AN EARTHQUAKE REDEMPTION – Part 2
AN EARTHQUAKE REDEMPTION – Part 2
A REAL DEATH FOR SIN, FOR EVERYONE, OR JUST A FEW ELECT?
If ALL have sinned and ALL come short of the glory of God, then Jesus Christ must have died for ALL mankind, and not just for a select few, unless of course, the elect are the only ones who sin and have sinned, which is preposterous, to say the least. MacArthur continued in this dastardly vain tone of erroneous statements when he tried to explain why there is a heaven and a hell.
MacArthur said,
“The issue here is the nature of the atonement. Forget the dilemma. You are going to have the dilemma, no matter what you do. The dilemma is, why didn’t He send everyone to heaven? The dilemma is, why is there a hell and why are people going there? That is a legitimately difficult question to ask, The only answer I can give you is, if God purposed to do that, Romans 9, who am I to question his purpose. If He gets glory from judgment the way He gets glory from salvation, who are we to question that?”
Here, once again, we ought to ask MacArthur, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10). No one can deny that hell is a given fact and that it is as real and eternal as heaven. However, MacArthur seems to think that God made hell because He had no other option. He was compelled to create hell in order to uphold and honor the dilemma of the nature of the atonement.
If it had been God’s sovereign choice to shut heaven’s strait gate for the so-called reprobate because Jesus allegedly does not love and consequently did not die for them, and because it gives Him glory in the same way He gets glory from the salvation of the elect, then He had no other choice but to create hell.
Nonetheless, it is always a good thing to ask, “What does, the Bible say?” and it carries, even more, weight, when Jesus is the One who said it. So, what did Jesus say about hell? In MacArthur’s estimate, God must have said, “I have decided to debar most people from heaven so that I may get the same glory from sending the reprobate to hell than what I get from sending people to heaven, but where are we going to send them? Aha! I know! Let’s make a place we shall call hell, or the Lake of Fire, and send them there.”
Thus saith the Lord.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25 verse 41).
Anyone with a sound mind will affirm that these words tell us that God made or prepared the Lake of Fire, not for human beings, but for the devil and his angels. It follows that God never desired or willed to send any human being to hell because it was NOT made, or prepared for them, but for the devil and his angels.
So, the question, “Why does God send people to hell when it was made for the devil and his angels?” remains to be answered. The answer is very simple. Jesus died for everyone because He loves everyone. However, anyone who rejects his once-off death or sacrifice for sin, does so because he or she prefers to follow Satan and his angels, instead of Jesus.
They themselves will have to pay the penalty for their sins in an eternal Lake of Fire, together with the devil and his angels for whom it was prepared, and who they chose to follow. That is precisely why Jesus said,
“I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. whither I go, ye cannot come.” and “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins. for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24).
Please note carefully, Mr. MacArthur, the death in sins is attached to a precondition, and that is, “if” you do not believe you shall die in your sins, which very clearly implies the opposite, which is, “if” you believe, you shall not die in your sins.
There is absolutely no dilemma in these words . . . no dilemma, whatsoever. It is as plain as daylight. People who die in their sins will go to hell, because of their unbelief in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and for no other reason.
They will NOT go to hell because they have been chosen and damned to go there before the foundation of the world because it supposedly gives Him glory.
Thus saith the Lord,
Say unto them, 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? (Ezekiel 33 verse 11).
You either die with your sins forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, or you die with your sins still intact and upon yourself.
Do I hear the old moldy, Calvinistic clarion, “Double jeopardy? Double jeopardy?” MacArthur surmises that if Jesus died for everyone, then why are some going to hell? If he paid the full penalty for the sins of all people, and yet some will have to pay for their sins in hell, it amounts to DOUBLE JEOPARDY. This begs the question: How does God regard success? What was it that Jesus needed to do to be successful in his Father’s eyes? Is his success conditional upon the salvation of all people?
Hardly. Yes Indeed, the purpose, from the very beginning, was to get every single human being who ever lived into heaven. God’s intent to save everyone, is so intensely real and genuine, that He has put the return of his Son to earth on hold, to give those who suffer from a procrastinating-disbelief, as I would like to call it, time to repent and be saved.
