[See Part 1.]

Dr. Allen’s second argument against Limited atonement in relation to Hebrews 2:9 attempts to set the verse in the broader context of the soteriology presented by the author of Hebrews. Dr. Allen explains:

What precedes the issue of the extent of the atonement is… ‘why the Incarnation?’ … The… point of the author of Hebrews is that what Man messed up because of sin, Jesus, as the final Adam, is going to fix it up by virtue of His death on the Cross, His resurrection, and His ascension, and His reigning in heaven for all eternity, and therefore, He will fulfill what mankind could never fulfill in Psalm 8. And He did that, and a part of His doing that, and a part of His exaltation, and His kingship is not just that He is Lord by virtue of His deity (though that is true), it is (according to Hebrews) He is Lord by virtue of the fact that He died for all people, He rose again, He ascended to heaven, and as the perfect Man and the fulfillment of Adam– what Adam was, Christ has regained for all of humanity, and the key to it was his death on the Cross to make it happen. Does that mean everybody’s going to be saved? No! But it does mean that the Bible teaches Jesus died for all people. (more…)

[Continued from the post Limited Atonement in Historical Theology.]

In arguing against Limited atonement from Hebrews 2:9, Dr. Allen actually spends the majority of his time discussing issues of Historical Theology (i.e., as mentioned before, he asserts, “Virtually every Christian from the early church until the Reformation believed in an unlimited atonement;” he also spends a great deal of time proving that John Calvin believed in universal atonement) and offering rhetoric against Limited atonement.

Dr. Allen makes two arguments from the text itself; I intend to discuss the first of his arguments in this post and the second in a post next weekend. (more…)

In response to the post “Death by Degrees?” a commenter named Brad posed the following objections:

Does this really matter?

Can’t we all agree that so much of the world needs help, and the only way to help anyone is with the love of Jesus?

Does it really matter how depraved we think the world is, as long as we agree that without Jesus they need our love?

This debate — what a fantastic way to waste 5 hours of some probably intelligent people’s time, as well as the time of however many people might listen.

Think of the value of that time. Think of the things that God could do through us during that time to bring his reality to others rather than deciding who’s more right about this or that.

I guess I don’t understand how this is vital to anything, or even important — meaningless talk and debate.

-Brad

Initially, my thought when reading the above comment was to wonder why, given his low view of this conversation, Brad would want to waste precious moments of his life even addressing such a useless issue. But then I realized that the points he raised are serious and are probably common.

So, what does it matter if people living after Genesis 3 are Totally depraved by nature? Why should we be willing to debate this issue? (more…)