"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9).

James White says "the passage is not speaking about salvation as its topic."

The phrase "longsuffering to us-ward" cannot be addressed to only the elect. It must include all mankind. If not, the phrase that follows ("not willing that any should perish") must apply only to the elect. But the latter can only mean all of mankind, since it refers to a perishing that surely does not imperil the elect.

Perishing in a fire that will destroy the world or escaping it is certainly no more applicable to the elect than the perishing under the penalty of sin. And this cannot apply to first rapture in the partial rapture according to readiness (Rev. 3.10, Luke 21.36, Matt. 24.42) that escapes the hour of trial, because the fire does not take place until after the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. The day of the Lord is one long period of a 1000 years and partial rapture during the consummation of this age takes place just before the 1000 years (2 Pet. 3.8,10).

John Gill writes, "It is not true that God is not willing that any one individual of the human race should perish, since he has made and appointed the wicked for the day of evil.... Nor is it his will that all men...should come to repentance, since he withholds from many both the means and grace of repentance..."

Gill's blasphemy is clearly shown in the Word: "As I live, saith the LORD GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ez. 33.11). There is no way to define "the wicked" and "house of Israel" as the elect!

John Murray, a Calvinist, said "God does not wish that any men should perish. His wish is rather that all should enter upon life eternal by coming to repentance. The language in this part of the verse is so absolute that it is highly unnatural to envisage Peter as meaning merely that God does not wish that any believer should perish...."

Justin Martyr, writing in the second century, suggests that God is delaying the Last Judgment because "in His foreknowledge He sees that some will be saved by repentance, some who are, perhaps not yet in existence."

When were the earliest Calvinist thoughts introduced in writing? Are there any writings before Justin Martyr?