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 Peter 3 verse 9).
Calvinists invariably regard the “us-ward,” and the “all” in this passage as a referral to the elect, and not the entire human race. As such, the verse underscores the notion that God does not want a single elect person to be lost, but that all the elect to be saved.
But, that’s ridiculous. Why would the Holy Spirit emphasize God’s will that not a single elect person be lost, when none of them can possibly be lost, because God had already irrevocably chosen them unto salvation before the foundation of the world?
If God is the One who sovereignly chose the elect to be saved before the foundation of the world, it provides the elect complete immunity against lostness. They unconsciously and irreversibly gained complete and utter immunity against lostness, even though they had not even yet existed before the foundation of the world.
In one of my debates with a Calvinist, who ironically calls himself theearstohear, said the following.
The bible never says that God’s people were ever bound for hell, it says they were chosen “in Christ” before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1 verse 4). The conviction of sin is usually misinterpreted by God’s people to be the conviction that they are hell bound. The gospel explains to them that they are not, because of what Christ did FOR them.
Conviction of sin is the belief in the reality of sin in the light of God’s holiness and perfection. Many of God’s children believe this to mean that they are going to hell. They are not. That is why they need to hear the good news of their salvation, so that they can believe it, rejoice in it and profit from it. The gospel doesn’t make their salvation true, their salvation, IS TRUE, and the gospel proclaims it to the Lord’s people who receive it by faith and profit from that understanding.
According to theearstohear, the Gospel was written exclusively for the elect to convince them, who had been redeemed and saved before the foundation of the world, that they had always been saved and never lost. Well, in that case, Jesus did not come to the earth to seek and to save them.
In fact, they believe they have always been God’s sheep and that the non-elect are the goats, It is an outrageous denial what Jesus Himself said,
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” and, “I came not to call, the righteous, [the Pharisees and Calvinists who think their election is their salvation], but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5 verse 32).
DISCOMBOBULATED MINDS
One can only describe the aforementioned oxymoron, in the same way, J. L. Sheindlin, describes Islam in his book, “The People Versus Mohammad,” when he wrote, “the Quran is one man’s discombobulated mind, poured out on paper.”
In Calvinist circles it would be, “The doctrine of election and predestination, is one man’s discombobulated mind, poured out in the minds of equally discombobulated people.” No wonder John MacArthur doesn’t even know how his spiritual life works, as he so discombobulatedly admitted in the video.
Moreover, it makes 2 Peter 3 verse 9 completely and hilariously pointless, . . . and, why? The beautiful word “longsuffering” refutes, to the hilt their claim that the verse refers to the elect only.
Once again, if God is the One who initiates, orchestrates and brings to fruition the sovereign and monergistic regeneration of the elect, without them having to believe the Gospel IN ORDER to be saved, it follows that He would have to be patient, (longsuffering), toward Himself, and not the elect, because they are wholly incompetent, in the area of procrastinating-disbelief.
A dead person cannot procrastinate. If a totally depraved person, who is as dead as a corpse in sins and transgressions is unable to believe, it follows that he or she must also be unable to procrastinate, and, as we have seen from 2 Peter 3 verse 9, procrastination is an absolutely vital necessity to warrant God’s long-suffering. God has no need to be long-suffering to anyone if they promptly do what is asks of them, or when they are unable to do anything to trigger God’s long-suffering.
Therefore, the doctrine of complete inability negates the doctrine of God’s long-suffering, because the elect are unable to either believe or disbelieve the Gospel, and need to be regenerated first, and then given the gift of faith so that they may respond in infallible faith to the Gospel.
God has no need to be patient, (long-suffering), toward such an eminently pre-existent elect, when He is the One who sovereignly initiated and effectuated their salvation, billions of years before the foundation of the world. It’s as simple as that.
