The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ

Precious Blood Of Jesus Christ

The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ

Many people simply love to talk about the precious blood of Jesus Christ without realizing that the self-same words and expressions they use in their piously contrived discussions, may just be the very thing God is going to use against them when He righteously judges and condemns them on the final Day of Judgment.

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Mat 12:35-37; KJV)

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. (Amplified Bible)

Being mindful, with fearful and reverent awe. of God’s word: ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’ (Matthew 7:1) but at the same with equally fearful and reverent awe of his command: ‘Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Corinthians 5:12), I ask you, the reader, to discern whether the person whose article I am about to critique and all those who support him in his madness, are ripe for condemnation or not.

THE ULTIMATE ARMINIAN SLANDER:

THERE ARE THOSE IN HELL WHOM GOD LOVES

By Rand Winburn

Here is a summary of Rand Winburn’s extremely offensive article. (Please take into account that he is a Calvinist who deliberately and robotically labels everyone an Arminian who is not a Calvinist and does not uphold the Doctrines of Grace (TULIP). Just for the record: I never was and never will be an Arminian and much less a Calvinist.

  1. GOD IS A FAILURE
    To believe that there are those in Hell whom God loves can only lead to one blasphemous conclusion: God has failed to save.
  2. GOD’S LOVE HAS FAILED
    The Savior failed to save those He loved. Such a Savior should be pitied, not worshiped.
  3. GOD’S WISDOM HAS FAILED
    Although all of God’s works are known by Him from the end to the beginning, Arminians would like us to agree that there was nothing the Lord could have done to change the outcome of that poor unfortunate’s eternal destiny of damnation. But that illogic speaks against the wisdom of God which is infinite, (Ps.147:5).
  4. GOD’S POWER HAS FAILED
    Although Jesus declares, ‘All power is given to me in heaven and earth’, and ‘what is impossible with man is possible with God’, Arminianism does not believe that attribute sufficient to save to the uttermost.
  5. GOD’S GRACE HAS FAILED
    If man is saved by grace, then God’s grace has failed miserably. Grace and love go hand in hand. Those whom God loves, He gives grace. Those to whom He gives grace, He saves.

The Old Testament is replete with shadows and types of Jesus Christ that have been fulfilled in the New Testament. God used them as pointers to direct and lead his people, the Israelites, to their Messiah, Jesus Christ. The most awesome types of the one and final sacrificial offering and the shedding of Jesus Christ’s blood on the cross were the Levitical sacrifices and offerings of the Sinai Covenant. Every offering represented a specific aspect of Christ’s one and final sacrifice on the cross. For instance, the Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1:3-17; 6:8-13) was a type of Jesus Christ’s complete dedication to his Father; the Sin Offering (Leviticus 4:1-5:13; Leviticus 6:17, 24-30; Leviticus 9:7-17,22-24; Leviticus 10:16-20; Leviticus 21:21-28) prefigured the fact that in his death Christ was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The purpose here is not to discuss in detail every Levitical sacrifice. Suffice is to say that every shadow and type in die Old Testament foreshadowed exactly what Christ fulfilled and accomplished on the cross. Therefore, we cannot and may not add or take away from Christ’s one and final sacrifice on the cross what the Levitical sacrifices were intended to accomplish in the Old Testament. God commanded Moses to do everything exactly as He had told him to do because it had to be an exact replica of its antitype in heaven.

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. (Hebrews 8:5)

If God expected’ Moses’ to do exactly as he commanded him in all sundry matters concerning the offerings, then surely, the Son of God in whom He was/is well-pleased would never venture to do otherwise. Having said this, I shall now prove that Jesus Christ loves and shed his blood for all mankind and not only for a certain group of privileged people whom Calvinists call the elect. So let’s turn to Leviticus 17: 11 to be in awe of the magnanimous love, grace and compassion God has for all mankind.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11)

To whom did God make this magnificent promise? Moses himself who wrote the Pentateuch provides the answer in verses 1 and 2: ‘And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the LORD has commanded.’ (Leviticus 17:1-2). Calvinists cannot possibly perform their routine semantic flip-flops here and say that the word ‘all’ in these verses do not refer to all Israel but only to the elect among the Israelites, simply because God chose all Israel as his elect. The entire nation of Israel is God’s elect, even to this very day despite their wilful enmity with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As concerning the gospel, they (the Jews) are enemies for your (the Gentiles’) sakes: but as touching the election, they (the Jews) are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:28-29)

