could someone help to quote this article for me?

[cupotea]

Here in China I'm not able to access this article:

for the sins of the whole world by Phil Johnson
http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/2005/06/for-sins-of-whole-world.html

Could someone post this article here on PB? Thanks.

 

[Puddleglum]

Okay; I'll try to copy & paste it here. (If it would be easier; U2U me your e-mail address, and I'll e-mail you a copy).


A friend who struggles with Calvinism writes:

Calvinists never seem to face 1 John 2:2 head on. It says, "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Calvinists always dismiss the plain meaning of the verse, saying that "whole world" can't possibly mean the whole world, because if it did, it would include trees and mountains and rivers and slugs and termites and other stuff.


Here's what a thoughtful Calvinist might say about 1 John 2:2, without resorting to the "slugs and termites" argument:

The apostle is writing to a primarily Jewish audience. He reminds them that Christ "is the propitiation for our sins; and not for [us Hebrews] only, but also for [the sins of Gentiles from every tongue and nation throughout] the whole world."

Notice, the phrasing of John 2:2 is an exact parallel of John 11:51-52: "He prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad."

Consider:



There is little doubt that this is how John's initial audience would have understood this expression. "The whole world" means "people of all kinds, including Jews, Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, and whatnot""”as opposed to "ours only""”i.e., the Jewish nation.

What the apostle John is saying in the John 11 passage is particularly significant: Christ died so that he might gather "the Children of God""”the elect"”from the whole world. That is a very clear and explicit statement of so-called "limited atonement."

Understood in its Johannine context, then, a Calvinistic interpretation of 1 John 2:2 seems unavoidable. As one classic work on the atonement says,

The words plainly allude to the atonement as offered and applied"”that is, to the actual expiation, which does not go beyond the number of believing recipients. It is a perversion of the language when this is made to teach the dogma of universal propitiation; or that atonement was equally offered for all, whether they receive it or not, whether they acknowledge its adaptation to their case or not. The passage does not teach that Christ's propitiation has removed the divine anger in such a sense from all and every man. Nothing betokens that the apostle had others in his eye than believers out of every tribe and nation.
(George Smeaton, The Apostles' Doctrine of the Atonement, 460).

 

[Puddleglum]

Oh, in that big gap right after "consider", there's meant to be a chart that looks sort-of like this:

John 11:51-52 1 John 2:2
he prophesied that and
Jesus He Himself
would die for is the propitiation for
the nation our sins
and not for the nation only and not for ours only
but also but also
that he would gather together for
in one
the children of God scattered the whole world
abroad

 

[Puddleglum]

Argh . . . that chart didn't work - I don't know how to do a table without using Word or Excel, so I tried to use a couple hundred (well, maybe only a hundred) spaces, but they didn't come through.
Can any of the more computer-literate people out there help (please)?

 

[cupotea]

Thank you Jessica! I sent you a U2U. please check.

 

[Puddleglum]

Got the U2U & sent the e-mail. Let me know if it doesn't work.

 

[cupotea]

Well received,thank you again Jessica.

 

[turmeric]

John 11:51-52
he prophesied that Jesus
would die for the nation
and not for the nation only
but also that he would
gather together in one
the children of God scattered
abroad



1 John 2:2
and He Himself
is the propitiation for
our sins
and not for ours only
but also
fo the whole world




I tried to fix it by quoting & fooling around with the spaces, but it looks like a chart in quote mode. Hmm...


Here's my best guess. Make each verse into a URL and post both of them as attachments.




[Edited on 10-8-2005 by turmeric]

 

[Poimen]

[Edited on 10-8-2005 by poimen]

 

[Poimen]

If you want to copy an image from the internet, simply right click on the image and press 'copy image location.' Then come to the Puritanboard, make your post by pressing ctrl + v in the post box and then make sure you wrap the url title in the following:

[Edited on 10-8-2005 by poimen]