Now, to get back to John MacArthur’s “Double Jeopardy.” To remind us of what he said, let us again listen to him speaking his double discombobulated mind on the subject of “Double Jeopardy.” Here’s what he said:
“I do not think it’s a good solution to diminish the nature of the atonement, and have Jesus dying for everybody. If you say He paid in full the penalty for all the sins of all the world, then what is anybody doing in hell? That’s double jeopardy. That doesn’t work. “
Has MacArthur forgotten his own method to resolve or unscrew the inscrutable? Remember, he said:
“However, I am happy to concede that God can resolve things that I can’t. I shouldn’t expect of you, and you shouldn’t expect of me to unscrew the inscrutable. You really don’t think I am going to solve all the vast theological dilemmas that have existed since the Scriptures were penned.”
And now, suddenly, God is no longer able to resolve the supposed dichotomy of “double jeopardy?” Although MacArthur admits that faith is the only requirement for salvation, the kind of faith he promulgates is a post-regenerational faith, that is, a faith which God unreservedly and sovereignly gives to his elect only as a gift, after having regenerated them first. Anything short of this, as MacArthur suggested, amounts to the depraved sinner activating his or her own salvation.
MacArthur’s line of thinking, seems to proceed from his view that Christ’s words, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins,” (John 8:24), is an emphatic statement, declaring that the non-elect have no other choice but to die in their sins, because God has by his divine decree deprived them of the gift of faith, and as a result, will never and cannot possibly be regenerated.
In other words, they have no hope in hell of ever not dying in their sins, and must therefore of necessity die in their sins, come hell or high water. What MacArthur and his cronies conveniently overlook, is the little word, “if.”
Any dictionary and thesaurus that is worth the paper it is written on, will tell you that the word, “if,” is a simple expression to convey the thought of something being conditional on something else before the thing promised can be carried out.
In fact, Jesus’ use of the word “if” proves beyond any doubt that He acknowledged the fact that sinners are able to activate the benefits of his death and resurrection in their lives through faith, and thereby acknowledged that a pre-regenerational faith is an infallible ingredient of salvation.
Without it no-one can please God, (Hebrews 11: 6). For God to act according to his divine will in salvation, his creatures to whom He has given a free-will, must act upon his will for their salvation in faith, and faith alone. Then, and then alone, can sinners be saved because, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
To corroborate his view that Christ died a specific and a real death, as he put it, for the elect only, he quotes John 10:15 incorrectly without blinking his Calvinistic infected eyes. Instead of quoting Jesus’ words, “and I lay down my life for the sheep,” MacArthur deliberately and unashamedly misquotes it by putting words into Jesus’ mouth, and have Him say, “and I lay down my life for my sheep.” Who are the sheep? The best answer to this question is God’s own definition of the sheep.
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. (Isaiah 53: 6)
Simple grammatical arithmetic proves that the sheep refer to all people and not the elect only and that He died for us all and not only the elect unless the elect are the only ones who have gone astray to follow their own way, which of course is preposterous, to say the least.
Owing to their delectably entertaining and discombobulated disposition, Calvinists often say the most hilariously funny things. Charles Spurgeon, the alleged Prince of Preachers, supposedly once said “if you pull up their shirts and show me an “E” stamped on their back and I know the elect, I will limit my work [of preaching the Gospel] to them.”
MacArthur adds his own two cents by saying, “But since there is no such stamp, I am committed to preach the Gospel to every creature.” And, for what purpose, may I ask . . . so that faith may come by hearing the Word of God? (Romans 10:17).
The Greek word, “ek,” means “to originate from or to come forth out of something outside itself. In this case, the source of origin is the preaching of the Word of God, and faith the result of a positive response to it. Therefore, the activation of faith is not a self-induced phenomenon. It is born out of a wholehearted acceptance of everything the Word of God says about his holiness and righteous judgments, and of man being a lost sinner and desperately in need of salvation.
To say it differently; there could never have been a faith unto salvation if there hadn’t been a written Word of God. So, in this sense, MacArthur is right in saying that we should be committed to preach the Gospel to every creature. However, his motive in preaching the Gospel is completely out of touch with the Gospel, (Good News).
One shouldn’t preach the Gospel because you do not know who the elect are. You should preach the Gospel so that lost sinners, including the so-called elect, may hear it, believe it, and be saved.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
Even so, why must one be committed to preach the Gospel to the elect when God has already chosen them to be saved, and for all practical reasons are already saved, whether they know it or not, because God’s council shall stand and his sovereign decrees are irreversibly eternal?