Calvinists would have had irrefutable proof that the blood on the altar was shed only for the redeemed elect in Israel if all Israel had been saved, since God Himself said that He had given the blood on the altar to make atonement for the souls of every single member of the nation of Israel. Had the blood on the altar automatically saved sinners, without them having to believe in God’s promise that it made atonement for sin, all the people of Israel would have been saved. Was every single Israelite saved? No! (Hebrews 4:2). Was the blood on the altar wasted? No! Did God fail in his love, his wisdom, his power and his grace because not all Israel was saved whilst He Himself distinctly said the blood on the altar was given as an atonement for all Israel? No!

One passage in Scripture seems to suggest that Jesus Christ failed in his mission to the earth which was to be a propitiation for the sins of all men (1 John 2:2). In the countless debates I’ve had with Calvinists on the internet, I haven’t found one who was willing (no pun intended) to give me a satisfactory answer.

Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. (Isaiah 49:4)

Jesus Christ’s primary mission which was to save the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 10:5, 6) was met with comparatively no success. The elect nation at large despised and rejected Him despite the fact that God had given the blood on the altar as an atonement for the sins of the entire nation of Israel. The question we need to ask is, what is it that constitutes success with God? How does He see success? Man himself, because of his corrupt heart, deems multitudes of people, or as Calvinists believe a house filled to capacity with elect people, to be the best barometer for success.

The Blood of Jesus Christ was not shed for the Elect only

To God success means only one thing’ – total obedience to Him. Jesus never said ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to shed my blood for the elect only and to save all of them so that I may be successful, O God. ‘ He said: ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.’ (Hebrews 10:7). It was God’s will that He shed his blood as a propitiation for the sins of the entire human race, in the very same way God had given the blood on the altar in the Old Testament as an atonement for the entire nation of Israel. Not a single Jew and Gentile was excluded. And although He knew, even before the foundation of the world, that the majority of the nation of Israel and the Gentile world would reject Him as Saviour, He went to the cross, allowed sinners to nail Him to it like a criminal, and shed his precious blood for all mankind. He did it, not because his success lay in the number of people to be saved, (the majority are going to hell in any case); He did it because He knew that his Father approved his work, and that he will grant Him the reward of His toils and His sufferings, notwithstanding his ostensible failure (Isaiah 49:4).

There is only one conclusion to be made if we were to believe the Calvinists’ view that God never loved and shed his blood for every single human being who ever lived: ‘ God lied when He told Moses that He had given the blood of the sacrificial animals on the altar to make atonement for the souls of all the people of Israel. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting in the very least that the blood of the sacrificial animals in Leviticus had any salvific value to save the souls of the Israelites. Indeed, the very fact that the offerer who brought the sacrifice had to put his hand on the animal’s head, signifying that he acknowledged its substitutionary death to be sufficient for the atonement of his sins, and in faith looked ahead in time to the one and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for his salvation, proves that it was not the blood per se that saved him but his faith in the then future shedding of Christ’s blood that accomplished the offerer’s redemption. Read again prayerfully Hebrews 4:2.

We may therefore safely say that the blood of the sacrificial animals in Leviticus made sufficient atonement for the sins of all the people of Israel but that only those who appropriated by faith the typological meaning thereof, which is Christ’s own shed blood on the cross, profited by it. One verse Calvinists cannot refute in the controversy whether Christ shed his blood for all people is 2 Peter 2:1:

‘But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.’

Calvinists would probably throw in a counter argument by saying, as John MacArthur did, that the Levitical offerings were limited to Israel. This is simply not true.

And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the LORD; even that man shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:8-11)

The blood on the altar was not only given to make atonement for the whole house of Israel but also for the strangers who lived among them. Just as the blood of Jesus Christ is for all men.

Even if the blood on the altar had only been limited to Israel, it would not provide a shred of evidence that it was not given to atone for the sins of those who are going to end up in hell. In fact, the Bible distinctly says that the children of the Kingdom (the Jews for whom the blood was given on the altar to make atonement for the sins of all the people of Israel), are going to be cast in hell.

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom (the Jews) shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 8:11-12).

Let us now look more closely to four of the five failures of which Rand Winburn accuses God if Jesus loved and shed his blood for all mankind.

