TULIP and the Doctrines of Grace

By Dr. C. Matthew McMahon - Posted at A Puritan's Mind:

The doctrines of grace are the best doctrines you will ever know or embrace – Jesus Christ’s Gospel is all of grace. These doctrines speak of God’s infinite Love and Mercy to His people.

There are only two views concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ. First, there is what the modern church calls Calvinism, or more precisely, the doctrines of grace. Then, the second, we find varying degrees of unbelief. These are your two choice for or against the Gospel.

The essential doctrines concerning salvation, which the Puritans and all good Christians cling to, are summed up in the acronym T.U.L.I.P.

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

A tulip is a flower with intertwining petals, and without which, it would not make up a complete flower. If one petal is removed from the flower, it ceases, for all intents and purposes, to be complete. It is the same with the essential doctrines of salvation. Each doctrine is essentially linked to the others. If one of them is removed, then the whole system falls into absurdity and contradiction. (Thus, there would be no such thing as a 3 point Calvinist or a 4 point Calvinist (like Amyraldianism)–it would be better to say they are confused Arminians.)

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