Limited Atonement for All

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Abstract

The mystery of how the atonement of Christ works in Man’s salvation has plagued earnest souls for millennia: How does God provide salvation for Man apart from works? If we can do nothing to earn salvation, then how do we obtain it? In other words, if God offers salvation to us through Christ’s atonement for sin, apart from what we do, and if He does not save all people, then how does the atonement of Christ actually accomplish this? How can the atonement of Christ itself pay for anyone’s sins without saving everyone? If Christ’s atonement did not by itself purge anyone’s sins in particular, then how do we benefit from it to have our own sins forgiven? And if the atonement is only for a few, then how does God offer salvation to all? The answer to these important questions lies in the timing of the Cross: take it outside of time and space to find in it an effectual sacrifice purging all the sins of believers — and only of believers, not of any unbelievers — and yet still providing a means of being reconciled to God for all who seek Him. It is a limited atonement which ultimately and infallibly saves all of God’s elect, and only the elect, and yet it is always available to all mankind — no one is excluded from it by God Himself.

Preface

One billion centuries from now … nothing of this earthly life will be of any real significance to us except one thing: that we have become an object of God’s favor … and not of His fury. This one thing, from a temporal perspective, may properly define the entire objective of life.

Those who perceive this have given themselves to study and to seek God, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12) Clearly, to entertain the slightest possibility of failing to find most secure and steadfast security with respect to eternal life — if that security may be found — is to live in profound carelessness, blindness and darkness. This study is of such singular theological importance a special term has been derived for it: Soteriology.

Yet as profound and vital a subject as this evidently is, it appears that very few apply themselves to seek the truth for themselves in order to fully understand it. Of those few who study the topic in any depth, most simply review what others before them have taught in order to teach this to others. Very, very few appear to apply the type of honesty and rigor one would expect in such an endeavor. In reviewing the literature, I cannot find a satisfactory position.

In my view, after debating with hundreds of souls, many of whom with theological training, and after searching a through a multitude of denominations, and reviewing the historical literature, I find basic, fundamental, important questions which are not answered well in my opinion, if at all. We must try to answer these kinds of questions for ourselves in order to be complete. When we disagree, we should respectfully debate the topic; so please feel free to challenge me over any aspect of this precious topic. I would love to explore further with anyone who is interested.

That we might not find complete answers to such important questions in our culture and common literature can be daunting, suggesting that such debates are fruitless since agreement is so rare, since confusion and misinformation is so rampant. Yet we must expect the enemy to deceive and confuse, especially on this particular topic; he would do his utmost to make it extremely difficult for any soul who finds God’s answers here to make them public knowledge. That the topic is worthy of our diligent pursuit is evident to all: no one denies its importance, yet the vastness of the noise surrounding it can be daunting.

To distill the topic and find some clarity, a first intuitive step might be to ask the simple question: Can I be sure I will go to Heaven? And if we can affirm a positive answer here, we will naturally then ask, How? We must all begin here, for there is no point in exploring the intricate details of how the dynamics of personal salvation work if we do not even have salvation, or if we cannot know that we have it. We must have some concept of the basics in order to proceed. Those who have not answered these preliminary questions fully in Christ, such that they now know they have eternal life and can never lose it, are encouraged to read another work before continuing here: That You May Know.

Getting the basics down is certainly the first step: we cannot build a more complete understanding of salvation until we have a proper foundation. With a proper foundation laid in Christ, and having faith in Him as our Savior, we may begin in earnest to build a more complete understanding of what He has done for us by studying Him in more depth. Let us do so.

Christ Himself a Propitiation

In the Bible, it is written, “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” This statement, recorded in 1 John 2:2, presents both a bright hope as well as a dilemma for the thoughtful saint.

Firstly, it points us to Jesus Christ as our hope of eternal life, which is definitely promising. If we are to find favor with God we know it is through Christ and Christ alone; there is no other name under Heaven which gives us any hope. It is a good place to begin, and particularly good for us since a thoughtful study of this particular verse begins to expose vast gaps in the common understanding of salvation. Let us study this precious text phrase by phrase.

The subject of the statement, He, is the divine Person: Jesus Christ. He is set forth as central in our salvation. The first word in the text that suggests real investigation is the word propitiation. Christ Jesus is, “the propitiation for our sins.” What does this mean?

First, before going straight to a definition, let us notice some obvious things from the text that will help to form a context for the definition of the word propitiation. This propitiation is something that Jesus is, not something that He has done, or that He is going to do; a propitiation is not something that Jesus was at one time. This “is” is a present tense, state-of-being verb, not an action verb. Part of His nature, part of what defines Jesus Christ as a divine Being is described in this text. Being a propitiation is a quality that Jesus Christ possesses; it is not an activity that He performs. Jesus Christ Himself, right now, is … the … propitiation.

Now, Jesus Christ is the propitiation for something: there is something that is affected, or at the very least potentially affected, by this propitiation quality of Jesus Christ. This fact is directly implied in the use of the preposition for. There is an association, a relationship, or a connection between the propitiation and something else. The propitiation is directed at, or because of something. He is the propitiation for “our sins:” our violation of God’s law: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1Jn 3:4)

This our sins that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for, might be yours and mine and everyone else’s sins – effectively all people of all times and places, or they might be just those sins of the author of the biblical text, the apostle John, and certain of his close associates to whom he was writing in particular, or our sins might be just the sins of a more general and very special group of privileged people chosen by God for salvation and called the elect — which apparently also includes John and his intended audience. These are the only reasonable meanings of the word our in this context. Either this indeed includes everyone, or it is a general group of people possessing a certain quality or privilege throughout history, or it is a very narrow group composed of the author and the special recipients of the original letter.

