The Five Points of Calvinism

The Christian Union gives the following answer to a correspondent, who wrote inquiring what were the “Five Points of Calvinism”:

(1) Original sin, an “hereditary depravity and corruption diffused through all parts of the soul, rendering us obnoxious to the divine wrath,” and involving infants, who “bring their condemnation into the world with them.” (2) Predestination, “the eternal decree of God, by which he has determined in himself what he would have become of every individual of mankind,” and by which “eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal damnation for others.” (3) Particular redemption—that is, the redemption of an elect body, chosen by God for inscrutable reasons, out of the race to be redeemed. (4) Effectual calling, whereby “God moves the will, not according to the system maintained and believed for many ages, in such a manner that it would be afterwards at our option either to obey the impulse or resist it, but by an efficacious influence.” (5) Perseverance of the saints, or the doctrine that all the elect will certainly be finally saved. The opposite opinion “arose from the supposition that it was at our own option to reject or accept the proffered grace of God.” The quotations are from Calvin’s “Institutes.”