Christ died positively and effectu-ally to save a certain number of hell-deserving sinnners on whom the Fa-ther has already set His free electing love. W. J. Seaton, The Five Points of Calvinism , p.15.
The doctrine of limited atonement is simply that the cross of Christ pro-vides a sure, secure and real salvation for everyone God intended it to save and for them alone. Grover E. Gunn, The Doctrines of Grace, p.17.
For if Christ died for all men, and all men are not saved, the cross of Christ is of no effect. Calvary is a sham. Herman Hanko, God's Ever-lasting Covenant of Grace , p.15.
(All the quotations above are picked from sources which quoted them.)
It is this doctrine of limited atonement that has the problem. According to these people, the Lord died only for the elect, be-cause if He died for all, then all have to be saved. This is their line of argument.
This type of logic comes from basic misunderstanding of Scrip-tures, and the work of Christ, and the doctrines of propitiation and redemption. The Holy Bible does not teach this doctrine of limited atonement. And it is this theory of limited atonement that I consider as a serious heresy.
In the Old Testament, when a man sinned, he had to bring a sac-rificial animal to the door of the tabernacle, and the priest would then make an atonement for his sin, and then his sin would be for-given him (Lev 4:27-31).
A man could not have his sin forgiven, if he did not bring in a sin offering. There we see that man's positive expression of faith and acknowledgement of the ordinance of the Lord, when he brings in an animal for sacrifice. On the Day of Atonement which occurs once a year, the high priest would make an atonement for the all the peo-ple.
We read about this in Leviticus 16, and Lev 23:27-32. We read there, " Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atone-ment for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be CUT OFF from among his people " (Lev 23:27-29).
On this day, atonement was made for ALL the people of Israel. But he that despised it, and failed to afflict himself, or did any work on that day, would be CUT OFF from his people. The benefit of the atonement would now be denied from him, though its benefit was INTENDED for ALL the people in the congregation.
God had made this provision for the cleansing of sins (Lev 16:30). Now all that a man had to do was to obey God's word, but the dis-obedient man in question did not! If a man was cleansed of his sins on that day, it was not by the merit of the affliction wherewith he af-flicted himself was he cleansed, nor was it by the merit of not doing work on that day.
But his cleansing happened be-cause he OBEYED what was told him, thereby got the benefit of the atonement that was made for the sins of ALL the people. The atonement was INTENDED for ALL the people of Israel, despite the fact that the disobedient peo-ple would NOT receive the atonement; " and he shall make an ATONEMENT for the priests, and for ALL THE PEOPLE of the congregation" (Lev 16:33). They were all supposed to obey, but the disobedient DID NOT.
Therefore we conclude this. Just because the atonement was made for ALL, it does not imply that ALL people should receive the benefits of that atonement. They had to OBEY what the Lord had told them in connection with that atonement.
This is a simple and plain Scriptural truth given in the OT concerning the OT atonement. One may now argue that the man who received the atonement EARNED it by OBEYING to do what was supposed to be done on the Day of Atonement. But I would call it a foolish logic, and the man who takes that line of argument either lacks " sound mind," or he does not use it even after God gave it to him (2 Tim 1:7). No man ever EARNED his salvation in any dispensation.
One might have to do different things in different dispensations as the Lord has commanded, but no one EARNS his salvation. What if the Lord did not give this provision of atonement for an Israelite? Can that man still be cleansed of his sins? Obeying what has been told in order to get the benefit of a di-vinely appointed provision does not tantamount to EARNING that benefit.
It was God who offered them the forgiveness of sins in the first place. And God is NOT OBLI-GATED to give this provision to men. God gave this provision of His own choice, and sovereignty. So where is the question of any body earning anything? Neverthe-less, just because God made a provision for the cleansing of sins did not mean that ALL had their sins cleansed. They had to OBEY what was told them.
The same truth applies even to the full and final sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The Bible is very clear that Christ died for ALL men. " But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the an-gels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that HE by the grace of God should TASTE DEATH FOR EVERY MAN" (Heb 2:9). This is where the proponents of limited atonement out rightly LIE about the truth.
At best, they misrepresent the truth clearly stated in Heb 2:9, but at worst, they LIE. It says that Je-sus Christ tasted death FOR EVERY MAN, but they say He died for men of EVERY NATION. Where did the nation, or race, or language come into the context here?
If Christ did not die for all men, God would not have had any basis to be longsuffering towards the unbelieving and the wicked and to show mercy to them in any dis-pensation. "God hath set forth [Christ Jesus] to be a PROPITIA-TION through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST, AND THE JUSTIFIER OF HIM WHICH BE-LIEVETH IN JESUS" (Rom 3:25-26).
The Lord Jesus Christ is our PROPITIATION. Propitiation is that which satisfies the righteous demands of God, that He may not send wrath upon sinners. Jesus Christ being a Propitiation gives God a RIGHTEOUS BASIS to jus-tify ANY man who would believe in Jesus. Because, "he is the PRO-PITIATION FOR OUR SINS: and not for ours only, but ALSO FOR THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD " (1 John 2:2).
But Christ being a propitiation does not mean that all men got justified already. It is now up to the Lord whom to forgive and who not to. Not only did God intend that the sacrifice of Christ should serve Him as a righteous basis to forgive men, but when He sent His Son to be a be a propitiation, he did so because He " loved the world."
