My wife is currently doing some study of Thomas Jefferson, and particularly of his religious views and the so-called “Jefferson Bible.” (She just returned on Friday from a trip out to, among other things, the Smithsonian Institution, where Jefferson’s Bible resides, and to Monticello.) She brings the following passage to my attention, from an 11 April 1823 letter that Jefferson wrote to John Adams:
DEAR SIR, — The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of `mon Dieu! jusque à quand’! [Lord, how long!] would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did. The being described in his 5. points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin.
I have to admit that I tend to agree with Jefferson on this point. I think that there are some admirable things about John Calvin — see the recent Hamblin-Peterson column on him: “The Protestant Reformation’s other great writer” — but I’m quite unable to be a complete or enthusiastic fan. And five-point Calvinism? Well, if that’s the “good news” of Christianity, you can count me out.
Do you remember the “Five Points”? Just in case you don’t, here they are:
Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)
From a Calvinist website:
Unconditional Election:
God does not base His election on anything He sees in the individual. He chooses the elect according to the kind intention of His will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of merit within the individual. Nor does God look into the future to see who would pick Him. Also, as some are elected into salvation, others are not (Rom. 9:15, 21).
Limited Atonement:
Jesus died only for the elect. Though Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for all, it was not efficacious for all.
Irresistible Grace:
When God calls his elect into salvation, they cannot resist. God offers to all people the gospel message. This is called the external call. But to the elect, God extends an internal call and it cannot be resisted.
Perseverance of the Saints:
You cannot lose your salvation.
[If, of course, you’re among the lucky few who’ve been chosen for it in the first place.]
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