[God] desires all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:4 NASB)
The Lord is not slow
about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Pet 3:9 NASB)
In a recent book critical of Latter-day
Saint theology, Bill Grover, a Calvinist, wrote the following to defend the “L”
of TULIP (“Limited Atonement” [AKA Particular Redemption]) which shows how
Calvinists really struggle with exegesis of the relevant texts, instead, opting
to make God, functionally, a liar:
So, it must be admitted
that there are possibly biblical justification to question the position that
salvation is entirely due to God ordaining one to life. But noting that such
texts as these exist should not obscure one’s interaction with other Scriptures
which seem, in contrast, to suggest that God has predestined events.
Furthermore, one might observe that while 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4 do
indeed reference the divine will, they do not say the atonement is universal.
(Bill Grover, 9 More Reasons to Reject Mormonism [Rapid City, S. Dak.:
New Harbor Press, 2021], 53, emphasis in bold added)
Grover ends this particular chapter of the
book with the following:
One can, of course,
assemble argues against predestination as saying that it makes God the author
of sin or cancels the need for evangelical endeavors or that it makes God a
respecter of persons. Of course, we should not judge the LORD! (Ibid., 58)
I agree with Grover we should not judge God.
However, we should judge his blasphemous, Satanical theology that makes God a
deceiver and liar, and, ultimately, makes him the author of sin.
For more against Reformed theology, see:
Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed Theology
