~Not all Calvinists are elect. ~Calvinism is not the gospel. ~The Gospel is truth-it is perfect. ~Calvinism is a biblical theory that can be flawed as men are flawed-it cannot be considered absolute truth. ~Upon entering glory, all the elect will know truth.
C. Matthew McMahon writes:
“It is ludicrous to state that men must first understand all the fine points of Calvinism to be saved. There are many Calvinists who believe that one must believe the fullness of the doctrines of grace in the acronym TULIP to be converted. Simply, this is nonsense. To demonstrate the folly of this, I shall ask the question in this manner, “How well do you know the fine points of TULIP and who decides how fine they go?” For instance, you may be reading this article and may have known the doctrines of grace for 10 years. There may be someone else who has pondered those same doctrines for 12 years. They may, in relation, know the points in a greater capacity of intricacy and understanding than you do. If that is the case, then it must needs be that he is saved and you are not. Maybe his degree of understanding is the point by which we measure who is or who is not saved. Maybe we should measure that by my understanding of those points. Maybe we should measure that by Calvin’s understanding of the points, or the Synod of Dordt’s? You will say, “No, that is not true. What we mean is the basic underlying ideas contained in the Gospel which are most certainly contained in TULIP – that is what we mean.” Wonderful. That is what the point of this paper is all about. The substance of the Gospel saves. The fine points of theology help us to praise Christ all the more. TULIP no doubt contains the Gospel. But the substance of the Gospel is much simpler than TULIP.”