John Owen "trilema" (Limited Atonement)

[Guest]

Ok,

I suppose the atonement does not have to have, necessarily, a direct "person to person" effect but is "applied" to those that have faith (i.e. the church).

It doesn't have to be as if God said "these many people are going to be saved, so I need to exact this much punishment", but rather that Jesus' sacrifice satisfied the justice of God, so that if a man has faith, he can benifit from it.

This view of the atonement that is less person to person, and more corporate (I suppose), would seem to be necessary even in the limited atonement view, espeicially if one holds to eternal punishment. Jesus obviously didn't suffer for all of eternity as would be the case with the unbeliever. One might say that His sacrifice was such that it covered that punishment that would have been eternal, but that would seem illogical because no matter what He endured, it was not eternal.

I am not sure this answers the John Owen quote in my first post, but its something. Thanks for the help!

God bless,

[Guest]

We can always ask Evangelion, since he has different views with the atonement!