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I don't see that he was promoting universalism, he was just refuting Calvinism.
Quite effectively, I would say, not that it is difficult!
JDS, let's just say, for sake of argument, that you are right; that you exegeted that perfectly. You say that Christ died to make everybody saveable; His death provides the option of salvation to all if they are just smart enough to believe.
Then what do you do with the Aborigines in Australia, the natives of North America, those in Eastern Asia, who lived before Christ was even born? How did salvation come to them?
JDS, let's just say, for sake of argument, that you are right; that you exegeted that perfectly. You say that Christ died to make everybody saveable; His death provides the option of salvation to all if they are just smart enough to believe.
Then what do you do with the Aborigines in Australia, the natives of North America, those in Eastern Asia, who lived before Christ was even born? How did salvation come to them?
Today, those of the physical seed of Abraham, commonly called Jews, are largely in unbelief concerning things about Jesus Christ and salvation. The reason they are in unbelief is because of the national leaders and their reaction to his claims when he came to them about 2000 years ago. You may read about it in Mt 1:1 through Acts 7 where he addressed this nation and provided his Messianic credentials through the testimony of John the Baptist, the Scriptures, the voice of God, and the miracles performed in his name. They rejected him and the evidence and they spoke for the nation.
So, lets review: Why are the Jews in unbelief today? Yes! It was because the national leaders rejected his claims.
But what about the peoples you mentioned?
We have the apostolic commission in Mat 28, Mk 16, Lk 24, and Acts 1. These men were charged to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. By AD 60 when Paul wrote his epistle to the Colossian church, he decalred the mission was accomplished and the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ had been preached to every creature under heaven, and this statement has the infallibility and inspiration of a thrice Holy God to back it up. Though a man may not understand how it was accomplised, we are told it was in this statement here:
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Co 1:23
These kind of statements are simple and easy to be understood, but they are hard to believe simply because it is beyond our reasoning. But there it is! Every creature had the gospel preached unto them with the qualifying statement "under heaven". You cannot be anywhere on earth without being under heaven.
So, the nations are without excuse but the church of Jesus Christ, who have his love shed abroad in their hearts, can go to those peoples and give them the gospel individually because faith cometh by hearing the word of God, and they cannot hear without a preacher. If they believe they will be saved. That is the promise of God! It has nothing to do with being pre-selected.
The only way for men to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. Men are lost because they have not believed, Jn 3:18, not because they are not elect. Someone in the past made a decision about Jesus Christ that has affected this present generation and the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been preached in these countries and by these creatures. Paul said "if you continue in the faith". These people did not and so we have a world full of lost sinners and no one to preach to them that Jesus Christ saves all who will come to him, having heard about his great sacrifice in our place, and for us.
We do have an ungodly movement that says most of the world cannot be saved with or without the gospel because God has created them for the day of destruction, and he hates them whom he does not save.
That was a very long non-answer. Read the question.
The idea that the personal decisions of some nameless individuals 2000 years ago can affect people now, and prevent them from hearing the Gospel and responding to it, actually completely destroys your free will, man-centered idea that all men have the natural ability to believe the Gospel upon hearing it. Such an idea is ridiculous! Each person individually is responsible for their own sins, and those who have not been regenerated, and believed the gospel, are still in their sins, period.
calling Calvinism ungodly, because you don't agree with it, points to your ignorance of what Calvinism actually teaches, and to your ignorance of what the Bible teaches concerning sin, the Atonement, and Justification. You clearly do not know of what you so confidently speak, as though your word were the be-all and end-all of the discussion. You have great need of being taught correctly.
Then what do you do with the Aborigines in Australia, the natives of North America, those in Eastern Asia, who lived before Christ was even born? How did salvation come to them?
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Okay, I gave you the answer for those since Christ. No one is saved before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because that is the only way for any man at any time to be saved. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, we are told. However,all those before then were justified by believing God. That is, they were required to believe only what God revealed to them and they were justified by their faith. Their faith was imputed to them for righteousness. This is the message of Rom 4.
Seems like it was a lot easier to Ba saved before Christ. And those poor Israelites...all those rules and blood and stuff..
JDS said:God so loved the world
Christ died for the ungodly
Jesus Christ put away sin by his sacrifice of himself
He propitiated God for the sins of the whole world by his blood
Christ died to save sinners
He died for every man
He died for the unjust
You disagree with all these statement though they are plainly stated in scripture. This is what I call unbelief. If you do not believe something plainly stated, then it is called unbelief. If you must change it or parse it to make it agree with your take, then this is call not believing it the way it is stated.
I believe the statements above just like they are written. I am not an unbeliever!
You believe them with the spin you have put on them, whether you believe so or not. I believe what I see scripture saying. I believe scripture. but what you say it says does not always square with what it says.
God so loved the world Jn 3:16
Christ died for the ungodly Ro 5:6
Jesus Christ put away sin by his sacrifice of himself He 9:26
He propitiated God for the sins of the whole world by his blood 1 Jn 2:2
Christ died to save sinners 1 ti 1:15
He died for every man He 2:9
He died for the unjust 1 Pe 3:18
I accept these sayings without alteration and just as written. I do not need to interpret them so they will agree with my logic.
Lu 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
How could the sovereign God lose the elect?
How could a sovereign God seek for something and not find it?
He would have to lose it first.