Romans Chapter 9 

The third point of Calvinism “Limited Atonement” says that Jesus’ atoning death is limited to the Elect and not everyone. It means that Jesus’ death on the cross is only sufficient to save those elected by God – God’s Salvation does not extend to those outside His election. This doctrine is highly contradictory to the teachings of the bible, because the bible clearly states that God’s Salvation is sufficient to save all mankind. Even if there were to be hundreds and thousands times more human souls, God’s salvation is capable of saving them all. For this Salvation is consistent with God’s character and power, which is everlasting and without limits.

The book of Hebrews speaks of God’s everlasting and boundless attribute: “one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. (7:16)”; “but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. (7:24)”; “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (9:14)”; “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God (10:12).” The Lord with His everlasting and indestructible life, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself once and for all as the perfect sin offering to complete the act of atonement. Salvation has been accomplished with such a dynamic, powerful and abundant life, what has caused it to become limited only to save some and not everyone? When the Lord said, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (1Pt 3:9)” and “Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Ti 2:4 NASB),” either He merely meant it as a figure of speech or He must have severely lacked sincerity, because if He designed Salvation only to be sufficient for the Elect, why does He claim that He desires everyone to be saved?

In fact, the term “Limited Atonement” cannot be found in the bible at all, nowhere in the bible does it suggest a limited salvation. This doctrine arises from the narrowness of man’s heart, in an attempt to confine God’s infinite powers with our finite minds. All these are done for the sake of strengthening the teachings of Calvinism, to emphasise that God saves only the Elect; whereas those who are not elected, not only does God not grant them the ability to receive Christ, but He also did not prepare sufficient grace to save them. Such a doctrine greatly diminishes the effect of God’s saving grace and power, to have taken God’s boundless and limitless salvation and shrunk it into something only sufficient for a small selected group of people in the world.

Now, the accurate biblical truths concerning Christ’s salvation: Jesus Christ with His everlasting and indestructible life, through His eternal Spirit, offered Himself once and for all as the perfect sacrifice to God; becoming the eternal sin offering. God’s salvation is infinite, sufficient to save everyone in the past, present and future. It could not be any clearer in 1John 2:2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Sadly, even though God has offered such a great gift of salvation – sufficient and available to everyone, yet within all of humanity, only a small number are willing to repent and accept Christ. This explains why there are so few that received His salvation.

Apart from Romans chapter 9, Calvinism has quoted scriptures from other bible passages to support its argument. If we were to re-examine them, it would not be difficult to realise that these passages, similar to Romans Chapter 9, have been misinterpreted.

No Christian in the world would ever feel that somewhere in time, God has meddled with their decision to accept Christ. Hence, the doctrine of Predestination today is a theory that cannot be proven by our real-life experiences. The only way to prove its existence is the Word of God – the Bible. However, after the review of these passages, including the most critical passage of Romans Chapter 9, we can safely conclude that this theory is an error arising from wrong bible interpretation. This also explains why no one has ever felt God manipulating their decisions to accept Jesus, the very reason being that Calvin’s doctrine of Predestination simply does not exist.

Though Calvinism is meant to help believers better understand the doctrine of Predestination, regrettably without anyone knowing, they have already introduced “another gospel.” They have added to the gospel an invisible hand of God, saying: “A person who has not been elected by God cannot be saved, and His will concerning His election is a mystery that cannot be known.” This has caused those who share the gospel to be hesitant in bringing people to Christ and those who heard the gospel to doubt the genuineness of God’s love for mankind.