TULIP

Definition

TULIP is an acronym summarizing the five points of Calvinism: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints. The five points themselves were articulated by the Synod of Dort (1618-19) in the Canons of Dort, a Reformed response to five articles of protest raised by followers of Jacobus Arminius.

Historical Development

The acronym TULIP is much younger than the doctrines it summarizes. Louis Berkhof’s contemporary Loraine Boettner helped popularize it as a teaching device in The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932),¹ but the acronym itself dates only to the early twentieth century, not to Dort.² David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, and S. Lance Quinn’s 1963 book The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented did as much as any single work to spread the acronym’s widespread use.²

The Five Points

Each point has its own dedicated article covering its confessional statement, biblical basis, and history in full; this article only summarizes what each letter stands for.

T: Total depravity, contrasted with universal prevenient grace, holds that sin has so corrupted human nature that no one is able, apart from grace, to turn to God on their own.

U: Unconditional election holds that God’s choice of those he saves rests on his own will rather than on anything foreseen in the persons chosen, including foreseen faith.

L: Limited atonement holds that Christ’s death was intended to secure the salvation of those the Father gave him, rather than to make salvation merely possible for everyone without securing it for anyone in particular.

I: Irresistible grace holds that when God effectually calls someone to salvation, that call accomplishes its purpose and cannot finally be refused.

P: Perseverance of the saints holds that those God has truly saved will be kept by him and will endure in faith to the end, rather than finally falling away.

Related Doctrines

• Calvinism
• Arminianism
• Canons of Dort
• Synod of Dort
• Salvation

References

1. Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1932). ↩

2. Kenneth J. Stewart, “Hardier than Supposed: The Resurgence of Calvinism Across the 20th Century,” Themelios 50, no. 2 (2025): 288: “Two Americans (both Baptists) collaborated in 1963 to publish The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented. Their work, as much as any other, popularized the widespread use of the acronym TULIP, which has since been demonstrated to be only of early twentieth century origin.” ↩ ↩²