The Free Will Gospel Refuted By John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16

 
So many Arminian and other free-will preachers use John 3:16 to make a case against Calvinism and for Arminianism. In particular, they make a case that Jesus died for EVERYONE – everyone alive and everyone who ever lived. Yet they don’t realize that there is a serious flaw to their argument. They look at the verse and say: “See, it says that God so loved the world… [which they say means God so loved everybody, which they then say is justification for their claim that Jesus died for everybody]”.
 
The fatal flaw to their argument is found in the rest of that verse:
 

“…that whosoever believeth in him should not perish…”

 
The point being that not EVERYONE believes in Jesus. So, Jesus did not die for EVERYONE. He only died for those who end up believing in Him. Yet, the modern day Christian Church is full of pastors, elders, preachers and teachers who would probably swear up and down on a stack of bibles that Jesus DID die for EVERYONE. It is truly amazing how something could be right in front of their noses, yet they cannot see it. Did YOU see it?
 
And so here you have it, an example of the Bible doctrine of “Limited Atonement” (the letter “L” in TULIP acrostic of Calvinism) right there in John 3:16, of all places. The death of Christ was limited to “whosoever believeth”! So maybe, just maybe, Calvinism really IS the Gospel. It just happens to be a set of Bible doctrines attributed to John Calvin even though he was already dead when the 5 points of Calvinism were formalized by a group of Dutch Reformed protestants at the Synod of Dort. The Synod of Dort drew up their 5 points of Calvinism to refute each of the 5 erroneous points of Arminianism being promoted by Jacobus Arminius.
 
And let’s not forget about Matthew 1:21, which emphasizes that Jesus died for HIS PEOPLE, not for everyone who ever lived. He died to save HIS PEOPLE from their sins, which is a direct reference to the “elect of God” referred to throughout the New Testament.
 

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21

 
It seems impossible for many Christians to understand this issue, and yet it should be overwhelmingly obvious that Jesus could not have died for EVERYONE otherwise no one would end up in Hell and so Jesus never would have warned people about such a place of eternal punishment for sin.

PDFPrint