“Theologically, what in the world is TULIP?”

Steve Brown:
Theologically, what in the world is TULIP? We’ll answer that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He’s nobody’s guru, but he does have honest answers to hard questions about the Bible. God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, and worship. Now, here’s Steve and Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth with street-smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Stephen, good to see you. Good to be here. And we’re going to talk about flowers.

Steve Brown:
And we’re going to talk about a Calvinistic flower and an Armenian flower.

Pete Alwinson:
There you go.

Steve Brown:
And you’re going to learn some good stuff on this broadcast today. By the way, you know Pete Alwinson, he comes in on Fridays. We’ve been doing this for years, and we answer your questions, and we love your questions. The only dumb one’s the one you don’t ask. You can ask your question anytime you like by picking up the phone, dialing 1-800-KEY-LIFE and then following instructions. Sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can send your questions, snail mail to

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Pete Alwinson:
You got it. Let’s pray together. Our Great God, we do come into your presence today on this Friday and what a joy it is to remember every day that we belong to you. And Lord, you know us, you know our name, you will never, never cast us out of your sight because you hold on to us. And thank you for your Spirit that leads us in the victory that we have in Christ every day. But Father, somedays we don’t feel victorious. And so, we come to you today and we ask for your grace, strength. Help us get us through Friday and then launch us into a week-end where we get to worship with your people. But Lord, you know our needs, financial, relational, emotional. There’s so many. And yet Lord, we ask that you would continue to strengthen us in the battle that we fight with ourselves, and sometimes with others, and sometimes with the evil one. We ask that you would be glorified in every way in our life. We give you our needs, and we ask that the gospel of grace would be powerfully at work in us. Use our pastors this week-end, bless them. Lord, our pastors, priests, teachers, they stand in your place to teach us and lead us. Bless them, and bless us through them. And now, we commit this time of Q&A to you, and ask that you’d be glorified in it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Hey, when you have a question and you want to get an answer, let me tell you how you can do it quickly. Just pick up the phone and dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE and follow instructions and record your question. We’ll answer it and we’ll answer it on the air with your voice. How cool is that? We’ll do it just this way.

Caller 1:
Explain as best you can T U L I P. Thanks. Love y’all.

Steve Brown:
That’s TULIP and it’s a way that people who are reformed try to remember doctrines. People who aren’t reformed, we have a TULIP, and the people who aren’t reformed have a different flower. Theirs is a DAISY. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. You know, I get this question, I sometimes teach at the Billy Graham Training Center in the mountains of North Carolina. And every, they have an hour or two of just Q&A when people ask questions. And every single time.

Pete Alwinson:
It comes up.

Steve Brown:
What is TULIP? And would you explain that to me? And I told them the last time, the next person who does that, you’re going to get the hives. So, don’t ask me that anymore. I’ve told you 80,000 times already. What is TULIP?

Pete Alwinson:
That was gracious of you, Steve.

Steve Brown:
Oh, yeah. I know. Well, look. You can’t be gracious all the time. Go ahead. Tell us what TULIP is.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, you know, in 1610, there was a bunch of theologians from the Reformed camp in the Netherlands. And their hero Jacob Arminius, a theological professor, died and they wanted to articulate his views. So, they came up with five views and they submitted them to the Council of Dordrecht and those guys said, no, it’s the opposite.

Steve Brown:
And so, the five letters in TULIP came from them.

Pete Alwinson:
Came actually

Steve Brown:
the remonstrance

Pete Alwinson:
the remonstrance, they came back and said, okay, this is how we’re going to articulate, you’re wrong on all five points. So, we’ll say to TULIP, let’s do it TULIP. Total depravity, sin kills us and sin affects every aspect of our being. Unconditional election means because you can’t save yourself, God has to unconditionally elect some people. And he doesn’t have to elect everybody. Limited atonement, T U L, a limit means Jesus died for those that he intends to save. Irresistible grace, because you’re dead and can’t save yourself, he has to irresistibly call you. And then once he calls you, and you’re his, and he adopts you, he preserves you. Perseverance of the Saints.

