1. TOTAL DEPRAVITY
Q1: Does man have the free will to receive or reject Jesus Christ as Saviour?
Calvinist TD insists that man does not have a free will to receive Christ, nor do any good at all. Calvinists believe man’s will is in bondage to his sinful nature, basing this on the premise that ‘man is dead in trespasses and sins.’ (Ephesians 2:1).
Q2: What is wrong with this Calvinist error that the natural man can only act according to his nature?
1) Paul still acknowledged his ‘inabilities’ after salvation: ‘That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not.’ (Romans 7:15). ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit … so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’ (Galatians 5:17). Paul acted contrary to his new nature.
2) Unsaved man lost his living spirit, but gained a conscience enabling him not to fully express the evil of his sin nature.
3) Depraved man has ability because of conscience, as seen from:
a) Romans 2:14 ‘When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law … their conscience also bearing witness …’ b) John 7:17 ‘If any man will do his will …’ Jesus said that man has free will.
c) Many scriptures show that unsaved men have the ability to do good. ‘A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children.’ (Proverbs 13:22). ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ Matthew 7:11; Luke 6:33; I Peter 2:18.
Key: The unsaved man sins because he yields to his depraved nature and chooses to sin, not because he is unable to do good.
Q3: If man cannot believe, then how can he be held responsible for what he cannot do? He can’t be held responsible!
Key: Calvinists base their idea that man cannot receive Christ of his own free will on two pillars:
1) John 1:13 ‘which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ This gives the source of the new birth, not the reason why men receive Christ.
The source of the new birth is:
- not of blood, not physical generation, inheritance, or natural descent;
- not of the will of flesh, not reformation or self-effort;
- not of the will of man, not relatives, preachers, or priests;
- The source of the new birth is of God, not of man.
Q4: Why does God give the new birth to people?
Answer: God gives the new birth to ‘as many as received him.’ John 1:12 .
2) Romans 9:16 ‘So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.’ Calvinists claim that man does not have the will to receive Christ and salvation.
Answer: Man does have the ability to receive Christ, while in a state of depravity.
- If ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.’ (Romans 6:17).
- ‘Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.’ (John 5:40).
- ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ (Revelation 22:7).
Key: The reason men don’t receive Christ is because they will not, not because they are unable.
Q5: Key: All Calvinists compare TD to a physically dead man or to Lazarus. (John 11:43,44), saying ‘A corpse does not call out for help.’ ‘You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.’ Answer: It is true that a physically dead man does not call out for help, but spiritually dead people are different, being still biologically active and alive, able to walk, talk and fulfil desires.
- A spiritually dead man can lift up his eyes, see, speak, pray, hear, reason &feel torment.
Luke 16:23-28.
- A true analogy of spiritual death, is how the prodigal son who ‘was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ (Luke 15:24).
Key: This Calvinist analogy of a corpse not calling out for help breaks down because of responsibility.
Q6: Is a dead corpse responsible for anything? NO.
Is a lost sinner responsible for anything? YES.
Refuting Calvinists’ Proof Texts for Total Depravity 1) Someone who ‘cannot do something.’ a. John 8:43 ‘Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word’.
Question: To whom does this refer?
Answer: Not all mankind, but unbelieving Jews. Why could they not hear Christ’s words?
- because they did the lusts of their father the devil. (John 8:44).
- because they did not believe Christ when He told them the truth. (John 45,46).
- because they did not believe that Christ was I AM. (John 8:24). b. John 14:17 ‘Even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him....’ Question: What does it mean ‘whom the world cannot receive’?
Answer: Because ‘it seeth him not, nor knows him.’ This means that they judge by their physical senses. What they cannot see, hear, taste, or feel makes no impression on them. Because they cannot see the Holy Spirit operating, they don’t receive His testimony about Christ.
c. Romans 8:8,7 ‘Because the carnal mind is enmity against God … they that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ Calvinists say ‘enmity against God’ is Total Depravity, and ‘cannot please God’ is Total Inability.
Answer: The minding of the things of the flesh (v.5) leads to hatred of God Himself, because He is opposed to it. The supreme regard to the flesh is opposed to God’s law, is hostile to God, is utterly irreconcilable with God’s law, and can never be made to harmonize with it, just as adultery cannot be chastity; falsehood cannot be truth. The passage says nothing about whether man has the ability to obey God’s law or to love God.
2) Someone’s ‘Inability’ but with a reason given for it:
a. John 6:44 ‘No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.’ Calvinists say this ‘drawing’ is Irresistable Grace. Calvinists say ‘No man can come to me’ is Total Depravity because of the lack of an ‘irresistable effectual call’ by God the Father. Calvinist error: By misapplying v.44 to Salvation in the Church Age, Calvinists conclude that, if God draws all men, then all men will be saved. Hence they conclude that God only draws the ‘elect’, those whom He has given to the Son.
(John 6:37).
Answer: Jesus explains the Father’s drawing in v.44 by v.45: ‘They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh to me.’ This is quoted from Isaiah 54:13 discussing restored Israel in the Millennium, not ‘elect’ in the Church Age. Key: Calvinists don’t understand that in John 6:44 it is the Father who draws people to Christ during His 3 year ministry, but in John 12:32 it is Christ who draws all men to Himself after Calvary, along with the Holy Spirit’s reproving work in the Church Age in John 16:7-11.
John 12:32 ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’ John 16:7-11 ‘When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’ Hence the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, not just the ‘elect.’ John 1:9 ‘That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ Key: Calvinists’ error in John 6:44 is to:
i) misapply it from Christ’s three-year ministry to Israel, to a doctrinal statement on salvation in the Church Age.
ii) make the Father’s drawing irresistable and equate it with Salvation in the Church Age. (Acts 7:51 shows God’s Grace is resistable).
b. John 6:65 ‘No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.’ (Same answer as John 6:44 above).
c. John 12:39-40. See Isaiah 6:9,10. Calvinists use these verses to claim that some have the inability to believe because God has blinded their eyes by reprobation, proving that God hardens people. ‘Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them’. (John 12:39-40).
Answer: This prophecy in Isaiah 6:9,10 is mentioned 5 times in the New Testament. (Matthew 13:14,15; Mark 4:52; Luke 8:10; John 12:39-40; Acts 28:25-27).
i. These passages all refer to ‘this people’, which is the nation Israel. (Acts 28:26,27; Matthew 13:15).
ii. Of these 5 NT occurrences, 2 cannot teach reprobation because the people closed their own eyes: ‘their eyes they have closed.’ (Matthew 13:15;
Acts 28:27).
iii. Israel shutting their eyes took place after they were born, not in eternity past.
iv. Note the order of events: John 12:37 ‘they believed not on him’, then v.39 ‘they could not believe.’ They would not believe, so God gave them up,and now they could not believe.
Key: These passages teach the judicial hardening of a nation, not the sovereign hardening of individuals.
v. As further proof, notice where this prophecy appears:
- in the Gospels, when the Jews rejected Christ and the mystery form of the Kingdom; - in John’s Gospel when the Jews rejected Christ and He finished his public dealings;
- in Acts 28 when the Jews rejected Christ, and God turned to the Gentiles in the Church Age;
- in Isaiah 6 it introduces the Tribulation when the Jews will accept a false Christ.
d. Romans 3:11 ‘There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.’ i. Paul is not teaching the inability of unsaved people to receive Christ, eg:
Unregenerate Cornelius was a ‘devout man, and one that feareth God with all his house.’ (Acts 10:2).
ii. Paul is not saying that people are unable to seek God. The Bible commands men to seek God (11 times): ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found …’ (Isaiah 55:6). The commands to seek God are not in vain: ‘I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.’ (Isaiah 45:19).
iii. Seeking God is different from believing the Gospel, eg: A Jew who seeks God by keeping the Old Testament Law is just as lost as Gentiles who don’t seek God.