Whatever might be made of our sins, this propitiation that Jesus is right now does not apply only to our sins. As plainly as it can be said in the English tongue, it is written, “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” What does this mean? Whose sins are affected by this propitiation-being of Jesus Christ?

To answer this, still as a matter of context for the definition of propitiation, for an additional moment let us focus our attention on the meaning of the phrase, whole world. These words are very important, for they define the scope of the sins for which Jesus is the propitiation.

At first, it would appear that this phrase whole world might refer to all people the world over, or perhaps to the great majority of people in the world. This would be the meaning of such language in most normal conversations. This would naturally mean Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of all people the world over for all time.

However, there are certain people who would boldly argue that these words whole world cannot refer to all of the people in the world, or even to most people. These folks reason that the words refer to a very small (at least small when compared to the total human population) group of people called the elect – the ones chosen of God to receive salvation – and that Jesus is not the propitiation for the sins of all the people the world over for all time. Their reasons for attempting this tact are compelling ones, which are of necessity entirely unrelated to the text at hand, and we will be considering their reasons shortly.

Simply put, however, when we use the words whole world in any rational context they mean every single human being or a very large proportion of the entire human population. The context of the idea might be the entire human population, as in the statement, “The whole world suffers from the first sin of Adam.” Here the intended meaning is every single human being that has ever lived at any time.

In other uses, this idea of whole world might exclude certain individuals and simply refer to a significant portion of the entire human population, as in, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1Jn 5:19) Two distinct groups of people are defined in this text: those who are of God, and the rest of mankind (the vast majority, apparently) who lie in wickedness. Here, it is reasonable to understand that the words whole world do not include the first group mentioned, the we, those who are of God. This is consistent with John’s earlier statement, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God.” (1Jn 4:4-6a) John often plainly speaks of two groups which are mutually exclusive: us or we, and the world. The words whole world would not therefore, in this case, include every single human being as there is a small group of people, the us, who do not belong to this whole world group.

However, this concept of whole world or all men could never mean a very select and narrow group of people — as the elect — which is proportionally very small when compared to the entire human population and which is dispersed over the entire planet. (Mt 7:14) For example, if one were to say, “the whole world has been converted to Christ,” we would probably conclude the statement is false. And if they clarified that they used the words whole world to refer to a relatively small group of people called the elect which really has been converted to Christ and which is dispersed throughout the world, we would naturally ask them why they did this. Why use the words, whole world if they wished to convey such a meaning as implied in the elect when the word elect is available? No one would do so who wished to communicate clearly, since the words, whole world do not convey the meaning intended. Thus, neither would God use the words whole world to refer to the elect.

Further, there are no grammatical or contextual grounds here for excluding any human being, as if whole world refers only to a large majority of mankind, to the exclusion of a few. Nothing in the grammatical construction or in the immediate context is violated by including every single human being who has ever lived. This is the plain meaning of the text: Jesus Christ was the propitiation for the sins of every human being living on the planet when this text was penned, and by logical extension, Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of every human that has ever lived, or that ever will live. Most importantly, this includes you and me.

So, the propitiation is something that Jesus is right now, and the sinful state of every human being is somehow either actually or at least potentially affected by this propitiation-being of Jesus. We now have an adequate context for our definition of propitiation, which any good dictionary will provide. Webster’s Second College Edition contains the following. Propitiation is the noun form of the verb propitiate, which means “to cause to become favorably inclined; to win or regain the good will of; appease or conciliate.” Being the noun form of the verb propitiate, propitiation would be an object, person, act, or truth which is capable of reconciling one person with another; having the ability to restore good will, or to cause one to become favorably inclined toward another. A propitiation then, for our purposes, is something or Someone that is able to cause God, Who is angry with us (Ep 2:3), to become reconciled or favorably inclined toward us.

A Difficulty

This is good news, that the whole world has a propitiation in Jesus Christ, that He is able to reconcile every human being to God (2Co 5:18-19), yet it also poses a difficulty: we are stating without qualification that Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all people of all time the world over, while it is obvious from reading the Bible that God has not become permanently reconciled to all men. (20) Actually, according to Scripture, most people will go to Hell instead of Heaven: God is not propitiated or reconciled with most people. To the contrary, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Ps 7:11b) “The wrath of God abideth” on all unbelievers. (Jn 3:36) Consider also Matthew 7:14: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

In light of this problem, some reason that whole world cannot mean everyone since this implies universal salvation: if Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all men everywhere, then all men must be saved since God would have to be propitiated toward all men. This line of reasoning then rejects the plain meaning of the words whole world in our text, concluding we must either handle the word propitiation deceitfully or handle the words whole world deceitfully.

However, 1^st John 2:2 does not state God has already been reconciled to all men by Christ, only that Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all men. In other words, while Christ is able to save everyone, everyone is not already saved, not even those who eventually will be saved. God’s wrath abides on all those who do not presently believe on Christ, including the elect who have not yet believed, who stand condemned before Him while they still continue in unbelief: “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God … (and) … the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn 3:17, 36) God cannot be propitiated toward someone while His anger yet burns toward them and His wrath remains on them, for this contradicts the definition of the word propitiation. Thus, we cannot say God has already been propitiated toward all men, or toward any particular individual, solely based on the fact Christ is the propitiation for all of our sins. It isn’t that simplistic.

