***If all men were chosen by God to have their sins paid for by Jesus Christ, then all men would be forgiven and all men would be saved.***
Free will, Dr. E. I give you the Gospel and you give me misinterpretations of Christ.
Eph 1:
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In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace
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that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight,
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he has made known to us the mystery 5 of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him
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as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
All things in heaven and on earth - that includes all men. Why will you not admit it?
John 3:
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For God so loved the world that he gave 7 his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
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For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
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For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift 16 of the Spirit.
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The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
1 Tim 2
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This is good and pleasing to God our savior,
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who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
Shall I continue? The Gospels are full of such verse and so is the NT including Paul.
You post verse and they are correct; I post verse and they are correct. The only way to reconcile them is to discard the evil of Calvinism and admit that God came for all men and that he wills everyone to be saved.
You again mischaracterize my posts. I did not say that everyone will be saved. I said what Paul said above - that He WILLS everyone to be saved. How does Calvin explain this one away?
***Your theology is pablum.***
It is the theology of Christ, not a degenerate hood.
*** God loves with specificity and life-changing intent. Therefore Christ knows His own because the Father gave them to Him, according to His plan of creation from before the foundation of the world, before anyone could do any “good or evil,” and thus Christ will lose none of them.***
Your supposition of an elite is evil and contrary to the love of Christ. God’s love is not for all? Not what the Bible says. God hijacks the elite? Not what the Bible says. God’s love is so great that even when people commit evil, He is ready to forgive them if they repent of their sins. Even the followers of Calvin.
If Christ came for all men, yet all men are not saved, then God is not all-powerful and does not get what He wants and is too weak or feeble or absent-minded or cruel to accomplish that which He "came for."
You have a god who is thwarted in getting what He "came for" by men's supposed free will.
Like Luther, I thank God my will is not free, but now held captive to Christ.
Jesus clearly tells us in John 17 that He does not pray for all the word; only for those whom God has given to Him, those who believe on His name.
God's love is not for all?
Apparently not. God hated Esau.
But I say nothing on that subject, because it has nothing to do with this passage; for the Apostle simply means, that there is no people and no rank in the world that is excluded from salvation; because God wishes that the gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception. Now the preaching of the gospel gives life; and hence he justly concludes that God invites all equally to partake salvation. But the present discourse relates to classes of men, and not to individual persons; for his sole object is, to include in this number princes and foreign nations. That God wishes the doctrine of salvation to be enjoyed by them as well as others, is evident from the passages already quoted, and from other passages of a similar nature. Not without good reason was it said, "Now, kings, understand," and again, in the same Psalm, "I will give thee the Gentiles for an inheritance, and the ends of the earth for a possession." (Psalm 2:8-10.) In a word, Paul intended to shew that it is our duty to consider, not what kind of persons the princes at that time were, but what God wished them to be. Now the duty arising out of that love which we owe to our neighbor is, to be solicitous and to do our endeavor for the salvation of all whom God includes in his calling, and to testify this by godly prayers."Hence we see the childish folly of those who represent this passage to be opposed to predestination. "If God," say they, "wishes all men indiscriminately to be saved, it is false that some are predestined by his eternal purpose to salvation, and others to perdition." They might have had some ground for saying this, if Paul were speaking here about individual men; although even then we should not have wanted the means of replying to their argument; for, although the will of God ought not to be judged from his secret decrees, when he reveals them to us by outward signs, yet it does not therefore follow that he has not determined with himself what he intends to do as to every individual man.
Since Scripture cannot contradict Scripture, Paul is here telling us that God's salvation is obvious for all men to behold, but only those who have been regenerated by the gift of the Holy Spirit will respond in faith.
"As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." -- Romans 9:13
As God wills.
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour" -- Titus 3:5-6"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Does God regenerate all men? Is God's saving grace to believe shed on all men?
No. If that were true, there would be two saved thieves at Calvary instead of only one.