Question: If Total Depravity is not the reason men don’t seek God, then what is it?
Answer: Pride. Psalm 10:4 ‘The wicked, through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God.’ e. I Corinthians 2:14 ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ Calvinists conclude here that faith is given by God, and is not our decision.
Answer: Receiving spiritual things and receiving Jesus Christ are two different things. The natural, unsaved man cannot discern the truth, beauty, wisdom, value and excellence of divine things, because he does not yet have the indwelling Holy Spirit. If he received Christ as his Saviour, he would then have the Holy Spirit, and would then be able to know and discern spiritual things. It doesn’t teach that he is unable ever to receive Christ, due to Total Inability or Election to hell.
Question: Is a man responsible for what he cannot do?
Answer: Yes and No. It depends on why he is unable. For example:
A drugged man is accountable for his actions, only if he wilfully took drugs. A drugged man is not accountable for his actions, if he did not wilfully drug himself.
Key: Two kinds of Scriptures overthrow Total Depravity/Inability:
a) Scriptures commanding people to believe:
- ‘Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ (Isaiah 45:22) - ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.’ (Matthew 11:28) - ‘God … now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.’ (Acts 17:30).
Question: If Total Inability is true, is God mocking His creation by offering salvation to men, knowing that men could never take it? In Isaiah 45:19 God guarantees His offers are genuine: ‘I said not … seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.’ Erasmus said to Luther: ‘If it is not in the power of every man to keep what God commands, all God’s promises, threats, reproofs, blessings, curses and precepts are useless.’ b) Scriptures implying the possibility that a man can believe:
- ‘Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.’ (John 5:40).
- ‘Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved.’ (I Thessalonians 2:16).
These verses show that if we preach to Gentiles, the possibility exists that some might be saved. Key: If there exists the slightest possibility that a man could believe (as seen by ‘might’) then Total Inability is destroyed, because there are no possibilities in TULIP Calvinism.
2. UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION Q1: Does God elect some men to salvation or not? (Key Issue).
Key Error of Calvinism: Calvinists confuse election and predestination with salvation.
Q2: Does God foreordain all things? Eg: the Fall, all sin, all suffering? Does God foreordain rape, murder, blasphemy, sodomy, incest, bestiality, burning babies, dismembering a concubine, Herod massacring two-year-olds? NO.
Q3: Why does God bring evil upon a people?
1) Because of their sins, not because of an arbitrary decree.
2) God didn’t decree their sins: ‘Which I commanded not nor spake it, neither came it into my mind’. (Jeremiah 19:5).
3) God’s holiness would not allow Him to author sin. God would never command a man to repent, then fix it so he couldn’t repent, in order to damn him.
Q4: Which Scripture calls predestination a Divine decree? NONE.
1) Of God’s 7 Decrees, none are eternal, or involve election or predestination . (Isaiah 10:1.
2) To Calvinists’ invented decrees, God says, ‘Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees.’ Key 1: Calvinists’ error is to exalt God’s sovereignty (arbitrariness) above all His other attributes, such as His holiness and justice.
Key 2: Calvinists’ error is to confuse God’s influence, direction, control and permission with God’s election, predestination, foreordination and decrees. God foreknows without foreordaining. Key 3: Calvinists’ error is to read ‘foreordained’ into expressions discussing God’s control and influence.
Q5: Does God change His mind? YES.
1) God was going to kill Hezekiah, but changed His mind to add 15 years to his life.
(Isaiah 38:5).
2) God repented of the evil He planned for Nineveh, because they turned from their evil.
(Jonah 3:10) 3) Calvinists contradict their belief that God predestines our lifespan, by using medical advances to lengthen their lifespans. Some men ‘shall not live out half their days.’ (Psalm 55:23). ‘Why shouldest thou die before thy time?’ (Ecclesiastes 7:17).
Q6: How could God decree and foreordain burning babies if it never came into His mind?
(Jerem.19:5) Q7: Why does sin take place? Because God foreordained it? NO, but because of:
1) Man’s depravity 2) God punishes people’s sins: ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon this place … because they have forsaken me …’ (Jeremiah 19:3-5).
3) God expressly stated that He didn’t decree their sins: ‘Which I commanded not nor spake it’ Jer19:5 4) God permits it. Permit and decree are different concepts. Our responsibility is to ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ (James 4:7).
Q8: If predestination is a secret decree of God, how is it that Calvinists know so much about it? (Deuteronomy 29:29 ‘The secret things …’) Key: Ten examples of man’s free will in Scripture refute the Calvinist error that man’s actions have been foreordained from eternity past:
1) Free will offerings (16 in OT) show that after a person had made all the offerings prescribed by the Mosaic Law, he might out of gratitude to God give something extra:
‘Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish.’ (Leviticus 22:19). The phrase ‘at your own will’ teaches that he had the free will to give it or not give it.
2) Free will Journey to Jerusalem teaches that a man has free will: ‘I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel … which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.’ (Ezra 7:13).
3) Adam and Eve had free will: ‘of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat’.
(Genesis 2:16).
4) The people and governors of Israel ‘willingly offered themselves’ to defeat Sisera (Judges 5:2,9).
5) David encouraged Solomon to serve God with a ‘willing mind.’ (I Chronicles 28:9).
6) During Nehemiah’s time some people ‘willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem’Neh 11:2
7) NT prayer promises are based on believers’ free will: ‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ (John 15:7).
8) Paul preached willingly: ‘For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.’ (I Corinthians 9:17).
9) Salvation is received by taking it of our own free will: ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ (Revelation 22:17).
10) David exercised his free will when he praised God: ‘Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill-offerings of my mouth, O Lord …’ (Psalm 119:108).
Q9: Does prayer change things? A: YES. Prayer proves that God has not predestined all things:
1) Moses’ prayer changed God’s mind about destroying Israel and Aaron.
(Deuteronomy 9:18-29).
2) Hezekiah’s prayer changed God’s mind to lengthen his life by 15 years (II Kings 20:1-6) 3) Elijah prayed for no rain, then later for rain. (James 5:17,18).
4) A righteous man’s effectual, fervent prayer availeth much. (James 5:16).
Key: God doesn’t foreordain all things because of:
1) Contingency verses showing the possibility of an event happening. There are many things in Scripture that are not fixed or predestined:
a) If Christ’s works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.
(Matt. 11:21).
b) ‘How often would I have gathered thy children together … and ye would not.
(Luke 13:34).
c) ‘ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.’ (John 5:30).
d) ‘Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved.’ (I Thessalonians 2:16).
e) Many of God’s promises to Israel were conditional. (Deuteronomy 5:33; 6:23).
2) Chance disproves God’s foreordaining things. Does anything happen by chance?
