You know, people really should be careful flinging around a charge of heresy, you can't be sure who it will hit. Jerry Falwell made the following statement during a chapel message to perspective students at his college:
"We are not into particular love or limited atonement. As a matter of fact we consider it heresy."(via)
Does that make people like me, Calvin, the Westminster Divines, the elders of the PCA and the OPC, R.C. Sproul and D. James Kennedy heretics because we believe it?
Look, we don't come by this position lightly, it has been well thought out and it is part of an entire system of the theology of salvation. We have biblical reasons for believing in limited atonement as can be seen from this quote from Bavinck:
"Vicarious atonement" is not a "ready-made quantity" but an operative principle and fundamentally includes the whole enterprise of re-creation. The work of Christ is finished only when he delivers the kingdom to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24). Rather than opening up the possibility of being saved, he perpetually saves [sinners] on the basis of the sacrifice completed on the cross. He is the Savior because he not only died for our sins but rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and now, as the exalted Lord, prays for the church. He consecrated himself in order that his own also would be consecrated in truth (John 17:19). He gave himself up for the church that he might sanctify it and present it to himself with splendor (Eph. 5:25-27). Christ and his church are of one origin, which is God (Heb. 2:11), and are, as it were, one Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). In and with Christ, God gives to believers all they need (Rom. 8:32f; Eph. 1:3-4; 2 Pet. 1:3). Election in Christ carries all blessings with it: adoption as children, redemption by his blood (Eph. 1:3ff), the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), faith (Phil. 1:29), repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25), a new heart and a new spirit (Jer. 31:33-34; Ezek. 36:25-27; Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16).I don't think it's productive or necessary for Falwell to tear down the body in this fashion. Maybe he might want to focus on making the case for why he believe what he believes, instead of name-calling:
Still to be added to this, in the third place, is that universalism leads to all sorts of false positions. It introduces separation between the three persons of the Divine Being, for the Father wills the salvation of all. Christ makes satisfaction for all, but the Holy Spirit restricts the gift of faith and salvation to a few. It introduces conflict between the purpose of God, who desires the salvation of all, and the will or power of God, who actually either will not or cannot grant salvation to all. It gives precedence to the person and work of Christ over election and the covenant, so that Christ is isolated from these contexts and cannot vicariously atone for his people, since there is no fellowship between him and us. It denigrates the justice of God by saying that he causes forgiveness and life to be acquired for all and then fails to distribute them [to all]. It elevates free will to the point where it has the power to believe, to undo or not undo the work of Christ, and to decide-indeed, has the outcome of world history in its hands. It leads to the doctrine, as the Quakers rightly observed, that if Christ died for all men, then all must be given the opportunity, in either this world or the next to accept or reject him, for it would be grossly unjust to condem and to punish those whose sins had all been atoned for solely because they lacked the opportunity to accept Christ by faith. It further arrives at the position, in clear conflict with Scriptures that the only sin that leads to a person's being lost is the sin of unbelief. All other sins, after all, have been atoned for, including even those of the 'man of sin,' the Antichrist.
1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
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