No, I do not believe in universalism. Everyone is an ungodly sinner, but only some of those ungodly sinners will be saved by God’s grace. You would even have to admit that's true if it depends on their own free will.
To quote you "Yes, Christ died for ungodly sinners. That is descriptive of the elect whom He has redeemed from out of the world." Since we were all ungodly sinners prior to our salvation and as you said Christ died from those ungodly sinners and you have said He only died for the elect then that leads to universalism.
Those ungodly sinners that freely trust in God will be saved but just as we see in scripture. But your view does not agree with scripture does it.
God does only save those who believe in Him. That’s not even in dispute. What is in dispute is that not everyone will be saved, and the reason is because God doesn’t grant the ability to believe to every individual person. It’s only for the elect.
Where do you get that silly idea from "God doesn’t grant the ability to believe to every individual person. It’s only for the elect." That is just another of the false teachings that we see from calvinism.
You keep coming up with calvinism rather than bible views. From your posts it is clear that you do not understand or accept the word of God.
You cited the right verse to answer your own question but did not make the proper application. The target of those who Christ died for is us, the elect, not all of humanity. They are ungodly sinners before they are justified at the appointed time. They continue to be sinners, but now they know God.
The proper application of a verse is what the verse says not what your calvinist teachers tell you it means. As long as you follow their false teachings you will never understand the word of God.
Heb 2:9 but we do see Jesus, .... so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
1Jn 2:2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, ... but also for the sins of the whole world.
Rom 5:6 ... Christ died for the ungodly.
1Ti 2:6 who gave himself a ransom for all...
Now you will have to do your calvinist dance to avoid the obvious meaning of these verses.
If you really wanted God to be just, He wouldn't bother to show mercy to anyone at all because we are all deserving of His wrath.
God is just and because He is just He judges people for their sins. Those that have freely trusted in Him have had their sins covered so God can show mercy those that have rejected Him will stand condemned by their sins.
Just as it says here:
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As the verse shows those that reject God will be condemned those that have freely trusted in Him will be saved.
Do you not believe the verses I posted?
Rom 3:28 For we maintain that
a man is justified by faith...
Joh 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you,
he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me,
has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Obviously they aren't mentioned in those verses because Paul chose not to get into every specific detail of salvation. He did in other places, such as the verse I cited before.
When does the Holy Spirit renew a person
@Tea? Paul was good enough to tell us in clear text.
Eph 1:13 In Him, you also,
after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Rom 10:9 that
if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved;
Eph_4:30 Do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God,
by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Thank you for admitting that humans have a limited free will. As R.C. Sproul once said, when our will runs up against God's, we lose. By that definition, human free will is NOT free in a libertarian sense.
Of course we have limited free will why would you think otherwise? Can we flap our arms and fly or can we save ourselves? God have given man the free will with which to make real choices up to and including the most important one. Will he choose to trust in God or reject God.
Free will is the capacity for agents to choose between different possible courses of action (aka choosing “otherwise”). This does not require the person to be able to choose anything, nor does it require the absence of other influencing factors such as creation, conviction of sin, the gospel message, etc. It only requires the ability for a person confronted with a decision to be able to choose from among one or more possible options. This perspective asserts that agents can act freely and are morally responsible for their actions, as they have the power to choose among different possibilities.
If you do not agree with this definition of free will then you do not understand what free will is.
What Sproul is speaking in regard to calvinist determinism not biblical God given free will.
Yes, I confess my sins that I know Christ has already paid for.
Good to hear.
I challenge you to provide just one verse that tells us belief precedes being born again.
Rom 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Eph 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Act 16:30 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
Act 16:31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Of course faith in Christ is required for salvation. How else can God credit a person's faith as righteousness without having our sin imputed to Christ and His righteousness to us? That's what propitiation is all about.
I notice that you jump to these conclusions about what Calvinists believe when it's really not what they believe at all.
I did a search of all the bibles I have on my system and did not find a single verse that says our sin was imputed to Christ. Could you point that one out for me.
What I did find was that righteousness was imputed to believers and we were considered blessed by that
“A cardinal point of Reformed theology is the maxim: ‘Regeneration precedes faith.’ [R.C. Sproul Chosen By God, pp.72-73].
“A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved”. [L. Boettner The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Page 75]
How many times have we seen or heard calvinists say this, “Faith is a gift." Thus, election is unconditional because man cannot have it unless God gives it.
And then they will point to Eph 2:8-9 as a proof text.
God will find a way to bring the Gospel message to His elect. Hearing the word is the way by which the elect respond to the light.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
You keep making the same logical error. God has reached out to all humanity not just your "special" group. My question for you is how do you know you are in that group. Even your faith is not your own.
No one is elect until they are in Christ the "Elect One".
Of course the cross is foolish to those that are perishing if they did not think that then they would have trusted in God.
God will find a way to reach those that seek Him.
