Piper’s Five Points

“The Doctrines of Grace” — “Calvinism” — “Reformed Theology” — “TULIP”

Call them what you will, the five points of Calvinism have been among the most hotly debated topics in Christian theology for centuries. However, there has been a resurgence of Reformed Theology in Evangelicalism in the last couple of decades, led in part by Pastor John Piper. In a strong line of theologians, including the likes of Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon, Edwards, Owen, and many others, John Piper has lived his life and conducted his ministry in a way that everything screams out to glorify God because of His loving, electing, saving grace. In his new book, Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace, Piper introduced the Doctrines of Grace in a way that is very accessible and engaging to readers of all levels.

He starts the book with a short preface describing the purpose of the book and then moves on to a brief discussion of the historical roots of Calvinism. The next five chapters give a brief discussion of each point in TULIP (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints), with the U and the I switched in the order of chapters. He makes this switch, he says, because “over the years my experience has been that most Christians have a conscious, personal experience of irresistible grace, even if they have never called it that” (25).

These five chapters on each point of Calvinism are very brief, but very good. For those that are quite familiar with Calvinism, there will be little new here. However, for those for whom this is new, or for those who have been going back and forth, trying to make sense of it all, these chapters are excellent introductions to the subject.

The final two chapters are a nice addition to this short book on Calvinism, giving the reader a personal insight into what these doctrines have meant for Piper himself (chapter 8) and for various men throughout church history (chapter 9).

As someone who has been powerfully impacted by the ministry of John Piper, I found chapter 8: “What the Five Points Have Meant for Me,” to be a very helpful, personal insight into what these doctrines have meant in the life and ministry of John Piper. He gives 10 effects on his life of believing in the doctrines of Calvinism:

1. These truths make me stand in awe of God and lead me into the depth of true God-centered worship
2. These truths help protect me from trifling with divine things
3. These truths make me marvel at my own salvation
4. These truths make me alert to man-centered substitutes that pose as good news
5. These truths make me groan over the indescribable disease of our secular, God-belittling culture
6. These truths make me confident that the work which God planned and began, he will finish — both globally and personally
7. These truths make me see everything in the light of God’s sovereign purposes — that from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever and ever
8. These truths make me hopeful that God has the will, the right, and the power to answer prayer that people be changed
9. These truths remind me that evangelism is absolutely essential for people to come to Christ and be saved, and that there is great hope for success in leading people to faith, but that conversion is not finally dependent on me or limited by the hardness of the unbeliever
10. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end

Though I am quite familiar with the doctrine of Calvinism and cherish the truths myself, I found my heart stirred anew while reading this book, caught up again in cherishing God for who He is as the Almighty, Sovereign Redeemer. For those of you who are not very familiar with these doctrines, I would think that there is probably no better place that you could start than here. Clocking in at under 100 pages (!!), Piper writes in a clear, compelling, and compassionate way, urging the reader, with a pastor’s heart, to accept these five points towards a deeper experience of God’s grace.

See Piper introduce the book in the video below. Also, you can read Tim Challies’ review here

http://vimeo.com/77060784

In accordance with FTC regulations, I would like to thank Christian Focus Publications for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Book Review – The Expository Genius of John Calvin

“A world-class theologian, a revered exegete, a renowned teacher, an ecclesiastical statesman, an influential Reformer — he was all of these and more. His name was John Calvin” (2). Steve Lawson, popular pastor, author, and theologian, has offered a great contribution to the literature on John Calvin with this volume, The Expository Genius of John Calvin, a book which seeks not to just look at the biographical information of who Calvin was, but to dive into what made Calvin the pastor and theologian that he was. Lawson makes the claim that, “Apart from the biblical authors themselves, Calvin stands today as the most influential minister of the Word of God the world has ever seen” (3-4). While that is certainly a high claim to make of anyone, I think that Lawson is not unwarranted in making such a statement.

As already noted, this book by Lawson is not just another biography among the many excellent biographies already written. While he does offer a brief biographical sketch in the first chapter of the book, the remaining seven chapters look into the distinctives that made Calvin the extraordinary pastor, theologian, and exegete that he was. Lawson’s stated goal in writing such a book is “to raise the bar for a new generation of expositors…If you are a preacher or teacher, may you be challenged to a higher standard in your handling of the Word” (xiii).