According to the Bible, some things do. ‘And by chance there came down a certain priest that way..’ (Luke 10:31). ‘If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way …’ (Deuteronomy 22:6). This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know what is going to happen, or has no control over His creation, but it does mean that there is no all-encompassing decree of predestination.
3) Common Sense rejects any foreordained all-encompassing decree. If ‘What will be, will be’ were true, then nobody could avoid carrying out God’s eternal, sovereign, foreordained decree.
Q10: Would God be just in electing some and passing by the rest?
Answer: Did Jesus recommend the behaviour of the priest and levite who passed by the half-dead man in the Good Samaritan story? (Luke 10:30-34). NO. Jesus commands us to ‘go and do thou likewise’ (Luke 10:37) as the Good Samaritan helped the man. Does Jesus practise what he preaches? Surely.
Key: Calvinists divert their opponents’ criticism by pitting Arminianism against Hyper-Calvinism, and then take Calvinism as a mediating position. Note: Romans 9 is the Calvinists’ ‘haven of reprobation’, just as Proverbs is the Calvinists’ ‘haven of divine foreordination’.
Q11: How do we answer these verses which Calvinists use to teach God electing someone to hell?
1) Proverbs 16:4 ‘The Lord hath made all things for himself:.. even the wicked for the day of evil.’ Answer: This teaches the use God makes of His creation, not the decisions He makes for them.
- Since God does all his pleasure (Isaiah 46:10) and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11), then He could not have created a man wicked just to show His power by damning him.
- God has made all men the same in the sense of: ‘He fashioneth their hearts alike’.Psalm 33:13-15 - God makes the wicked serve his own glory and purposes. ‘Surely, the wrath of man shall praise thee.’ (Psalm 76:10).
2) II Thessalonians 5:9 ‘God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Calvinists think this teaches that God has appointed some to wrath.
Answer:
a) ‘Wrath’ = 7 year Tribulation, not hell.
b) ‘Salvation’ = deliverance from the 7 year Tribulation by the rapture.
c) ‘Appointed’ = God’s will for Christians to be raptured, not God’s decree to save the ‘elect’.
d) ‘The great day of his wrath is come’ (Revelation 6:17) is the Tribulation (Revelation 6-19).
e) The context of I Thessalonians 5:3 is ‘sudden destruction cometh upon them’.
3) I Peter 2:8 ‘And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed’. Calvinists think ‘some have been appointed (same word as I Thessalonians 5:9) unto disobedience’.
Answer: God appoints to destruction all those who reject Christ, stumbling at the rock of offence. (See Proverbs 31:8 ‘all such as are appointed to destruction’. The disobedience is defined in the context as unbelief (I Peter 2:7), just as obedience is defined as belief in Romans 10:16 (‘they have not all obeyed the Gospel’).
4) II Peter 2:12 ‘But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.’ Calvinists think that these ‘false prophets’ and ‘false teachers’ (II Peter 2:1) have been foreordained ‘to be taken and destroyed’ before the foundation of the world.
Answer: In both II Peter 2:12 (‘perish in their own corruption’) and Jude 10 (‘as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves’) the corruption was their own doing.
God never makes a man in a reprobate condition. Men are always reprobate because they’ve done something to earn it, as the next verse makes clear: ‘and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.’ (II Peter 2:13). A reward is something they earn. God ‘destroyed them that believe not.’ (Jude 5).
5) II Peter 2:17 ‘… to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.’ Jude 13 ‘… to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.’ Calvinists claim these people have been reserved for condemnation by a sovereign, eternal decree.
Q: Who is reserved?
Answer: False prophets and false teachers who deny the Lord (II Peter 2:1); ungodly (Jude 15); angels that sinned (II Peter 2:4; Jude 6); unjust (II Peter 2:9); wicked (II Peter 2:7), etc. They were reserved in their lives after they committed wicked actions and because of their sins.
6) Jude 4 ‘For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained (Greek prographo – 4270) to this condemnation, ungodly men, … denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Calvinists think these men were ordained of old to condemnation before the foundation of the world by a sovereign, eternal decree.
Answer: Q1: When were they ordained?
Answer: During Enoch’s ministry. ‘Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these saying: Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’ (Jude 14,15).
Q2: Why were they ordained to condemnation? Answer: Because of their ungodly deeds.
Q3: How were they ordained? Answer: By Enoch.
Q4: What does ‘ordained’ mean? Answer: Ordained (4270) = prographo (Greek) = to write previously, to announce. They were announced by Enoch, not foreordained by a sovereign, eternal decree from before the foundation of the world.
7) Isaiah 6:9,10 = Matthew 13:14,15. Calvinists think that some have inability to believe because God has blinded their eyes by reprobation, and hardened their hearts.
Answer: a) ‘This people’ = the nation Israel.
b) ‘Their eyes they have closed’ (Matthew 13:15; Acts 28:27). They deliberately closed their eyes.
c) In John 12:37 they did not believe. In John 12:39 they could not believe.
d) These 5 passages describe the judicial hardening of a nation not the sovereign hardening of individuals.
8) Romans 9:13 ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’ Calvinists think Jacob was personally elected to salvation, and Esau was personally elected to eternal desolation (hell).
Answer: a) The purpose of God according to election (Romans 9:11) concerns service: ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ (Romans 9:12). This teaches national preference, not election to salvation.
b) Genesis 25:23 ‘Two nations are in thy womb … the elder shall serve the younger.’ c) Romans 9:13 is quoted from Malachi 1:1-3, written 1400 years later: ‘Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste.’ In Genesis we have a prophetic statement looking forward.
In Malachi we have a historical statement looking backward.
d) Calvin admits that this refers to Jacob’s and Esau’s posterity (Institutes, p 930, III, xxi,7).
e) God didn’t hate Esau personally in eternity past. God hated him nationally after seeing his sins for 1400 years.
e) Jesus loved the rich young ruler who rejected him. (Mark 10:22).
9) Romans 9:18 ‘Pharaoh … whom he will he hardeneth.’ Q: Were Pharaoh and Esau sovereignly hated from eternity? NO, because:
Answer: a) God raised up Pharaoh from sickness of boils (Exodus 9:11-16) not into existence.
b) Q: When does God harden a persons heart? From eternity or after he hardens his own heart? Pharaoh hardened himself first. (Exodus 8:15,32; 9:34) ‘Pharaoh hardened his heart.’ God reinforced Pharaoh’s decision by hardening him later.
10) Romans 9:22 ‘God…endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.’ Q: Does God fit the non-elect to destruction by His foreordaining decrees?
Answer: No, because:
a) The potter and the clay was a common Old Testament illustration (Isaiah 29:16;
45:9; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:1-6) yet it never referred to anyone’s salvation. b) Jeremiah 18:1-10: Israel = clay; God = Potter; Marring of clay = Israel’s disobedience; God making clay again = God’s change of plans from good to evil discipline of Israel.
c) The individual determines what kind of vessel he will be. II Timothy 2:20,21 says, ‘If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, … prepared unto every good work.’ Vessels are made empty. God doesn’t make anyone honourable or dishonourable.
d) Israel as the vessels of wrath, fitted themselves to destruction, because they ‘stumbled at that stumblingstone’ (Romans 9:32), were ‘guilty of the blood of Christ’ (Matthew 27:25) and were ‘enemies of the Gospel.’ (Romans 11:28).
e) Key: All men are ‘vessels of wrath’ (Eph. 2:3), but God will have mercy on all who receive Christ. (Romans 11:32 ‘Have mercy on all’; and I Peter 2:10 ‘but now obtained mercy.’).
f) Calvinist error in Romans 9 is in reading sovereign personal election and reprobation, into a passage teaching national election of Israel to service, and God disciplining Israel for their sins.
g) Conclusion: When a man is reserved, appointed, ordained or fitted to destruction, it is always because of something evil he did, not by an eternal decree of reprobation.
