John Owen, Calvinism, and False Dilemmas

One of the main Reformed arguments for the assurance killing doctrine of limited atonement is the trilemma proposed by John Owen. Owen posits three potential situations.

1. Christ died for all the sins of all men.
2. Christ died for all the sins of some men.
3. Christ died for some of the sins of all men.

OK, so far so good. A Lutheran can concur that one of those three options is the correct answer. I also think that we can safely dismiss the third option, since nobody within Christianity really believes that Christ only died for some sins of all men. Owen then continues with a simple argument: Is unbelief a sin? Essentially Owen ends up arguing that #1 leads to universalism and therefore #2 is the only viable option. Philosophically this is the argument he is making.

The problem here is that Owen's trilemma is not mutally exclusive. In other words, there are other options. Sure, if you're stuck in philosophy-land the trilemma is fairly tight.

Owen's issue is that it fails to separate atonement from reception of the same. He argues that all of those for whom Christ died will receive the atonement, of course. But once again, this slops both the atonement and the reception into one thing. Not only that, but it also slops them together in option #1 as well as the already dismissed option #3. Although perhaps option #3 is what many Calvinists would claim Arminianism holds to, it's not true.

The point is, we can have option #1 be true and still not end up with universalism. The Calvinist will then respond that it makes Jesus a weak Savior who didn't really save anyone. But that's nonsense too. It's a grasping at philosophical straws in this case.

In Lutheranism we can answer this charge with the delivery in real-time of that perfect atonement via Word and Sacrament, which is for everyone universally, but will not be received in faith by everyone universally. Of course, the Calvinist responds that the atonement purchased faith for the elect. But where does Scripture speak in this manner? Ultimately, Owen's trilemma is nothing more than a philosophical argument, not one based on the Holy Scriptures. It provides us with a few problems, so to speak.

First, it inherently rejects the efficacy of the Sacraments. Why can't Calvinists affirm baptismal regeneration? Because they see all sorts of baptized people walking around who are atheists and unbelievers now. They're right about that. Not only that, but they simply cannot affirm the very plain baptism texts in the New Testament at face value because the plain and clear reading of them violates not only the L in the TULIP but also the P. In other words, if someone was baptized as an infant and truly saved but later falls away and rejects Christ and dies in unbelief, the Calvinist is forced to say that Christ did not die for them and that they were never saved in the first place. Since the baptism passages make a mess out of the sacred TULIP, the plain and clear readings of these are rejected. The same goes for the universality of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Back to the atonement. Based on Owen's argumentation, the atonement itself must be the actual creator of faith in person's, since Christ bought that faith at Calvary, as opposed to the means of grace being the worker of faith, as Scripture states. Without getting into universal objective justification we'll just leave it here.

In short, Owen ties up the actual atonement with the reception of the atonement in real-time via grace alone. In Scripture we have Christ dying for the entire world universally. He died and rose for every sin ever committed. For believers and unbelievers alike. But not all are saved. Why?

It's not because Christ did not die for them. 1 Corinthians 15 even says that the Gospel that St. Paul preached to people (not only people already saved) was that Christ died and rose for their sins. Yet, that atonement must actually be received via the Gospel; even Calvinists teach that. In fact, only the most extreme Hyper Calvinists do not teach that.

So what condemns a person? Rejection of Christ. The Scriptures teach this. A person who rejects Christ is still in their sins. They remain children of wrath, just as we also were (Eph 2:1-3, ff). This raises another question for the Calvinists. If the atonement and the reception are conflated into one as Owen does, why are the elect under the wrath of God at any point in time? They can't have it both ways and simultaneously hold to Owen's trilemma.

At the end of the day, Owen's trilemma just doesn't hold up to Scripture. The Holy Scriptures simply do not speak in the manner that Owen does and that of all things should raise a red flag for any Christian.

+Pax+