This will be a in-depth Biblical study of Gods salvation plan. There will be no definate time schedule for this study and more material and pages will be added from time to time. If you have any questions or wish to make any comment regarding this study please feel free to either post your message on the church bulletin board, E Mail me or contact me at my IRQ. number. The material for this study has been taken from the book "Gods Magnificent Salvation Plan" by Harold Camping.

This is Page 4 of our Bible Study. On this page we will discuss unconditional election.......Brother Frank

In this chapter we shall examine the question of limited or particular atomement very carefully to see if it is a valid principle set forth in the Bible. First, let's look at Matthew1:21. There God in very beautiful language is declaring particular atonement. He declared to Joseph through the angel, "And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus for he shall save HIS people from their sins." Notice the phrase, "HIS people." Now who are His people? We saw earlier in John 6:37 that HIS people are the ones who were given to Christ by the Father. Thus we know that Christ is the Savior only of those who were given to him by the Father. And, of course, to save them it was necessary that he pay for their sins, even as he did by going to the cross. There is no suggestion here that he laid down his life for every last individual in the whole world.

In John 10 Christ speaks about the sheep that he came to seek and to save. In verse 15 he declares, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Who are these sheep? In verse 14 he had declared, "I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep and am known of mine." Now you see, these sheep are the ones that belong to him. They are his. These are the ones for whom he lays down his life. He doesn't lay down his life for all people according to this passage, but he lays down his life for his sheep, and they will know him..."I am known of mine." They will come to him. Paralleling again what we read in John 6:37.

Secondly, we read in John 17, as Christ is praying to his Father in verses 9 and 10,

"I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them."

While in verse 9 Christ is speaking particularly of the disciples whom he chose, in verses 20 and 21 of John 17 Christ has ultimately in view far more than his disciples. In these verses Christ adds,

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."

That's a significant prayer, isn't it? If Christ had laid down his life for every last individual in the whole world, we would certainly expect that he would be praying for them. You would think, if their sins had been paid for, Christ would also make arrangements with the Father that they would come to Him. But here God opens the veil concerning the relationship within the Godhead, and Christ very clearly indicates he does not pray for the world. He prays for those who belong to him and those "which shall believe on me through their word." These would be his sheep. He is interceding only for those who had been given to him by the Father. We read in Hebrews 7:25-26, where Christ is presented to us as our eternal High Priest:

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.

Here the Bible specifically declares that Christ makes intercession for those that come to God by Christ; that is, Christ makes intercession for those whom he is saving. This is precisely what Christ is doing in his prayer recorded in John 17. Furthermore, in John 17:2 Christ prays,

"Father...as Thou hast given Him (Jesus is referring to Himself here) power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him."

Again in this immediate context he is speaking of the disciples. But he is enunciating a fundamental principle of God's salvation program. In this statement our Lord Jesus is singling out those who were given to him by the Father (John 6:37). As Jesus discusses these who were given to him, he emphasizes that he has provided eternal life for them. Eternal life is a gift to the believer provided by the atonement. (Must we believe there are some who have experienced the atonement without receiving eternal life? This would be the unbiblical conclusion we must come to if we believe that Christ paid for the sins of every human.)

Further still, when we look at the nature of salvation under the Biblical word justification, we find also that the idea of particular or limited atonement must be held as a Biblical principle. In Romans 5:18 we read, "By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." In Romans 5:25 we read, "who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification."

Notice in these passages God is very clearly teaching that those whom he saved, he justified. We read, for example, in Romans 5:9, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Thus God has established the principle that those for whom he died are justified by his blood, as the foreging verses clearly teach. Thus if Christ had paid for the sins of every single human, we must conclude that all mankind stands justified before God. This is the inescapable conclusion we must come to if Christ had gone to the cross on behalf of every single human. Continuing this line of argument we must recognize that to be justified means that one has been made just. His sins have been paid for, and therefore there can be no condemnation. Thus, to believe that Christ paid for the sins of every human being brings us to the conclusion that every human being has been made just by Christ's shed blood. But this conclusion runs counter to the plain teaching of the Bible.

