[the_doc]

Woody's point in referring to John 12:19 ("world") is that the Greek-speaking writers of the New Testament did not use the universals of the Greek language (e.g., "all" and "world") in a rigidly, mathermatically inclusive way. They tended to use the universals in a way which grammars call "distributive."

So, you should regard 1 John 2:2 as a precious verse. It has great rhetorical power for presenting the freeness (distributive universality) of the Atonement. But the matter of who in particular Jesus' Atonement was designed to save is a different matter. It is, in fact, a deeper matter.

And when we look careful at the peculiar language conventions of the Greek text and the overall Biblical context (e.g., John 11:51-52) and the logical problems I identified in post #73, we discover that the Calvinistic position is correct.

[the_doc]

I meant to include you on #690.

[xzins]

Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to provide atonement for the sins of the whole world. "Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

Were the entire body of humankind to accept Christ, his sacrifice would be sufficient for all of them.