A Key

To navigate this, observe that a propitiation has the potential to reconcile a broken relationship before the relationship is restored. In other words, a propitiation is what it is even if the reconciliation never actually occurs. The potential of the propitiation to reconcile is the key. For example, if a man is angry with a brother due to a misunderstanding, and his anger would be appeased by a letter from a mutual friend, the letter is a propitiation even before it is read. The truths in the letter would not necessarily become a propitiation as they were understood, for their nature and potential would remain constant. The ability to reconcile is distinct from and independent of the actual reconciliation generated by it.

In this way we may understand how Christ is the propitiation for the sins of all people without actually reconciling God to everyone, since Christ has the potential ability to do so. Jesus Christ is able to cause God to become favorably inclined towards every individual even though most remain alienated from Him. God can be angry with sinners even while Christ is their propitiation.

While it is apparent that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, it is also apparent God has not yet become favorably inclined toward all men. There is somewhat of a mystery here which we must not fail to unravel; the whole purpose of life, from a natural man’s perspective, is to obtain the favor of this Creator. To terminate this life under the weight of the wrath of an angry God cannot be measured as personal success in any fashion.  We must, if we are sane, seek with all our might that the propitiation of Jesus Christ might cause God to become favorably inclined toward us personally. (1Th 1:10) This may be in fact be the first and foremost pursuit of earthly life: seek first to enter the kingdom of God and to obtain His righteousness. (Mt :33)

The Mystery

An initial facet of this beautiful mystery to explore is why Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. What is it about Him that causes God to become favorably inclined toward sinners, individuals with whom He should naturally be very angry? We should be led to the place where it is written, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all … for the transgression of my people was he stricken … He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities … he hath poured out his soul unto death … and he bare the sin of many.” Isaiah 53 is rich for those seeking to fathom what exactly it is about Jesus that makes Him the “propitiation for our sins.”

To summarize, the propitiation quality of Jesus Christ lies in the simple fact that when Jesus Christ died on the Golgotha cross nearly two millennia ago, He was punished as a sinner when He was not a sinner. Although Jesus never did break any of the holy laws of God, He was punished as if He had defiantly broken every last one of them. Jesus Christ suffered the full, eternal weight and wrath of God during His six-hour stay on the cross so completely that God is satisfied with the suffering of Jesus Christ on behalf of anyone and everyone for whom Jesus did it.

Anyone covered by this immense suffering will be treated by God as if they have never transgressed any of His laws in any particle of detail. Not only the commandments which forbid sinful activity are included in this covering, such as, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet” (Ro 14:14a) … satisfied by mere inactivity, but those which demand inward perfection: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” … and… “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Mt 22:37-39)

Jesus, though having perfectly obeyed every requirement of God’s Law with intense delight, suffered as a Substitution for others who did not do so — for some who at times lived in hated of God and His laws. He did this so successfully — and so thoroughly — that the justice of God is completely satisfied in their cases. Jesus Christ has not merely made a payment for their sins — He has so owned, personalized and identified Himself with their sin as to embody it, to become it on their behalf! “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Co 5:21)

All of the sins committed by those for whom Jesus died have been completely and permanently dealt with by His death and resurrection. God has no more grievances with these blessed folks, and He never will have any damning judgments against them for any reason. God Almighty has been thoroughly conciliated and appeased in each their cases because of what Jesus Christ has become for them. Christ has become their Substitute and they need not fear the wrath and anger of God any more than Jesus Christ Himself. “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin.” (Ps 32:2, Ro 4:6-8)

Wonder and worship dance with us at the foot of the cross, as we gaze up into the eyes of our Lord bearing our sin and shame, beholding the mystery of the God-Man redeeming us from sin. And yet, as we focus carefully, letting His words bathe and quicken us, the words themselves, being indeed both spirit and life (Jn 6:63), enlighten as we ask, seek and knock. (Mt 7:7-8)

Why are the tenses of the verbs in Isaiah 53 all mixed up, woven together into a timeless canvas of prophetic redemption? Why is the crucifixion of Jesus referred to as a past act in this passage when the text was penned hundreds of years before the crucifixion? “We hid, as it were, our faces from Him … He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows … He was wounded … The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all … he was cut off … for the transgression of my people was he stricken … He hath poured out His soul unto death … he was numbered with the transgressors, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

And why does this mystery also appear to be happening in the present, the here and now? “He hath no form nor comeliness … He is despised and rejected of men … with his stripes we are healed … as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.“

At the same time, why is this all seen as a future event—”He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant … When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin … He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

Is this woven mixture of the tenses superfluous literary elegance? Is not every single word of God pure? (Pr 30:5), None are insignificant: we ought to live by every one of them. (Lk 4:4)

Secondly, if the sins of certain people have already been laid on Jesus Christ such that God is completely satisfied with them for the sake of Christ their propitiation, how can these people remain condemned before they believe on Christ? It is written, in John 3, “He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God?” (Jn 3:18) Christians become believers, they are not born this way. (Ac 3:19) God’s wrath must abide on anyone who has neglected to believe, and it must remain on them until they do believe. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn 3:36) In this state every unbeliever is alienated from God and without hope. (Ep 2:12) Why aren’t the elect, all those who will eventually believe on Jesus Christ and become heirs of eternal life, justified from birth since Jesus has already died? Why and how do the elect become saved when they believe on Christ, if God has been conciliated and satisfied with their cases since the crucifixion of Christ on their behalf? Similarly, how could Abraham, Noah, Job and David have been actually justified through faith in Christ before Christ died for them and actually satisfied God’s demands on their sin?

