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Studies in Genesis, The Tumbling T of Calvin’s TULIP, Lesson VIIb, Thou Shalt Surely Die!
Today we continue our trip down a side road in order to insure a proper understanding of what has taken place in God’s Garden of Eden, where the results of disobedience to God’s word is banishment from that perfect place, that place of fellowship between Adam and Eve and their Maker.
Now according to God’s word all who come into this world are dead, dead in trespasses and sin, spiritually dead, dead to God.
Now of course we all have physical life but God’s word has told us that in the day that Adam and Eve ate of the tree they died even though they lived physically for centuries after their eviction from the garden.
But the eviction from the garden tells us that the death to which they were assigned was symbolized by one day walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day and the next day being banished from the garden and no longer in fellowship with God, no longer walking with him daily.
So it is important to have a Biblical understanding as to what this death is, for it is a foundational truth to understanding the doctrines of election, atonement, grace and assurance.
Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
In this command we become co-laborers with God in the lives of those whom the Bible calls dead but this evangelistic outreach is even affected by a proper understanding of what dead means.
We have seen the first part of Dr. Congdon’s teaching concerning this important definition and before we see the second part let me read this introduction from Dr. Congdon’s web site. In The Tumbling “T,” Dr. Congdon explains how Calvin's foundational teaching on Total Human Depravity determines his four succeeding points of doctrine, often called “TULIP.”
JOHN CALVIN’S TULIP Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Dr. Congdon explains how the definition of Human Depravity must be based upon the biblical definition of spiritual death. One will soon realize that biblical spiritual death is not the same as Calvin’s definition. For Calvin describes the unsaved individual as dead as a stone, incapable of seeing, hearing, or responding in any way to God’s offer of salvation. Hence, Calvin requires a spiritual regeneration, imposed by God, upon individuals prior to their exercising any act of faith in response to God. Biblically, spiritual death demonstrates that when an individual hears the Word of God (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit convicts him or her of the truth of the Bible and of their need for forgiveness of their sins, they are free to respond in faith and then regeneration occurs immediately after a true acceptance of God’s gift of salvation by faith alone. In this video, Dr. Robert Congdon explains how Calvin's and the Westminster Confession's definition of Unconditional Election, clearly says God elects or chooses who will go to heaven and who will go to Hell. He compares this definition with the three groups of beings designated "elect" in the Bible to see if Calvin's definition "fits." Those three groups are: the elect angels, the elect nation of Israel, and the church or body of Christ in the Church Age. He demonstrates that Calvin's definition does not fit or cover these three different groups. Further, he shows that the Bible's context of the use of the word "election" or "elect" or "predestined" never involves salvation of an individual, but always is used in a plural context and speaks of one of the three groups. He then offers an alternative view of election that shows that election is a result of one being saved and not the cause that makes one saved. The key to "election" for all three groups is found in the concept of "service to God." Link to You Tube for The Tumbling T of Calvin’s TULIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxV3azRhKWA
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