Just a bit of trivia on limited atonement. See if you can guess who wrote the following and I will give the answer and source in a few days. The quote comes in a discussion about faith from James 2:14-17.
"What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short, that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind. No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved; nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him. That may be, or may not be, true in the sense in which he understands it. In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ's dying for all men is not at all a ground upon which any man may hope to be saved. Christ died for some men in another sense, in a peculiar and special sense. No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith. The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts; I have no doubt devils are very orthodox; I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches, there was one in Christ's Church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with devils; and there are some in all churches" (Underlines are added by me).
"What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short, that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind. No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved; nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him. That may be, or may not be, true in the sense in which he understands it. In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ's dying for all men is not at all a ground upon which any man may hope to be saved. Christ died for some men in another sense, in a peculiar and special sense. No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith. The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts; I have no doubt devils are very orthodox; I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches, there was one in Christ's Church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with devils; and there are some in all churches" (Underlines are added by me).
I'll give a guess, although, I know I will be far from the answer. It almost sounds to me something a Rick Warren or Joel Osteen is one sense, "nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him
ReplyDeleteBut in another sense could be John Calvin, Martin Luther, or even Spurgeon, "No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith."
So there are my guesses. Rick Warren, Joel Osteen (although I know you do not read these men and they probably do not know what "limited atonement" is anway). But perhaps, John Calvin, Martin Luther, or Charles Spurgeon!