SEVEN KINDS OF UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION ‘PROOF’ TEXTS Key: The fallacy of Unconditional Election is that they divide mankind into two groups: the ‘elect’ and the ‘reprobate’.
Answer: 1) God has made all men the same because of Psalm 33:13-15: ‘He beholdeth all the sons of men … he fashioneth their hearts alike’. Hence, there is no such thing as the ‘elect’ or ‘reprobate’.
2) There is no such thing as God’s one, eternal, sovereign, all encompassing decree.
3) Salvation is not limited to the ‘elect’:
- John 7:37 ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.’ - Acts 10:43 ‘whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.’ - Romans 9:33 ‘whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.’ - I John 5:1 ‘Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.’ - Revelation 22:17 ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’
1) God’s People – Acts 18:10 ‘I have much people in this city.’ Q: Did God have a predetermined number of unsaved people in Corinth waiting to be saved by Irresistable Grace? NO, because:
a) They were not unsaved elect, because unsaved people are never spoken of as God’s people, but as ‘children of disobedience.’ (Ephesians 2:2).
b) The ‘much people’ are defined in v.1-9 as Aquilla and Priscilla (v.2); Jews and Greeks (v.4); Silas and Timothy (v.5); Justus (v.7); Crispus (v.8); and many Corinthians who heard, believed and were baptised (v.8).
2) Book of Life – Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 Q: Are the names of the ‘elect’ written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and those of the ‘non-elect’ not written there? ‘Whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world’. (Revelation 13:8).
Answer: Everybody’s name is written in the Book of Life at birth. When they wilfully reject Christ, their names are blotted out of the Book of Life. (Revelation 3:5; 22:19).
3) God’s Sheep – John 10:14-16,26 Q: Are God’s sheep the ‘elect’ before they are born?
Answer: a) If the elect are sheep before they believe, they already have eternal life, were never goats and contradicts the truth that all are born ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’ (Ephesians 2:1).
b) Q: Who are the sheep? Answer: Israel according to Jesus (Matthew 10:6;
15:24); Micaiah (I Kings 22:17); David (Psalm 79:13; 95:7); Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:1; 50:6,17); and Ezekiel. ‘Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ (Matthew 10:6).
c) When Christ came, his sheep like Simeon, Anna, Zacharias, Elizabeth, the Shepherds, and the Disciples, knew Him, followed Him, and received eternal life.
4) Given to Salvation.
Q: Does the Father give the ‘elect’ to the Son?
John 6:37 ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh …’ John 6:39 ‘Of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing …’ John 17:2 ‘He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.’ John 17:6 ‘Thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.’ (v. 9,11,12,24).
Calvinists presume that only those whom the Father gives to Christ can come to Him.
Answer: This was not a sovereign, eternal decree for all believers, because:
a) One of those given to Christ was a devil (John 6:70) who was lost (John 17:12).
b) John 6:37,45 The Father gave to Christ those who believe (v.45). ‘Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh to me’.
c) John 17:6. Christ manifested His name unto the ‘men which thou gavest me’.
- Christ hasn’t manifested His name to anyone since then.
- Those given to Christ were men. Are all women lost? NO.
- Have all Christians kept God’s Word? NO. ‘They have kept thy word.’ (John 17:6).
d) John 17:8,14. Christ personally gave them the Father’s Words. We have the Bible, but Christ didn’t personally give them to us.
e) Conclusion: Those the Father gave to the Son during His earthly ministry were the little flock of Jewish disciples, known as apostles, and his sheep. (John 10:27,29).
5) Ordained to Salvation Acts 13:48 ‘And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.’ Calvinists think this teaches U,L,I and that every saved person was ‘ordained to eternal life’ before the foundation of the world by a sovereign, eternal decree.
Answer: a) ‘Ordained’ (Greek: tetagmenoi, a form of tasso 5021) means that the Gentiles were THEN disposed, and determined to embrace eternal life, by the Holy Spirit influencing their hearts. It does not refer to an eternal decree of election, but that they then experienced and submitted to the drawing power of the Holy Spirit to salvation. (See Barnes, Adam Clarke, A T Robertson, Ralph Earle, and many others).
b) The Greek root word is tasso (appoint, incline, dispose), not proorizo (predestine, decree beforehand), not protasso (appoint before) and not diatasso (a strengthened form of tasso).
c) The word ‘ordain’ is never used in Scripture to describe an unconditional, sovereign, eternal decree, eg: Judas was ‘ordained’ with the other 11 disciples (Mark 3:14), yet he turned out to be a devil (John 6:70).
d) Acts 13:48 says ‘ordained’, not ‘foreordained’.
6) Chosen to Salvation – Matthew 20:16 and 22:14 Calvinists after ‘chosen’, add ‘to salvation’. If Calvinists see ‘chosen’ or ‘choose’, they always read it as unconditionally, sovereignly, eternally elected to salvation.
? i) Matthew 22:14 ‘For many be called, but few chosen.’ Q: Doesn’t this say that God only chooses a few to be saved, that they experience irresistable grace, and that everyone gets a general call, but only a few get an effectual call?
Answer: a) NO. It teaches that the great mass of people in the time of Christ who had been called, had rejected the mercy of God in Christ, so God didn’t choose them. A garment had been provided for this man by the King, but he had refused or neglected to wear it. This man’s lack of a wedding garment was inexcusable, as proven by his speechlessness.
b) This pictures unlimited atonement because:
- the custom was for the host to provide wedding garments.
- his speechlessness and lack of excuse prove his guilt and personal responsibility, not the King’s fault.
b) The ones chosen were ‘bid to the marriage’ (Matthew 22:9), not fore-ordained to go. They were chosen because they accepted the invitation.
? ii) Matthew 20:16 The parable of the householder hiring vineyard labourers relates to service and rewards, not election to salvation. Christ calls many to service, but few are chosen to big ministries. Christ calls some to be more useful than others, without regard to their length of service. Christ will reward them accordingly. Matthew 20:16 concerns labourers, but salvation is a gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8).
? iii) John 15:16 ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit ..’ Christ chooses his disciples to bear fruit, not to be saved. Calvinists’ error here is seen from John 6:70, ‘Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil’, and Mark 3:13-14 ‘He ordained twelve, that they should be with him.’ By reading Unconditional Election into these verses, we end up with a sovereignly elected, irresistably called, ordained devil.
? iv) Acts 9:15 ‘He (Paul) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles.’ Acts 22:14 ‘The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and hear the voice of his mouth.’ Paul was not chosen to salvation, but he was chosen - to bear the Lord’s name (Acts 9:15);
- to know God’s will (Acts 22:14);
- to see Christ and hear his voice (Acts 22:14);
- to be a minister and a witness (Acts 26:16);
- to open the Gentiles’ eyes and turn them to God (Acts 26:18). Calvinists miss the context.