In Acts 24:15 we read, "That there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Also in II Peter 2:9 we read, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." These passages very clearly indicate that not only those who are justified will be resurrected, but there are also the unjust who will remain so right up until Judgment Day. According to Romans 5:18 and Romans 4:25 we discovered that when we are saved, we are justified by Christ's blood. His blood was shed so that we might become righteous before God. Therefore, if Christ shed his blood (which brings justification) for every human, how can there still be those who are unjust insofar as God's holiness is concerned? This problem disappears when we recognize that Christ paid only for the sins of those who become saved.

If Christ has paid for the sins of every last individual in the world (or as some would say, "Yes, for all their sins except the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ"), then we have to ask the fair question, "How can people be judged whose sins have been paid for?" Now we read very specifically in Revelation 20:13 that those who stand before the Judgment throne will be judged according to their works, every man according to his works. Man's works are to be judged to discover if they were done sinlessly; that is, perfectly in obedience to God's Word. And of course, since every work of man is at best tainted by sin, those who stand for judgment will be found guilty of multitudes of sins.

We read in Matthew 12:36, "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Of course unsaved men have no good thing within them. There is none righteous, and therefore everything they will give an account of will bring condemnation upon them.

In Romans 2 we read, beginning in verse 5, "After thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds." There it is, you see. God is insisting that mankind at the Judgment Throne has to answer for every sin, and every sin will be dealt with by banishment into Hell.

There is no implication in the Bible that the only sin they will answer for at Judgment Day is the sin of rejecting Christ. They have to answer for every sin. Now if Christ has already paid for those sins by going to the cross (if we hold the view that He paid for the sins of every last individual in the whole human race), then it would be double jeopardy if these same individuals whose sins had been paid for now have to go into Hell to pay for these same sins. That just does not follow at all, does it?

In Colossians 3:25 God lays this principle down, "But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons." Only because Christ has become the substitute for those who are to be saved is this requirement of God met. The Bible says very clearly in John 5:24 of the believers that we do not come into judgment.

In Ephesians 5:25 we read, "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." He gave himself for the church, not for the whole world, not for every last individual. He gave himself for the church. Later in this study we will see that only the true believers in the church have had their sins covered by Christ's blood, even though the cross bears some relationship to the church as a corporate body.

We see, therefore, that the Bible does not endorse the doctrine that Christ went to the cross to pay for every sin of the whole human race, with the only sin that sends us to Hell being the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sin of not believing in Jesus as Savior is included amongst all the other sins and simply adds to our punishment. Our every action is sinful, and any one of these sins is going to send us into Hell. And of course it is all these sins that will really bring God's wrath upon us. How important it thus is that we trust in Christ as our sin-bearer. Only through Him can we escape Hell.

But aren't there verses in the Bible that say something different? Don't we read in II Peter 3:9 that God declares, "I would not wish that any should perish, but that all should come to Christ"? Doesn't that imply that Christ has paid for everybody's sins? And what about I Timothy 2:4, where we read that Christ would have all men be saved? How can he desire this if he has not already paid for their sins? Again in I Timothy 2:6, doesn't the Lord declare that he gave his life a ransom for all? Or in I Timothy 4:10 doesn't God declare he is the Savior of all?

These verses certainly seem to indicate that indeed Christ paid for the sins of every last individual. But if that is so, then we are in trouble with the verses that we have already covered, which very clearly teach particular atonement. How can we reconcile these passages?

As we look at these verses we see a consistent use of the word "all"; "...all should come to Christ..." "...a ransom for all..." "...the Savior of all..." We must understand the Biblical use of this word, letting the Bible be its own dictionary. He wished that all should be saved. He gave His life a ransom for all. He is the Savior of all. Normally when we use that word all, we think of it as an all-inclusive kind of word. If there were ten people in the room, and we said, "they all have hats on," then we immediately get the picture that these ten people without exception had hats on. But in the Bible, when God uses the word all it is conditioned by the context.