2) GOD’S LOVE HAS FAILED

Despite the clear admonition by St. Paul, ‘charity never faileth’, Arminians would have us believe God’s love has failed. The Savior failed to save those He loved. Such a Savior should be pitied, not worshiped.

Can you accuse parents of failure in their love for their kids when they disobey and violate the limits their parents have set for them at home in the hope of protecting them against the unhealthy pandering with wrong friends? Many kids have gone astray and fallen into all kinds of dangerous situations and some even land up in jail because of their rebellion and disobedience. Does their behaviour annul their parents’ love for them? If the parents ceased to love their kids as a result of their rebellious waywardness, it would mean that the kids good or bad behaviour controls their parents feelings for them. The parents’ love would then have been a mechanically controlled kind of love. Good and obedient behaviour deserved love while bad and disobedient behaviour warranted hatred. True love remains immutably constant, no matter what parents’ kids do wrong. To be loving and caring the one day and filled with hatred the next is schizophrenia at its worst. The analogy is clear. It proves that true love never ceases. Indeed, the verse Rand Winburn quoted from 1 Corinthians 13:8 proves that God’s love never ceases. It is eternal as He Himself is.

The word ‘faileth’ is an unfortunate translation of the Greek word ‘ekpipto.’ It does not convey the meaning of failure, disappointment or being unsuccessful. The English Standard Version (the Bible reformed theologians prefer) renders it correctly: ‘Love never ends (ceases). As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8). To be consistent in the use of the correct meaning of the word, Mr. Winburn’s accusation ‘Arminains would have us believe God’s love has failed’ must be changed to ‘Arminians would have us believe God’s love has ceased.’ Ironically, this is precisely what non-Calvinists would have Calvinists not believe, that God’s love has ceased. God is love and He is also eternal which makes his love eternal and ceaseless.

God who is infinitely more compassionate than parents cannot, I repeat, cannot cease to love anyone, simply because He is the essence of love. And if people’s conduct was able to control God’s love so that his love fluctuated between loving someone less or not at all, He could not have revealed Himself as the essence of love. There are no degrees of lesser or more love in God’s love. He IS love.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Here again Calvinists would have to resort to their usual miraculous semantic flip-flops to prove that Christ loved and shed his blood only for the elect. Should they pursue their general inaccurate reasoning that ‘world,’ ‘all’ and ‘whosoever’ do not mean the whole world, every human being and anyone in the world, they would have to limit the word ‘us’ to the elect. However, the limiting of the ‘us’ to the elect would result in a limiting of sin to them as well. Are the elect the only ones who have sinned and come short of the glory of God? (Romans 32:23).

3) GOD’S WISDOM vHAS FAILED

Although all of God’s works are known by Him from the end to the beginning, Arminians would like us to agree that there was nothing the Lord could have done to change the outcome of that poor unfortunate’s eternal destiny of damnation. But that illogic speaks against the wisdom of God which is infinite, (Psalm.147:5).

Oddities and confusion are commonplace in Calvinism. Mr. Winburn accuses non-Calvinists of wanting him ‘to agree that there was nothing the Lord could have done to change the outcome of that poor unfortunate’s eternal destiny of damnation’ because ‘that illogic speaks against the wisdom of God which is infinite.’ But isn’t that precisely what Calvinists believe, i.e. that there was nothing the Lord could have done to change the outcome of that poor unfortunate’s eternal destiny of damnation’ because in his infinite wisdom He Himself had decreed before the foundation of the world to predestine and elect the poor unfortunates (reprobate) to an eternity in hell, simply because it pleases Him and gives him more honour and glory? John MacArthur explains it thus: ‘Why did God not choose to love everyone like that (savingly)? The reason God chose not to love everyone savingly, is because the love of God is qualified and controlled by his glory, by his glory.’

This immediately prompts one to ask whether God would do anything to diminish, devalue or cheapen his glory? To arrive at an answer we need to scrutinize very carefully what John MacArthur said.

