Was Christ’s Death Limited

There is a major misconception of the term “limited atonement” or “particular redemption”. Many Christians do not even understand what the term means, and argue against it. It would be the same as me saying I hate the flying, yet I never flew anywhere, never set foot on a plane or in an airport. The argument is flawed since I have no experience from which to draw an opinion.

Now if I had flown at least once, possibly many times, and every time, I get the sweats, get a fever, get on the plane and throw up before the flight takes, head ache and when landing, my ears pop. And this happens every time, now I have a reason to hate flying. It affects me in a negative way.

Now when it comes to this limited atonement, what does it really mean anyway. Well, let’s break it down. Let’s first look at atonement, what does it mean.

When you were born, you were born in sin, according to the bible and many verses there in. Psalm 51:5, Psalm 58:3, Ephesians 2:3 just to list a few.

Now if you were born in sin, and have a sinful nature, that causes a problem. Since God does is thrice holy and cannot tolerate sin, that puts a problem between us. I have touched this in more detail in my previous articles.

Now the word atonement is the doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind, esp. as accomplished through the life, suffering, and death of Christ. Or appeasing the wrath of God by the sacrifice of Christ at the cross. Since an innocent victim has to die in place of the guilty, unless you have an innocent substitute, that leaves us going to hell. But Christ was the only possible solution as he was born of a virgin, he was unstained by human sin.

So now that we have a better idea of what atonement means, why is it limited. Does God not have the power to save everyone? What about the people in other poor countries that don’t have the opportunity to hear the gospel. Is that really fair?

Let’s look at this more clearly. There are only 2 consistent possibilities,

1.God sent His only Son, to hopefully, if men accept His sacrifice at the cross (as many people believe John 3:16 -17 to mean. Therefore leaving man with free will to either choose Christ for their salvation from sin. But with a huge chance that no one will in fact chose Christ and perish in hell for eternity.
That hopefully the holy spirit can convince man deeply enough of his need of salvation or be condemned. This would be the riskier unlimited atonement. Anyone can come to Christ, if only they chose. I can find no scriptures supporting this view. There are many, many verses saying that God commands men to repent and believe. The issue that I ran into reading and studying this text, is that none of those verses give man the ability to repent and believe without the grace of God. (Eph 2:8-10)
The one thing that confuses me, is how can someone believe that they can at one point choose Christ for their salvation and then later not choose themselves to not follow Christ. This thought is flawed.

If I give someone a free will to chose Christ, am I not also force to give him free will to “unchoose” Christ?

2.God sent His only Son because He knew that man was so sinful that he (man) would not choose him of his own will, so God had to show man his true nature in sin, convict him of his sin and therefore grant him grace so that he might believe on His Son for the salvation of his soul from his sin. And that sending His Son had just one, simple direct purpose. Saving, and securing eternal life for the elect. The one big misconception on this one is this. Many people have expressed their sentiments toward me that we don’t know who the elect are. They are absolutely correct. We don’t, which is why we preach to everyone near us. God knows them, He wrote them in the book of life before the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8 and Ephesians 1:4) but we don’t. I am not in the business of saving people, I am in the business of preaching the gospel of Christ to people.

Exodus 4:21, 14:4, 8, 17; Deuteronomy 2:30, 9:4-7, 29:4; Joshua 11:19; 1 Samuel 2:25, 3:14; 2 Samuel 17:14; Psalm 105:25; Proverbs 15:8, 26, 28:9; Isaiah 53:11; Jeremiah 24:7; Matthew 1:21, 11:25-27, 13:10-15, 44-46, 15:13, 20:28, 22:14, 24:22; Luke 8:15, 13:23, 19:42; John 5:21, 6:37, 44, 65, 8:42-47, 10:11, 14, 26-28, 11:49-53, 12:37-41, 13:1, 18, 15:16, 17:2, 6, 9, 18:9, 37; Acts 2:39, 13:48, 18:27, 19:9; Romans 9:10-26, 11:5-10; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, 2:14; 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, 4:3; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-14; 2 Timothy 2:20, 25; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 1:3, 14, 2:9, 16 (cp. Galatians 3:29, 4:28-31), 9:28; 1 Peter 2:8; 2 Peter 2:7; 1 John 4:6; Jude 1, 14; Revelation 13:8, 17:8, 15-18, 21:27.

Once you are done going through all these verses, you may see it more you may not. But you will not be able to deny it is scripture.

By what I you have been reading, I am not in any way discounting the power of salvation. I am not discounting the power of the blood. I am however, recognizing, from a very weak human stand point, that God does not work on things based on chance. When we say that he is in control, do we really believe it?

Chance has no absolutes. If you were to take a trip around the world, and go by complete chance, with no planning, your trip WILL be a difficult one. Try to take an international flight without a passport. Try to get in a hotel without previous reservations. And as you can tell, the list goes on.

God does not work on chance, He plans it, and executes it. All according to His will. Other wise, He would be completely dependent on people’s decisions.

I heard James White, on a video once, having a discussion about this very topic. A woman asked him if he believed in “limited atonement”. And he answered: ” If you are asking me if I believe that Jesus saves EVERYONE He died for? If the high priests of the tabernacle were doing sacrifices for the people of Israel only, and not for the nations around them, yes. If Romans 8 is talking to Christians, the answer is yes. Romans was not written to just anyone, it was written to Christians. So if you are asking me if Jesus death was limited to those that believe (John 3:16) then yes, I believe in limited atonement”

You see, if there are some people that are going to hell, for not believing Christ, the atonement is limited. If Jesus died to save EVERYONE and NO ONE goes to hell, that’s unlimited atonement. And in that perspective, Christ has failed, since there are countless millions gone to hell before and after His crucifixion.

I thank God every day for His decisions to be independent of any human. Other wise, I would have never been saved.

Dear sinner, all the posts that I do on a weekly/monthly basis are with prayer that God will convict you of your sins. That He will make your conscience hurt every time you do something wrong. And that at one point, you won’t be able to handle it anymore. Much like I did, I was so fed up with my life, and where it was going, that I didn’t care who heard me cry out to God to save me.

June 13 / 2000 that day happened. God saved my soul from an eternity in hell.

If you are feeling your conscience tugging at you, don’t ignore it. Cry out to God for Him to save you. You have no other option. You CAN’T save yourself.
That’s the reason for Christ at the cross. The perfect sacrifice.