.
Paul follows this up by explicitly
stating who is JUSTIFIED by the atonement of Christ:
Romans 5:18
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all
men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the
free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life.
Are Mormons Universalists?
No. But this is where the false
constructs of the Sovereignty of God and Pre-destination
just conceptually collapse. God absolutely wants all men to
be saved. But he honors mankind’s agency. This goes back
to the purpose of the Fall:
Genesis 3:22 ¶ And the LORD God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil…
Calvinists would have you believe that
the ability to choose was lost after God said it was what
made us like Him. Of course God knows who will be saved.
But knowledge of the future is not forcing it upon us.
Mankind must be free to choose, and able to be saved, or God
is a partial God, and a respecter of persons.
So
Who Were Those Given to Christ?
Calvinists often quote John 6:44 which
reads:
44
No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up
at the last day.
The problem is they fail to note that
this passage is very limited in scope, and is fulfilled.
Let us read a little further on in John:
John
17: 11 ¶ And now I am no more in the
world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy
Father,
keep through thine own name
those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in thy name:
those that thou gavest me I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition;
that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Christ leaves no doubt here. He was
with those God gave him. He asks God to keep them. And he
acknowledges he saved all of them, except Judas. His
comments in John 6:44 are about his Earthly ministry. He
considered everyone his sheep (Matt 9:36), and yet also
realized that they would someday be separated, like sheep
and goats (Matt 25:32-33).
His teachings in Luke 15:1-7 on finding the lost sheep, and
especially on sinners repenting cannot be construed as
salvation to a certain prescribed class. All have sinned.
A sinner repents, and the angels and God rejoice. It is an
open call. In one of the most moving and prophetic passages
in all scripture about Christ, Isaiah 53 describes all of us
as sheep who have gone astray, and Christ suffered for us
who esteemed him as nothing.
We Can Lose Our Salvation
Because of mankind’s free will, men can
lose their salvation. This is taught all throughout
scripture. (Ezek. 18:25-28;
Matt 5:13; Luke 8:13; 1 Cor 10:12-13; Gal. 5:4; 1 Tim 4:10;
Heb 6:4-6;10:26;
James 5:19-20; 2 Pet. 1:10; 3:17; Rev. 2:5)
Calvin was a control freak. Thus we see him
advocating a Control Freak God. Calvin found justification
in the control freak mentality of God, as he saw him, for
committing mass murders and torturing and hurting untotaled
numbers of people. So of course God takes vengeance against
the wicked. They were unsaved, and not really people
anyway. He never really loved them or wanted to save them.
But just in case, even if Calvin did a bad thing, his
eternal security was assured, in his mind, so he could in
fact murder, but it was OK. Paul teaches that all have
fallen short. We are saved from our sins, as we apply our
will with the will of God. President Spencer W. Kimball
made this awesome observation:
“... However good a person's
works, he could not be saved had Jesus not died for his and
everyone else's sins. And however powerful the saving grace
of Christ, it brings exaltation to no man who does not
comply with the works of the gospel.”—Spencer W. Kimball,
Miracle of Forgiveness, 206-208.
The Mormons get it right with three
verses of scripture:
2 Nephi
25: 23
For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children,
and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be
reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we
are saved, after all we can do.
Alma
24: 11
… it has been all that we could do,
(as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all
our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and
to get God to take them away from our hearts…
Moroni 10:33
And again, if ye by the grace of
God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then
are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the
shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of
the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become
holy, without spot. (This verse also explains
perfection in vs. 32).
Contact
rvukich@hotmail.com with questions. This is a private
work, and not authorized or approved by the LDS Church.
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