MacArthur’s preaching of the Gospel to the elect resembles something like going to a person whose eyesight and hearing is in no way impaired. He sees and hears perfectly well, but you go to him to tell him, “I have some wonderful good news I must tell you. You can see and hear perfectly well without you really knowing it.”
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
This leads us to examine MacArthur’s next best repugnant statement in regard to “Double Jeopardy,” more closely.
Remember, he said,
“But I don’t think it’s a good solution to diminish the nature of the atonement and have Jesus dying for everybody. If you say He paid the penalty for all the sins of all the world, then what is anybody doing in hell? That’s Double Jeopardy. That doesn’t work.”
The very first thing we need to establish, is, whether a humanly formulated law, may be applied to a spiritual phenomenon such as the nature of the atonement, and to do this, we need to get down to the nitty-gritty of what “Double Jeopardy” means in everyday matters of the law. The Encyclopedia Brittanica defines Double Jeopardy as follows:
“In general, in countries observing the rule of double jeopardy, a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime, based on the same conduct. If a person robs a bank, that individual, cannot twice be tried for robbery for the same offense.
Nor can one be tried for two different crimes, based upon the same conduct, unless the two crimes are defined so as to prohibit conduct, of significantly different kinds. Thus, one cannot be tried for both murder, and manslaughter for the same killing, but can be tried for both murder and robbery, if the murder arose out of the robbery.
The defense of double jeopardy also prevents the state from retrying a person for the same crime, after he has been acquitted. Nor can the state voluntarily dismiss a case, after trial has begun, in order to start over.
In U.S. law, jeopardy does not attach until the jury is sworn in a jury trial, or until the first witness, is sworn in a bench trial. Actions before jeopardy attaches will not bar a subsequent prosecution.
For example, if a judge dismisses a prosecution at a preliminary hearing, for lack of evidence, this determination does not bar the government from initiating new charges for the same offense, since jeopardy will not have attached at that point.
Also under U.S. law, conviction or acquittal in one state or nation does not always bar trial for the same criminal act in another.”
Wikipedia defines it thus:
Double jeopardy is a procedural defence, that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges, and on the same facts, following a valid acquittal or conviction.
Please set your mind on the underlined sentence in the above definition, the Encyclopedia Brittannica, presents for Double Jeopardy. It clearly indicates that Double Jeopardy is not, and has never been employed universally. To prove this, I suggest that you examine how different countries view Double Jeopardy, in the Wikipedia article. I can assure you it does not affect all countries.
In fact, Double Jeopardy cannot even be charged for the same crime in the different states of the United States. This is what FindLaw, a site on American jurisprudence, says about Double Jeopardy.
While you cannot be charged twice in one state for a crime that you were acquitted or convicted of, you may be charged twice in different states for the same crime. For instance, your conduct can be treated as two (or more) separate criminal acts if that conduct violated the laws of more than one state. Furthermore, if that conduct was a federal offense, you may be tried and convicted in both a state and federal court. This is known as the “dual sovereignty doctrine,” and it is an exception to the “Double Jeopardy Clause” of the U.S. Constitution.
That’s what I call divine justice. While Calvinists place so much wrong emphasis on God’s sovereignty, the manmade “dual sovereignty doctrine” effectively overrules and puts to naught MacArthur’s Double Jeopardy argument he uses to try and prove that Christ could not have died for everyone, simply because it would add up to Double Jeopardy.
Imagine MacArthur making his infamous statement on Double Jeopardy, in State A of the United States, and every lawmaker in that State says, “yeah and amen.” Also, imagine him, so deeply inspired by their “yeah and amens,” going to State B, and says the same thing to their lawmakers.
However, this time, the lawmakers tell him. “No, Mr. MacArthur, you are woefully wrong. Our courts do not accept the Double Jeopardy Clause of State A. Their acquittals are null and void in our state. The criminals who have been acquitted in State A, can be prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced in our State B . . . and here’s the proof. “ It is called the “dual sovereignty doctrine.”
