If you ask a Calvinist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Puritan, or any Reformed evangelical Christian whether God wills that all men be saved, as surprising as it may seem, he will be unable to answer in the affirmative.
The reason is that for them it is God’s will that only the elect be saved, and that the rest be condemned. This error stems from the false premise of assuming that if God is sovereign and wished all to be saved, they would inevitably be saved — otherwise this would attribute to God qualities of impotence for being unable to accomplish his will.
Limited Atonement
But if God is love[1] it is difficult to understand how he could not will the salvation of all men. Yet for Calvinism this is a mystery that man cannot comprehend because it is an “inscrutable”, “ineffable”, “unfathomable” decree — which is merely an elegant way of saying they do not know.
Under this view, Christ does not die for all men but only for the elect, and this is called “limited,” “definite,” or “efficacious” atonement. Upon the predestined he pours out his grace; the rest he abandons to their wickedness. Not even infants escape this great mystery — so that, as surprising as it may seem, of two newborn babies who die, one might go to heaven and the other to hell. This is declared by the Westminster Confession, one of the most important documents within Calvinism:
“Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how He pleaseth: so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.
Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved.
Much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the laws of that religion they do profess; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested.”[2]
Scripture, however, contains numerous texts that oppose this interpretation:
“This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to which was borne at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”[3]
“and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[4]
“The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”[5]
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”[6]
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”[7]
“But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one.”[8]
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?”[9]
“For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.”[10]
“Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?”[11]
“Irresistible” Grace
One of the reasons Calvinism has adopted this aberrant position is its belief that grace is “irresistible” and that man is a “passive” recipient of grace. This doctrine, which holds that God can overcome all resistance despite man’s free will, is known as “irresistible grace.” Thus, the man who converts and has faith does so because God infused his grace and he had no freedom to resist it; the one who does not is so because God abandoned him to his wickedness.
One of the Calvinists’ favorite biblical texts to support the doctrine of irresistible grace is this:
“In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed.”[12]
From this text they construct the following chain of reasoning:
1) God accomplishes all things according to the decision of his will.
2) There are persons who are not saved.
3) Therefore, it is God’s will that those persons not be saved.
4) If God’s will were not fulfilled, it would mean that God is neither sovereign nor omnipotent.
Of those four premises, the first and second are true, but the third and fourth are false. It is true that God accomplishes all things according to his will, but it is equally true that his will has granted man the freedom to choose.
An example is the following text: “…it is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity”[13]. It is evident that there are Christians who fall into sins of fornication even though it is not God’s will, and we should not therefore conclude that God is not omnipotent. God permits us to use and abuse our freedom so that we may love him freely, without diminishing his omnipotence.
Another text used by Calvinists is this:
“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.”[14]
But from this text it does not follow that each person cannot lose himself, as is deduced from other passages of the Bible:
“I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.”[15]
In that text Jesus speaks of those whom the Father has given him, and then clarifies that none was lost EXCEPT Judas — who is the exception because he is lost by his own choice.
A similar text is this: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”[16]. It would be a mistake to interpret these texts as Calvinists do, assuming that neither can we ourselves, by the exercise of our own will, separate ourselves from the love of God.
Another text used is this: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day”[17]. It is commonly objected that the Greek word the text uses for “draws” is helkuō, which means “to drag with irresistible force,” and they cite as examples other texts using the same word: “they seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple”[18] and “Is it not the rich who oppress you, and drag you into court?”[19]
The truth is that helkuo does mean to drag or attract, but does not imply “with irresistible force.” An example is found in John 21:6, where the same word is used:
“He said to them, ‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish.”[20]
Here the same word is used and it becomes clear that it does not necessarily imply dragging with “irresistible” force, since the disciples were trying to “haul” (helkuo) the net and could not. Thus the fact of trying to “drag” or “draw” (helkuo) something does not necessarily imply that it will actually move.
John 21:6 can be used to prove that whoever is to be saved must first be drawn, but not to prove that all who are drawn will necessarily be saved.
Man certainly cannot by himself will and persevere in good without the help of grace — the contrary would be Pelagianism — but it is likewise true that he is free to let himself be moved by grace or to reject it.
That man can either cooperate with grace, allowing himself to be moved, or resist it, is something clearly revealed in Scripture. Stephen, for instance, rebukes the Jews for “resisting the Holy Spirit”:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.”[21]
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’”[22]
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”[23]
“For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”[24]
Faced with texts such as these, those who preach the doctrine of irresistible grace admit that it can be partially or temporarily resisted, but never definitively. This means that no matter how hardened a person’s heart may be, he will eventually be softened and finally converted. They set this forth in the following terms:
“That God bestows the gift of faith on some in time, while not bestowing it on others, proceeds from His eternal decree. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18), and He does all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11).
