1. Session 14: WCF Chapter III Of God’s Eternal Decree, Section 6

2. Question 1 – Can you apply the Five Points of Calvinism to the various theologies you talked about last week?

3. The Five Points of Calvinism
Total Depravity – Natural man is spiritually dead, a slave to sin and incapable of “choosing God” on his own
Unconditional Election – God elects independently, without any regard to a person’s characteristics or acts
Limited Atonement – Christ died only for the elect, not all
Irresistible Grace – Man cannot resist God’s effectual call to salvation
Perseverance of the Saints – God elects and perfects,
therefore once saved, always saved

4. Pelagianism (election based on man’s free-will choice) – T U L I P
Semi-Pelagianism (election of moral ability to respond) – T U L I P
Arminianism (everyone has ability and responsibility for believing) – T U L I P
Amyraldism (Christ died for all) – T U L I P
Infralapsarianism (election logically before creation) – T U L I P
Supralapsarianism (creation logically before election) – T U L I P

5. Question 2 – Can God love everyone yet hate certain people?

6. Option 1: “Love” and “Hate” are not human emotions, but refer to election status

7. Option 2: “Hate” is a Hebrew idiom for “love less”
“Some might suppose that God’s pronouncement that he ‘loved’ Jacob and ‘hated’ Esau shows that he is speaking about their individual eternal destinies, but this is mistaken. In Hebraic thought, when ‘love’ and ‘hate’ are contrasted they usually are meant hyperbolically. The expression simply means to strongly prefer one person or thing over another.”

8. Option 3: “Hate” refers to a person’s sin and wickedness, not the person himself.
The Hebrew word used in Malachi 1:3 for “hate” (sanati) is used in various other places to speak of hatred for the sin and wickedness of people (cf. Psalm 26:5; 101:3; 119:104, 128, 163; Proverbs 8:13; Jeremiah 44:3; Amos 5:21; 6:8; Zechariah 8:17), not hatred for the people themselves. In light of what many other biblical prophets say about the actions and behavior of Edom (cf. Jeremiah 49:7-22; Lamentations 4:21-22; Ezekiel 25:12-14; Amos 1:6-11), this is how we can understand God’s hatred in Malachi 1:3.

9. Romans 1:29-32
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

10. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

11. Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

12. Romans 1:28
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

13. 1 Peter 1:2
Ephesians 1:4,5; 2:10
2 Thessalonians 2:13
1 Thessalonians 5:9,10
Titus 2:14
Romans 8:30
1 Peter 1:5

14. John 17:9
Romans 8:28
John 6:64,65
John 10:26
John 8:47
1 John 2:19

15. CHAPTER III - Of God’s Eternal Decree
6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.

16. Personal
Personal
Focus
Focus

17. What is the difference between fruit of the spirit and works?
- How can you discern the difference in yourself?
- How can you discern the difference in others?

18. WCF Chapter I Structure
The Holy Scriptures are:
Ordinarily necessary for salvation
The 66 books we recognize
Not the Apocrypha
The testimony and Word of God
Personally witnessed by the Holy Spirit
Complete
Perspicacious (clear)
Inspired in their original Hebrew and Greek
To be used to interpret themselves
The supreme authority for all religious issues

19. WCF Chapter II Structure
God Is:
The only one, living and true God, a free personal Spirit, without bodily parts or passions and possesses all absolute perfections in and of himself.
Perfect with respect to his creatures, self-existent and absolutely independent, the sole support, proprietor, and sovereign disposer, of all his creatures.
Manifested in three different persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each being equally God and having the same essence, perfections and prerogatives, but distinguished from one another by certain personal properties and revealed in a certain order of subsistence and of operation.

20. WCF Chapter III Structure
God’s decree:
Originated from eternity, unchangeably controls everything and establishes both causation and free will.
Is not conditional or based on God’s foreknowledge.
Predestines some men and angels to eternal life and foreordains other men and angels to everlasting death.
Unchangeably fixes the number of redeemed and unredeemed men and angels.
Chose the elect to eternal life without any regard to their characteristics or actions as evidence of His grace.
Provides all means for effectually calling, justifying, adopting, sanctifying and keeping only the elect.
Relegates the nonelect to dishonor, wrath and everlasting death as evidence of His justice.
Should be handled with great care and result in humility, praise, obedience and certainty of election.