Letters    

Answer to Charles Finney (Con't.) 

16. If the atonement was not made for all men, they cannot heartily and honestly press its acceptance upon any individual ...for they cannot assure any individual there is any atonement for them.

      First, there is atonement for all who come to Him seeking forgiveness for their sins. Jesus told the religious leaders in His day, "He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF GOD" (John 8:47). Second, we preach the gospel to all. Those who respond are the elect only—but whether they respond or not, we are successful, Paul affirmed, because we are not as many who pervert the gospel. Third, as for pressing the gospel upon people, why do you think we sacrifice to publish the gospel in the newspaper, and have mailed The Angelus many times when we used grocery money? Do you know of a more outspoken preacher or church in our city?

      (At this point, the writer returned to two propositions Finney had placed earlier in his discussion.)

2. (Finney's charge that those who assert limited atonement) "quote those passages that prove that Christ died for the elect and then take it for granted He died for none else"—is false, and needs no defense, However, for your sake, let me say first, that when Finney says Jesus tasted death for every man, he failed to learn that the passage in Hebrews was addressed to believers only (Hebrews 2:9; see: vs. 10,11).

     Second, as surely as God is in Heaven, Finney's charge belongs on his own foot. Third, Matthew tells us, the angel told Joseph the babe was to be named "Jesus" (i.e. "Jehovah saves") "BECAUSE HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS" (Matthew 1:21). This is the reason for His name. And last, Finney's argument that the atonement was not the literal payment of a debt is heresy. Why do you think the sacrifice of Christ is said to be our "redemption?" Why do you think Jesus is called our "Redeemer?" And, why is the life He gave said to be our "Ransom?"

10. The atonement itself does not secure the salvation of anyone, but the promise and oath of God that Christ shall have a seed to serve Him does.

      Why, then, does the Apostle Paul say, "In him we have redemption through his BLOOD, even the forgiveness of sins" (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14)? I thought you believed what you have often sung, "I am saved by the blood of the crucified one." And, again, "There is a Fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains." What are we to do? Are the songs of the blood false and Finney right?

        Second, in what is the "promise and oath of God" rooted if not in the atonement? Are they rooted in our works?

      Third, in one sense Finney's statement is true: the atonement by itself does not save, but is an essential part of the "ordo salutis", or, the "order of salvation" (Romans 8:28-30).

      In closing, let me direct your attention to two passages. The first is Romans chapter 8:28-30. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. For whom he did foreknow"—i.e. to "know" intimately beforehand, even as Adam "knew" his wife Eve; so the wanderings and goings astray by Israel are called her whoredoms, because God had married her. The word "foreknew" does not denote a simple knowledge ahead of time, but speaks of a personal knowledge.

     God told Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (1:5). And, again in Jeremiah 31:3, we read, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

     But to return to Romans 8:29. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." The word "predestinate" means to destinate ahead of time; but it, too, speaks of a personal destinating.

      "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (30). Can you not see the security here? How can a person get anything other than particular redemption out of this? The words "whom he" and "them he" show a continuity that stretches from eternity past and is consummated in eternity future.

     D., ...I must close. May God be pleased to testify of His truth to your soul, and no longer allow you to flounder upon the wide ocean of uncertainties.

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