Featured John Calvin vs Calvinism

First of all I'm a Sovereign Grace Primitive Baptist and the term TULIP was not coined by John Calvin, it came later... Now to the question, the Death Of Jesus Christ was only for those his Father gave him and no other... His resurrection is for the entire human race, if not how are the just an unjust raised?... Those who belong to him for eternal life, those who do not for eternal damnation... Those are my thoughts... Brother Glen

 

Particular Redemption
A Sermon Delivered February 28, 1858, by C. H. SPURGEON

V. The greatness of Christ’s redemption may be measured
by the EXTENT OF THE DESIGN OF IT.

"I must now return to that controversial point again. We are often told (I mean those of us who are commonly nicknamed by the title of Calvinists—and we are not very much ashamed of that; we think that Calvin, after all, knew more about the Gospel than almost any man who has ever lived, uninspired).

"We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ,
because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men,
or all men would be saved.

"Now, our reply to this is, that, on the other hand,
our opponents limit it: we do not.

"The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men? They say, „No, certainly not.”

" We ask them the next question—Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They answer „No.” They are obliged to admit this, if they are consistent. They say, „No; Christ has died that any man may be saved if”—and then follow certain conditions of salvation.

"We say, then, we will go back to the old statement—Christ did not die so as beyond a doubt to secure the salvation of anybody, did He? You must say „No;” you are obliged to say so, for you believe that even after a man has been pardoned, he may yet fall from grace, and perish.

"Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you. You say that Christ did not die so as to infallibly secure the salvation of anybody.

"We beg your pardon, when you say we limit Christ’s death;
we say, „No, my dear sir, it is you that do it.”

"We say Christ so died that He infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.

"You are welcome to your atonement; you may keep it.

"We will never renounce ours for the sake of it.

"Now, beloved, when you hear any one laughing or jeering at a limited atonement, you may tell him this. General atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does not go across the stream: it only professes to go half way; it does not secure the salvation of anybody.

"Now, I had rather put my foot upon a bridge as narrow as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than on a bridge that was as wide as the world, if it did not go all the way across the stream.

"I am told it is my duty to say that all men have been redeemed, and I am told that there is a Scriptural warrant for it—

”Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

"Now, that looks like a very, very great argument indeed on the other side of the question.

"For instance, look here. „The whole world is gone after him.” Did all the world go after Christ? „

"Then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem baptized in Jordan? „

'Ye are of God, little children,” and „the whole world lieth in the wicked one.”

"Does „the whole world” there mean everybody? If so, how was it, then, that there were some who were „of God?”

"The words „world” and „all” are used in seven or eight senses in Scripture;
and it is very rarely that „all” means all persons, taken individually

"The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts—some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile.

"Leaving controversy, however, I will now answer a question.

"Tell me, then, sir, whom did Christ die for?

"Will you answer me a question or two, and I will tell you whether He died for you.

"Do you want a Saviour? Do you feel that you need a Saviour? Are you this morning conscious of sin? Has the Holy Spirit taught you that you are lost?

"Then Christ died for you and you will be saved.

"Are you this morning conscious that you have no hope in the world but Christ?

"Do you feel that you of yourself cannot offer an atonement that can satisfy God’s justice? Have you given up all confidence in yourselves? And can you say upon your bended knees, „Lord, save, or I perish”?

"Christ died for you.

"If you are saying this morning, „I am as good as I ought to be; I can get to Heaven by my own good works,” then, remember, the Scripture says of Jesus,

„I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

"So long as you are in that state I have no atonement to preach to you.

"But if this morning you feel guilty, wretched, conscious of your guilt, and are ready to take Christ to be your only Saviour, I can not only say to you that you may be saved, but what is better still, that you will be saved.

"When you are stripped of everything, but hope in Christ, when you are prepared to come empty-handed and take Christ to be your all, and to be yourself nothing at all, then you may look up to Christ, and you may say, „Thou dear, thou bleeding Lamb of God! thy griefs were endured for me; by thy stripes I am healed, and by thy sufferings I am pardoned.”

"And then see what peace of mind you will have;
for if Christ has died for you, you cannot be lost.

"God will not punish twice for one thing.
If God punished Christ for your sin,
He will never punish you.

„Payment, God’s justice cannot demand, first,
at the bleeding surety’s hand, and then again at mine.”

"We can today, if we believe in Christ, march to the very throne of God, stand there, and if it is said, „Art thou guilty?” we can say, „Yes, guilty.”

"But if the question is put, „What have you to say why you should not be punished for your guilt?” We can answer, „Great God, thy justice and thy love are both guarantees that thou wilt not punish us for sin; for didst thou not punish Christ for sin for us?

"How canst thou, then, be just—how canst thou be God at all,
if thou dost punish Christ the substitute,
and then punish man himself afterwards?”

"Your only question is, „Did Christ die for me?”

"And the only answer we can give is—

”This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ came into the world to save sinners."

 

The 5 points of the TULIP Doctrines of Grace
are Eternal Truths of The Gospel, in the Word of God.

Over 45 years in church and Bible College, where everyone I have associated and fellowshipped with was a TULIP Baptist, I only heard the name "Calvin" once or twice or maybe three times, until I came here to the BB.

