Atonement: Questions and Answers

Pastor Joseph Flatt provided the following answers to common objections against particular redemption in a seminar he offered church members last year.

1. The gospel cannot be offered freely to all men if the atonement is limited. However, this free offer is valid only a limited basis (salvation is offered, not the provision of it). Christ’s work and the offer of the gospel made indiscriminately are not necessarily co-extensive with the offer. Yet, our task is to share the gospel indiscriminately. We should preach the gospel to all men (Rom 1:16, Mt 28).

2. How can I tell men that God loves them and died for them? You can’t and you shouldn’t. This is not how you should approach the unbeliever. Tell them they’re sinners and must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved, etc.

3. This view limits God’s love. Yes, it does. Rom 9:13; Ps 5:5, 11:5. If God’s love is measured by how far it extends, then the general redemptionist also limits it (it’s not available for angels . . .). But God does love every man in a non-redemptive sense; in that he gives common grace to every man. God has compassion on men everywhere, but this is different from a redemptive love for all men—a distinction in His love.

4. The sin question has been cared for by Christ for all men; people go to hell for their unbelief. But Scripture lists sins for which people will go to hell.

NOTE:
Rev 21:8 – cowardly, unbelieving, immoral, idolaters, etc., à lake of fire
Rom 2:6-16
Rev 20:11-13
1 Cor 6:9-10

5. The passages which exhort men to believe and be saved argue for the potential nature of Christ’s death on the cross (the “whosoever will” passages).
Acts 16:31 – believe and you will be saved (≠ regeneration, which comes first; you must be alive to believe!). This is not a condition; it is a FACT. Men can’t and won’t “will” (1 Cor 2:14; John 1:13; John 6:44). Note Rom 10:13 – everyone who . . .


Final thoughts:

Boettner notes, “For the Calvinist, the atonement is like a narrow bridge which goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it’s like a great wide bridge that goes only half-way across.” There’s a disconnect between a Savior who died for all men and the Father who doesn’t save everyone. Why the difference?

For a definitive defense of this position please read through “The Death of Death In the Death of Christ” by John Owen.