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Atonement

Mission Possible: A Response to Shai Linne

Submitted by WilliamBirch on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 7:48am

The following is an edited response to Shai Linne's Limited Atonement rap
song, "Mission Accomplished." The original version was posted by "Murray" in the comments at the Gadgetry, Thoughts, Unleashed! blog. What is in brackets has been re-written or re-worded for this posting on SEA.

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Well excuse me Mr. Linne, but I think you’re confused.
And there are one or two verses which you have misused.

It’s true – God only saves the group He’s elected.
But that doesn’t mean we’re born preselected.

The "children of promise" He’s chosen to save;
All who seek God through works remain in the grave.

And God truly desires all men to believe;
His words in The Book weren’t meant to deceive.

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And the elect themselves were just like all others,
Once children of wrath, just like their brothers.

So even if His death was selective,

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Romans 5:6: Who are the Ungodly?

Submitted by bossmanham on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 10:40am

A single verse I think speaks volumes about the extent of Christ's atonement is Romans 5:6. Paul writes, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (NASB). Paul tells us here explicitly who Christ died for; the ungodly. Now, many Calvinists claim that Jesus only died for a select few on the cross. He only paid for the sins of the elect. But if this is the case, then Romans 5:6 would indicate that the non-elect aren't ungodly, since Christ died for the ungodly. Or it means, as the Arminian insists, that Christ really did die for the ungodly; namely all those who are at odds with God because of their sin, who Paul identifies as every individual on earth (Romans 3:23).

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Ironside on Calvinism

Submitted by SEA on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 9:13am

Taken from: http://www.thebereancall.org/node/8145

Ironside on Calvinism

"Turn to your Bible and read for yourself in the only two chapters in which this word predestinate or predestinated is found. The first is Romans 8:29-30, the other chapter is Ephesians 1:5 and 11. You will note that there is no reference in these four verses to either heaven or hell but to Christ-likeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Predestination means that someday all the redeemed shall become just like the Lord Jesus"

"D.L. Moody used to put it very simply the elect are the 'whosoever wills' the non-elect 'whosoever wont's'. This is exactly what scripture teaches, the invitation is to all, those who accept it are the elect. Remember, we are never told that Christ died for the elect".

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Enjoying The Good News Of Christ’s Birth From An Arminian Perspective

Submitted by SEA on Thu, 12/24/2009 - 12:40am

[The following post was authored by Ben Henshaw, and has undergone some revision with the author's permission for inclusion here.]

Calvinists often argue that God’s love has failed if Christ’s atonement was made for all and yet not all are saved. I find it strange that Calvinists, who are so quick to criticize Arminians for holding to a man centered religion, argue that unless man responds to God’s love in saving faith, then His love for them has somehow failed. How is it that they feel comfortable equating the success or failure of God’s love with man’s response to that love? Is the nature or validity of God’s love dependant on man’s response? Doesn’t that seem a little man centered?

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Two Wills in God?

Submitted by SEA on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 9:26am

The following comments (slightly edited) are taken from a SEA member while discussing the subject of the problem with the Calvinist "two wills" view and the suggestion that the Arminian position must likewise adopt essentially the same "two wills" view as the Calvinist. This is especially relevant considering a recent post at Justin Taylor's blog where R.C. Sproul seems to use the "two wills" approach to explain how God can truly desire for all to be saved while secretly reprobating so many by way of an irresistible and unchangeable eternal decree Does God Really Want All People to be Saved?"),

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Does the Gospel According to Calvinism Offer Salvation to Anyone at all?

Submitted by Ben Henshaw on Mon, 12/07/2009 - 2:09pm

Dr. Picirilli thinks not. After making the point that Calvinists believe that those reprobates who hear the gospel cannot truly respond to the offer of salvation, he further observes that,

    Furthermore, in the Calvinistic system, the gospel is not really offering salvation to any, since neither the elect nor the non-elect can accept the offer or meet its conditions. In fact, the “conditions” are not really conditions in the Calvinist system. They are part of the “package” of salvation benefits given to the elect by virtue of the death of Christ for them.

    Without realizing it, the Calvinist is finally saying that repentance and faith (as the gift of God in the salvation “package”) are being offered to all who will repent and believe, when in fact none can do so. This reduces to pure tautology and is no offer at all. (Grace, Faith, Free Will, pp. 117, 118, emphasis his)

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John Goodwin, *Redemption Redeemed*

Now available here online, John Goodwin's Redemption Redeemed may be the best defense of Arminianism ever written. Published in 1651 by the Arminian Puritan John Goodwin (1593-1665), it is written in seventeenth century English with a Puritan writing style, which can make for challenging reading. But it contains tremendous biblical exegesis. The patient reader will be rewarded with a powerful, classic, comprehensive, biblical defense of five point Reformation Arminian theology.

The book runs 740 pages and is made available here in eight file attachments. There is a table of contents along with the first part of the body of the book in the first file. Besides the last part of the body of the book, the final file also contains a Scripture index, a subject index, and a table of general rules for interpreting Scripture. The material is arranged like so:

File 1: Preliminary matter through page 78
File 2: Pages 79-173
File 3: Pages 174-268
File 4: Pages 269-363

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For Whom Did Christ Die? By Ben Witherington

Submitted by Kevin Jackson on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 8:35am

(From the Euangelion blog. August 16,2009)

According to Ben Witherington (Asbury Theological Seminary):

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Is God a Miserable Failure?

Submitted by arminianbaptist on Thu, 10/08/2009 - 8:39am

A fond apologetic argument of Calvinists is that if Arminianism is true in regard to universal atonement (i.e., Jesus died for everyone, and not just for the elite few), then he has failed miserably. Here is the argument as one Calvinist wrote to me, "If you believe that Christ was sent into the world to save every single man, Christ has failed... and not only slightly failed, He has failed miserably, for more men than will be saved, will be damned...."

If God's purpose was to save believers, then he is 100% successful. If God's purpose is to save a people who choose to believe in him without him throwing on the all powerful, irresistible and automatic faith switch, then God is 100% successful.

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Prereformation Church History & the Calvinist/Arminian Debate

Submitted by Godismyjudge on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 8:36am

Calivinists have a rich heritage - one that they can be proud of. It's unquestionable that Augustine, many of the Reformers and Puritans, held Calvinist ideas. But after reading Boettner's introduction of the Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, one might get the impression that Calvinism dominates Church history, and substantially every major theologian accepted Calvinisic predestination. Boettner claims:

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