Particular Atonement Required by Reason
I think that the only doctrine in Scripture hated more than eternal conscience torment in Hell is
particular atonement (also called definite atonement, or limited atonement), the belief that Jesus died for a
particular group of people, for whom He
fully achieved salvation. While this doctrine is often described as
Pauline, it is also found in
the direct teachings of Jesus. I don't see any way to avoid it in Scripture.
Moreover, reason requires a particular atonement. Here is why. First, if Jesus died for all of the sins of all men, then all men are saved. Yet we know from both Scripture and experience that this is not the case. Second, if Jesus died for only some of the sins, whether of only some men or of all men, then all men still have sins for which there has been no atonement, and, therefore, they are condemned to Hell. Or lastly, if Jesus died for all of the sins of some men, as I urge is the case, then those men have no sins for which to be judged, and they shall
effectually receive eternal life. I have borrowed these arguments from the great Puritan theologian John Owen.
Almost every Arminian will, at this point, interject that salvation requires a person to respond with faith and repentance, before the atonement can be applied to him. There are two logical problems with that assertion, a lesser and a greater. The lesser problem is that unbelief is a
sin. Did Jesus atone for it? If yes, then unbelief is no barrier to salvation. If no, then even the believer must be judged for his prior unbelief. He can never be saved, whether he believes or not. The greater problem is what such a doctrine teaches about the blood of Jesus. It is
insufficient, says the Arminian, and must be
augmented by something added by the believer. What a sleight against our Lord, whom we were falsely assured would save His people from our sins (Matthew 1:21), and who was falsely promised by His Father that He would see the successful travail of His soul (Isaiah 53:11), and who, in turn, promised us that He could not fail to save anyone whom the Father had given Him (John 6:39). The assertion of the Arminian also ignores the Scriptures that tell us that faith (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 12:3) and repentance (Acts 5:31, II Timothy 2:25) are given to the believer by
God,
not something that the unbeliever gives God.
"Christ by His sufferings and death completely satisfied the justice of God in regard to the sins of His people. They, through Him, either cease to be guilty or they must die; their consciences are either purged by His blood or they have no peace. They are still under the law and its curse, or they are delivered from its condemnation" (James Henley Thornwell, "The Necessity and Nature of Christianity").
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