Controversial Aspects of the Atonement

by David Cox

There are two ends of the spectrum here, with the Universalists being on one end (everybody will one day make it to heaven, just some have make a pit stop in hell first), and the Calvinists (especially the die-hard Calvinists) on the other end, (Christ's death was exclusively for the elect, and not the entire world. For this position see Boettner's Limited Atonement above)

The idea of rescue from hell is something that truly has to come from outside the Scriptures. For the Calvinist's they present God and the way things are as on one side being absolute so that even God cannot act, because He himself is restricted to what he has "predecided" in the counsels of his will in eternity before creation. The Bible makes numerous statements that Jesus died for the whole world, and here the Calvinist skillfully slices and dices the Word of God to make the word "all" not mean all. This methodology of redefining clear and unambiguous terms to mean the opposite of what the generally and regularly mean is clearly identified in other contexts by Calvinists as a technique used by cults (and rightly identify). But the Calvinist excludes this cultic methodology when he needs to make God say that salvation was not for everyone, but only a selected few.

The main problem with Calvin (in my humble opinion) is that they want to manipulate God in just manners. First God's will is inviolable. Nobody can operate outside of God's will. Yes that is true, but most of the world's population does that daily. Explain. Don't know how or why, except that God is generous is allowing us freedom in some way, perhaps in the image of God to make decisions. Take all the arguments of the Calvinists, take a step back, and what does the Scriptures say? Did God make the final decision and put that decision in the hearts of the reprobates (reprobation)? According to the Calvinist yes exactly. According to my take on Scriptures (1) God offers salvation to everyone, as if anyone could be saved if he only repents of his sins and turns in belief to Jesus as his Savior. (2) God is not a liar or deceptive, and He would not be so cruel as to offer what men cannot possibly accept. The offering is clearly such that the destiny of man is pegged to his believing or not believing, which God presents as a decision each individual has to make. We never see, "if you are elect, then believe", or "if you are elect, then you will absolutely without choice believe".

In general the Calvinist has some good doctrinal points, but the limited atonement (one of Tulip's 5) is pure heresy. When God is the bad guy in predeciding the outcome of a man's destiny without that man taking part or being in any way responsible, then that doctrine is heretical. God the Father lives outside of time in eternity. He sees all as the present. He knows all what will happen. He reigns sovereign over all. But this cannot take man's responsibility for his own destiny out of his own hands. Those who are lost, are lost because they rejected Christ, and not for any other reason. It is at their feet. Those who are saved, are saved because they accepted the plan of Salvation which God made, and provided for all humanity. They are not saved because they did something, but rather their salvation is because they submitted to the will of God in believing in Jesus as their Savior.

The Pentecostals add another controversial aspect to the Atonement in saying that healing is within the promise of the atonement. Their view is that this is not limited to spiritual healing of sin, but extends to the healing of all illness. The point is not that God can (if He so chooses) heal a person. This is pretty much understood before this issue was raised. What the Pentecostals push is that the atonement gives the Christian the undeniable right to force God to always heal him from any sickness, or prevention from death. This right only has to be claimed, and God has to heal. This ignores the character of God as being the one who decides how and when of the death of every person. God uses the curse of sin on mankind to pass people into eternity at the time and method of His choosing. We have no say so over that, only God. We cannot force God to do anything, much less heal us so that we do not die. The NT has many examples of suffering saints, and the idea of suffering like Christ suffered is a very basic element of our Christian lives. The Atonement did not take that away, nor is it a magic wand to allow us to avoid all suffering.