By Bob Wilkin
Limited Atonement Is Lethal
Of the five points of Calvinism, Limited Atonement is the most rejected. Many people who call themselves Calvinists reject the L in TULIP. So-called four-point Calvinists are called Amyraldian Calvinists after Moses Amyraut (1596-1664). My alma mater, Dallas Theological Seminary, is historically Amyraldian. In the mid-seventies, Dr. S. Lewis Johnson resigned from DTS because he had come to believe in Limited Atonement.
Even though Amyraldians believe in all the points except L, five-point Calvinists rarely consider them Calvinists, classifying them instead as Arminian.
Dr. Tony Badger, author of Confronting Calvinism, says this about Limited Atonement:
Not a single passage of Scripture in either the Old or New Testament expresses or teaches the notion that Christ’s redemptive death on the cross, normally referred to as His Atonement, was limited or confined, either in God’s intent or in the extent to which the benefits might accrue. Contrarily, the Scripture deliberately and unequivocally teaches that Jesus the Messiah is the Lamb of God whose death took away the sins of the whole world, satisfying God’s wrath toward all men, and came to seek and to save those who were lost, not just some of them! (p. 213).
In my book, Is Calvinism Biblical?, I consider two verses that disprove Limited Atonement: John 1:29 and 2 Peter 2:1.
John 1:29. “The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” The word translated “world” (Greek kosmos) here means mankind, humanity, everyone.
“The word kosmos is used more in John (78 times) than any other book in the New Testament” (Is Calvinism Biblical? p. 59). The range of meaning of kosmos in John includes: “Planet earth” (p. 59), “The unbelieving system of thought” (p. 60), “The present age” (p. 60), and “All humans of all time” (p. 60). I went on to write,
The last use is the most prevalent. In John’s Gospel, kosmos usually refers to all humans of all time.
When John the Baptist said that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” he was not talking about the sins of the planet, or of a system of thought, or of the present age. He was saying that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament sacrificial system and takes away the sins of all humans of all time (pp. 60-61).
When we compare John 1:29 with 1 John 2:2 (“And He Himself is the propitiation [satisfaction] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world”), the conclusion is unmistakable: The Lord Jesus Christ died for Adam and Eve and all their offspring.
2 Peter 2:1. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.”
We know from 2 Pet 2:17 that the false teachers about whom Peter prophesies would be unregenerate and bound for “the blackness of darkness forever.” He was not saying that all false teachers are unregenerate. But he was saying that those particular coming false teachers would be. Yet notice that Peter says, “the Lord…bought them.”
One of the subheadings in my chapter on 2 Peter 2:1 is: “If Christ Bought People Who Will End Up in the Lake of Fire, Then the Atonement Is Unlimited” (p. 70). You don’t need to get a graduate degree in theology to see that. In fact, getting a graduate degree in theology from a Calvinist school is one of the easiest ways to miss that.
Only by intense indoctrination can anyone be misled into believing that Christ died for only a small percentage of humanity. Anyone who prayerfully searches the Scriptures (Acts 17:11) will see that Unlimited Atonement is true, and Limited Atonement is not.
CALVINISM’S “IRRESISTIBLE GRACE” IS EASILY RESISTIBLE
Dr. Tony Badger says this about Irresistible Grace:
Not a single passage of Scripture in either the Old or New Testament expresses or teaches the notion that…the Holy Spirit imposes regeneration upon [anyone]…The Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit regenerates—gives eternal life to—anyone who personally believes in Jesus for it (Confronting Calvinism, p. 253).
In Is Calvinism Biblical? I made this statement about the bearing the fourth point has on assurance of salvation:
While the fourth point might at least seem comforting for Calvinists, it is not. The problem is that Calvinism teaches that Calvinists may think they have been irresistibly drawn, when in fact they have not been. Many people profess faith in Christ. But, according to Calvinism, a large percentage of those who profess faith—even a large percentage of Calvinists!—are people who only think that they were drawn and chosen and were beneficiaries of Christ’s death.
Calvinism teaches that false professors attend Calvinist churches, get baptized, give money, and even serve as pastors, elders, deacons, and Bible study leaders. Many if not most of them will be sincere. They will look like born-again people. But if they were not actually drawn by God, then their profession will be shown to be false because they will not persevere (the fifth point), and they will spend eternity in the lake of fire, separated from the Lord Jesus and His kingdom.
If irresistible grace is true, then no one, not even a Calvinist pastor or theologian, can be sure that he has been drawn and elected and redeemed by God. Only persevering until death can show that. Thus, according to Calvinism’s fourth point, only time will tell whether one has truly been irresistibly drawn to God’s grace by the Holy Spirit. After you die, you will find out where you are going. Before then, you can’t be sure (p. 78).
In Is Calvinism Biblical? I discuss two verses that disprove Irresistible Grace: John 12:32 and Matt 23:37.
John 12:32. The Lord Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” John then adds, “This He said, signifying by what death He would die” (v 33).
The Greek word translated “draw” in John 12:32 is elkuō. That is the same word used in John 6:44. Calvinists say that God is drawing only a small percentage of humanity to Christ. The Lord Jesus said that He is drawing all to Himself.
Calvinists claim that all refers to all kinds of people, such as Egyptians, Indians, Australian aborigines, Inuit, Mauri, Zulu, Slavs, Anglo-Saxons, Arabs, etc. However, that is not consistent with the context or with the rest of the NT. In Is Calvinism Biblical?, I wrote:
The word peoples is supplied by the NKJV translators. [Other translations read all people, all men, everyone, or all.] A more literal translation would be, “I…will draw all to Myself.” Jesus was promising to draw all to Himself. Not 1% or 5% or 10%. All. However, while Jesus draws all, He does not indicate that everyone will come to faith in Him. Drawing makes faith in Christ possible, but not inevitable (cf. Matt 7:13-14; 23:37-39) (pp. 79-80).
Matthew 23:37. This statement by the Lord Jesus contradicts Calvinism’s Irresistible Grace: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Notice the words “but you were not willing.” The Lord Jesus wanted to establish the kingdom during the first century for that generation of Jews: “How often I wanted to gather your children…” A hen protects her chicks. The Lord Jesus would have protected Israel against Rome and against all her other enemies. But they were not willing, so the kingdom has been postponed until a future generation of Jews that will be willing! (Rom 11:26).
God’s grace is, indeed, resistible. He is drawing all to Himself, but only some come to Him in faith. John 1:11-12 is another passage clearly indicating that though the entire nation of Israel was drawn to Christ, most rejected Him and His promise of life.
CONCLUSION
Limited Atonement and Irresistible Grace are unbiblical. Christ died for the sin of the whole world, not just for some people. God’s gift of everlasting life is easily resistible and, sadly, most resist it.
The L and I in TULIP are two more reasons that Calvinists are on unfulfilling lifelong quests for assurance. Engelsma calls Puritan Calvinism “a gospel of doubt.” To gain assurance and escape doubt, Calvinists need to search the Scriptures with open eyes (Luke 24:44-45; Acts 17:11).
Bob Wilkin is Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. He and Sharon live in Highland Village, TX. He has racewalked twelve marathons.