Thirdly, if Jesus has completely saved all those for whom He died, it would appear that the group of people for whom He has died is fixed and defined rather explicitly, since His death is a completed historical fact and not an on-going sacrifice. Everyone whose sins were actually laid on Jesus Christ is permanently and eternally safe, and this appears to be a very limited and closed group of people. How then is an offer of a propitiation made to all of the people who have ever lived, as plainly done in the text with which we began?

In a Nutshell

To summarize, there are two fundamentally distinct, yet interconnected puzzle pieces to wrestle out here.

1) We are saved in this present time by an act of the past and saints of antiquity were justified in their present time by a then future act.

2) We speak of an atonement which literally saves only a very limited group of people, the elect, yet this atonement is somehow genuinely made available to everyone who has ever lived.

The relationship between these two concepts is evidently very difficult to see; historically, a significant relationship has not been perceived to exist between them, but this connection proves to be the key to the whole discussion.

Up until now, most all theologies have focused on trying to resolve the second puzzle (which itself contains two distinct, apparently contradictory parts), not knowing that its resolution is conveniently derived from a careful consideration of the first one. It is in grounding ourselves in the first concept, which God Himself tells us to do first, we renew the spirit of our minds so we may prove out the resolution of the second concept. Then we may see how both interlock to give us solid resolution and biblical closure.

A Limited, Efficacious Atonement

First, the apparent contradiction embedded within the second point above: two sets of truths are involved which appear to be hopelessly contradictory: a limited, efficacious (“producing an intended effect”, actually saving) atonement and a universal offer of its availability.

Firstly, all of the sins of certain people were laid on Jesus Christ when He died on the cross; God is completely satisfied with the sacrifice that Jesus made on their behalf. Jesus Christ paid their sin debt. These people are eternally safe: God will never impute sin to them, nor charge them for the sins they have committed. This truth is clearly perceived from a careful consideration of Isaiah 53: “by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities“. Those people whose sins were born by Jesus Christ are justified by what He experienced on their behalf (“by His knowledge”… what He came to know by experience). This salvation is complete and final; it can never be diminished, forfeited or lost.

Carefully note that the Scripture never says all the sins of all people were actually laid on Christ, or that Christ actually suffered in everyone’s place individually, or that He actually bore the sins of all men in His own Body on the tree. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Pe 2:24) Only the sins of believers were laid on the body of Jesus Christ, no one else’s sins were laid on Him.

Jesus Christ died as a Holy substitute only for a very small group of people and He infallibly saved each and every one of the people for whom He died. “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (He 10:14) He washed away their sins, completed their salvation, and sat down on the right hand of God forever victorious for these elected, chosen few: “When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (He 1:3) These blessed people – believers, we call them saints (Co 1:2) — were and are literally saved by the death of Jesus Christ. This is the first set of truths.

In addition to the above, it is also true that no one who is not now believing on Jesus Christ has been saved by His death. Even if they will believe on Jesus in the future, their sins have not been laid on Him, their sin has not been atoned for, their sins have not been washed away, and God has not been reconciled to them by the death of Christ. On the contrary, God’s wrath abides on all unbelievers — whether they are elect or not: “… the wrath of God abideth on” the unbeliever. (Jn 3:36b) All those who do believe on Christ became saved by His death when they first did believe on Him, and no one is saved by the death of Christ until they do actually believe on Him.

A Universal Offer of Salvation

Secondly, the atonement of Jesus Christ is literally offered to every living human being as an available propitiation, and it has never been otherwise. All people everywhere are commanded to believe on Him and trust Him as their Savior. “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), and all who have not done so stand condemned because they have not: “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (Jn 3:18b). Salvation from an eternal, fiery hell is genuinely offered to all living people. It is by believing on Jesus Christ that salvation is obtained. It is when one believes on Jesus Christ that one’s sins are washed away. This is the second set of truths.

Perhaps now the mystery has become a little more evident; it is understandable that earnest scholars of the Word have mused in endless confusion, and why many, pushing for premature closure, have succumbed to handling the Word of God deceitfully. (2Co 4:2) Though the centuries roll on and many able souls have set their hearts upon these truths in earnest prayer, yet these two sets of truths still appear completely contradictory and to remain stubbornly opposed to each other. It is as if there were only two choices for an honest soul in this most precious of all mysteries: either Christ really saved no one in and of Himself when He died, or He is not the propitiation for everyone’s sins and no one ever becomes saved.

The Historical Debate

Up until this point in time, we have had only these two well-worn paths from which to choose as we explore these questions. Each path begins with a denial of one of these precious basic truths in favor of the other and proceeds to twist all the scriptures implying the neglected truth. Each path begins with an apprehension of one truth only to assume the falsehood of the other because it sees no possibility of reconciliation. Neither of these two presumptions can lead to resolution with integrity because each starts out by denying clearly established biblical truth.

Those of us who are unwilling to deny any of the Word are left speechless and confounded. It appears these two sets of truths are incongruously and inexplicably opposed; it is therefore claimed that the issue cannot be resolved with integrity, that we should not be exploring such things or asking such high-minded questions. This all-important subject … yea the MOST important subject of all, appears to be beyond our earnest comprehension. Yet isn’t this so like our Heavenly Father? “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Ro 11:33) The secret things indeed belong to God (De 29:29a), but they need not remain unknown to those who seek in earnest. God can reveal His ways to whomever He likes, and then these precious mysteries can belong to us! (29b)

Arminianism

The latter of the two truth sets is represented in the widest of the two paths, commonly called Arminianism. Briefly, this position involves thinking of Jesus Christ, the “Propitiation”, as not actually reconciling God to anyone in and of Himself, but simply making it possible for men of their free choice of God to reconcile themselves to Him by an act of their free will. According to this view, all of the sins of all men were actually laid on Christ, but Christ’s death availed nothing by itself. His death really saves no one — only makes it possible for one to become saved if and when they choose to receive it.

