Limited atonement
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Limited atonement (or definite atonement or particular redemption) is a controversial doctrine in Christian theology which is particularly associated with Calvinism and is one of the five points of Calvinism. The doctrine states that Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross is limited in extent to those who are predestined unto salvation and its benefits are not given to all of humankind.
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[edit] The doctrine
The doctrine of the limited extent of the atonement is intimately tied up with the doctrine of the nature of the atonement and with the general Calvinist scheme of predestination. Calvinists advocate the satisfaction theory (also known as punishment theory) of the atonement, which developed in the writings of Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas. In brief, the Calvinistic refinement of this theory states that the atonement of Christ literally pays the penalty incurred by the sins of men — that is, Christ receives the wrath of God for specific sins and thereby cancels the judgement they had incurred. Since, Calvinists argue, it would be unjust for God to pay the penalty for men's sins and then still condemn them for those sins, all those whose sins were propitiated must necessarily be saved.
The Calvinist view of predestination teaches that God chose a group of people, who would not and could not choose him (see total depravity), to be saved apart from their works or their cooperation, and those people are compelled by God's irresistible grace to accept the offer of the salvation achieved in the atonement of Christ. Since in this scheme God knows precisely who the elect are, Christ needn't atone for sins other than those of the elect.
The Calvinist atonement is thus called definite because it certainly secures the salvation of those for whom Christ died, and it is called limited in its extent because it effects salvation for the elect only. Calvinists do not believe the power of the atonement is limited in any way, which is to say that no sin is too great to be expiated by Christ's sacrifice, in their view. Among English Calvinistic Baptists, the doctrine was usually known as particular redemption, giving its adherents the name Particular Baptists. This term emphasizes the intention of God to save particular persons through the atonement, as opposed to mankind in general as General Baptists believe.
On a practical level, this doctrine is not emphasized in Calvinist churches except in comparison to other salvific schemes, and when it is taught, the primary use of this and the other doctrines of predestination is the assurance of believers. To that end, they apply this doctrine especially to try to strengthen the belief that "Christ died for me," as in the words of St. Paul, "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). In fact, contrary to what one might expect on the basis of this doctrine, Calvinists believe they can freely and sincerely offer salvation to everyone on God's behalf since they themselves do not know which people are counted among the elect and since they see themselves as God's instruments in bringing about the salvation of other members of the elect.
[edit] Biblical passages
The classic Bible passage cited to prove a limited extent to the atonement is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John in which Jesus uses Ancient Near Eastern shepherding practices as a metaphor for his relationship to his followers. A shepherd of those times would call his sheep from a mix of flocks, and his sheep would hearken to his voice and follow, while the sheep of other flocks would ignore any but their own shepherd's voice (John 10:1-5). In that context, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,...and I lay down my life for the sheep" (vv. 14-15, ESV, emphasis added), and he tells the Pharisees that they "do not believe because [they] are not part of [his] flock" (v. 26). He continues, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (vv. 27f). Since Calvinists and nearly all Christians believe that not all have eternal life with God (based on the Sermon on the Mount among other passages), Calvinists conclude that either Jesus was wrong in saying that he would lose none of his sheep (a conclusion they reject) or that Jesus must not have died for everyone. Formally, the Calvinist position can be expressed thusly:
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1. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:14-15) 2. Jesus will lose none of his sheep. (John 10:28) 3. Many people will not receive eternal life. (Matthew 7:13-14) Therefore, Jesus did not die for everyone but only for those who will ultimately be saved.
Additionally, in the high priestly prayer, Jesus prays for the protection and sanctification of those who believed in him, and he explicitly excludes praying for all: "I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours" (John 17:9b). St. Paul instructs the elders in Ephesus "to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28, NASB), and he says in his letter to the same church that "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25, ESV, emphasis added). Likewise, Jesus foreshadows that he will lay down his life "for his friends" (John 15:13; compare 10:15), and an angel tells Jesus' earthly father Joseph that he "will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Calvinists believe that these passages demonstrate that Jesus died for the church (that is, the elect) only.
[edit] Objections to the doctrine
Limited atonement is contrasted with the view popularly termed Universal or Unlimited atonement, which is advocated by Arminian, Methodist, Lutheran, Messianic Jewish, and Roman Catholic theologians (among others) and which says Christ's work makes redemption possible for all but certain for none. (This doctrine should not be confused with universalism.) Though Lutherans and Catholics share a similar doctrine of the nature of the atonement with Calvinists, they differ on its extent, whereas Arminians and Methodists generally accept an alternate theory of the nature of the atonement such as the moral government theory. The elect in such models are the people who choose to avail themselves of God's gracious offer of salvation through Christ, not a pre-determined group. Thus, these systems place a limit on the efficacy of the atonement rather than on its extent, like Calvinists.