Lawson offers 32 distinctives that made Calvin who he was as a pastor:

1. Biblical Authority
2. Divine Presence
3. Pulpit Priority
4. Sequential Exposition
5. Diligent Mind
6. Devoted Heart
7. Relentless Will
8. Direct Beginning
9. Extemporaneous Delivery
10. Scriptural Context
11. Stated Theme
12. Specific Text
13. Exegetical Precision
14. Literal Interpretation
15. Cross-References
16. Persuasive Reasoning
17. Reasonable Deductions
18. Familiar Words
19. Vivid Expressions
20. Provocative Questions
21. Simple Restatements
22. Limited Quotations
23. Unspoken Outline
24. Seamless Transitions
25. Focused Intensity
26. Pastoral Exhortation
27. Personal Examination
28. Loving Rebuke
29. Polemic Confrontation
30. Succinct Summation
31. Pressing Appeal
32. Climactic Prayer

I found this book by Lawson to be extremely helpful, challenging, and interesting. In addition to being challenged and encouraged by Calvin’s faithfulness to the text and his high view of Scripture and the Pastorate, I was also quite interested in the many helpful practical facts that Lawson includes, such as how long Calvin preached, how he started and ended a sermon, etc. There was quite a lot of “nuts-and-bolts” type information about Calvin and his pastoral ministry, which I found quite interesting.

Overall, I was very pleased with this book and would definitely recommend it to any pastor or ministry leader looking to learn from one of the (if not THE) most important people in all of church history. At just over 100 pages (and small pages, at that), this would definitely be a good weekend or vacation read to introduce you to the pastoral ministry of John Calvin.

In accordance with FTC regulations, I would like to thank Reformation Trust Publishers for providing me with a review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Read Old Books!

Great words from author C.S. Lewis:

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”

To see a more extended treatment of Lewis’ “Introduction” to On the Incarnation by Athanasius, see this article by Matthew Barrett.

Also, if you want an easy, structured guide to get started on one of the most famous and theologically rich “old books” out there, see this post.

Finally, if you really want to be challenged, check out Mark Dever’s “Canon of Theologians.”

The necessity of reading Scripture

The following is a quote from John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion where he is discussing the necessity of reading Scripture lest we fall into error by following our own thoughts and superstitions.

“Suppose we ponder how slippery is the fall of the human mind into forgetfulness of God, how great the tendency to every kind of error, how great the lust to fashion constantly new and artificial religions. Then we may perceive how necessary was such written proof of the heavenly doctrine, that it should neither perish through forgetfulness nor vanish through error nor be corrupted by the audacity of men. It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has been pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective. Hence, we must strive onward by this straight path if we seriously aspire to the pure contemplation of God. We must come, I say, to the Word, where God is truly and vividly described to us from his works, while these very works are appraised not by our depraved judgment but by the rule of the eternal truth. If we turn aside from the Word, as I have just now said, though we may strive with strenuous haste, yet, since we have got off the track, we shall never reach the goal” (1.6.3, pg 72-73).

The humor of John Calvin

While reading through The Institutes I often times find myself chuckling at some of Calvin’s remarks about his contemporaries or those whom he disagrees with. In talking about the prophets in particular, and the Scriptures as a whole more generally, Calvin said,

“Consequently, those for whom prophetic doctrine is tasteless ought to be thought of as lacking taste buds” (1.8.2, pg 83).

I don’t know if you find this humorous, but I did.

John Calvin on Natural Theology

How much does creation tell us about God? Can this knowledge that creation is screaming forth be enough to lead someone unto salvation? The issue of natural theology and seeking to answer these questions have been the source of much debate throughout the centuries amongst many theologians. In reading through John Calvin’s Institutes I came across his dealing with this issue throughout chapter V of book I.

First, Calvin says the following, which I thought was a poignant observation of how the manifestation of God that He gives forth in creation is choked and thwarted by human superstition and ignorance:

“For as rashness and superficiality are joined to ignorance and darkness, scarcely a single person has ever been found who did not fashion for himself an idol or specter in place of God. Surely, just as waters boil up from a vast, full spring, so does an immense crowd of gods flow forth from the human mind, while each one, in wandering about with too much license, wrongly invents this or that about God himself” (1.5.12, pg 65).

Oh how often we see this in the world today, where men invent a god in their minds that serves their own selfish, foolish desires rather than turning to the Scriptures to see how God has revealed Himself.

So did Calvin think that creation could provide salvific knowledge? No, he did not. At the end of this section, he said the following:

“Yet hence it appears that if men were taught only by nature, they would hold to nothing certain or solid or clear-cut, but would be so tied to confused principles as to worship an unknown god [cf. Acts 17:23]” (1.5.12, pg 66).

Oh, how we as Christians must go forth, following the example of Paul in Acts 17 where he appears before the Areopagus, and show people who this “unknown god” is that they are worshiping. What a glorious thing it is that God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, and that we in America have such access to these Scriptures. Let us not take this for granted.