This position is entirely inconsistent with Isaiah 53. Christ Himself has effectively perfected believers through His sacrifice: “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (He 10:14) However, to the Armenian, Christ’s death was a potentially empty agony, God hoping for the best when laying salvation at the feet of an arrogant mankind in an age of grace. In this view the willful choice of the unbeliever is what gives the death of Christ its ultimate efficacy and meaning. It is only when the unbeliever decides to accept Christ that God accepts the death of Christ as a payment for sin. For those who never do choose God, Christ’s suffering for their sins retains only aesthetic value. It would have even been hypothetically possible, in this view, for Christ to have suffered and to have actually saved no one at all. His death could theoretically have been completely wasted through our own obstinate rebellion.

The motive behind this position — an apprehension of the second set of truths. These folks understand that … somehow … the gospel is legitimately offered to all men, and people become saved when they believe on Him. From this they conclude that Christ could not have died for only the elect, and that the payment that Jesus made only makes salvation a possibility for all, not a certainty for a few. They focus on the love of God and assume that this love implies that God has an earnest but frustrated desire that all men be saved, that God has determined the salvation of none and longed for the salvation of all.

Fatally, this view of the inefficacy of the death of Christ and the meaninglessness of Christ having sins laid on Him with no actual results, leads quite easily to a false gospel that substitutes Lordship, sinner’s prayers, asking Christ to come into the heart, asking for forgiveness, etc., in place of genuine God-given repentance and faith in Christ.

Calvinism

In direct contradiction to Arminianism, Calvinism, as it has come to be called, grasps the first set of truths only to deny the second. Perceiving the sovereign power of God and intuitively realizing the consequences of Jesus having someone’s sins laid on Him, the Calvinist realizes everyone for whom Jesus died must be permanently and completely saved by His death. Christ could not suffer in vain: and as He purposes, so He does. They are honest with passages such as Isaiah 53 and glory in the completeness of salvation and in the providence of God, only to twist and turn when confronted with a universally available atonement legitimately offered to all men. They cannot stomach the words “whole world” in our opening context, and must make the words mean something (“the elect”) which they cannot mean. They are unable to reconcile with God commanding all men everywhere to repent and believe on Christ (Ac 17:30-31), for their understanding of the atonement implies God is telling the non-elect to believe a lie (that believing on Christ would actually deliver them when it would not, since — as they suppose — His death is not available to them).

The Calvinist, by rejecting a universal offer of salvation, unwittingly raises an impenetrable wall between Himself and the atonement. Since the Calvinist avows that Christ’s death is available only to a very few and the rest are deceived, he can never be positively sure that Christ died for him personally. There is no way for him to tell for sure if that “inner voice” of awkwardly feeble witness that suggests that he may truly be one of the elect is not just a delusion instead of the Holy Spirit. This is a direct and fatal blow to the definition and concept of faith, destroying the very assurance of eternal life which all of us must somehow find for ourselves.

The Calvinist strips himself of anything concrete to believe in since he has artificially limited the availability of the death of Christ. This fact is borne out by historical accounts of famous Calvinists who doubted their salvation regularly, especially when near death. It is confirmed by many today in a Calvinistic Lordship camp who claim that assurance of salvation is in itself arrogant, and can at best only be based on a lifetime of commitment to Christ and Christian growth. Calvinists are often so bold in this blindness that they claim doubting one’s salvation is a sign of humility, and that assurance of salvation is arrogant and inconsistent with holiness.

Yet how much obedience is enough? for how long? And what of John’s, “that ye may know that ye have eternal life?” (1Jn 5:13) How can one be crying out “Abba! Father!” (Ro 8:15) while wondering which family he is in? The scripture indicates we should never live a single moment without assurance of salvation: for any honest soul, to live with any doubt at all about eternity is paralyzing, crippling, debilitating. This teaching then leads people to shallowness and dishonesty with respect to the most important aspect of life just so they can function — which can only harm the conscience and impede any real growth in Christ.

Only a fool lives at ease while entertaining any particle of doubt about where he will spend eternity. God did not intend for us to be doubting our salvation, dreading the potential of a fiery eternity as part of a healthy grounding in Christ. If we do not deeply perceive that we are in no more danger of eternal Hell fire than Jesus Christ Himself, if we do not rest in Christ as safe as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we walk in doubt and unbelief. One should — with all diligence — seek complete assurance of eternal life, and only rest when in such deep assurance. One can only find this when all is dependent on the Savior, and nothing at all depends on us. The essence of “faith unto salvation” is destroyed in any other view. As in the Armenian view, this twist of Calvinism is likewise eternally fatal.

Additionally, in understanding the efficacy of the death of Christ, Calvinists are faced with the dilemma concerning the timing of justification resulting from the death of Christ for the elect. Has a Christian always been saved? Is conversion just finding out we have always been saved? How can God’s wrath abide on an unbeliever elected to salvation? How can an unbeliever elected to salvation be “condemned already” if Christ has already died for him and propitiated God toward him? This dilemma cannot be resolved honestly in the traditional Calvinistic paradigm.

Dead End Theologies

Both Arminianism and Calvinism are thus evidently tainted with poor logic and grammatical dishonesty. Literally, in understanding the two positions presented above, we have the best that Christianity has to offer. Alarmingly, both are inherently fatal — in a profound and eternal sense.

