SuperHyperCalvinisticexpyaladoh! Part 1, and Stuff.

No Christ for you! Heathen!

I came across some Don Fortner stuff. If you don't know who Don Fortner is, he is a Calvinistic Baptist machine gun of a pastor. I came across a sermon by Pr. Fortner entitled "If Christ Died For All." In it, he proceeds to fire off 14 "blasphemies" of universal atonement. But before we go any further, I have to add a disclaimer.

***Don Fortner is not normative of Reformed Theology. The majority of our Reformed brethren reject his teaching to an extent. Pr. Fortner is a very high, or even hyper, Calvinist.***


So, from the outset it is only fair to point out that I am not going after the classically Reformed here. Not even close. The teaching I am going after here is something other than Calvinism, to be sure. So here we go.

I also write this as someone who used to lean in this direction a bit. So, although I'm certainly not the authority on hyper Calvinism, I am familiar with the argumentation employed by Calvinists in this regard and hope to be a help to Confessional Lutherans who may not be aware of Calvinistic thought and theology.

The doctrine of universal atonement is blasphemous because:

1. The teaching that Christ died to save all men makes man his own savior.

This is a common argument that comes from the higher Calvinistic circles. The problem with this argument is that it never gets out of its own faith tradition. That is to say, many Calvinists assume that there really are only two branches of theology that everything boils down to: Calvinism and Arminianism. And when they talk about Arminianism, they generally mean Semi-Pelagianism or Pelagianism.



It's John Owen, yo!

In short, the Calvinist usually applies Owen's trilemma here. Basically, Owen postulates that Christ either died for some of the sins of all people (Who teaches that?), all of the sins of all people (Classic Christian atonement), or all of the sins of some people (Definite Atonement).

So lurking beneath the surface here is this assumption that Calvinist John Owen postulated and that Calvinists are quick to point out has never been logically refuted and cannot be.

However, the postulate doesn't cover all the bases, so to speak. It assumes either a Calvinistic or Arminian atonement theory.


The Calvinist assumes that if Christ death was effectual, then it must by definition save everyone universally for whom it was intended; and not only save them at Calvary, but also bring them to final glorification and the eternal state. Since we know that not everyone ends up glorified, they put two and two together, and voila, limited atonement for the elect alone.

The other option, they surmise, is that if Christ died for everyone He didn't actually save anyone at all, and you're left with a universal atonement that only makes man savable dependent on the will of man making it effectual.

So this is where Pr. Fortner gets this stuff. The whole idea of universal atonement is blasphemous rests on these presupposed Owenist assumptions.

Enter Confessional Lutheranism. We affirm both universal atonement as well as monergism. To the Calvinist, especially the high Calvinist, this seems like nothing more than a mumbo-jumbo of contradiction.

But what they fail to see is the objective monergism of Confessional Lutheranism. To them monergism means that the Spirit is completely independent of means and the Spirit just runs around randomly. They may give lip service to the means of grace, but in reality they only half affirm them. (I refer to hyper and very high Calvinism here) Want to know where they get that idea? It's based on a misinterpretation of John 3:8.

And you know, John 3:16 really says "For God so loved the world that He hates most of it..."

Christ died objectively for the whole human race collectively at Calvary. He distributes this perfect saving work temporally via His means of grace. This would be the Word of God preached, given in absolution, and given to us in water, bread, and wine in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.

It's not a potential salvation. Our's is not an Arminian atonement nor a potential one. It's an effectual one, distributed to us by means. We affirm penal substitution just as the Calvinists do. However, our monergism is objective. God delivers that salvation to us in time. It's Christ for you. Right here and right now. And this speaks volumes to the assurance of our salvation.

2. Teaching a universal atonement reduces the love of God to nothing.

This statement is really nothing more than foolish triumphalistic tripe. I'm not even completely sure where Fortner is going with this one. Perhaps he is implying that if God loves everyone equally and unconditionally, it means nothing.

That idea, if that's where he is headed, has no grounding in Scripture though.



God hates you because Christ didn't die for you. Heathen!

There certainly are a few passages in Scripture that state that God hates. Of course God hates evil. No one disputes that. The problem with this scheme is that they start with election and then read all of God's actions through election. Right at the beginning of their theology is the idea that God elected some and reprobated others; for His glory of course.

This is a mistake and a prideful one at that. Yes, Lutherans affirm election. Yes, we affirm that election is a cause of salvation. Yes, we affirm that election came before the foundation of the world. But to put election first before everything in God's mind and make God's election the primary reason as to why God carries out all His works is a form of the theology of glory. Where election should humble us, the high Calvinists go digging into God's decrees and end up making their own election the thing that drives everything that God does!

I do not mean to infer that our Calvinistic brethren are not Christ-centered, for that would be a foolish error on my part. However, in high Calvinism, election is central, the sovereignty of God is central, and God's hidden decrees rule the day. In Lutheranism, we look to the revealed Christ hanging on the tree for us and risen from the grace for us; not to decrees that are hidden to us.

Jesus Christ revealed to us is central to everything. You want to see God? Look to Christ. You want to know what God is like? Look to Christ.

There are numbers 1 and 2 on Fortner's fortnight of universal atonement blasphemies.