That is the debate. If Christ made propitiation for sins of every person without exception, then why does anyone go to hell?
Those that support “free will” will say (as I have heard some, not you, say) is that propitiation is made for all sins except rejecting Christ and the gospel. When folks use their free will to reject Christ, they will then be condemned.
The main problem with such reasoning is that scripture never says humans have “free will”, ever. If fact, scripture declares the opposite.. that every human being is enslaved to sin.
So, to reconcile the passages mentioned, I favor the “whole world” as meaning everyone without distinction (both Jew and Gentiles) instead of everyone without exception, especially since John has used the world in his gospel to mean everyone without distinction, not everyone without exception.
Peace to you
They go to hell because they have rejected the means of salvation.
Definition you need to know
Propitiation The act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person; the act of one making propitious. {in biblical theology, God} 1Jn_2:2
Propitious Disposed to be gracious or merciful; ready to forgive sins and bestow blessings; applied to God.
Webster
The words free will like "trinity" are not found in the bible but the concept is cl;early seen in scripture.
Rom 10:13 for, “
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Rom 10:9 that
if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.
Act 16:30 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?”
Act 16:31 They replied, “
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Joh 3:18
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but
whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Luk 18:13 "But
the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but
was beating his breast, saying, '
God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'
Eph 2:8 For it is
by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
What we do not see in scripture is one verse in the New Testament that contains the word atonement/propitiation which conveys the Calvinist understanding of limited atonement.
The only time you find "atonement" G2643 in the NT is in Rom_5:11 of the KJV.
In modern translations the Greek word καταλλαγή is found four times in the NT {Rom_5:11; Rom_11:15; 2Co_5:18-19} and is rendered "reconciliation" G2643 "in the NT of the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ"
Thayer
Further we see in Rom_5:18 that “
judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation” and that “
the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life”
This verse flies in the face of Calvinism and their “limited atonement view”
