Normal Human Compassion

Calvin himself declared, "All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation..." Is it loving or kind to "preordain to...eternal damnation"? What love is this? "Love...is kind" (1 Cor. 13.4).

A. A. Hodges confesses: "If they [critics] could prove that the love which prompted God to give his Son to die, as a sin offering...had for its object all men...that Christ actually sacrificed his life with the purpose of saving all...on the condition of faith, then...the central principle of Arminianism is true [and Calvinism is false]..."

The God-given conscience of every person, saved and unsaved, recoils at the thought of creating beings simply in order to predestinate them to eternal torment! Tragically, Calvinism forced its adherents to reject the normal human compassion that is otherwise held in common with all mankind.

Is not the ultimate objective of calvinism, therefore, to harden peoples' hearts?

Limited Atonement is a defensive, restrictive expression: here is atonement, and then someone wants to limit it. The notion of limiting something as glorious as the Atonement is intrinsically offensive. The Atonement is not limited by some rejecting Christ's sacrifice on their behalf. The inheritance left by the deceased is not reduced in value because some heirs refuse their share.

MacArthur uses "humanity" in the generic sense, attempting thereby to deny God's love for every individual. But love is love-and love of no kind predestines anyone to eternal torment who could be saved.

Owen then argues the blood is wasted because some refuse it. But wait a minute. Isn't it Calvinism's predestination to damnation that creates this contradiction? Of course it would be senseless for Christ to die for any whom God had determined to exclude from salvation. God did not exclude anyone. It is man who has rejected the salvation Christ provided for all.

H. A. Ironside expresses the same concern: "No matter how far they [any sinners] have drifted from God; no matter what their sins may be, they do not have to peer into the book of the divine decrees in order to find out whether or not they are of the chosen or the elect. If they come in all their sin and guilt, confessing their iniquities and trusting Christ, then the may have the assurance from His Word that they are saved. It has been well said that the 'Whosoever wills are the elect, and the whosoever won'ts are the non-elect'."