- Chapter Thirteen -
SALVATION OFFERED TO ALL by Dave Hunt
Christ commands, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Calvinism voids that mandate by teaching that the nonelect cannot believe the gospel and that the elect are regenerated without it. That belief entangles Calvinists in a web of contradictions. Either the gospel is not "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Romans 1:16), or Calvinism's "regeneration" leaves one still unsaved until faith is received to believe the gospel. Both alternatives contradict Scripture and render the gospel superfluous. If God sovereignly regenerates totally depraved sinners without any faith in Christ on their part, the gospel is not needed. Spurgeon complained: If I am to preach faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man, being regenerated, is saved already, and it is an unnecessary and ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him."' We have already shown that salvation, as many Scriptures declare (e.g., John 3:15, 16, 36; 5:24; 6:40, 47), comes only through believing the gospel. Therefore, Satan attempts to take the Word from the hearts of those who hear it "lest they should believe and be saved" (Luke 8:12). The Calvinist has to admit that Hebrews 10:39 refers to the elect: "We...believe to the saving of the soul." Clearly, faith must precede salvation. Yet Calvinism rejects this cardinal truth. Unquestionably, salvation and regeneration are inseparable, as Spurgeon said, "saved already, being regenerate."2 John writes, "that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31). How can the spiritually dead receive life except by regeneration? Yet Calvinism insists that regeneration precedes faith, causing the gospel to be preached to those already regenerated, a proposition Spurgeon rejected as "absurd, indeed!"3 As a Calvinist, however, he affirmed basically the same error: that only the elect could be saved because Christ had died for them alone. All of the apostles' hearers surely understood that the good news of salvation was offered to every one of them: "We declare unto you [all] glad tidings." (Acts 13:32). But if Calvinism is true, how could the gospel be "glad tidings" to anyone who didn't know that he was one of the elect? And if faith doesn't come until after regeneration, what is the purpose of preaching the
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