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Sacred Theology and the Reading of the Divine Word M A PPI NG T H E DOCT R I N E OF DEF I N I T E ATON E M E N T David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson It is very common for persons, when they find a subject much disputed, especially if it is by those whom they account good men, immediately to conclude that it must be a subject of but little consequence, a mere matter of speculation. Upon such persons religious controversies have a very ill effect: for, finding difficulty attending the coming at the truth, and, at the same time, a disposition to neglect it, and to pursue other things; they readily avail themselves of what appears, to them, a plausible excuse, lay aside the inquiry, and sit down and indulge a spirit of scepticism. . . . But, if all disputed subjects are to be reckoned matters of mere speculation, we shall have nothing of any real use left in religion.1
Introduction The doctrine of definite atonement states that, in the death of Jesus Christ, the triune God intended to achieve the redemption of every person given to the Son by the Father in eternity past, and to apply the accomplishments of his sacrifice to each of them by the Spirit. The death of Christ was intended to win the salvation of God’s people alone. Fuller, Reply to the Observations of Philanthropos, in The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1848), 233b. “Philanthropos” was the pseudonym of Daniel Taylor, a General Baptist theologian, with whom Fuller dialogued over the nature of Christ’s atonement. We are grateful to Henri Blocher for this reference. 1 Andrew