17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”
18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities,
20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,
21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.”
23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;
24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Acts 16:16-24.
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Reformed doctrine, specifically “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, proclaims “the way of salvation“.
Reformed doctrine proclaims “total depravity” (the “T” of “TULIP”), the condition of man which eliminates any hope in man achieving salvation through his own works or even his own will. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1.
Only after establishing “total depravity” does “TULIP” proceed to teach “unconditional election” (the “U” of “TULIP”). After we understand and believe that there is no hope for salvation based on the condition of man and anything that man could produce, then we can better understand and believe that the only hope for salvation is based on God and God’s election of those whom He elects to save. Man could not provide any work or any will or any other condition which would motivate God to save him or her. “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9:15-16.
We cannot manipulate Jesus Christ to be according to our own desires. Scripture teaches that Christ died only for the elect of God and that Christ’s death, the shedding of His blood, effectively paid the price of salvation necessary to save those for whom Christ died. If Christ died for everyone, then everyone would be saved. But, Reformed doctrine teaches “limited atonement” (the “L” of “TULIP”) that Christ’s atonement is limited to God’s elect. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.” Ephesians 5:25-28. This is a peculiar love, a special love just for His church. Just as a husband should not love and give himself up for all women, but only his own wife, Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for only His church, not for everyone in the world. In Christ’s intercessory prayer in John 17:9, we see Christ praying for only those whom God gave Him, not for the world: “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;”
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:4-6. “Irresistible grace” (the “I” of “TULIP”) caused us, the dead in sin, to be made alive and raised up! Jesus proclaimed: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” John 6:37.
If it was up to us to maintain faith or a righteous walk, then we would certainly fall from grace and lose our salvation. But, Reformed doctrine consistently teaches that salvation is from the LORD. God provides everything that we need including “perseverance of the saints” better known as “preservation of the saints” (the “P” of “TULIP”). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29.
A fitting summary of “the way of salvation” is provided by the following Article 8 of The Canons of Dordt.
Article 8. For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased for them by his death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 