Tor,
Thank you. God is fair and just. I believe every person has opportunities for salvation. John wrote that Christ enlightens every person who comes into the world (John 1.8-9). Paul wrote in Romans 1 that everyone knows God exists and that God’s saving grace has been revealed to all (Titus 2.11). The Holy Spirit is constantly revealing God but people suppress this work. God knows every heart and works at the individual level. Those who do not come to Him do so because they do not want Him. It does not matter where one is born as far as one’s coming to know Christ. God is not limited by culture, religion, geography. If a person desires God, God will bring salvation. God wants all to be saved (1 Timothy 2.3-4). Since this is true, God does everything to bring men and women to himself without violating free will. Much of this we cannot understand but one day we will.

Brian,
Yes. Calvinism is more of a philosophical system than a theological system. It forms premises and then tries to fit the Scriptures to it. Limited atonement is a great deceit and its proponents fail to comprehend the extent of Christ’s work and love.

Nick,
Thank you. “Sheep,” always, without exception refer to Jews. Sheep are not “believers” but “Jewish believers.” “Sheep” never refers to Gentiles or members of the Church, the body of Christ. Throughout the Scriptures we see the divine side of salvation and the human side, e.g., 2 Thessalonians 2.13, “chose you from the beginning for salvation, by the sanctification of the the Spirit and faith in the truth.” God’s foreknowledge governs salvation and free will is paramount.

Thank you for posting this and trying to explain this difficult doctrine. I think you have done a great job collecting the scriptures that pertain to both sides, but there is an important point that you are adding to help your argument that does not exist in the text.

You are conflating what God desires, with what God wills. These are 2 different actions that you are equating when interpreting 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, and Mathew 18:12-14.

In 2 Peter 3:9, the text clearly states that yes, Our Lord does not “[wish] for any to perish”. Yes, this is referring to all men, both Jews and Gentiles.

In 1 Timothy 2:3-4, once again the text agrees that God our Savior “desires all men to be saved”, to which, once again, I say, Amen.

But when we look at Matthew 18:12-14, we are dealing with sheep, not all men. The sheep are believers, the ones who the Lord is shepherding. So when the text states “it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish”, the little ones are believers, not all men, as you seem to suggest.

Because you are conflating the desire that God has for all people to be saved with the will of God, which in fact saves the sheep, the argument you make for the other side is a false one. The argument should instead be:

God chooses some to be saved.

God desires that all will be saved.

The proposition we are left with is, “God desires all to be saved, but only chooses some.” This proposition is perfectly sound and is something that pulls this question out of us: “Why does God choose only some, when he desires all to be saved?” To answer this we can look to Romans where Paul is dealing with a similar question and emphatically states,

“who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

Thank you for reading, looking forward to your response.

In Christ,

Nick

Anthony,
Rereading the passage, the “we” and “us” seem to be Paul himself (nosism), and then by extension, those who believed his gospel. Paul included the Ephesians, especially in verse 13 when he changed to the pronoun “you.” I do not think Paul had in mind Jews who looked for the Messiah. The context is the Church.

“that we should be to [the] praise of his glory who have pre-trusted in the Christ.” Eph 1:12 (Darby trans.)
Darby tries to show the uniqueness of this word, προελπίζω (proelpizō) ‘to hope beforehand’. Used only here.
It may refer to those Jews who earnestly looked for Messiah beforehand’. Used only here.
It may refer to those Jews who earnestly looked for Messiah.

Brian,
1. the honest answer for a scientist should be “I don’t know” Agnosticism. example: Robert Jastrow
2. The human mind is limited. How do we reconcile something coming from nothing as Hawking does? Hawking puts his faith in the workings of gravitation…. something no one understands. Such arrogance!!—The collider in Switzerland searching for the God Particle. It’s an admission of ignorance.
3. I believe only things that are created have a beginning. The universe is said, by the brightest of minds, to be 13.4 billion years old. 13.4 billion years ago the entire Universe was a singularity. All matter was compressed into a single element smaller than a quark and time, as we know it, did not exist. Hey, that’s the best they’ve got. All these ‘brightest minds’ work with grant $. They’ve got to come up with something in this secular world of ours. Recently it was one of our so-called brightest minds who claimed, “I am science”, telling us getting vaccinated would prevent us from getting covid. How did that work out? I’m ranting. Sorry.