For example, in Luke 2 God declares, "A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. We could conclude that "all the world" would include the North American Indians and Africa, etc. But the context shows us that the "all the world" to be taxed was that part of the world that was subject to taxation, namely, the Roman Empire. In other words, the word all was conditioned by the context in which it was found.

Likewise we read in Acts 2 , as the Holy Spirit is being poured out, "In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." We know from the Bible itself that God did not pour out the Holy Spirit on every last individual in the whole world that they would become prophets, or that they would prophesy; but he poured out his own Spirit on those who would believe. The "all" there is conditioned by the rest of the Bible, which declares that only those who are elect will believe. So the word "all" is much less than all-inclusive.

We read, for example, in I Corinthians 15:22, "As in Adam all die..." From the rest of the Bible we know that "all" is an all inclusive all. It includes every last individual in the whole human race. "There is none righteous, no, not one."

But then the next phrase says, "...so in Christ shall all be made alive." If that "all" included every last individual, then that verse would be teaching universal atonement, and we know that is not so. Hell is going to be heavily populated by people who have not been made alive. They are spiritually dead. Therefore we must read that second phrase, "...so in Christ shall all (who are to be made alive) be made alive." That is, God is teaching that all the individuals he plans to save are saved by Christ's work. Other passages of the Bible show us that the ones he plans

Likewise, when God uses the language, "He gave His life a ransom for all," or "He is the Savior of all," or that "He wishes that all should come to a knowledge of the truth," we know that the "all" in these verses is conditioned by God's elective program. Only those whom He has predestinated, those whom he has elected, are the ones whom he has ransomed, of whom he has become the Savior. These are the ones that God has in view when he uses this word "all." He gave his life a ransom for all his elect. He wishes that all his elect will come to him.

But then there is a second kind of passage in the Bible that is frequently offered as proof that Christ indeed paid for the sins of every last individual in the whole world. We read in I John 4:14 that Christ is the Savior of the world. Likewise in John 4:42 we see the same phrase, that he is the Savior of the whole world.

In I John 2:2 the statement even appears stronger as we read, "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." My, doesn't that really underscore the fact that he has paid for the sins of the whole world, every last individual in the whole world? In John 3:16 and 17 we apparently see the same kind of an idea, where we read,

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." This too seems to indicate that he paid for the sins of every last individual.

In that regard, we must also consider the dramatic words of John the Baptist, as he greeted Jesus, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world."

By isolating these verses from the rest of the Bible, we could conclude that Christ did come and pay for the sins of the whole world. These verses, as they stand, certainly give that impression. However, when we read these verses in the light of everything else in the Bible, we know that conclusion is not possible. If Christ had paid for the sins of the whole world, that is, of every last individual in the whole world, then as we have already seen, there could not be Judgment Day and Hell. Everyone's sins would have been paid for, and therefore there could be no such thing as an unjust person who must be sent to Hell. Since Christ would have died for every person, He therefore would have justified them by His blood.

Therefore we must look at these verses more carefully. Let us look at I John 2:2 more closely. As we do, we must remember that there is only one sin-bearer in this world, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one way that forgiveness of sins can be obtained, and that is through the shed blood of Christ. In I John 2:2 God declares, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

If we assume that he had indeed paid for the sins of the whole world, we run afoul of passages like Revelation 20:13, Matthew 12:36, Romans 2:5-6 and Colossians 3:25, which clearly indicate the unsaved must give an account of and pay for all their sins. None of these passages would make sense anymore if Christ had indeed paid for every single sin of the whole world; so we know that this cannot be the kind of payment God has in view in this passage?