Steve Brown:
What Baptists call eternal security.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And by the way, there are a lot of different views on those basic points. And the basic points are simply saying God, as you say, is large and in charge, and he really is. I, you know, the one that people have really problem with is limited atonement. And I always say, if you, you’re like swallowing the camel and choking on the fly. That’s not controversial. Everybody believes that those, that the atonement is limited to people who come to Christ, those who don’t, it’s not applied.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
So, everybody believes in limited atonement.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. And that’s the eye opener, that most people don’t want to admit.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, some limit the scope of the atonement, some limit the power of the atonement. So that’s

Steve Brown:
yeah, that’s true

Pete Alwinson:
But you know, we call them affectionately more the doctrines of grace. Because it really is talking about the sovereign, free grace of God in bringing us to Christ. Because if we’re dead with Adamic sin, Romans 5, read it, you can’t save yourself.

Steve Brown:
And by the way, these are, if you’re not a believer and you’re listening to this broadcast, just ignore what we say, you know. These are family secrets. These are, once you’re on the inside, you begin to realize, wow, God is really big, he’s really kind, and he does what he says he will do. And it also means, and it deals with the question, and this is an e-mail question, and let me ask both of them, how were those in the Old Testament saved? And then we’ve got another e-mail question that said, what about the salvation of those who had never had a chance to hear the gospel?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. You know, both powerful questions. In the Old Testament, there’s mystery a little bit around it, but they looked ahead to the coming Messiah, those who had the best light were looking for the Lamb, that would be a human representative that would take away their sins.

Steve Brown:
There is a particular theological, and I don’t, we’ve gotten too theological, I think this broadcast, called the Ordo Salutis, which means the Order of Salvation, which at its essence says that you’re saved before you have faith and faith is the gift that God gives that makes it effectual. And there’s truth to that. Is it possible for somebody to be saved before hearing Christ, yes. And die before they get a chance to exercise the faith and make it effectual in their lives? Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. But when people ask the question about what about somebody who’s never heard. I can say, I don’t know, I can give you ideas on it, and we can talk about those until the cow comes home. But the truth is, where the Bible doesn’t speak, we shouldn’t speak. But the Bible does speak about other things that are important. God is loving, he’s kind, he’s merciful, and he does everything right. Even when we don’t understand it. And however he works it, then I’m going to say Amen and Hallelujah.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. And those of us, those who are in our hearing are hearing that there’s good news that Steve and I, if it can work with us,

Steve Brown:
It can work with anybody.

Pete Alwinson:
It can work with anybody.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And by God’s grace, we have been forgiven of our sins because of the work of Christ.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
And we’re different men today, because of Jesus. And we invite you into the family. Accept Him.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. And by the way, this is not a brief for Reformed theology or Calvinism or Presbyterianism. There are other brothers and sisters who would disagree with some, seriously with some things that we’ll say. And so, let me quote an Arminian leader, John Wesley. John Wesley said this, and we should apply it in so many ways in our relationships with other Christians, Wesley said.

If your heart be as my heart, give me your hand.

And Charles Spurgeon said that, and he was Reformed.

That with a brother, he wouldn’t cross the room to argue those things that were secondary to the gospel.

Which I think is true.

Pete Alwinson:
God is good in all that he has done to redeem us.

Steve Brown:
What do you think about Lordship gospel?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. You know, if you’re saying that when you accept Jesus Christ as Savior, that you at the same time, except him as Lord. Yeah. That’s what the Bible says.

Steve Brown:
No, it doesn’t.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes. We accept him as Savior and Lord at the same time.

Steve Brown:
But he is Lord. Yeah. You can’t dichotomize and make Jesus into schizophrenic.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. If I didn’t say that, that’s what I’m saying.

Steve Brown:
I thought you, I thought. Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
No, he is Savior and Lord at the same time.

Steve Brown:
Because he is who he is.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. All right.

Steve Brown:
And you don’t get to choose one or the other, but the issue is a legitimate issue in the sense that when we become Christians, he is our Savior. But in his Lordship, he forgives us even when we sin.

Pete Alwinson:
He has to continue to become our Lord every day of our life.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. Got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.