There is a blatant gap inherent in each of these two positions and these gaps must be addressed. Since it has been perceived there is no hope of resolution, the gap has even been denied. Who has resolved the truths represented in these two positions into a unified coherent whole? This is our present objective.

There Must Be An Answer?

Let us begin by assuming God is ultimately consistent, rigorous and logical, that He does not contradict Himself, and that He means exactly what He says with words that perfectly express His truth. This honors Him counts Him faithful; anything less does not.

Further, we remind ourselves Jehovae God has inspired His Word such that His servants may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2Ti 3:16-17) Mysteries hidden from ages and from generations may be made manifest to His seeking saints. (Co 1:26) In His Word He must have revealed His mind on the subject; it is simply too basic and important for Him to have purposefully left us to such hopelessly illogical disarray permanently. We are to seek out His mind patiently and purposefully and we must not accept a counterfeit at any cost. There must be a third position, or some combination of the above positions, that will do justice to all of the truths we have encountered.

Any true, correct position must harmonize both the love and sovereign control of God and recognize the depraved, filthy will of man for what it is. It must preserve the dignity and efficacy of the atonement of Jesus Christ without denying its universal availability, and it must deal with the dilemma of the chronology of justification.

Let us gird up the loins of our minds (1Pe 1:13), fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life (1Ti 6:12), laying hold of the hope set before us, an anchor of our soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters into that within the veil. (He 6:18-19) It lies within and between, transcending the two old, worn out paths of Arminianism and Calvinism, slipping the surly bonds of Earth to dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings, shedding even space and time, reaching out into the holy realms of infinitude itself. What do we call it? Perhaps Chronological Dissonance, or simply: Time-Ex.

A Clue

When we look carefully at the two sets of truths represented in Arminianism and Calvinism, we notice the apparent differences between them can be expressed in terms of chronological inconsistencies. This observation connects the two theologies as if they are one and the same, two sides of the same coin. This is no small insight.

On the one hand, Christ saved the elect when He laid down His life for them; on the other hand, one is not saved until he believes. This is an inconsistency in the timing of each specific instance of justification. And again, on the one hand, salvation is genuinely available to all people of all time, such that the total final number of the saved appears uncertain. Yet, on the other hand, the death of Christ is a completed historical act; on that dreadful, awesome crucifixion day long ago, He saved every soul He ever intended to save. At the end of time, all the elect will have been saved and only the elect will be saved. This is a time-related inconsistency in the general availability of justification.

Consider puzzle number one: we seek to be saved in present time by an act of the historical past, yet we believe saints of old were justified in their present time by a then future act. Also recall our interest in the inconsistent use of the time in Isaiah 53. As we have observed, the inconsistencies between the two sets of truths in the second puzzle piece can be correctly classified as chronological inconsistencies. Yet chronology is the specific subject of the first issue. If all of the apparent inconsistencies embedded in the second puzzle imply a chronological inconsistency if we accept both sets of truth, and a chronological inconsistency has already become apparent in considering the first puzzle, then perhaps the truth involves an inconsistency in chronology! Perhaps we need to take time out of the equation (Time-Ex) in order for it all to make sense. And so, it is.

A Time-less Proposition

Now we have a third alternative! Instead of violating one set of God’s truths or another, let us press this Time-Ex notion of Chronological Dissonance to its limit and see what happens.

Do we have any biblical warrant for doing so? Would we not much rather violate the normal assumption of well-ordered, time-oriented thought than violate the Word of God? Purposeful rejection of biblical truth should not be an option for any saint. However, a step off the beaten path is obviously not a natural one to take; this may require a bit of… “Star Trekking!”  Strap in and buckle up as we enter into a time warp!

Please turn in your Bible to the place where it is written, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2Pe 3:8) It is not often in the Bible that we are told to focus on an issue as one of singular importance. Can you find another statement like this in your Bible? “Don’t be without understanding in this one area.”

To be sure, there are certain truths of which we must not live ignorantly, the means of obtaining eternal life being one of several. Yet seldom, if ever, are we pointed directly and explicitly at a particular truth in isolation and told, “If you are going to understand anything at all, make sure you understand this!” like we are here in Peter’s 2^nd epistle.

So … what of this truth, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day to Him?

Just try to imagine what it would be like … God experiences a twenty-four-hour day in the same way we would experience a millennium. He sees so much detail, such intricate relationships between things that we in our dullness never notice. It is as if time stands still for Him and He ponders and moves upon the most minute details with such thorough and complete consideration that time might as well be irrelevant, at a standstill. He is never in a hurry; He is never late; He is never rushed; He is never delayed; He is never surprised; He is never pressed for time to get things done. Think of it … what is time to an infinite Being? Imagine each second of your life being stretched out into four days, five hours, twenty-three minutes, and twenty seconds! Time would truly be obsolete for all practical purposes.

