Hi Remade,remade wrote:One that might be used, is that Titus 2:11 says "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people." However, we come back to the main gist of the argument, I think, Calvinists will say, "Yeah it appeared for all people. It was only effective for the elect." And Arminians will say, "It's effective for all people, sadly those who reject God freely don't receive it though."
Thanks for the response. The Arminian response to Titus 2:11 would not hold up to further scrutiny when factoring in the historical context and audience relevance of said passage. A pithy breakdown would be as follows: (a) Paul’s use of “all” is qualified by his inspired understanding of THAT or HIS current age coming to an end with Jesus’ return (verses 12, 13 & 1 Cor. 10:11); and (b) Paul’s use of “all” in their age ending events is qualified or defined by their inhabited world (oikoumenē) or the known Roman Empire; thus, when Jesus said “the end” will come when the gospel is preached in “all the world” (Matt 24:14) and Paul denotes that this was fulfilled by saying the gospel was indeed preached to every creature under heaven--in HIS current age (Col 1:23), then Titus 2:11 DOES NOT refer to “all men” outside of the oikoumene, such as the American and Australian continents or other parts of the globe.
So again, does “the gift” that Paul describes apply to every human being or not? I personally see no evidence of this in any inspired writings, especially when scrutinized exegetically. Without question, God the Father is the initiator of any return from spiritual death. Therefore, does HE quicken all humans (past, present, and future) to then exercise “free will” to except or reject HIS gift? We cannot exercise “free will” in spiritual truths when we are spiritually dead. A major tenet of “the gift” is to have the privilege to accept or reject—once our spiritual eyes are opened to the truth. Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father (John 6:65). Incidentally, according to Jesus, what we know or don’t know have consequences (Luke 12:47-48).
The John verses can be treated with the same scrutiny. Do the "whosever" passages address humans from Adam to THEIR present ministry? No, they do not. These passages address an age ending event relevant to the preaching of the gospel within the oikoumenē. Nevertheless, if God intends on bringing "all" to salvation, I would be extremely over joyed to this concept (universalism). But, the NT writers are mainly focused on their oikoumenē, regarding the gospel, when we closely examine their understanding. Therefore, in the age to come, is "the gift" any different from Adam to the end of the old covenant age? In other words, how did the ancient world, outside of Israel and the middle east, receive God's salvation? For example, the American and Australian continents.
Jesus and the NT writers believed that only one generation of people, within a regional habitation, would experience the gospel message first-hand and its consummation. The "all" will 99.9% of the time refer to the 1st century audience, not the entire inhabitants of the planet. IMHO, if we look at Calvinism and Arminianism in the light of the historical context of the 1st century believers and their oikoumene, Calvinism may hold a more tenable position. I say this because Mark 16:15 suggests that "the gift" is given to all who hear the preaching of the gospel, then having their spiritual eyes open, they may choose to believe or not. So, is all who hear the gospel a recipient of "the gift" and those who never heard of such gospel excluded or judged by other means? This sounds plausible.
God bless.