MacArthur may as well say that Jesus loves everyone, even the non-elect, but did not die for everyone in State A, whereas in State B, He loves everyone and died for everyone. He should have studied and researched the Double Jeopardy clause more closely before making such a broad statement. Had he done so, he would have had to acknowledge that his Double Jeopardy argument, with regard to the nature of the atonement, cannot possibly be applied to every country, let alone the different states in the USA.
It not only exposes MacArthur as the real shyster that he is but also reveals that Calvinism, in general, is the most fraudulent and despicable religion Satan has ever concocted on planet earth. It is worse than Islam.
Perhaps we should ask MacArthur whether he would be willing, (excuse the pun), to change his view on the nature of the atonement to accommodate each different state in America’s ruling on the Double Jeopardy Clause. He may even perchance be willing to tell the inhabitants of State A that Jesus did not pay the penalty for all the sins of all the world, and then change his tune by telling the folk in State B that He did indeed pay the penalty for all the sins of all the world.
That would, at least, do justice to the different States’ ruling on Double Jeopardy, and in so doing, bravely uphold and defend the “dual sovereignty doctrine.” I would be the first to congratulate him on his law-abiding honesty and truthfulness, and shout from the rooftops, “Yeah and Amen.”
Assuming that MacArthur’s Double Jeopardy argument can be applied to the nature of the atonement and Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, we must determine which crime it was that cannot be repeated, so as to validate the man-made Double Jeopardy clause in the spiritual sense of the word.
It could not have been a crime Jesus Christ committed because He was the innocent and guiltless One who suffered on the cross in behalf of the scoundrels who committed the crime. (1 Peter 3:18). What was the crime? In one word, is was, has always been, and still is, unbelief. Jesus Himself said so, and even the shyster, John MacArthur, acknowledges it:
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me; (John 16 verses 8 and 9).
Note carefully that sin, is in the singular because it singularly refers to the sin of unbelief. Therefore, we may safely assume that the real reason why people are sent to hell, is not because they have committed a multitude of sins, but because of their sin of unbelief.
Yes, indeed, sins, are the result of unbelief and cannot be divorced from unbelief, However, had we all been assigned to hell because of our multitude of sins, none of us would have been saved, because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Unbelief and unbelief alone is what prevents sinners from being cleansed of their sins, so that they may be saved and go to heaven.
Calvinists, as you may know by now, do not believe sinners are capable of believing in the finished work of Christ on the cross of their own accord, so that they may be saved. MacArthur and his cronies call it the doctrine of inability.
The only kind of faith they accept as true faith is a post-regenerational faith, which God in his sovereign will and decree, only grants his elect. They have vaingloriously and infamously changed Jesus’ words in John 16 verses 8 and 9 to the following . . .
And when he, (the Holy Spirit), has come, he will NOT reprove the world, (the elect), of sin, righteousness, and of judgment, because I will endow them with the gift to believe after I had sovereignly, and monergistically regenerated them. I have no other choice but to do it that way because if I were to wait for them to believe on me of their own accord, they would be activating their own salvation. And that, . . . that is a horrendously blasphemous sin of demeaning and undermining God’s sovereignty to choose whomsoever He wishes to save, and whomsoever He wishes to damn. Why? Because God craves to be glorified by his damnation of the non-elect in the same way He gets glory by the salvation of his elect.”
Another very important question we need to ask, is, can we apply the clause, “Double Jeopardy” to unbelief? Will unbelief, the very reason, and indeed, the only one that consigns sinners to hell, be the same crime they committed during their sojourn on earth, or will it merely be a perpetuation of that crime in hell?
Anyone, who uses, man-made laws to confirm their religious doctrines, which in this case is Double Jeopardy, must at least abide by the man-made rules, designed for those laws to function properly. You cannot apply it to all men when the manmade law itself is not applied globally in all countries.
Double Jeopardy can only be affirmed, after there had already been a hearing in a court of law, and it had been proven without a reasonable doubt that the criminal cannot be charged with the same crime after he or she had been acquitted.