Yet we can push this even farther if we like, and perhaps we should: we should not be ignorant of this one thing, so let’s explore it to the full. If a day is as a thousand years to God, and each of those thousand years has three hundred sixty-five (or so) days, each of which God experiences as a millennium, each of which has 365,000 days, each of which is just another millennium to God … and take the limit as we approach infinity, to discover what we already know instinctively: God experiences an infinity in the smallest time interval we can imagine. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years …”

This no easy thing to grasp, but still God continues, reversing everything. He calls us then to grappling with how a thousand years pass with God just like a day. Now four days, five hours, 23 minutes and 20 seconds go whizzing by every second. Our whole life lasts less than three hours. We can’t keep track of anything but the very basic stuff, but now the “big picture” is much clearer … the broad view of earthly existence is more easily in focus. The whole plan of earthly history from beginning to end is compressed into one week. But then again … 365,000 of these millennium days is just another compounded millennium to God, which feels just like another day to Him, of which there are 365,000 more compounded millennium days in another doubly-compounded millennium, which doubly-compounded millennium He experiences just like we do a day. And again we press this to the limit, to infinity and find again what we already know: the largest time span we can conceive of passes instantaneously with God! “A thousand years as one day …”

And yes, we should continue to explore; there is one more cosmic step: that little word and in the middle of both of these wonders that somehow joins them together. If each of the above enigmas were only true by itself it would be difficult enough, but we are told both are true for God … at the same time! God wants us to understand, if we understand anything, that He is not bound by time the way we are. He is the infinite Being who created Time.

By the way … now that we are on the subject … what is time anyway? Take a minute and try to define it. Maybe that’s not so easy either. Webster has three-quarters of a page of tiny print to scratch the surface. Perhaps, “duration as perceived by sequential experiences” works as a practical definition. If so, how would we relate it to God after considering Peter’s admonition? Does an infinite Being really experience time at all? Is anything sequential with Him?

God is not bound by time — Past, Present, and Future all blur into irrelevance with Him. He can go forward in time, He can go backward in time. In fact, He does not need to “go” at all … He is already there … He is still there … always there … at any point in time … at all points in time … at the same time … all the time. He can both pierce the time domain in the person of Christ and experience things as we do, and simultaneously He can be completely above, beyond, and unconstrained by time.

Relaxing the time constraint and freely violating chronological order creates a dissonance in sequence, and this time-related inconsistency allows us to make sense of what we perceive about God has designed salvation. Not only is this convenient from a theological perspective, we are commanded to understand it: we have biblical evidence that violating chronological order appears to be a reasonable thing for God to do.

Validation

Now, let us turn to the conversion of the Apostle Paul for some insight into the dynamics of justification, where Ananias exhorts Paul, “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16) This implies Paul’s sins have not yet been washed away; Paul still needs for his sins to be washed away. However, in Hebrews we find that Paul’s sins were purged by Christ on the cross several years earlier: “When He had by Himself purged (Paul’s) sins, (Christ) sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (He 1:3)

Now, according to Webster, to “purge” means to “remove by cleansing.” Paul’s sins were removed from him by the cleansing blood of Christ when Christ died for Paul — that was chronologically before Paul was converted. Yet at some time chronologically following this purging act of Christ, Paul’s sins remained on him and needed to be purged away.

Further, we find that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world (Re 13:8) before He was ever born to go the cross, and that Christ was crucified among the Galatians many years after the recorded crucifixion and in a different geographical location than given in the Gospels. (Ga 3:1)

It is also true that Christ was only crucified once, not several times: “He offered one sacrifice for sins.” (He 10:12) Christ is not being continually crucified. We obviously have a chronological inconsistency here. When was Jesus crucified for the Apostle Paul? When were Paul’s sins laid on Jesus Christ? When were Paul’s sins purged, or washed away?

It is true that Paul’s sins were not washed away until Paul believed on Jesus Christ and trusted in Him as his Atonement. It is also true that Paul’s sins were purged away when Jesus died for Paul. So, when did Jesus die for Paul? It must have been when Paul believed! Before Paul believed, his sins had not been laid on Jesus Christ, his sin had not been purged, his sin had not been washed away. When Paul believed on Christ then his sins were laid on Christ in past time. It was only after he believed on Christ that Paul could write “that Christ died for our sins according the scriptures.” (1Co 15:3)

An Answer

God evidently violated chronological order when He crucified His Son. The atonement was a completed historical fact for Old Testament saints before Jesus Christ was ever born, as seen in the use of past tense verbs in Isaiah 53, yet the atonement is presently available to any unbeliever right now even though it is a past and completed fact and only the sins of believers were laid on Christ.

From an eternal perspective, Jesus bore the full weight and suffering for the sins of all of the people of all time who would ever believe on Him during a single six-hour moment in historical, chronological time the way we perceive it. Yet, from our perspective, captive in a time domain, Jesus atones for the sins of each believer when they believe.

The sins of all of the elect have not already been laid on Jesus from our perspective in time, only the sins of those who have already believed. No one’s sins have been laid on Jesus Christ who has not already believed on Him. This is limited atonement.

Yet anyone may (and should) believe on Jesus and have their sins laid on Him. Sinners of old believed on Jesus Christ and had their sins already laid on Him in future time before Christ was ever born; and any sinner may believe on Him now and be forgiven even though His work is chronologically fixed and complete. No one will ever rightly say to God, “I didn’t have a chance to believe on Jesus Christ. You never offered me the opportunity for the forgiveness of my sins.” This is a universal offer of redemption.

You will say that I am being absurd with the chronology: the charge is true! But it is not without reward; we have a limited atonement available to all!

Now we can understand why all the passages that speaking of the atonement in detail refer only to us and our and we, the manifested elect, those of us who have already believed on Jesus Christ. In the Scriptures, an unbeliever is never told to believe that his sins have been paid for by Jesus Christ. He is only told this after he believes. He is never asked to believe that his sins have already been washed away before he believes, but after he believes he sees that they were washed away when Jesus died for him. Before he believes he is stained with sin and needs to be cleansed; after he believes on Christ, he finds that his sins were laid on the body of Christ on the cross and were purged away long ago. He has traveled back in time to the foot of the cross and has become purged in present time by an historically completed act.

