First, we must deal with scripture such as "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." We must deal with the extent of the atonement, "not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." "For God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
Next, a biblical position must deal with "by grace we're saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It (faith) is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." It must deal with Lydia for "God opened her heart" to believe. And as you have pointed out, scripture says that Jacob was elected before birth and Esau was not.
So, a biblical position must deal with both God's sovereign choice and God's making faith available to all. It must not make God into some kind of lawyer who withholds things via the fine print, and it must not make God into some kind of punching bag who reels about not knowing what's going on.
Revelation 22: "17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. "
Revelation 17: "The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished "
Romans 10: 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" 16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."
“We must deal with the extent of the atonement, “not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1Jn 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
This scripture is a word of encouragement to believers that they have an advocate for them to the Father, who can do so since He is the righteous “propitiation” for the sins of believers, the one who washes away their sin with His blood.
If we read this as you do, we would understand the “us” and the “world” as referring to every individual, which means that even the reprobate have had their sins “atoned,” or “propitiated” per the scripture, even though they will die not only for the sin of unbelief, but for all their other sins too, even though Christ presumably atoned for all their sins on the cross, for he “IS’ the propitiation, and not just possibly a propitiation or available to be a propitiation. Unless Christ “is” the propitiation for the believers (”us”), then this passage of scripture is no encouragement, but rather something terrifying to behold, since even with Christ the High Priest atoning with His death and advocating to the Father on the behalf of the world, many He died for and advocated for are still finding themselves in hell.
This is why Spurgeon, in this sermon, makes the correction that we can say that atonement applies only to “the comers,” but not to all of humanity, which your reading directly leads to. If not, then we must believe in an atonement and an advocacy that is not effectual, or does not wash away every sin.
Notice that this scripture begins with “my little children,” or more specifically, to the Jewish converts to Christianity. The epistle itself begins by speaking to those who had “seen” and heard and “touched” for themselves the “Word of Life,” which can only mean Jesus Christ Himself as opposed to merely the Gospel message. We can conclude from this that the audience is Jewish. To further prove the point, John is also called an Apostle to the Jews in Galatians 2:9, making it ever more likely that we must understand this epistle in the Jewish context.
Gill observes that the Jews commonly referred to the Gentiles as “the world”:
“Nothing is more common in Jewish writings than to call the Gentiles “the world”; and “the whole world”; and “the nations of the world” (l); See Gill on John 12:19; and the word “world” is so used in Scripture; see Joh_3:16; and stands opposed to a notion the Jews have of the Gentiles, that “there is no propitiation for them” (m): and it is easy to observe, that when this phrase is not used of the Gentiles, it is to be understood in a limited and restrained sense; as when they say (n), “it happened to a certain high priest, that when he went out of the sanctuary, “the whole world” went after him;’’ which could only design the people in the temple.”
So the “world” then is in reference to the Gentiles in a limited sense, specifically for all the children of God dispersed across the world, and not individually to every human being, whether they are reprobate or elect, which could make Christ the propitiation of the unrepentant and the damned in hell, all of whom would probably be surprised to hear that Christ paid the penalty for the sins they are burning for.
This is the same point (that John is speaking only of the elect across the world) that John makes in the 11th chapter of his Gospel:
Joh_11:52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Notice how close the language is as well. In 1 John 2:2, “not for ours only,” and in John 11:52 “and not for that nation only.” John, therefore, is speaking to the children of God “my little children,” and of these same children ‘scattered abroad,” refuting the Jewish idea that the Messiah came only for the Jews.
Joh_10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
To beat the point home totally, here Christ prays to those “given to Him” (the body of Christ) out of the world, and not every individual in the world:
Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
If Christ is the advocate of the entire world, there should be no distinction between those “given” and “the world” in its totality.
This same reply can also be applied to your other verse where the word “world” appears, understood in a general sense to save men from every tongue and nation, but not that He offers universal atonement even to those outside of Christianity.
“First, we must deal with scripture such as “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you read the sermon, the fact that “whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” is not something even Spurgeon denies, even when he condemns the idea of free-will. The elect believe it, and the reprobate reject it unto their condemnation. Why God does not make all the reprobate into the elect is His prerogative:
Rom 9:18-21 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. (19) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? (20) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? (21) Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
While it is impossible for mankind to “seek after God” or understand God (per Romans 3) without the quickening of the Holy Spirit, this does not mean that those who reject Christ’s offer are not guilty for it. Examine this explanation of the will by Calvin:
Important Distinctions to Understand:
The Choices of Man - Voluntary or Coerced by John Calvin
“There are four expressions regarding the will which differ from one another “namely that the will is 1) free, 2) bound, 3) self-determined, or 4) coerced. People generally understand a free will to be one which has in its power to choose good or evil …[But] There can be no such thing as a coerced will, since the two ideas are contradictory. But our responsibility as teachers is to say what it means, so that it may be understood what coercion is. Therefore we describe [as coerced] the will which does not incline this way or that of its own accord or by an internal movement of decision, but is forcibly driven by an external impulse. We say that it is self-determined when of itself it directs itself in the direction in which it is led, when it is not taken by force or dragged unwillingly. A bound will, finally, is one which because of its corruptness is held captive under the authority of its evil desires, so that it can choose nothing but evil, even if it does so of its own accord and gladly, without being driven by any external impulse.
“According to these definitions we allow that man has choice and that it is self-determined, so that if he does anything evil, it should be imputed to him and to his own voluntary choosing. We do away with coercion and force, because this contradicts the nature of the will and cannot coexist with it. We deny that choice is free, because through man’s innate wickedness it is of necessity driven to what is evil and cannot seek anything but evil. And from this it is possible to deduce what a great difference there is between necessity and coercion. For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity will in an evil way. For where there is bondage, there is necessity. But it makes a great difference whether the bondage is voluntary or coerced. We locate the necessity to sin precisely in corruption of the will, from which follows that it is self-determined.” (John Calvin, BLW pp 69, 70)
You might ask, why does Christ give a general call to all, when salvation is only secured for some? Even though election takes place in eternity, election is only the plan of God to achieve something that will occur in time. He has ordained that the elect should come to Him according to means, such as the preaching of the Word of God, through enlightenment by the Holy Spirit; and these men grow throughout their life by the sanctification of the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit in study of the scriptures. It is, in a way, a cooperation between God and man, but not in the sense that any of the elect can ever fall away if they fail to cooperate:
Php_1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Or that they came to Christ of their own flesh and blood:
Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
But rather in the sense that our Father wants us to know and understand the necessity for our election, the glory of His mercy, and the value of the gift He has given to us, though we deserved it not. The reprobate, also, are lessons for us, to show us our wretched nature, and as an illustrated lesson of the horrors of sin and the justice of God in punishing that sin.
Rom 9:22-24 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: (23) And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, (24) Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
“So, a biblical position must deal with both God’s sovereign choice and God’s making faith available to all.”
But you asserted that faith is itself the gift of God “not of ourselves,” in your quotation from Ephesians. So if faith is given to all, why do not all believe? And why is it that the Jews in John 6 are not said to have been given the gift of faith, but were rather not given it by God at all to begin with?
” It would be a good faith effort on the part of a believer to account for all scripture and not just some scripture or even most scripture.”
It is not enough merely to quote random scriptures and then tell us that you are “accounting for them all” in good faith. To account for them is to do as I have done, which is to explain how the scripture does not actually contradict itself, but gives one coherent message. Your responses do not “account for the scripture,” it merely asserts that they contradict each other, and that you do not know how they fit together.
Sorry X. I think we have to go back farther than that. We must deal with the following scriptures:
Psa_58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.