For it to be applied in the spiritual sense of the word, Adam and Eve, who originally committed the crime of disobedience to God, would first have had to be pronounced innocent and acquitted, so that their offspring through the ages could not be charged with the same crime.
However, the Supreme Judge of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already adjudicated and sentenced them to death, as well as their offspring through the ages.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. (Romans 5:12).
Calvinists dare not make “all” in the above verse refer only to the elect, as they have so often audaciously done with other passages in the Bible, to corroborate their doctrines of election and predestination. Common sense tells you that “all” refers to all of mankind, and not only the elect.
To God be the glory, who, ” . . . consigned (penned up), all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike]. (Romans 11:32). [and not an unequal “raindrops keep falling on my head” kind of temporary redemption for some, and a solidly eternal redemption for others].
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5 verse 6 to 8).
This verse single-handedly debunks Calvinism, its TULIP and MacArthur’s repugnant statement, that “Jesus loves the reprobate but did not die for them on the cross.” It also exposes their hypocritical and feigned respect for God’s sovereignty, and instead are defaming his holy character by suggesting that He is a liar and a cheat who cannot keep his word.
MacArthur may fool some people sometimes in making them believe that he is a great scholar in the field of the nature of the atonement, but he sure aint one in the field of a childlike faith. The fact that not all people are going to heaven, and the great majority of them are going to hell, does not make Christ’s death on the cross a failure, and least of all a transgression of the Double Jeopardy clause, if He paid the penalty for all the sins of all the world.
Consider the following proof from Scripture that Jesus did indeed die for all the sins of all the world.
And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work [reward] with my God. (Isaiah 49 verses 3 and 4).
The ESV which some consider a Calvinistic Bible, says it thus:
And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.”
This is an Old Testament Messianic utterance, for it pertains to Israel who is called God’s elect without reserve, throughout the Bible. You only need to do a cursory study of the Bible to see that more than 20 verses show that Israel is God’s elect. This concludes without a doubt that God will glorify Himself in his elect, the Jews, according to verse 4 of Isaiah 49.
Nevertheless, when we look in hindsight at how Israel as a nation sinned against God and how often they turned their backs on Him, to the extent that He had no other option but to announce a, Lo-Ammi, (not my people), on them (Hosea 1 verse 9), it is rather difficult to perceive how He aims to glorify Himself in them, when the majority are going to be cast into hell. (Matthew 8:12).
Even Jesus seemed to have difficulty with how God purposed to glorify Himself in a bunch of hell-bound children of the Kingdom when He said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity,” for God’s elect who spurned their birthright for a pot of lentil soup.
Admittedly, we cannot interpret Jesus’ words as the epitome of success. He Himself said He failed and labored in vain. But, did He? Certainly not, because success in divine terms is not determined by the salvation of every single person who ever walked the earth. It is determined by his obedience to his Father. Had only a single person been saved, Jesus Christ’ death on the cross would still have been a resounding success because He will have done it in obedience to his Father.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10 verses 6 and 7).
Jesus knew before the foundation of the world, when the heavenly Sanhedrin decided that He would die on a cross for the sins of the world, that most of his creatures, and especially his own people the Jews, would reject Him, and yet He still went to the cross with a resolute obedience to his Father.
And this, in particular, spells a resounding success, because his recompense would not necessarily be the salvation of all people, but with the Lord God, his Father, and that was the ultimate reward He could wish for. There is no such thing as a double jeopardy in Jesus Christ’s flint-like obedience to his Father. That’s impossible.
GOD’S ELECT PEOPLE, THE JEWS
Let us now focus our attention on Israel as God’s chosen (elect) people, and the sacrificial system God instituted for them in the Old Testament. It is imperative to determine whether the Levitical sacrificial system, with its blood sacrifices, was for the entire nation of Israel, or only for the elect among the elect.
The staunchest Calvinist who is prepared to believe the Word of God, cannot deny that the Levitical sacrificial system, was ordained by God for the entire nation of Israel, without the exclusion of a single individual. Leviticus 16 makes that very clear.