So … what does the Bible instruct an unbeliever to do if it does not tell him to believe that Jesus paid for everyone’s sins? (God never tells us to believe this.) In all of the great sermons preached to unbelievers in the book of Acts, the unbelieving sinner is told to believe on and in Jesus Christ: the Propitiation. The central fact that is stressed in the message is not the atonement itself but the resurrection (which proves the efficacy of the atonement). When specifically exhorted to become a Christian, all that the unbeliever is told is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”(Ac 16:31) It is not a truth, or even a whole set of truths, that the unbeliever is to believe on, but a divine Person. We are to believe in and on a Person, not merely a set of facts. Doubtless, facts about this Person, this Propitiation Being, are involved when we believe on Him, and we believe the central facts about Him if we believe on Him. His deity, His sinless perfection, and His atoning sacrifice involve facts that are central to believing on Him. Yet believing the facts and believing on Christ are not equivalent.

We can believe a lot about Christ without believing on Him, as evidenced in Matthew 7:21-23. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name: and in thy name have cast out devils: and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Doubtless, these poor souls knew a good bit about Jesus Christ, since they had dedicated their lives to serve Him and preached many things in His name, even seeing supernatural signs accompanying their work. Yet we must not substitute a belief in facts about Christ and a commitment to serve Him for believing on Christ Himself.

An unbeliever is to understand and believe that Jesus Christ has made His sacrificial work available to him, and he is to receive and rely upon Jesus Christ as his personal sin offering to God, as his Substitute. We must experience of the power of God enabling our soul to rest upon and trust in Christ Himself without wavering or doubting, as the One paying the full penalty for our own personal sins before God. This trusting and resting, this absence of doubting and wavering, this complete confidence of the soul in Christ as Savior is what having faith in Christ, believing in and on Christ, and receiving Christ means. It is believing on a Person, not merely a knowledge of facts and a dedication to obey. It is in the simple relying on Christ, having our sins laid on Him, finding ourselves safe in Him because of what He has done for us, that God is reconciled to us by His Son Jesus Christ.

The result of this is that the Christian knows that he was purchased by Jesus Christ long ago at the cross: that all of his sins, past, present and future, have all been completely dealt with by Jesus Christ permanently, and that he has been literally saved by the atonement of Christ from the moment he believed. He does not look to his act of receiving Christ for assurance of salvation, nor to a life of obedience (but if he did do so, it would eventually encourage him that he actually is a believer, for every believer is characterized primarily by obedience), but to the completeness of the suffering of his Lord. He somehow knows that this was not the case before he believed, even though now he sees that it was all accomplished long ago. He sees further that Jesus saves all for whom He died, that Jesus dies for no one in vain, and that all for whom Jesus did die are completely and permanently justified from all things.

Yet the believer also knows that all of those who do not now believe on Jesus Christ should believe on Him, and that even though their sins have not been washed away by Christ, their sins could be and would be washed away if the unbelievers became believers. The Christian tells the unbelievers to believe on Christ and receive forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and what He has done. The Christian does this in spite of knowing all the while that the hearers remain stained in their sins and that the work of Christ was completely finished once long ago such that nothing can ever be added to it.

In short, the Holy Spirit is teaching the believer, who is mired in a time domain, two sets of truths which can only make sense to a timeless Being. In violating chronological order, the Holy Spirit teaches both sets of biblical truths consistently; neither set should be denied. Denying the universal availability of the atonement separates us from the work of Christ such that we cut ourselves off from genuine faith. In doing this we are left to find what comfort we can in evidences of our supposed adoption. On the other hand, denying the cleansing efficacy of His death hides the power of it from our view and leads us to rest in some mechanism of receiving Him instead of directly in Him as our Propitiation.

We can make sense of these truths in a mutual context only if we can live with sentences which are chronological nonsense, statements such as: “Though you are stained in your sin, and stand condemned in it, if you will believe on Christ as your Savior, then Christ will have died for you and cleansed you of your sin.” “Lay your sins on Christ your Sin Bearer, and He will pay for them when He died long ago.” and, “Whether or not my sins were cleansed by Christ depends on when you look. Now, they are white as snow, purged nearly two millennia ago. But if you had inspected them before my conversion to Christ, they would have been as red as scarlet.'” (Is 1:18)

By the grace of God, we now have a third position available to us as we reverently handle the mysteries of the atonement: the Time-Ex Theory of Chronological Dissonance. In this most difficult of theological arenas, we finally have biblical resolution and solid closure available to us; we no longer need to feel pressed to twist the Word of God to fit our biases. We need not have holes in our thinking any longer concerning the cornerstone of Christian thought and life. We need not be satisfied with the traditional twistings of either Calvinism or Arminianism since we have before us a way to blend all of Scripture into one coherent whole with respect to the scope and nature of the atonement. We can see and appreciate the efficacy of the atonement of Christ and know that it was effective in accomplishing our salvation. Yet, at the same time, we can sincerely offer salvation to anyone, even the non-elect, knowing that His sacrifice — yea and even His Person, Himself, the Propitiation — has been made genuinely available to all men — even to those who will never believe.

Even if all of the above is correct, one need not understand or agree in order to be born again, to become a Christian. While it seems only a very few people are truly saved, it is clear people do become Christians in spite of much misunderstanding. God seems pleased to work in mystery and shroud, yet still He works. He is unhindered by a good deal of ignorance in the mind when creating faith in the heart. Truly, the secret things belong to God, and He does not flaunt them. But it is not unreasonable for Him to reveal them to us when we seek them from Him with holy persistence.

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