03.19.06 CALVINISM: TRUE OR FALSE? PT3 (LIMITED ATONEMENT)
Christians believe the wrong doings, the inadequacies, the failure of man to be perfect is an offense which God has decided will earn mankind the death penalty. This wrongness of ours is called “sin.” Sin is something we’ve all got on our wrap sheet. And death then is something we all have in our future. Or HAD in our future. God decided to allow someone else to sit in the electric chair for us.
The shirtless guy in the end zone holding up “JOHN 3:16” every Sunday the NFL has a game is telling the story, oddly, of how Jesus came to earth as man because God loved mankind, and how Jesus died and how if we believe this is true - that we have debt we can’t pay and that Jesus paid it for us by dying in our place - we won’t have to die. The apostle Paul told his jailer who asked how he could be “saved” simply “believe.” Jesus has already died for “the world” and our simply believing it somehow crosses us over, Paul says, “from death to life.” This act of dying so that mankind doesn’t have to, this taking our place on the executioners platform and effectively paying for our sin with His life, is called “atonement.”
But Calvin (and before him Augustine) said, “Wait a minute!” (Or, because he was German, “Ein minuten bitte.") “‘World’ doesn’t mean everybody in the world, on this planet,” Calvin hypothetically continues, “Just certain somebodies God loves more than the rest of the somebodies: only the ‘elect’ in the world were died for, had their debt paid, and are “saved” from death.”
Other Calvinists have said it this way:
“It was just because God so loved the world of elect sinners that He sent His only begotten Son...” (Edwin H. Palmer, “The Five Points of Calvinism” p.44)
“The Biblical or Calvinistic position is that Christ intended that His death should atone only for the elect and not for others. According to this position, man is totally depraved, and God, loving some with a great love, elected them, or in other words, determined that they should be saved. He sent Christ to die for them and them alone, thereby saving them. Thus, the atonement of Christ is limited to some and is not intended for all. Hence, the name ‘limited atonement’” (Dr. Edwin H. Palmer, “The Five Points of Calvinism” p. 35).
“Historical or mainline Calvinism has consistently maintained that Christ’s redeeming work .... was intended to render complete satisfaction for certain specified sinners and that it actually secured salvation for these individuals and for no one else....Thus, Christ’s saving work was limited in that it was designed to save some and not others...” (Steele & Thomas, “The Five Points of Calvinism”, p. 39).
“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...it was the will of God that Christ by the blood of the cross...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...” (Canons of Dordt (2nd Head of Doctrine—Article 8)
Atonement is a mysterious thing and I’m not confident that I have it fully figured out, can or ever will, BUT the Calvinist view seems to me to be worth questioning. Doesn’t mean its wrong, just that either I’m not predestined to understand it (little Cavinist humor there, sorry) or it does in fact contradict some pretty familiar words in the bible beginning with John 3:16 which has already been mentioned. Then there are these:
I John 2:2 “He Himself (Jesus Christ) is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
Hebrews 2:9 By the grace of God, Jesus “tasted death for everyone.” “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men” (Romans 5:18).
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Not just some of what was lost)
Romans 5:6: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Not just some of the ungodly)
It’s also taught by Paul in the bible that sin entered nature and man’s mind and heart through one man: Adam. One man sinned and so ALL men became sinners. And Paul goes on to say that sin was paid for by one God/man: Jesus. One God/man died and ALL sin was paid for. He makes this point very clear when he says, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”
So, again, teach me. I am only skimming the surface of Calvinism here but I’m doing it this way because, honestly, it’s the little I know. In other words, I’m not being shallow on purpose. This is the deepest depth of my knowledge of Cavinism. I’m hoping somebody can teach me more here, take me deeper.
I’m listening.
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