T — Total Depravity
(Regeneration does not precede faith; the spiritually dead can hear and believe)
If anyone is saved it is because only God saves anyone. Nobody can pull themselves up by the bootstraps around God. God calls preachers to preach the gospel that in turn creates faith of the dead alien sinner whom God says can believe and obey.
John 5:24-25
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
(The spiritual dead—not literal—will hear His voice and they will live. Future tense shows regeneration did not precede faith. Then they get to be in the physical resurrection later in John 5.)
You were not saved apart from your own faith given by the grace of God. Regeneration does not precede faith!
U — Unconditional Election
(God did not pick individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world in the Calvinist sense)
Ephesians 1:4 doesn’t teach that God picked out who would be saved before He created the earth.
It teaches that God chose apostles when He founded a New Covenant.
Ephesians 1:4-12
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Paul speaking of those who trusted in Christ afterwards, the Ephesian church, which is why he begins using “ye” and “your”:
Ephesians 1:13-20
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Before the foundation of the world. Chosen in Him.
The phrase “before the founding of the world” is the time of Abraham to Moses before the first covenant, and those names were added before the founding of the world of the Lamb before the foundation of the world. But how?
Hebrews 11:40
God having provided some better thing for us (New Covenant believers), that they (Abraham before the Covenant and into the first Covenant) without us should not be made perfect.
This is the closing verse of the “Hall of Faith” chapter in Hebrews.
Romans 8:29-30
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Romans 11:1-2
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.
L — Limited Atonement
(Jesus draws all men; those “given” in John 6 & 17 are the twelve disciples)
In being lifted up on the cross Jesus draws all men by the gospel preached—that the Calvinist bypasses.
Those who are drawn by the Father and given to the Son are the twelve disciples.
John 6:37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:39
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 17:12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
John 18:8-9
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.
I — Irresistible Grace
(The Spirit can be resisted, grieved, and quenched)
Resist not the Spirit (Acts 7:51).
Grieve not the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
Quench not the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
Matthew 23:37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
P — Perseverance of the Saints
(Endurance is required)
He that endures to the end the same shall be saved.
