{"id":53,"date":"2011-10-01T04:31:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T04:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/?p=53"},"modified":"2014-08-27T21:35:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T04:35:43","slug":"the-all-without-distinction-vs-the-all-without-exception-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/the-all-without-distinction-vs-the-all-without-exception-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"The “All Without Distinction vs. Exception” Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was asked recently about the reformed explanation of the word “all”.\u00a0 Calvinists maintain that the word “all” rarely means every human being that ever lived.\u00a0 Instead they argue that it must mean all types<\/em> of people, from every tribe, tongue or nation.\u00a0 They\u00a0use this argument as a way of explaining how the God of Israel is not a bigot but instead loves people from every nation and has chosen some from each to be His particular people, His “elect”.\u00a0 Here is my initial answer to the question.\u00a0 Please add your thoughts…<\/p>\n

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The “without distinction\/without exception” argument was something I was steeped in. \u00a0As a member of a Reformed church this was the language to explain away all those sweeping promises that used the word all<\/em>.\u00a0 First I would say that in the grand scheme of things (the overall Story of God, His nature, His purpose and plan) it just doesn’t hold up. \u00a0However, I believe that initially\u00a0there IS an exclusive election, first being the Israelites then moving to a chosen people among the nations. But the question is, what are these individuals without distinction elected FOR?<\/em>\u00a0 God has always made it clear that it was to bless the rest of the world.\u00a0(Gen.12:1-2) \u00a0What is the nature of a priest?\u00a0 If there are called and chosen priests from out of every tribe, tongue and nation, who are they to be priests FOR? Why are believers called the firstfruits?\u00a0 Why are we called “the Church of the Firstborn?”<\/p>\n

As always, the truth seems to be something we must have eyes in order\u00a0to see.\u00a0 If we are looking for exclusiveness we will find it (just as the Jews did).\u00a0 If we are looking for God’s mercy and grace to be more than we ever asked, hoped or imagined we will see it.\u00a0 It’s always been that way.\u00a0 It has been the trajectory of God’s Story.\u00a0 Think of Jonah, the Jews, the older brother etc.,\u00a0 They all were astonished that God’s grace was bigger<\/em> not smaller than they had first perceived.\u00a0 Also we see through the Story that it has indeed been getting ever wider, and man has always had to adjust.\u00a0 Stark evidence that we are not tracking with God’s ever inclusive gospel is our use of Isaiah 55.\u00a0 Every arguer against\u00a0Ultimate Restoration\u00a0uses Isaiah 55 to defend the fact that “our ways are not God’s ways…we wouldn’t send most to hell, but He would. \u00a0But we must understand that God’s thoughts are just so much higher than ours.”\u00a0\u00a0But this entire chapter is about the\u00a0MERCY<\/em> and free grace of God trumping our expectations, not a defense of eternal torment!<\/p>\n

Chan in his Erasing Hell<\/em>\u00a0uses the “all without distinction” argument to try and harmonize the Calvinistic tension and make it palatable.\u00a0 However, it just falls flat and\u00a0extremely short\u00a0as an explanation and is seen as just a\u00a0way to attempt to prop up this limited gospel taught and promoted by the Reformed camp. \u00a0 Chan is a Calvinist\u00a0who crafts his words to make exclusive election sound like good news.\u00a0 But if it doesn’t sound like, feel like, smell like, or taste like good news, it just isn’t. \u00a0(Otherwise it would indicate God has an entirely different meaning for the word “gospel” than we have been led to believe by it’s normative definition.)<\/p>\n

Also I would add to the point Chan makes in defense of God choosing some out of each ethnic group\u00a0making Him\u00a0therefore not a “bigot” the following:\u00a0 What would you make of a person who said they loved a few Jews, a few Russians, a\u00a0few Scandinavians\u00a0etc., but rejected the majority of them?\u00a0 Would you be impressed with their graciousness\u00a0and clear them of bigotry\u00a0since they accepted\u00a0a few<\/em>\u00a00ut of each group? \u00a0Even yet, what if when they were in trouble they made a distinction and passed over most and helped only a few? (and when they had the means and power\u00a0to help all?) \u00a0Does this sound “good” to you?<\/p>\n

Paul says that the mark of a false teacher is their ability to take something really good and make it sound bad and conversely to take something really bad and make it sound good. Paul actually had to address people who had been brainwashed into thinking eating good food and marital sex was bad! \u00a0(1 Tim 4:1-5)<\/p>\n

Finally the\u00a0Story of God reveals\u00a0that you can’t read all the all’s the same because they represent differing time frames as the purpose of God is worked out through a series of ages. \u00a0I Corinthians 15 refers to an order<\/em> within the restoration and resurrection of all creation. \u00a0We are called the “firstfruits” implying more to come.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is a context for “all without distinction” but as it refers to us, the elect, we must understand\u00a0that we\u00a0have been chosen\u00a0to love and proclaim the news of reconciliation to the “all without exception”.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Therefore we contend that the special calling of the “all without distinction”\u00a0does not nullify the fact that “all without exception” will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!<\/p>\n

For an in depth study of Paul’s use of “all” see pdf of chapter 5 of Thomas Talbott’s The Inescapable Love of God.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked recently about the reformed explanation of the word “all”.\u00a0 Calvinists maintain that the word “all” rarely means every human being that ever lived.\u00a0 Instead they argue that…<\/p>\n

Read MoreThe “All Without Distinction vs. Exception” Argument<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,100,97],"tags":[5,4],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelical-universalism","category-universalism-and-arminianism","category-universalism-and-calvinism","tag-calvinists","tag-francis-chan","excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}