InSlaveryToChrist
Puritan Board Junior
I've never come to understand the argument that, for example, Charles Spurgeon held against Universalism:
"If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in Hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. . . That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Savior died for men who were or are in Hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain." (Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, p. 172)
Doesn't the above beg the question that after we die we immediately go to heaven or hell? But how then would have some of the OT saints have ascended into heaven before Christ died for them? What does it matter when Christ actually died? Isn't the promise that as Christ was resurrected from dead, so we also shall be raised with Him? Didn't the OT saints also believe by grace through faith in Christ? So didn't the now lost have their "chance" to be saved back then? Or was salvation exclusively preached to the Jews alone until the New Testament? I'm a bit lost here... Any help would be... well, helpful.
"If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in Hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. . . That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Savior died for men who were or are in Hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain." (Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, p. 172)
Doesn't the above beg the question that after we die we immediately go to heaven or hell? But how then would have some of the OT saints have ascended into heaven before Christ died for them? What does it matter when Christ actually died? Isn't the promise that as Christ was resurrected from dead, so we also shall be raised with Him? Didn't the OT saints also believe by grace through faith in Christ? So didn't the now lost have their "chance" to be saved back then? Or was salvation exclusively preached to the Jews alone until the New Testament? I'm a bit lost here... Any help would be... well, helpful.