? v) Galatians 1:15,16 ‘God who separated me from my mother’s womb.’ a) Un.El. is supposed to be from eternity, but these verses say it is from their mother’s womb.
c) Paul was separated on another occasion (Acts 13:2).
? vi) I Peter 2:9 ‘But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you …’ a) It is not said when or why this choosing took place.
b) This fourfold description of NT church is quoted from God’s fourfold description of OT Israel. Exodus 19:6 ‘Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, an holy nation…to the children of Israel.’ Deut. 14:2 ‘the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations.’
Key: Calvinists have completely missed and overlooked the fact that as the nation of Israel was corporately elected as a body, so also was the church corporately elected as a body. (Ephesians 1:22,23; Colossians 1:18).
The election of the church is a corporate matter rather than an individual thing. It is not that individuals are in the church because they are elect. It is rather that individuals are elect because they are in the church. Individuals are not the subject here, but the church, as a collective body is.
Key: As God did not choose each individual Jew to be one of the elect, so God does not choose each individual Christian to be one of the elect – Christians are born into it.
No unsaved man was ever elected to anything.
Key: The basic error of Calvinism is to think election is to salvation.
? vii) Psalm 65:4 ‘Blessed is the man whom thou choosest … that he may dwell in thy courts … of thy house, even of thy holy temple.’ a) This discusses God’s courts, God’s house, God’s temple, not salvation.
b) The time of choosing and NT salvation are not discussed.
viii) James 2:5 ‘Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom..’ Answer: Is every welfare recipient ‘elect’ and ‘chosen to salvation’? It means that the poor are more receptive to the gospel than the rich.
ix) II Thessalonians 2:13 ‘God hath from the beginning (Gk: ap arche) chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ a) ‘from the beginning’ (ap arche as in Acts 26:4) is different from ‘from eternity’ (ap aionos as in Acts 15:18) as God did not choose the Thessalonians from eternity past, but from the beginning of when Paul left Philippi.
‘Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia …’ (Philippians 4:15,16). Paul defines ‘the beginning of the gospel’ as when he left Philippi to begin his departure from the province of Macedonia. God chose that the Thessalonians would hear the gospel from the beginning of Paul’s departure from Philippi (II Thessalonians 2:13), when Christ gave Paul the Macedonian call in Acts 16:10 and 17:1-4 in 53 AD, and not by a sovereign decree in eternity past.
b) The conditions of God saving the Thessalonians are ‘sanctification of the Spirit (God’s part) and belief/obedience of the truth of Christ (man’s part).’ x) I Peter 1:2 is a similar passage: ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.’ c) Calvinists err saying that ‘from the beginning’ means ‘from before the beginning of the world’
d) In Calvinism the ‘elect’ are all put in Christ in eternity past, but in the Bible no-one is put in Christ until he is saved. ‘Salute Andronicus & Junia…who also were in Christ before me.’ Rom 16:7 ? xi) Ephesians 1:4. Calvinists use Ephesians 1:4 and II Thessalonians 2:13 to teach Unconditional Election to salvation in eternity past.
‘According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.’ (Ephesians 1:4).
a) We are chosen not to be saved, but to be holy and without blame.
b) Key: God chose that whoever was in Christ would be ‘blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places’ (v.3) and be ‘holy and without blame before him in love.’
xii) II Timothy 1:9 ‘Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.’
Q: When did God give us saving grace? In eternity past (Calvinism) or when we got ‘in Christ’ (Bible)?
Answer: Grace was not physically given to any man ‘before the world began’, because there were no men around to give it to. Grace was ‘given to us in Christ Jesus’. Key: God deposited grace in Christ before the world began, but it was only given to us when we got ‘in Christ’.
xiii) Jeremiah 31:3 ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee’. The error of the ‘eternal union’ of the ‘elect’ with Christ is based on uniting the phrases ‘in him’ (Ephesians 1:4) and ‘in Christ Jesus’ (II Timothy 1:9) with ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4) and ‘before the world began’ (II Timothy 1:9) to teach that the ‘elect’ were in Christ before the world began.
Answer: a) The problem Calvinists create for themselves is that, before ‘the elect’ got ‘in Adam’ (I Cor. 15:22) they already had a relationship with Christ. This means that according to Calvinism:
- The Fall didn’t affect the elect;
- One can be ‘dead in sin’ and yet be ‘in Christ’ at the same time;
- No elect have ever been in danger of going to hell;
- Before God, His people are justified from eternity past.
b) This nonsense is a complete overthrow of the gospel, meaning that the elect were never lost.
Key: The Fall affected all men equally: ‘death passed upon all men’. (Romans 5:12).
c) No-one was ever ‘in Christ’ until his salvation. ‘Salute Andronicus and Junia, … who were in Christ before me’. (Romans 16:7).
d) If the elect were always children of God, they could never have been ‘children of the devil’ or ‘children of wrath’. (Ephesians 2:3).
Conclusion: In Calvinism, the elect are all put in Christ at the same time, in eternity past. In the Bible, no-one is put in Christ until he is saved.
xiv) I Timothy 5:21 ‘I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels.’
a) ‘Elect’ cannot refer to holy angels, because they never fell to be elected back to holiness.’
b) God chose the angels that didn’t fall. Hence they are called or appraised as ‘elect angels.’
Question: How is Jesus Christ Elect when He never sinned?
Answer: When ‘elect’ is applied to Christ, it shows His value and worth, not His selection to salvation.
Isaiah 42:1 ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect …’ (Matthew 12:18).
I Peter 2:6 ‘Behold I lay in Sion a chief Corner stone, elect, precious.’ (Isaiah 28:16).
ISRAEL is still called ‘ELECT’ in the New Testament.
1. Matthew 24:22,24,31 ‘but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.’ (v.22).
‘if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect’. (v.24). ‘they shall gather his elect from the four winds’. (v.31). Those addressed are not ‘elect sinners’ waiting to be saved by Irresistable Grace, but Jewish saints in the future 7 year Tribulation. (v.21,29).
2. II Timothy 2:10 ‘I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus …’ This refers to elect Israelites, not unsaved ‘elected’ Gentiles. If the elect were elected before the foundation of the world, they could never miss salvation, whether Paul preached it or not. To believe that Paul strove, laboured, endured beatings, stonings, jail, shipwreck, pain, hunger and cold, for the elect who would certainly be saved, is nonsense.
3. Luke 18:7,8 ‘Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them.’ Q: Who are these elect? When, why, and how they were elected is not said. The elect are likely to be suffering saints in the Tribulation, crying out to God for revenge.
(Revelation 6:9,10). This verse concerns prayer (Luke 18:1), not a sovereign, eternal decree.
4. Romans 9:11,12 ‘that the purpose of God according to election might stand, … it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. The purpose of God according to election is service, not salvation or reprobation. It concerns the election of the Messianic line to come through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Jesus Christ.
5. Romans 11:28 ‘As touching the election, they are beloved’. This refers to the corporate election of the whole nation Israel, and has nothing to do with salvation.
6. Romans 11:5,7 ‘at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (v.5). Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded’. (v.7). Calvinists see Unconditional Election to salvation here because these verses concern only a portion of Israel.
Answer: The ‘remnant according to the election of grace’ (v.5) refers to the 7000 men reserved to God who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal (v.4).
Question: Why were these 7000 men reserved to God?
