I jokingly call myself a “Recovering Lutheran.” I
grew up in the Lutheran church, and I still hold their traditions and
teachings in very high regard. Luther was easy to like. After all, he
drank a lot of beer and sang bar songs. He was a married monk. When I
went to Seminary I was exposed to some different theology and some
different theologians. I remember learning about Calvin’s views, and the
TULIP mnemonic and thinking “Yeah, not a big fan of that Calvin dude.
I’ll just call myself a 4-point Calvinist. Or maybe just 3.”
And then I joined the Reformed Church in America
(RCA). Something like 399% of Reformed churches and theologians consider
themselves to be 5-point Calvinists. So you see my problem. God has a funny sense of humor.
For those not fully baptized (ha! get it?) in the Reformed tradition, TULIP stands for the 5 major points of John Calvin’s theology. Calvin was a religious reformer in the 1500’s, and he wrote extensively on theology. (And I do mean extensively – his Institutes of Christian Religion
has 80 chapters!) Someone thought it would be easier to remember what
Calvin taught if it was in some sort of handy mnemonic device that was
easily remembered – a nursery rhyme, perhaps. The little sing-song-ditty
didn’t catch on, mainly because it’s very difficult to rhyme words like
Depravity and Atonement. So they came up with “TULIP” instead. It
stands for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Cute, huh?
So, let’s take a look at Total Depravity. Basically
this means that because of our fall into sin, human beings are
horrible, nasty, depraved, disgusting, perverted, hopeless creatures
that can barely pull themselves out of their own muck and mire – but
only to throw rocks at other people. Calvin was known to have used
phrases like “totally depraved” and “utterly perverse.” In other words,
people suck.
I had a problem with this concept. I mean, are all people totally depraved? I thought that was a bit of a stretch.
“Sure, some people are depraved,” I said to
my Seminary professor, “I mean, Caligula and Hitler – I think we can
agree they were totally depraved. Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer,
sure. But Everyone? Totally? Come on! I know some really nice people!”
My professor said, “Nice doesn’t get you into heaven. Watch the news; then we’ll talk.”
Well, OK then. I watched the news. I also watched the History channel and TMZ so I could get the full picture. TMZ makes some pretty good arguments for Total Depravity.
But I dug even deeper. I read the newspaper. I
spoke with people. I prayed. I was forced to come to grips with
humanity’s sad history of torturing, raping, and pillaging one another.
Much of the “history” isn’t so historic. I read about men forbidding
women to work outside their homes, forbidding girls to get an education
or have a choice in whom or when they marry, citing “their culture” and I
shook my head. I puzzled over seemingly senseless wars in all corners
of the world. I was dumbstruck by the universal pervasiveness of child
porn. I became outraged over the stories of the Arizona parents
who locked their kid in a trunk – on purpose – as a punishment for
stealing a Popsicle! Or the guy who shot and killed his neighbors’
entire family because their dog was barking. And then there were the
politicians. I was undone.
OK, my professor was right. People suck.
I found this really amusing Tumblr that summed it up nicely:
So maybe I can begin to accept Calvin’s doctrine of
Total Depravity. But I am also a HUGE proponent of grace! This is a
conundrum. I know Calvin must have talked about grace somewhere
in the myriad of writings he left. He did write about Irresistible
Grace, but that was referring more to how God draws us into
relationship, not necessarily the “overflowing love and mercy” kind of
grace I’m thinking of. There was much discussion of “God’s common
grace” by followers of Calvin and later Reformed theologians. Common
grace being the love and mercy which God bestows on all of creation and
all people, just because. Grace flows because of God’s very nature. You
know, “God is love” and all that. The Bible is pretty clear that God
loves people.
True Calvinists maintain that God’s common grace
does nothing to improve our unregenerate nature, and it doesn’t improve
our ability to change our moral standing before God. Huh.
“But people were created in the image of God,” I
argued, “It simply doesn’t make sense to ONLY say that people are
totally depraved! That would imply that the Creator was also depraved!”
Calvin would roll over in his grave if that were the accepted logical conclusion. There is much more to it than that.
OK, so humans are created in the Image of God, and
that’s good. But because of the fall, we’ve been relegated to the
scratch-and-dent category (there’s the depravity) That’s bad. God
clearly loves us and has forgiven us – isn’t that what the gospel is
about?! And that’s good. Paul was always going on about how God
“remembers our sin no more.” And once we are “in Christ, we are new
creations.” And we “can do all things through Christ,” and so on. All
good. That doesn’t sound like much Total Depravity to me.
So, which is it? Are we worms? We cannot be just despicable, perverted worms. God doesn’t seem interested in developing relationships with worms. God loves people.
God has been trying to develop relationships with people since we first
became human! (see Genesis 1 and 2) And God wants a relationship with
us – certainly not because of our depravity, and not in spite of it
either. Perhaps God loves us just the way we are because that’s who God
is…and by God’s Grace we are forgiven and loved and lifted up and
empowered. When God looks at us, God sees us as capable, much-loved
children, right? When Jesus was walking the earth, He assured us we can
do whatever He did and more!
We’re Worms with Superpowers!
Now that’s a concept that requires more thought. I need to revisit the other parts of TULIP as well. Stay tuned…
