The Christian Watershed

One thing must be understood: Calvin’s view of salvation is merely an extension of his overall view on God’s sovereignty. In other words, it’s extremely difficult to accept the “five points” without first accepting some presuppositions.

The first presupposition that must be acknowledged is that though man does take some part in the acquisition of knowledge, most knowledge is revealed by God and all knowledge is only obtainable because of His design plan (see “The Necessity of God in the Acquisition of Knowledge“). Calvinists would tend toward the idea that all “spiritual knowledge” (knowledge about God, salvation, sanctification, etc) is illuminated by God and that this illumination does not occur for all. In other words, though common knowledge or natural knowledge can be gained through the faculties God has supplied us with and can aid in spiritual knowledge, we can only know spiritual truths through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

The second presupposition is that all truth is external, thus we have no influence on the formation of truth. Though our cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds, family backgrounds, and other backgrounds can influence our understanding of the truth, truth itself is external to human experience. It is propositional, objective, and external to human thinking and experience. This means – tying in with the last point – that truth is imparted onto humans rather than coming from within humans. Any knowledge gained is merely the acknowledgment of what is already there, an acknowledgment that was also imparted onto the discoverer of the truth.

The third presupposition is that in all knowledge, humans are to keep the glory of God at the center. The first two chapters of Proverbs explain that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge and that it is God who reveals knowledge to humans. This means that when knowledge is revealed to us, we are to use it in some way for God’s glory, not our own.

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