Answer: Because they had not bowed to Baal, not because of a decree of Unconditional Election. Only the remnant of Israel who sought righteousness by faith participated in the ‘election of grace’.
The CHURCH is called ‘ELECT’ nine (9) times in the New Testament.
These have nothing to do with any decree of God:
1. I Peter 5:13 ‘The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you saluteth you’.
Answer: The church at Babylon as a body is elected. No individual is said to be elected. Nothing is said about when, how or why anyone was elected.
2. I Thessalonians 1:4 ‘Knowing brethren beloved, your election of God.’ Answer: No mention of when, why, or how of this election; no eternal decree. It refers to how the Thessalonians received the Gospel by God electing Paul to go to Macedonia. (Acts 16:9,10).
3. II Peter 1:10 ‘Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall’.
Key: This verse destroys TULIP Calvinism because calling comes first, then election after. Pink panicked at this verse because all his life he taught the opposite, that election comes first, and calling later.
Question: How could anyone ‘give diligence’ to make sure a supposedly irresistible, sovereign, eternal decree that was already sure to happen?
Key: This calling and election relate to service, not to salvation.
4. The word ‘elect’ is applied to Christians 6 times. None say that this election is a decree of God; none say it is eternal; none say it is unconditional, and none say it results in salvation. The word ‘elect’ here is just a title for NT Christians, showing our value, worth, appraisal and assessment. This is the same use of ‘elect’ as applied to Jesus Christ and angels:
Romans 8:33 ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’ Colossians 3:12 ‘Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved....’ Titus 1:1 ‘Paul, a servant of God … according to the faith of God’s elect’.
I Peter 1:2 ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through …’.
II John 1 ‘The elder unto the elect lady, and her children’.
II John 13 ‘The children of thy elect sister greet thee’.
Key: Whenever Calvinists see ‘elect’, they read into the text their doctrine of an eternal, sovereign, irresistible, unconditional election to salvation. The above verses show that no-one is elect until they are saved. Believers are described as elect, holy, justified, beloved and having faith. None of those are true of believers from eternity past.
Question: How do Calvinists build a case for eternal, unconditional election?
Answer: They read it into every verse where election is found, and follow these verses:
a) I Peter 1:2 since salvation is mentioned with election, and change foreknowledge to fore-ordination.
b) Romans 8:29,30 They link predestination here with c) Ephesians 1:4,5 containing ‘predestinate’, ‘chosen’ and ‘before the foundation of the world’.
d) II Thessalonians 2:13 ‘God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation’, while not quoting the rest of the verse showing two parts to salvation.
e) Acts 13:48 ‘as many as were ordained to eternal life believed’, without checking the Greek meaning of ‘ordained’, or when this ordaining took place.
f) Romans 9,10,11 to teach election to hell.
Question: Predestination What does the Bible say we are predestined to?
1) Son-placing in heaven (Ephesians 1:5), ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children’ (Greek: huiothesia = son-placing).
2) Praise His glory (Ephesians 1:11,12).
3) Conformed to the image of His Son in heaven (Romans 8:29,30).
Key: a) Predestination is never called a decree of God or takes place before the foundation of the world.
b) No-one is said to be predestined to salvation or to hell.
Question: Do non-elect dead infants go to hell?
False Conclusions of Unconditional Election:
1) God has predestined the ‘non-elect’ to hell before the foundation of the world.
2) Fatalism: Nothing can happen in time which will make the slightest difference.
3) Shaky Assurance of Salvation in mysterious eternal decree of election, instead of in Bible promises
4) Missions and evangelism: If the number of elect and reprobate are fixed, what difference could it make to send or to withhold missionaries, or to go soul winning?
5) Confusing Terminology.
6) Making all preaching vain, destroys holiness, destroys religious comfort, destroys zeal for good works, destroys Christian revelation by fatal contradictions.
Question: Did God intend to save all men, or did He not?
3. LIMITED ATONEMENT Calvinists’ 5 Arguments for Limited Atonement 1) A universal atonement demands a universal salvation.
2) Double jeopardy – if God laid all man’s sins on Christ, the lost would be punished twice for their sins: once on Christ, and a second time in hell.
3) Universal atonement doesn’t actually save anyone.
4) Adam’s sin brought condemnation to all. Christ’s righteousness only secured the salvation of those He died for.
5) The sin of unbelief.
Answer to each: These false conclusions are based on the false premise that Christ’s Atonement and its Application are the same thing. Calvinists confuse the Provision of a Saviour with our Applying of Salvation.
Calvinists say that the ‘elect’ were actually saved, redeemed, reconciled and justified at the instant of the Atonement. Question: Then how is it that the ‘elect’ were born ‘dead in trespasses and sins’?
(Ephesians 2:1), and were by nature ‘children of wrath’? (Eph. 2:1). If Calvinists object to this conclusion, the only alternative is unlimited atonement.
Old Testament Examples proving the Atonement and its Application are Different:
1) The blood of the Passover Lamb became efficacious only after it was applied to the doorposts as God instructed (Exodus 12:6-22).
Key 1: The death of the lamb saved no-one. The blood had to be applied. Christ’s death is complete but conditional. Universal provision (Hebrews 2:9) and individual application (John 1:12; Romans 10:13) of Christ’s atonement are two different things.
Key 2: The answer to Calvinists’ 5 arguments for Limited Atonement is that they fail to distinguish between Christ’s universal provision and the need for individual application of the atonement.
Key 3: Calvinist argument (1) about a universal atonement demanding a universal salvation disappears when we see that the ‘elect’ did not exist when Christ died on the cross.
Q: How can the elect be saved before they were born?
2) Those who were snake bitten in the wilderness had to leave their tent and deliberately look at the brass serpent on a pole to be healed. Setting up the brass serpent saved no-one. They had to individually apply its healing power by looking.
Those who didn’t apply it, died (Numbers 21:5-9). Jesus endorsed this need for individual application in John 3:14,15.
Calvinist Argument 3 Refuted: If nobody after 33 AD availed themselves of Christ’s universal atonement, Christ’s atonement was effectual for Old Testament saints: ‘And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.’ (Hebrews 9:15).
Calvinist Argument 4 Refuted: Although Adam’s sin was universal and unrefuseable, Romans 5:17 states that Christ’s gift must be received: ‘they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life …’ Key: A major blunder of Calvinists is to inconsistently redefine Many, All men and All in Romans 5:15,18 and Isaiah 53:6.
1) Romans 5:15 ‘For if through the offence of one MANY be dead (Calvinists agree ‘many’ = all), much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace … hath abounded unto MANY’. Calvinists say that the first ‘many’ = ‘all’, but the second ‘many’ = ‘not all’ but only the ‘elect’.
2) Romans 5:18 ‘Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation (Calvinists agree that ‘all men’ = all); even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon ALL MEN unto justification of life’. Calvinists contradict themselves, saying that the first ‘all men’ = ‘all’, but the second ‘all men’ = ‘not all’ but ‘elect’. Note the phrase ‘even so’.
3) Isaiah 53:6 ‘All we like sheep have gone astray (Calvinists agree that ‘all’ = ‘all’);
we have turned every one to his own way (Calvinists agree ‘everyone’ = ‘all’); and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’. (Calvinists want this ‘all’ to mean ‘not all’, but ‘the elect’). Calvinists contradict themselves a third time, saying that the first ‘all’ = ‘all’, but the last ‘all’ = ‘not all’.