If we were to accept the fact that the sacrificial system in Leviticus foreshadowed the atonement Jesus Christ wrought for the world, we dare not exclude a single person in the world from his death unto sin, simply because not a single individual in the nation of Israel was excluded from the benefits of the Levitical sacrificial system. Did the blood sacrifices in the Leviticus automatically save every single Jew? Perish the thought.
If it were true that Christ’s death on the cross does exclude some, we would have had to exclude some individuals (known as the non-elect to Calvinists) from the benefits of the sacrifices in Leviticus. That is impossible because there are no contradictions, inconsistencies or discrepancies in God’s atonement as expressed in the Old and the New Testament.
In fact, the Old Testament’s atonement for sin is a mirror image of Christ’s atonement on the cross, with one exception, and that is that his death on the cross was a once-and-for-all death unto sin and, no longer needs to be repeated once a year like the atonement in the old Testament. That’s why He triumphantly cried out, “It is finished.”
You may have noticed that I repeatedly spoke of the benefits of the atonement which brings us to the very crux of the atonement, and that is, to emphasize what ultimately brings to fruition, or activates these benefits. Indeed, there is only one requirement to bring to fruition or to activate these benefits, and that is faith – F, A, I, T, H, faith, a childlike faith, to be more precise.
It was not so much the action of the sinner placing his hand on the sacrificial animal that saved the Israelite’s soul but, his looking ahead in time, in faith, to the substitutional death of Christ on the cross.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
When the jailer asked, “What must, I, do to be saved,” neither Paul nor Silas corrected him by telling him there is nothing whatsoever he could do to be saved, but simply needed to wait on God to sovereignly regenerate him. Paul merely said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” and NOT to “wait until God regenerates you monergistically, and then you will be endowed with the faith necessary to be saved.”
COMMON GRACE / TEMPORAL SALVATION
To conclude, let us again briefly look at the Calvinists’ and MacArthur’s view of the nature of the atonement. As we can see from Jesus’ own words in Hebrews 10 verse 5, their view is completely at variance with his own.
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).
Yet, MacArthur asserts that Christ came to the earth to save the non-elect (who are as lost as the so-called elect) only temporary, and to save the elect both temporary and eternally. There is absolutely no such thing as a temporary salvation in the Bible. In fact, there is a far better chance of finding lion’s fangs in a chicken’s beak than it is to find the term “temporary salvation” in the Word of God.
The entire scheme of temporary salvation is a MacArthian illusion and a dangerous scam that are leading many unsuspecting people to hell. The term “temporary salvation” is at best, a goofy eisegesis of redemption to make the doctrine of election and predestination look good and plausible.
The most distressing thing about MacArthur’s illusion, he calls “temporary salvation,” is, that it proves beyond any doubt that he has no clue what biblical salvation truly is. To understand what true salvation is, it is imperative to know what it means to be lost.
Let us turn to John 3:36 to see what the essence is of being lost.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
There is absolutely nothing temporary in the meaning of the word “abideth.” The three main focus points in the above verse is,
1) He who believes.
2) He who believes not.
3) The wrath of God abides (remains) on him.
We either believe God, who says his wrath abides or remains on them who do not believe, or we believe MacArthur, who says God temporary removes his wrath from those who do not believe in order to save them temporarily. We can’t have it both ways. It is either the one or the other, and since we all have a free-will, you may choose whatever you wish to believe.
However, keep in mind, that you must also be willing to bear the consequences if you do not believe what God says about his wrath abiding on unbelievers. We cannot assume that God has temporarily removed his wrath from the unbelieving reprobate because raindrops fall on their heads in the same way it falls on the elect.
What do Calvinists say about the reprobate non-elect? According to their thinking the non-elect are all unbelievers and will remain so for all eternity because God has sovereignly decreed not to bless them with the saving faith He grants his so-called elect after He had regenerated them by his sovereign decree.
That makes the non-elect the children of wrath on whom God’s wrath will abide forevermore. As such, it is impossible to validate a so-called “temporary salvation.” As I indicated earlier, God would have to remove his wrath temporary to save the non-elect temporary, which is absurd.
This brings us to the true meaning of salvation. All who believe on the Lord Jesus (because that’s what the text says) have escaped the wrath of God.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8 verses 1 to 4).
