John Kennedy (Man's Relations to God, 95-96):
There is in every soul, in whom conscience is active, a feeling of insecurity. There is, in every mind, containing any acquaintance with gospel truth, the idea that an interest in Christ’s death is essential to safety. There is in every unrenewed heart a desire to avoid the necessity of dealing with a personal Saviour, and to attain to hope, through the gospel, without being “born again.” The figment of a universal atonement has been produced to meet this craving. It is just the gospel perverted to suit the taste of proud carnal man. “Christ died for all, and therefore for me; I believe this, and therefore I shall be saved,” are the stages of an easy journey to the hope of peace. But there is a triple error here – the personal reference is separated from the gracious design of the death of Christ; the death is dissociated from the person of Christ; and the work of the Holy Ghost is ignored.
There is in every soul, in whom conscience is active, a feeling of insecurity. There is, in every mind, containing any acquaintance with gospel truth, the idea that an interest in Christ’s death is essential to safety. There is in every unrenewed heart a desire to avoid the necessity of dealing with a personal Saviour, and to attain to hope, through the gospel, without being “born again.” The figment of a universal atonement has been produced to meet this craving. It is just the gospel perverted to suit the taste of proud carnal man. “Christ died for all, and therefore for me; I believe this, and therefore I shall be saved,” are the stages of an easy journey to the hope of peace. But there is a triple error here – the personal reference is separated from the gracious design of the death of Christ; the death is dissociated from the person of Christ; and the work of the Holy Ghost is ignored.