Conclusion: The second many, all men and all must be interpreted as the first many, all men and all to prove unlimited atonement in Romans 5:15,18 and Isaiah 53:6.
Calvinist Argument 5 Refuted: Why does God demand that men believe, if Christ died for and removed the sin of unbelief as Calvinists claim? ‘he that believeth not is condemned already’. John 3:18 Christ dying for ‘all men’, ‘all’, and ‘the world’ refute Limited Atonement Calvinists redefine ‘world’ and ‘all men’ to defend Limited Atonement:
I. CHRIST DIED FOR THE WORLD Calvinists quote ‘the world is gone after him’ (John 12:19) (an example of hyperbole or exaggeration) to prove that ‘world’ doesn’t always mean ‘all men’, but only the ‘elect’.
Answer: 1) In John’s Gospel the word ‘world’ occurs 89 times, but never refers to the ‘elect’.
(eg: ‘The world hates Christ’ in John 7:7).
2) John 1:29 ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ 3) John 6:33 ‘For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, & giveth life unto the world.’ 4) John 3:16 ‘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.’ Note: If ‘world’ here means ‘elect’, some of the ‘elect’ may not believe, and hence perish.
5) John 4:42 ‘This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ 6) John 6:51 ‘My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ 7) In Paul’s letters, the word ‘world’ occurs 69 times, and is used in several different senses, but never refers to the ‘elect’.
8) Paul differentiates between ‘us’ believers and the ‘world’ in:
a) Galatians 1:4 ‘Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world.’
b) II Corinthians 5:19 ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation’. The ‘elect’ could not have been reconciled at the cross, because:
i) They did not exist then;
ii) They were still in their sins until salvation.
iii) Paul in 60 AD is still beseeching lost people to be reconciled to God.
9) I John 2:2 states that Christ died for the world as an unlimited atonement: ‘he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world’. This demolishes limited atonement. Calvinists think ‘our sins’ refers to Jewish believers, and ‘world’ means ‘Gentile unbelievers’. This is wrong because:
a) I John is addressed to ‘you that believe on the name of the Son of God’. (I John 5:13).
b) ‘Our’ in I John 2:2 has fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (I John 2:1).
c) ‘Our’ has ‘an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ (I John 2:1).
d) The words Jew and Gentile do not occur in I John. John makes no such distinction here.
e) In I John the word ‘world’ occurs 23 times, and never refers to the ‘elect’ (eg, ‘love not the world/elect?) (I John 2:15).
f) John contrasts Christians and the world as two groups:
‘We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.’ (I John 5:19). Hence Christ is the propitiation of John’s sins; the sins of the believers he wrote to, and the sins of the whole world.
10) I John 4:4 ‘The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.’
Calvinist Objection: Is John 11:49-52 a parallel passage to I John 2:2?
‘Caiaphas, being the high priest … said … that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.’ (John 11:49-52).
Question: Who are the ‘children of God’? Calvinists think they are the church who were chosen by God before the foundation of the world.
Answer: ‘Children of God’ here refers to all the Jewish race scattered abroad being gathered from dispersion abroad into one body, after Christ’s second coming. Why Israel? Because:
1. The term ‘children of God’ was an ancient title for Israelites:
- ‘Ye are the children of the Lord your God.’ (Deuteronomy 14:1).
- ‘all of you are children of the Most High.’ (Psalm 82:6).
- ‘I will say..bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.’ Isaiah 43:6 2. John meant only Jews who were dispersed among all nations since Rome conquered Judea. These are called the dispersed in:
- ‘to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad.’ (James 1:1).
- ‘will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles?’ (John 7:35).
3. The meaning is: ‘Christ would die, not only for the then inhabitants of Judea, but for all the Jewish race scattered abroad. This would result in all Jews being gathered from dispersion abroad into one body, after Christ’s second coming.
4. Question: If Christ died for the whole Jewish nation as prophesied by Caiaphas, then according to Limited Atonement, all Jews would have to be saved.
5. The phrase ‘children of God’ never refers to members of the church until they are saved: ‘For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26). Before salvation, the ‘elect’ were ‘children of wrath’ (Eph. 2:3) and ‘children of disobedience’ (Colossians 3:6).
6. Question: If a person was a child of God, why would he need an atonement?
II. CHRIST DIED FOR ALL MEN Calvinists say that ‘all’ doesn’t mean ‘all’ but only ‘elect’ as seen by ‘hated of all men’.
Matt 10:22.
Answer: 1. This is hyperbole, meaning ‘an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally’.
2. We agree that ‘all’ is used in different senses, but we disagree that ‘all’ ever means ‘elect’.
Christ’s atonement was for all men, as seen from:
1. Isaiah 53:6 ‘All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’. The last ‘all’ is just as extensive as the first ‘all’, and ‘everyone’. ‘All’ means the same in both places.
The context defines ‘all’ as ‘everyone’. Question: Have all men gone astray, or have only some of them? ALL HAVE!
2. II Corinthians 5:14,15 ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us (‘elect’) because we (‘elect’) thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live (saved people) should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again’. Calvinists limit ‘all’ to the ‘elect’, but ‘all’ here means ‘all men’ as seen by:
a) The ‘elect’ are already mentioned as ‘us’ and ‘we’, so the 3 ‘alls’ must mean all men.
b) After the restrictive ‘us’ & ‘we’ in v.14, ‘all’ is used 3 times in a universal, unlimited sense.
c) The restrictive phrase ‘that they which live’ (v.15) implies that not everyone of the ‘all’ for whom Christ died, lives.
3. II Timothy 2:1-6 ‘I exhort…that…prayers be made for all men, for Kings,…for all that are in authority; that we (‘elect’) may lead…God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, … the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all’. Ransom for ‘all’ does not mean a ‘ransom for the elect’ because:
a. Three ‘alls’ do not mean ‘elect’, because the ‘elect’ is described by ‘we’.
b. The mediator is between ‘God and men’, not between ‘God and the elect’.
4. I Timothy 4:10 ‘living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe’.
Key: This contrast between ‘all men’ and ‘those that believe’ occurs in 4 places:
a. I Timothy 4:10 ‘Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.’ b. Galatians 6:10 ‘Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.’ c. Romans 3:22 ‘Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all (100% of mankind) and ‘upon all them that believe (the ‘elect’).
d. Titus 2:11,12 ‘For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men (100% of mankind), teaching us (the ‘elect’) that, denying ungodliness …’
5. Hebrews 2:9 ‘he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.’ Calvinist Objection: ‘The original Greek here does not use the word ‘man’ but says, ‘for every’.
Answer:
a. Calvinists take advantage of most people’s ignorance of Greek grammar. Like any adjective, demonstrative, participle, or prepositional phrase, the word ‘every’ is used substantively, ie: ‘every’ is used by itself because the noun ‘man’ is so commonly and obviously understood to be meant, for example: - Luke 6:30 ‘Give to every (man) that asketh thee.’ - Romans 12:3 ‘To every (man) that is among you.’ - I Peter 3:15 ‘Be ready to give an answer to every (man).’ - Revelation 22:18 ‘I testify unto every (man) that heareth.’
b. The singular (every man) brings out far more strongly than the plural (all men) would, the applicability of Christ’s death to each individual man.
c. The starting thought is ‘what is man?’ (Hebrews 2:6), not ‘what are the elect?’ III. CHRIST DIED FOR HIS PEOPLE, SHEEP, CHURCH OF GOD, MANY Calvinists presume that, if Christ died for a particular group (the ‘elect’), then He died for no-one else, hoping this proves limited atonement. Consider these examples:
1. Many: ‘The Son of Man came … to give his life a ransom for many’.
(Matthew 20:28). ‘This is my blood … which is shed for many for the remission of sins’. (Matthew 26:28). ‘Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many’. (Hebrews 9:28).