Historically, the Arminian Remonstrants raised this doctrine as a point of debate over predestination in the Quinquarticular Controversy, and their position was ultimately condemned by Calvinists at the Synod of Dordrecht in 1619. In spite of opposition, the doctrine of the universal extent of the atonement became and remains prevalent outside of Calvinist circles. Even some Calvinistic Christians identify themselves as Amyraldians or "four point Calvinists" and teach an unlimited atonement. In particular, Amyraldism teaches that God has provided Christ's atonement for all alike, but seeing that none would believe on his own, he then elects those whom he will bring to faith in Christ, thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election. Calvin himself did not clearly articulate an opinion on this doctrine, which is nonetheless usually associated with his name, but most see it as a necessary consequence of his doctrines of election and the atonement.[1][2]
Some have contended that the doctrine of particular redemption implies that Christ's sacrifice was insufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world, but Calvinists have universally rejected this notion, instead holding that the value of the atonement is infinite but that its application is only to the elect.
Recently, proponents of Arminianism have begun to deal with the conflict between the concepts of God's omniscience and omnipotence and unlimited atonement. The classical notion of the omniscience of God requires that God know specifically those who will ultimately be saved, whether that salvation is accomplished by God (as in Calvinism) or by the will of man (as Arminianism). In either case, because God knew the outcome, it could be said that they are predestined. This would leave a group of people known to God who would not be saved and thus for whom Christ's atonement would have no purpose or design as Calvinists maintain. Consequently, some Arminains (led by Clark Pinnock and others) are retreating from the notion of the classical omniscience and omnipotence of God. They are espousing an Open Theism theology in which God cannot know the future and who will be saved before one personally decides to accept Christ. They also advocate God's voluntary decision not to exercise His power to save an individual and to let the individual be free to decide whether to be saved without undue influence from God.
[edit] Biblical passages
Several Biblical passages are urged by opponents as contradicting a doctrine of limited atonement (all quotes from the ESV, emphasis added):
- John 1:29b: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
- John 3:16-17: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
- 1 Timothy 2:3-6: "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."
- 1 Timothy 4:10: "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe."
- Titus 2:11 - "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people."
- 1 John 2:2: "He [Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
- 2 Peter 2:1: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
Calvinists admit that these are difficult passages with respect to the extent of the atonement, but following the Protestant hermeneutic principle of letting Scripture interpret Scripture, they attempt to allow the passages on election and other passages on the extent of the atonement to clarify the meaning of these difficult passages. According to this principle, since the word world, for instance, is used at other places in the New Testament in a way obviously not intended to include every single person in the world (such as Luke 2:1 and Romans 1:8), its meaning in any particular passage must be determined by the context. In particular, they understand all to refer to all of the elect (as in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15); to refer to all races of men, not just Israelites (as in John 1:29; 3:16-17; 1 Timothy 2:6; and Titus 2:11); or to refer to the elect in all places throughout the world (as in 1 John 2:2, where the words "the sins of" have been added to the last phrase by the ESV and other translations and literally reads "but for the whole world", as in the NKJV, ASV, the Vulgate, etc.). They also posit that there can be different senses of the concept of salvation — as simply the defense and preservation of temporal life (as they understand 1 Timothy 4:10) or as salvation from God's wrath unto eternal life.
Opponents offer alternate interpretations of the same passages which in turn support a universal atonement, and the disagreement has yet to find any siginificant resolution. Consequently, both limited and unlimited atonement views are still held in Christendom, though the latter is much more common.
[edit] External links
[edit] Pro
- The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen (ISBN 0-85151-382-4) with a famous introduction by J. I. Packer, who says, "It is safe to say that no comparable exposition of the work of redemption as planned and executed by the Triune Jehovah has ever been done since Owen published his. None has been needed....[N]obody has a right to dismiss the doctrine of the limitedness, or particularity, of atonement as a monstrosity of Calvinistic logic until he has refuted Owen's proof that it is part of the uniform biblical presentation of redemption, clearly taught in plain text after plain text. And nobody has done that yet."
- "For Whom Did Christ Die?", part 3, chapter 8 of Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology
- "Particular Redemption", a sermon by Charles Spurgeon delivered on 1858-02-28
- "Limited Atonement", chapter 12 from The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner
- Articles on Definite Atonement at Monergism.com
- "Limited Atonement", a series of articles by Ra McLaughlin
