John Calvin's 5 Points For Research Paper

Calvinism’s five points.
I. The first is total inability. Man has sunk so far through the fall that he is no longer capable of believing the gospel. He can no more repent and believe than a dead man can rise up and walk. This is all the result of the sin of Adam, who communicated this absolute inability, this loss of free will, to all his posterity.
II. The second is unconditional election. God has, before the creation of the world, selected a portion of humanity to be saved. This election is irrespective of any foreseen merits or faith. It is only according to the good pleasure of His will.
III. The third is particular redemption. Jesus on Calvary took on the full punishment due his elect, ensuring their final salvation. He did not
It has left him incapable of doing anything good, or even desiring it. Therefore, he is disabled and can neither will nor obey any spiritual command (even the invitation to receive Christ). John Calvin sums this up saying, "Let it stand, therefore, as an in doubtable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God, that he cannot conceive, desire, or design anything but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin, that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with fetters of
Efficacious grace is an immediate, miraculous transformation of a man's nature. In an instant, the totally depraved sinner , who has been unable and unwilling to make the slightest move toward God, is given a new nature. He is born again unto a life he never sought and never desired. Man cannot believe; therefore, God must act upon him and bestow a new capacity. God must regenerate the passive, spiritually oblivious man before he can even accept the gospel. The Westminster Confession defines it: "All those whom God has predestined unto life, and those only, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good; and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace" (Chapter X, Section