  1. God’s decree not to love and not to save the non-elect (in other words, to have forbidden his Son to shed his blood for them) is qualified and controlled by his glory. It gives Him glory and honour to hate and send the reprobate to hell.
  2. Let’s for a moment consider the possibility that He does love those He casts into hell and henceforth releases them because He does not want to be labelled a failure, a hypothesis which would present Calvinists like Rand Winburn yet another opportunity to blaspheme which he has already done when he said: ‘Such a Savior should be pitied, not worshiped.’ It follows that if God decided to change the outcome of the poor wretched reprobate’s eternal destiny of damnation in hell and not to withhold salvation from them, his glory which controls his love would have been compromised. He would still have to bear the consequences of being a failure because His glory and honour would be diminished and henceforth ridiculed by Calvinists. Unconditional love and salvific grace untoward the reprobate would result in no glory an honour for God and we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we? Surely, according to Calvinists, God must uphold his glory that qualifies and controls his love. Therefore He must hate the reprobate and continue to withhold salvation from them.

4) GOD’S POWER HAS FAILED

Although Jesus declares, ‘All power is given to me in heaven and earth’, and ‘what is impossible with man is possible with God’, Arminianism does not believe that attribute sufficient to save to the uttermost.

Calvinists, having had ample experience in how to misrepresent God, know exactly how to misrepresent and eschew the views of non-Calvinists. To claim that non-Calvinists do not believe that God has the power to save to the uttermost is inaccurate. Before we continue we first need to make sure what we mean when we talk about God’s power.

Dictatorial power is obviously undesirable because it is devoid of love, compassion and reasonableness. God’s power cannot be fully appreciated without taking into account his other attributes such as love, compassion, loving-kindness, long-suffering, righteousness. and mercy. But let’s begin with his humility. Jesus said: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29). It simply means that he was not harsh, overbearing, domineering, bossy and oppressive or tyrannical in his dealings with people. For instance, the Bible teaches that ‘ He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief (their lack of faith in the divine mission of Jesus).’ (Matthew 13:58). Of course we should not suppose that his power was enhanced or hampered by the belief or unbelief of the people respectively. However, what it does prove is that he refused to utilize his power whenever people wilfully refused to believe in Him and his mission. The same applies to salvation when sinners wilfully refuse to believe on Him and reject His cross as the only means of salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18). He refuses to save them. Ah, but we shouldn’t forget how Calvinists have circumvented this particular problem. They have devised a method of redemption which requires no faith at all in order to be saved. Man, they say, is as dead as a corpse in his sin and transgressions and therefore completely unable to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. God must give them the faith as a gift only after He had monergistically regenerated them. Faith exercised of one’s own accord, they say, limits and demeans God’s sovereignty and power. But what does the Bible say?

‘For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.’ (Psalm 78:37-41)

5) GOD’S GRACE HAS FAILED
If man is saved by grace, then God’s grace has failed miserably. Grace and love go hand in hand. Those whom God loves, He gives grace. Those to whom He gives grace, He saves.

It is absolutely amazing how Calvinists have invented their own gospel, which is no Gospel at all and then proclaim with bravado ‘thus saith the Lord.’ Show me one verse in Scripture that says ‘Those whom God loves, He gives grace. Those whom He gives grace, He saves.’ What the Bible actually does say is:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Titus 2:11).

Furthermore, it also says ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

In spite of what the Bible says, Calvinists have again taken away from the words of the book without any fear whatsoever that ‘God shall take away his part out of the book of life,’ (Revelation 22:19) and changed the meaning of ‘all men’ to mean ‘all the elect.’ Not even one of their most revered preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was prepared to associate him with such nonsense. He said:

What then? Shall we try to put another meaning into the text than that which it fairly bears? I trow not . . .. You must, most of you, be acquainted with the general method in which our older Calvinistic friends deal with this text. “All men” say they “that is, some men”: as if the Holy Ghost could not have said “some men” if He meant some men. “All men,” say they: “that is, some of all sorts of men”: as if the Lord could not have said, “All sorts of men” if He had meant that. The Holy Ghost by the apostle has written, “All men,” and unquestionably he means all men . . . . My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of Scripture.

Calvinists bravely assert that they highly revere and honour God’s sovereignty. The truth is that they show no fear of Him at all when they randomly change the meaning of words in His immutable and infallible Word. May God have mercy on their pitiful souls.

Those who are in bondage to Calvinism and have an urgent desire to come out of its hellish pitfalls, read this article. It is excellent

The Precious Blood of Jesus Christ

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Tom Lessing (Discerning the World)

Tom Lessing is the author of the above article. Discerning the World is an internet Christian Ministry based in Johannesburg South Africa. Tom Lessing and Deborah Ellish both own Discerning the World. For more information see the About this Website page below the comments section.

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