And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
I have never been a big fan of Dave Hunt; even in areas I would fundamentally agree with him, such as rejecting Roman Catholicism and her unique dogmas, Hunt often did a lousy job (his 1994 book, A Woman Rides the Beast is a classic example of how not to argue against Catholicism). Today I read his volume on Calvinism. While a lot of it was okay at times, to be fair, he did a good job on 1 John 2:2 and how the Calvinist “responses” such of those of John Piper and James White are eisegesis-driven stretches:
To acknowledge what this passage is clearly saying would be the end of Calvinism. How can that conclusion be avoided? Simply by once again adopting the Calvinists’ special meaning for “world.” Piper writes, “The ‘whole world’ refers to the children of God scattered throughout the whole world” . . . Piper following John Owen’s argument, reasons that if Christ is really the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, then unbelief would not keep anyone out of heaven because unbelief, being a sin, would have been propitiated as well. In fact, rejection of Christ “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9), in spite of the conviction of all by the Holy Spirit of “sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8-11), as we have already noted, is the “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost . . . [which] shall not be forgiven . . . neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:31-32).
Every Christian, by very definition, has been saved through faith in Christ, and His blood is the propitiation for their sins. This act is so elementary and essential that one could hardly be a Christian without knowing it. It is therefore absurd to suggest that John is revealing something of importance by declaring that the blood of Christ avails not only for the people alive in his day but for all Christians in all ages. If this is what the Holy Spirit through John intended, why wasn’t it stated clearly? Would the Holy Spirit use “world” to convey the meaning “all Christians in all times everywhere”? Hardly.
To Whom Did John Write?
Other Calvinists reason that “John would have been writing to a Jewish audience who had long believed that God was only the God of Israel. And so they needed to be taught and reminded that Christ died not only for the lost sheep of Israel but also for his lost sheep in all the world . . . thus, the ‘whole world’ is his lost sheep o Israel plus his lost sheep from among the other nations.” Surely no one would even imagine such a far-fetched idea, had Calvinism not been invented and an explanation required for “world” that would salvage the theory.
Neither the word “Jew” nor “Gentile” appears in 1 John. There is nothing in the entire epistle to suggest that John is addressing only Jewish believers. This is another desperate effort to rescue an unbiblical theory. John tells us quite clearly to whom he is speaking: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God . . . “ (1 John 5:13). That includes all Christians then and now.
Furthermore, not only is John writing to all believers in Christ, he is doing so many years after the Jerusalem counsel of Acts 15, where the whole issue of salvation for Gentiles without their keeping the law of Moses had been settled. Paul’s letter to the Galatian believers, which dealt with this issue in depth, had long been in circulation. John doesn’t deal with this long-settled topic at all.
Who would have been imagined, without the necessity to support a special theory, that John was writing only to either the Christians of his day or to a Jewish audience? Furthermore, if John were not writing to all Christians throughout the ages have read his gospel and epistles with that understanding.
When John writes, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar . . . he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother , is in darkness . . . ye have an unction from the Holy One . . . the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you . . . “ (1 John 2:4, 9, 20, 27), etc. throughout his epistle, surely what he says is for all believers in Christ in every age. When he writes, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world . . . “ (1 John 2:15) was that only for Christians in that day but not for us today? Obviously not.
What About The Meaning of “The Whole World”?
White quotes the song of the redeemed in Revelation 5:9-10. Because it says that Christ has redeemed by His blood men “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” White reasons, “We suggest that this passage, then, sheds significant light upon 1 John 2:2, for it is obvious that the passage in Revelation is not saying that Christ purchased every man from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Yet, obviously, this is a parallel concept to ‘the world’ in 1 John 2:2.” He then quotes the High Priest Caiaphas (John 11:49-52) that it is expedient “that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” Surely Caiaphas really meant the whole nation, so what is the point?
Sadly, this is one more example of how Calvinists have to reach: to suggest that a future song in heaven and a statement by Caiaphas about the nation of Israel prove that “world” in 1 John 2:2 really means “all Christians throughout the world . . .”! The song in heaven is by the redeemed, those who make up the “our” in 1 John 2:2. They are redeemed “from” or “out of” every tribe and tongue and people and nation. In fact, White is helping us to see a contrast: John does not say “form” or “out of” the whole world; he clearly says “the whole world.”
Why must White go so far afield? Within this very epistle there are plenty of better comparisons that define “world” for us. In 1 John 3:1 we have the phrase, “ . . . the world knoweth us not.” Surely “us” refers to the redeemed and “world” is in contrast to them and cannot possibly mean some other group of Christians. In 1 John 3:13 we find, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” Again we have the same contrast between the redeemed and the unsaved who hate them, making the meaning of “world” quite clear. In 1 John 4:5-6 we find, “They are of the world . . . we are of God.” The distinction between the unsaved world and those who are saved—which is maintained consistently throughout the entire epistle—could not be clearer. Again 1 John 5:19 declares, “We are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
To be consistent with his handling of 1 John 2:2, White must believe that “all Christians throughout the world, Jew and Gentile, at all times and in all places” hate the believers to whom John was writing and lie in wickedness. In fact, nowhere in the entire episode does “world” mean what he tries to turn it into in 1 John 2:2! (Dave Hunt, What Love is This? Calvinism’s Misinterpretation of God [Sisters, Oreg.: Loyal Publishing, 2002], 256-58, emphasis in original)
Elsewhere, Hunt notes the following which really captures the problematic nature of Calvinism:
Calvinism, if it were true, would be great news to Satan. He wouldn’t need to deceive the lost to prevent them from believing the gospel because God himself would already have consigned them to hell. As for the elect, because of irresistible Grace, Satan would be wasting his time trying to blind or harden them. There would be no point in trying to blind anyone.
If by withholding irresistible grace God were already doing a better job of damning souls than Satan ever could and man had no choice in the matter, that the enemy of souls could go on a long vacation. (Ibid., 366)
For more, see, for example:
