Firming Your Foundation
Lets Check It Out:
The U in TULIP
by George Sinkie
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We
are looking at a series of lessons dealing with a group of doctrines
taught by those who follow John Calvin. Calvin taught a
group of five doctrines that were given the acrostic of TULIP.
Last week we looked at T, which stood
for Total Hereditary Depravity.
As we saw this is a false doctrine that teaches that babies
are born sinful because they inherit the sin of Adam.
This week we are going to look
at the letter U in TULIP which stands
for Unconditional Election.
The doctrine of Unconditional Election teaches that basically
God decided, before He created the world, who was going to be
saved and who was going to be lost. His decision had nothing
whatsoever to do with what kind of life you lived.
Consider what a teacher of this
doctrine says, If I killed my wife and mother and debauched
a thousand women I couldnt go to hell in fact, I
couldnt go to hell if I wanted to. This
false teacher believes that he is one of those that God decided
to save and there was nothing he could do about it. It
is hard to believe that anyone who claimed to be a Christian
could believe this doctrine, but there are many who do.
Lets consider what the Scriptures
teach. First, 2 Corinthians 5:10, For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done,
whether good or bad.
Note that in the judgment we are recompensed for the deeds we have done.
A second verse that refutes this
false doctrine, Hebrews 11:6, And without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. We must believe that God exists
and that He rewards those who seek Him.
There are many more verses that
could be used to refute this doctrine, but we have a limited
space here. Basically you can pick up your Bible and open
it to any passage and it will teach how you ought to live, if
you want to go to heaven.
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