"For God so LOVED THE WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The salvation of God is open to ALL men. God says, " WHOSOEVER." What a blessed truth! And think about the "devout" and "godly" men who change this truth into a LIE, and impress upon us that WHOSOEVER does not mean whosoever, but "whosoever AMONG THE ELECT."
We read in the Bible that God "will have ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one me-diator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself A RANSOM FOR ALL, to be testified in due time" (1Tim 2:4-6).
He wants ALL men to be saved, and that includes every single indi-vidual born into this world. And the reason why He wants all men to be saved is because His Son Je-sus Christ stood as a mediator between God and men, and gave Himself a ransom FOR ALL.
The proponents of limited atonement are guilty of making God a liar, by asserting that God DOES NOT will ALL men to be saved. Their argument runs like this. If God will have all men to be saved, and since we know that ALL men do not end up being saved, then God is NOT sovereign because His will is not fulfilled.
This is a ridiculous piece of trash, a result of depraved human logic at its worst. Was it God's will for Adam to eat that forbidden fruit? But did not Adam eat it? Are we not violating the will of God every other day, while yet being the children of God? Does that make God anything short of being sovereign? Do you see what I mean? The problem is with human logic, and human philosophy.
The Bible warns, " Beware lest any man spoil you through PHI-LOSOPHY and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col 2:8). And the re-sult of this philosophy is that God is not sovereign if some one is lost for whom Christ died. "The blood of Christ is then wasted," accord-ing to these philosophers.
If you ask for Scriptural reasons of why they hold limited atonement , they say "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph 5:25), or "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save HIS PEOPLE from their sins " (Mat 1:21). He gave Himself for the church, who are His people. That's the logic. But where do we read in the Bible that Christ died for the church ONLY?
What about the Old Testament Jews, and OT Gentiles, and Tribulation Jews and Tribulation Gentiles? Are they "church," the body of Christ? If they are not, then did Christ die for them? Are there not saved people among them? " His people" in Mat 1:21 is Israel. If Christ died for "his peo-ple" ONLY, then how can today's Gentiles be saved? The amillenni-alists have an easy answer to all these questions.
According to them, all saints of all ages are a part of the church for which Christ died. But even they cannot prove that Christ died for the elect ONLY. Christ died for the elect, no doubt. But no where in the Bible do you see that word ONLY, in connection with the death of Christ.
We read in the book of Ro-mans, "Therefore as by the offence of one JUDGMENT CAME UPON ALL MEN to con-demnation; even so by the righteousness of one the FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience MANY were made SINNERS, so by the obedience of one shall MANY be made RIGHTEOUS" (Rom 5:18-19).
The use of the words MANY and ALL has to be observed carefully in this text. Judgment came upon ALL men to condem-nation. But ALL men did not end up being condemned. Some are justifed. Similarly, free gift came upon ALL men unto justification, but all men did not end up being justified.
Some are comdemned. In the next verse the Holy Spirit is careful to use MANY when He said, "MANY were made sinners," though all are sinners by nature. Because some of them are made SAINTS. Similarly, MANY were made righteous while some will remain SINNERS. In all this, one thing is certain, " the FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN unto jus-tification of life ."
The free gift is OFFERED. But one has to RECEIVE it. I am using Scriptural language here. " WHO-SOEVER shall RECEIVE ME, receiveth not me, but him that sent me" (Mark 9:37). " Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall NOT RECEIVE the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein " (Mark 10:15).
"But as many as RECEIVED HIM, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, EVEN TO THEM THAT BELIEVE ON HIS NAME " (John 1:12). One has to RECEIVE the Lord Jesus Christ. One has to believe. God is not a liar. He said, " AS MANY AS re-ceived him..."
Further we read, "And all things are of God, who hath RECONCILED US to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, AS THOUGH GOD DID BESEECH YOU BY US: we pray you in Christ's stead, BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him " (2 Cor 5:18-21).
Notice that God was reconciling the world unto Himself does not mean all people ended up getting reconciled with God already. Oth-erwise, Paul would not say, " be ye reconciled to God."
The phrase "reconciling the world unto himself" is not said in the sense of ACCOMPLISHED reconciliation, but as in a continu-ing PROCESS of reconciliation over time, on the basis of the atonement which is already ac-complished on the cross. These verses were addressed to some unsaved people attending the Corinthian church.
Paul is telling them to be recon-ciled to God because God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. If the world got reconciled with God automatically at Calvary, then Paul does not have to BE-SEECH people and say, " be ye reconciled to God." The hyper-calvinists have not understood this truth.
To conclude, let us state why limited atonement is a serious her-esy.
1. It is a result of willful PER-VERSION of the Scriptures to fit in men's philosophical ideas into the word of God.
2. Is is a result of OUTRIGHT REJECTION of plain Scriptures - Heb 2:9, 1 John 2:2.
3. It makes God a liar, by em-phasizing that Christ died ONLY for the elect, even though Scrip-tures testify to the contrary.
4. It makes God not to have any righteous basis for showing the " riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering " to wicked men, by "not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor 5:19), in order to lead them to repentance (Rom 2:4). Peter says, " account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (2 Pet 3:15), and God had shown long-suffering even to those who perished in the deluge (1 Pet 3:20).
5. Limited atonement projects God as a STINGY person, Who provided means for salvation ONLY for a the elect, but told His people to go and preach gospel to " EVERY creature."
6. It makes God a respecter of persons which He is not (Acts 10:34). ¦