“In Christ,” is the key to a correct understanding of true salvation, because it is there, IN HIM, where believers are hidden, as it were, and kept safe from the righteous judgments of God. He is the Rock that was cleft for every single person (and not only the so-called elect) so that they who BELIEVE may hide in Him, and escape the condemnation (wrath) of God.
Are those whom He allegedly saves temporary, only lost temporarily? You cannot attach a certain timeframe to being lost. Lost is lost. Lost is not equal to being separated from God for only a certain time. Does being lost temporary mean that God initially withheld rain from falling on the unjust for some time, while the just were blessed with rain, and then suddenly decided to save the unjust temporary by letting it rain on them in the same way it falls on the just?
Lost, in the biblical sense of the word relates to the soul and, therefore, is a spiritual phenomenon, and not an agricultural condition of drought and rain. Yes, God can, and often did, use drought to bring people to their senses in a bid to save them, but nowhere in Scripture do we read that drought (lack of rain) is an aphorism of being lost and rain is an aphorism of God’s temporary redemption. That’s ridiculous, to say the least.
Those who are lost during their life span on earth are already lost eternally unless they repent and believe the Gospel. MacArthur seems to think the unjust (the non-elect) are lost temporary, and merely need to be saved temporarily by blessing them with raindrops falling on their heads, in the same way, the righteous are blessed with rain, to prove that God loves them but did not die for them. (Matthew 5 verses 43 to 45).
MacArthur calls it common grace because God is merciful and compassionate. Matthew 5 verses 43 to 48 has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with salvation – eternally or even temporary. It involves God’s command to love all people equally, even your enemies.
The command is that whatever God’s children do for those who love them, they must also be doing for those who hate them. Their compassion, love, kind-heartedness, and benevolence should not be limited to those who love them but should be extended equally to those who do not love them, and even to those who seek to kill them. (Luke 9 verses 51 to 56).
God’s main objective in Matthew 5 verses 43 to 45, is to teach his children to be impartial in all their dealings with mankind because God their Father is perfect in all his ways. He is perfectly impartial in his love and his justice.
Had He been partial in his love and his justice, in that He loved some to a lesser degree than others, He would have been imperfect. Why would He command his children to be perfectly impartial while He Himself is supposedly one-sided? That amounts to, “do as I say”, and not, “do as I do.” It is nothing less than hypocrisy.
This is the kind of God Calvinism portrays to the world when it says, “God loves you but his Son did not die for you on the cross.” I have always maintained, and must say it here again, that Calvinism is another Gospel, engineered and kept intact by another spirit of another Jesus. It, cannot save. Period!
In the beginning of their video on the Shepherd’s Conference 2010, MacArthur responds as follows to the question, “How do we tell people God loves them and that Jesus Christ did not die for them?”
Well, you tell them whatever the Bible tells you to tell them . . .”
I too have a right and an obligation to tell MacArthur, Rick Holland and all Calvinists what the Bible tells me to tell them, and here’s what the Bible emphatically tells them.
“Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?” (Malachi 3:13).
ALL HAVE SINNED
There is no such thing as common grace or mercy, at least in the way John MacArthur defines it.
For God has consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike]. (Romans 11 verse 32).
The consignment of disobedience cannot be applied to the elect only, so that God may have salvific mercy on them alone. Had there been something like common grace, that distinguishes it from salvific grace, there must also have been something like common disobedience.
And indeed, there is a common disobedience among all people because all have sinned, and therefore there must also be common grace, not in the MacArthian sense of the word, but in the sense that God extends his grace to all people.
For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. (Titus 2:11).
This, and this alone is true common grace because it has appeared to all humankind, and not only to the so-called elect. Anyone can be saved if they believe as the Scriptures hath said.
Whether MacArthur and his Calvinist friends will ever listen to exhortation and real, genuine loving admonitions, is a question I have not been able to answer. I do, however, know what the Bible says about those who refuse to listen.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12).
I can only say what I have said so many times in the past, May God have mercy on their pitiful souls.
See part 1 here: AN EARTHQUAKE REDEMPTION – Part 1