Then how are we to understand this passage? We can understand these phrases if we note that in the first part of verse two God is simply declaring that Christ is the one who has provided for the salvation of those who believe. He is the propitiation for our sins. There is no one else who could provide the way back to the Father, who has provided himself as a substitute. Only Christ is the WAY.

In the second phrase, "and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world," we see that God is simply expanding that fact by declaring that in the whole world there is no other method of salvation except through Christ. In the whole world there is no Savior except the Lord Jesus Christ. All the sins in the whole world which are to be forgiven are forgiven by the blood of Christ. This passage is not detailing the extent of God's salvation program in the world. It is simply indicating that for those who are to be saved Christ is the only propitiation.

Other passages declare to us who will be saved out of the whole world. They will be the elect. But in I John 2:2 God is simply declaring how they would be saved, and that is through Christ as the propitiation for their sins. Because we know that the unsaved of the world who remain unjust must stand for judgment and answer for every one of their sins and pay for their sins, we know that this verse cannot be teaching that their sins have already been paid for. God is simply declaring that those who will be saved out of the world, wherever they are found, can be saved only through Christ as the propitiation for their sins.

When John the Baptist declared, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world," he was simply declaring, this is the Lamb whereby salvation is possible. John the Baptist isn't going into the whole detail of that salvation. He is not indicating that there are God's elect, that there has to be belief on him, and so on. He is simply making the declaration that Christ is the Savior who has come into the world. He is the only means whereby the sins of the world which are to be covered will be covered.

We see this truth very beautifully in John 3:16, where we read, "For God so loved the world..." He loved the world, his creation, and therefore he gave his only begotten Son, that out of this world whosoever believeth on him should not perish. The declaration "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish" automatically excludes the rest, does it not? That is the condition that God lays down. There must be belief on him! And unless there is belief on him they still will perish.

Why do they perish? They perish because of their sins. God had declared, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). And so when God speaks of Christ as the Savior of the world, if we conclude that every last person's sins have been paid for, that will not be in agreement with all the other doctrines that point to the fact that there will be a vast company of people in Hell, paying for their sins.

As mentioned earlier in this study there are those who believe that Christ paid for all our sins except the sin of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. This doctrine is suggested by John 3:18, which declares, "He that believeth on him is not condemned, But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." This verse seems to indicate that the reason people are condemned is that they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even this passage will not withstand that kind of conclusion, because verse 19, which immediately follows, declares, "and this is the condemnation...the light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Their sin, you see, is the love of darkness; and the love of darkness involves them in every kind of sin that is involved in the kingdom of darkness.

Verse 19 agrees altogether with those other statements of the Bible that indicate that men go to Hell not because they are sinners. Because they stand guilty before God, their failure to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ simply indicates that they have no covering for their sins. In Psalm 85:2 the Bible declares that "thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people, Thou hast covered all their sin." Christ's blood provides the covering whereby our guilt has been removed.

When we conclude that Christ paid for the sins of the whole world, with the exception of not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have developed a gospel of grace that is again bordering on grace plus works. We're really saying that when Christ went to the cross, there by His grace he covered all our sins except one...the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.

That implies, then, that if the sin of rejecting Christ has not been covered by the blood of Christ, then the fact that I do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a good work of mine that is meritorious in saving me. We thus are declaring that God's grace covered all the rest of my sins. But because I have done the good work of believing on Christ, therefore I merit this salvation and all the grace that God applies to my life. We thus have placed ourselves in that terrible condition of developing a gospel of grace plus works, and that will send us to Hell for sure!

We must keep in mind, whenever we study any verses in the Bible that relate to salvation, that it is all of grace! Even the faith with which we believe is a gift of God. Actually it is not our faith that saved us, but the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only because He was faithful in going to the cross for our sins can we be saved. And the faith that we experience in our lives is really a reflection of the faith that Christ first demonstrated in paying for our sins. Both the faith which we see in our lives when we are saved, as well as the works that we do in our lives, are gifts of God. They are not meritorious in any way whatsoever!

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