Calvinist Objection: ‘Christ did not give His life a ransom for all, but for many’. Every Calvinist presumes ‘many’ = ‘elect’.
Answer:‘Many’ is used because it better contrasts with ‘one’. ‘Many’ sometimes means ‘all’:
‘the offence of one many be dead….the gift hath abounded unto many’. (Romans 5:15). ‘As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous’. (Romans 5:19).
Question: Did Adam’s fall affect all or only some of his descendants? ALL.
2. His People: Calvinists presume that ‘his people’ here are the ‘elect’, eg: ‘He shall save his people from their sins’. (Matthew 1:21).
Question: Who are ‘his people’? Answer: ISRAEL.
- ‘A Governor, that shall rule my people Israel’. (Matthew 2:6).
- ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people’.
(Luke 1:68)
3. Sheep: ‘I lay down my life for the sheep’. (Israel). (John 10:15).
Question: Who are the ‘sheep’? Answer: ISRAEL, because:
‘Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. (Matthew 10:6).
‘I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. (Matthew 15:24).
Key:If Christ died for all of Israel,&some were lost, this proves Christ’s atonement was unlimited.
Conclusion: Calvinists claim that Christ only died for a particular group is proven false because:
a. The Bible never states that Christ died only for these groups to the exclusion of all others.
b. These groups are not the same, that is, Israel is not the church.
c. Using this same false Calvinist reasoning, one could conclude that Christ died:
- only for Paul, ‘… who loved me, and gave himself for me’. (Galatians 2:20).
- only for weak believers: ‘the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died’. (I Corinthians 8:11).
Key: There are other groups in Scripture for whom Christ died that Calvinists don’t want to discuss, because they prove unlimited atonement.
4. Those Christ died for who will ultimately go to Hell. ‘But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction’. (II Peter 2:1). Not only is Jesus Christ the Saviour (I Timothy 4:15) and Redeemer (I Timothy 2:6) of the world, but he bought the false prophets and false teachers, paying for their sins as well.
Despotes (Gk: ‘Lord’) in II Peter 2:1 is used of Christ in II Timothy 2:21 (‘meet for the master’s use’).
Note: The same word ‘bought’ is used elsewhere of Christ: ‘For ye are bought with a price’. (I Cor. 6:20).
5. Those groups Christ died for that describe everybody, all mankind.
- Luke 19:10 ‘The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost’. Are all lost? YES. Are only the ‘elect’ lost? NO.
- Romans 5:6 ‘Christ died for the ungodly’. Are all ungodly? YES. Are only the ‘elect’ ungodly? NO, all are.
- Galatians 4:5 ‘To redeem them that were under the law’. Are all under the law? YES. Are only the ‘elect’ under the law? NO.
- I Timothy 1:15 ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’. Are we all born sinners? YES. Are only the ‘elect’ sinners? NO.
- I Peter 3:18 ‘Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust’.
Are all unjust? YES. Are only the ‘elect’ unjust? NO.
Key: If Christ died for the lost, the ungodly, those under the law, sinners, and the unjust, then He made an unlimited atonement, for that is the condition of all men, not just the elect.
6. Christ died for His Friends. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13). Question: Who are Christ’s friends?
Answer: Judas was one of Christ’s friends, yet Judas was non-elect. ‘Jesus said unto him, Friend..’ (Matthew 26:50).
7. Christ died for ‘whosoever believeth’ may claim Christ’s atonement and be saved, proving ‘unlimited atonement’. -Acts 10:43 ‘Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed.’ - Romans 1:16 ‘Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.’ - Romans 10:11 ‘whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed.’ - Romans 10:13 ‘whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ - I John 5:1 ‘whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.’ - Revelation 22:17 ‘whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ Key: There are no ‘whosoever wills’ in Limited Atonement.
Key: Calvin rejected Limited Atonement as seen in 4 quotes.
Key: If no offer can be made to the ‘non-elect’, and the elect are sure to be saved, then all preaching is not only vain and useless, but an absolute, total and complete waste of time.
Conclusion: The Calvinist debate about Limited Atonement is a smokescreen to conceal the true nature of Calvinism, which says that God by a sovereign, eternal decree of Unconditional Election has consigned billions of people to hell before their birth. To make it certain, God has given them Total Depravity so that they will be unable to receive Irresistable Grace, which will not even be offered to them, since Christ did not make a Limited Atonement for them.
5. PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. Question: How do Calvinists know if they are saved? Answer: Only if they persevere in holiness to the end, not by Bible promises.
God’s preserving in salvation is not the same thing as the saints persevering outwardly in the faith. Key: POTS is not the same as eternal security. Calvinists view on POTS is the same as Arminians.
Key: Contrary to salvation by perseverance (Calvinism), the Bible teaches salvation by believing. Key: Calvinists and Arminians both wrongly presume that: a) The castaway in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 lost his salvation.
b) “He that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22;24:13) says that one’s salvation is only sure by enduring to the end of one’s life. c) “continue in them for thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16).
Key: Calvinists call any opponent an Arminian, no matter what they believe. Key: Because eternal security is so often equated with POTS, Calvinists coerce Christians who believe in eternal security into accepting all five points of Calvinism. This is done by implying that a rejection of election and predestination (as taught by Calvinists) is a rejection of eternal security. Key: The NT teaches that some Christians may not persevere, but:
1. Become barren and unfruitful (2 Peter 1:8),
2. Be ashamed when Christ returns (1 John 2:28),
3. Hymaneus and Alexander who were delivered to Satan (1 Timothy 1:20),
4. Demas forsook Paul having loved this present world (2 Timothy 4:10),
5. Just Lot (2 Peter 2:7), righteous Lot (2 Peter 2:8), last seen drunk in a cave committing incest with his two daughters (Genesis 19:33,36). Did Lot persevere in faith? No.
6. A righteous man can turn from his righteousness and never return back. “When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity.” (Ezekiel 18:24).
Key: Scriptures exhorting believers to persevere and practise good works, (not to keep salvation) have no meaning if all Christians are sure to persevere;
a) Jude 1:21 “Keep yourselves in the love of God.”
b) 1 Cor. 15:58;
c) Romans 12:1,2.
Q: Is salvation an instantaneous act of God, or is it a process that depends on man’s perseverance? Both Calvinism and Arminianism teach the latter.
Key: POTS is a result of Reformation concern that “justification by faith” would produce moral laxity in the church, so they teach that only those who persevere are truly saved.
Conclusion:
Bad results of POTS:
a) Lack of Bible teaching on the Judgment Seat of Christ and gain or loss of heavenly rewards.
b) POTS contains a false view of assurance of salvation, because it makes salvation depend upon election and not on receiving Christ as Saviour. (Why don’t you go SW?)