What the Bible teaches matters.

And the Doctrines of Grace are taught in essentially every chapter.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:
for he shall save his people from their sins,"
in Matthew 1:22 is all you need to know.

Panic and desperation don't lend themselves to following along with things like "many" puts a restriction on "all", and not the other way around, or the word "world" often referring to the Gentiles, who in Biblical times were spoken of as "the world", etc., so never mind, you're in no temperament to discern Spiritual things.

 

Don't feel bad. YOU are a Gentile!

The Gentiles particularly, and God's elect among them, are meant;

"who are often called "the world", and "the whole world",
and "the nations of the world", as distinct from the Jews;

see Romans 11:12, compared with Matthew 6:32.

"The Jews had the same distinction we have now,
the church and the world;

"the former they took to themselves,
and the latter they gave to all the nations around:

"hence we often meet with this distinction, Israel,
and the nations of the world; on those words,

""let them bring forth their witness", that they may be justified, Isaiah 43:9
(say (b) the doctors) these are Israel; "or let them hear and say it is truth",
these are "the nations of the world".''

"Now, in opposition to such a notion, our Lord addresses this Jew;

"and it is as if he had said, you Rabbins say, that when the Messiah comes, only the Israelites, the peculiar favourites of God, shall share in the blessings that come by, and with him; and that the Gentiles shall reap no advantage by him, being hated of God, and rejected of him: but I tell you,

God has so loved the Gentiles, as well as the Jews,

"that he gave his only begotten Son; to, and for them, as well as for the Jews; to be a covenant of the people, the Gentiles, the Saviour of them, and a sacrifice for them; a gift which is a sufficient evidence of his love to them; it being a large and comprehensive one, an irreversible and unspeakable one;

"no other than his own Son by nature, of the same essence, perfections,
and glory with him;

"begotten by him in a way inconceivable and expressible by mortals;
and his only begotten one;

"the object of his love and delight, and in whom he is ever well pleased;

"and yet, such is his love to the Gentiles, as well as Jews, that he has given him, in human nature, up, into the hands of men, and of justice, and to death itself:

"that whosoever believeth in him, whether Jew or Gentile,

"should not perish, but have everlasting life; See Gill on John 3:15.

John 3:17
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.

"For God sent not his Son into the world,.... God did send his Son into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh, being made of a woman, and made under the law; and which is an instance of his great love, and not of any disrespect to his Son, or of any inequality between them: but then this was not to condemn the world; even any part of it, or any in it: not the Gentiles, as the Jews thought he would;

"for though God had suffered them to walk in their own ways, and had winked at, or overlooked the times of their ignorance, and had sent no prophet unto them, nor made any revelation of his will, or any discovery of his special grace unto them; yet he sent his Son now, not to destroy them for their idolatry, and wickedness, but to be the Saviour of them: nor the Jews;

"for as impenitent and unbelieving, and as wicked as they were, he did not accuse them to the Father, nor judge and condemn them; he was to come again in power and great glory, when he would take vengeance on them, and cause wrath to come upon them to the uttermost, for their disbelief and rejection of him;

"but this was not his business now: nor the wicked of the world in general; to judge, and condemn them, will be his work, when he comes a second time, in the day God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness.

"But the end of his mission, and first coming is,

"that the world through him might be saved; even the world of the elect in general, whom God determined to save, and has chosen, to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, and has appointed Christ to be the salvation of;

"and who being sent, came into the world to seek and save them;

"and his chosen people among the Gentiles in particular: wherefore he is said to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth: and all the ends of the earth are called upon to look unto him, and be saved by him, Isaiah 49:6.

John 3:18
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned,.... Whether Jew or Gentile, because a believer is openly in Christ; and there is no condemnation to those that are in him: and though the sentence of death passed upon all in Adam, and judgment came upon all men to condemnation in him;

"yet this sentence being executed on Christ, the surety of his people,

"who has been condemned to death,
and has suffered it in their stead, his death is a security to them

"from all condemnation:
and they are delivered by him

"from the curse and condemnation of the law:
and having in conversion openly passed from death to life,
they shall never enter into condemnation;

"and this is the happy case of every one that believes in Christ:

"but he that believeth not is condemned already. The Persic version renders it, "from the beginning"; he remains under the sentence of condemnation passed in Adam upon him; the law accuses him, and pronounces him guilty before God;

"he is under the curse of it, and it is a ministration of condemnation and death to him; nor has he any thing to secure him from its charge, curse, and condemnation: this must be understood of one that is a final unbeliever, or that lives, and dies, in a state of impenitence, and unbelief:

"because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God; whom God has sent to be the Saviour of lost sinners, and to deliver them from wrath to come; and there is no other name but his, whereby men can be saved; so that such that do not believe in him, must be damned."

 

Good point. Just remember that Calvin did have a high view of divine determinism. The OP is very good as long as your purpose is not to try to say that Calvin would have been happy with the idea that Christ died for everyone and now it's completely up to you to figure out what to do in response to this.

 

Calvin was pretty plain that he did not believe in limited atonement. Calvin would not have been a good Calvinist.

 

Nope.

Not at all.

Not in the least.

Good shot!

 

Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.

29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Brother Glen