According to this decree, He softens, by pure grace, the hearts of the elect, however obstinate they may be, and inclines them to believe; while He leaves those who, according to His just judgment, are not chosen, in their wickedness and hardness. And here especially is disclosed to us that deep, merciful, and at the same time righteous distinction among men, equally involved in ruin; that is, the decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the Word of God. Which, although wicked, impure, and unstable men distort to their own destruction, it gives unspeakable consolation to holy and godly souls.”[25]
However, there are numerous biblical texts showing that grace can be resisted definitively:
“For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.”[26]
The passage above does not speak of someone who was never “washed,” but of someone who was washed and has returned to filth by rejecting and resisting grace.
The same idea is maintained in John 15 in the metaphor of the vine, where Christ is compared to a vine and we to its branches. The branches that detach from it cease to bear fruit and end up being cut off:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.”[27]
The lesson of this metaphor for Christians already united to Christ is very clear: one must remain united to him, or we will be cut off. But if grace were irresistible, how could a branch that was once united to the vine ever detach itself and cease to bear fruit?
This and other texts make clear that grace can be resisted not only before justification but after it, to the point of falling from the state of grace and ultimately being condemned:
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.”[28]
“Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him.”[29]
Those who believe that grace is irresistible also believe that God pours out his grace only upon the elect. These are “drawn,” while the rest — the non-elect — are not, and do not receive God’s grace.
But this too is false. Scripture does not say that only a few are called and that they cannot resist the call, but rather that “many are called, but few are chosen”[30]. The Apostle John testifies that from the fullness of Christ “we have all received, grace upon grace”[31].
Christ taught that after his resurrection he would draw all to himself: “and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”[32]. From where, then, can one conclude that there are persons who do not receive sufficient grace to be saved?
The parable of the talents contains the same lesson: there is no one to whom God does not give “talents.” To some he gives one, to others two, and to others perhaps more, but no one can claim to have received nothing from God.
Collaboration Between Grace and Free Will
Grace can certainly be resisted, and that is why the Apostle exhorts us to cooperate with it, not merely to be passive recipients:
“Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.”[33]
Thus the man who is condemned is not so because he was predestined by some inscrutable decree, but by his own choice:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”[34]
If God did not genuinely give all men the opportunity to be saved, he would be lying by setting life and death before them while abandoning them, knowing they cannot be saved. But that is precisely the consequence of the Calvinist teaching which holds that those who are not predestined cannot truly choose life, because God has predestined them from eternity to condemnation and gives them no real opportunity to be saved.
Despite all this, such texts make no impression on Calvinism, which interprets them as depicting God as a powerless beggar. An example is found in an article by Gise J. Van Baren on irresistible grace:
“The idea that the death of Christ will undoubtedly save those for whom Christ died is not a popular idea in our day. Christ is presented as a beggar. He promises; He pleads; He threatens. But He seems to have no power to carry out what apparently He very much desires to do. One would be inclined to ask, ‘Who is this Christ who is so obliged to beg for the cooperation of the sinner? …Is this the Jesus Who died on Calvary, who thus begs?’ But such a Jesus is weak; He is ineffectual and powerless. He is completely dependent upon the will of the sinner to let Him into the heart.”
These texts speak to us of a God who has chosen to respect human freedom — an irrevocable gift that he himself has granted — and of which Christ Himself is the witness:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”[35]
To read in these texts that God enters the heart by force is frankly absurd. And so, while Scripture reminds us again and again that “God desires all men to be saved”[36], Calvinists have ended up believing exactly the opposite.
Notes
- 1 Jn 4:16 ↩
- Westminster Confession, 10, 3–4. Reformed Church Library, http://www.iglesiareformada.com/Confesion_Westminster.html. ↩
- 1 Tim 2:3-7 ↩
- 1 Jn 2:2 ↩
- 2 Pet 3:9 ↩
- 2 Cor 5:14-15 ↩
- Jn 3:16 ↩
- Heb 2:9 ↩
- Ezek 18:23 ↩
- Ibid., 18:32 ↩
- Ibid., 33:11 ↩
- Eph 1:11 ↩
- 1 Thess 4:3 ↩
- Jn 6:39 ↩
- Jn 17:11-12 ↩
- Rom 8:38-39 ↩
- Jn 6:44 ↩
- Acts 21:30 ↩
- Jas 2:6 ↩
- Jn 21:6 ↩
- Acts 7:51 ↩
- Heb 3:7-10 ↩
- Mt 23:37 ↩
- Jer 11:7-8 ↩
- Canons of Dort, 1, 6. http://www.iglesiareformada.com/Canones_de_Dort.html ↩
- 2 Pet 2:21-22 ↩
- Jn 15:5-6 ↩
- Rom 11:22 ↩
- Heb 2:1-3 ↩
- Mt 22:14 ↩
- Jn 1:16 ↩
- Jn 12:32 ↩
- 2 Cor 6:1 ↩
- Deut 30:19 ↩
- Rev 3:20 ↩
- 1 Tim 2:4 ↩
