More Resources on Soteriology: The Biblical Doctrine of Salvation
God Does Not Love Everyone: A Hyper-Calvinist Error
Does God love everyone? Some hyper-Calvinists say “no.” They claim that God loves only the elect and only hates the non-elect. Scripture, however, clearly says “yes”! The Bible is clear: God loves every single person.
God Does Love The Entire World
John 3:16 reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The plain and obvious sense of this passage is that God loves everyone—each person He made in His image.
Hyper-Calvinists who deny that God loved all men twist the meaning of the word “world” in John 3:16 so that it signifies “world of the elect.” However, a sense of “world of the elect” is not the plain sense of even one of the 187 uses of the Greek word kosmos (“world”) in the New Testament.[1] Nor does the meaning “world of the elect” appear as a definition of kosmos in any standard Greek lexicon. Furthermore, numbers of texts specifically distinguish the elect from the “world.” For example: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Hyper-Calvinists distort 1 John 2:2 into an affirmation that Christ did not only die for elect Jews (“our” sins) but also the sins of the “whole world” (elect Gentiles). Of course, no proof whatsoever is advanced that the original audience of 1 John was 100% Jewish, nor that “whole world” does not mean every person but only elect Gentiles. One can as justly make the word “world” refer to the world of the green men who live on Mars as to the world of the elect in passages such as John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2. While certainly there are places where the word “world” is used hyperbolically or metaphorically (John 12:19), these no more prove that “world” in John 3:16 does not have a literal sense than does the fact that someone can say “I stood in line forever at the grocery store!” prove that “forever” in reference to the reign of God or the judgment of the lost does not signify literal eternity (Revelation 5:13; 20:10). There is not the slightest hint of metaphor for the word “world” in John 3:16 or 1 John 2:2. John 3:16 is conclusive proof that God loves the entire world—including those who never believe and consequently perish in their sins.
Jesus Christ Does Love Individual Non-Elect And Eternally Lost Sinners
Christ uses the rich young ruler as the paradigmatic example of someone who is unwilling to repent and is eternally damned because he is unwilling to turn from his sins and put God before his material possessions:
17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. (Mark 10:17-27)
The rich young ruler—nameless, like the rich man in hell in Luke 16—goes away sorrowful as a pattern of those who are eternally lost because they are unwilling to repent of materialism. Yet what does the Lord Jesus say about this man? “Jesus beholding him loved him” (10:21)! The Son of God loved this unconverted hypocrite whom Scripture presents as a paradigm of large groups of lost men who trust in their riches.
If God Does not Love His Enemies,
Then Christians Should Hate Their Enemies
The Lord Jesus taught:
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
Christians must love their enemies because God loves His enemies. When they love their wicked, unregenerate, Christ-and-Christian hating enemies, they are being like their Father in heaven. The more they love the wicked, the closer they are to the attitude of their perfect and holy Father (5:48). Paul loved the unbelieving Jews who beat, persecuted, and regularly sought to kill him because God loves unbelievers (Romans 9:1-5; 10:21). Hyper-Calvinists who deny that God loves the non-elect ought to torture a passage like Matthew 5:43-48 into “Love your elect enemies” and “bless the elect when they are cursing and hating you and persecuting you, but show everlasting and eternal hatred to the non-elect when they do it.”
The Quran Says God Does Not Love Sinners:
Scripture Never Says It
If someone wishes to prove that God does not love non-elect sinners, he should have numbers of texts of Scripture that actually make this horrifying affirmation. There ought to be no texts that say that God loved the whole world, and many texts that say something like “God only loves the tiny part of the world who is elect, while He has eternally hated the vast majority of people and He can hardly wait until they die so that He can begin to torture them for all eternity.” The Quran, although it is much smaller than the Bible, is full of texts stating that Allah does not love sinners:
Q 2:190 Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors.
Q 2:205 And when he turneth away (from thee) his effort in the land is to make mischief therein and to destroy the crops and the cattle; and Allah loveth not mischief.
Q 2:276 Allah hath blighted usury and made almsgiving fruitful. Allah loveth not the impious and guilty.
Q 3:32 Say: Obey Allah and the messenger. But if they turn away, lo! Allah loveth not the disbelievers (in His guidance).
Q 3:57 And as for those who believe and do good works, He will pay them their wages in full. Allah loveth not wrong-doers.
Q 3:140 If ye have received a blow, the (disbelieving) people have received a blow the like thereof. These are (only) the vicissitudes which We cause to follow one another for mankind, to the end that Allah may know those who believe and may choose witnesses from among you; and Allah loveth not wrong-doers.
Q 4:36 And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and unto the neighbour who is of kin (unto you) and the neighbour who is not of kin, and the fellow-traveller and the wayfarer and (the slaves) whom your right hands possess. Lo! Allah loveth not such as are proud and boastful,
Q 4:107 And plead not on behalf of (people) who deceive themselves. Lo! Allah loveth not one who is treacherous and sinful.
Q 5:64 The Jews say: Allah’s hand is fettered. Their hands are fettered and they are accursed for saying so. Nay, but both His hands are spread out wide in bounty. He bestoweth as He will. That which hath been revealed unto thee from thy Lord is certain to increase the contumacy and disbelief of many of them, and We have cast among them enmity and hatred till the Day of Resurrection. As often as they light a fire for war, Allah extinguisheth it. Their effort is for corruption in the land, and Allah loveth not corrupters.
Q 5:87 O ye who believe! Forbid not the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you, and transgress not, Lo! Allah loveth not transgressors.
Q 6:141 He it is Who produceth gardens trellised and untrellised, and the date-palm, and crops of divers flavour, and the olive and the pomegranate, like and unlike. Eat ye of the fruit thereof when it fruiteth, and pay the due thereof upon the harvest day, and be not prodigal. Lo! Allah loveth not the prodigals.
Q 7:31 O Children of Adam! Look to your adornment at every place of worship, and eat and drink, but be not prodigal. Lo! He loveth not the prodigals.
Q 7:55 (O mankind!) Call upon your Lord humbly and in secret. Lo! He loveth not aggressors.
Q 8:58 And if thou fearest treachery from any folk, then throw back to them (their treaty) fairly. Lo! Allah loveth not the treacherous.
Q 16:23 Assuredly Allah knoweth that which they keep hidden and that which they proclaim. Lo! He loveth not the proud.
Q 22:38 Lo! Allah defendeth those who are true. Lo! Allah loveth not each treacherous ingrate.
Q 28:76 Now Korah was of Moses’ folk, but he oppressed them; and We gave him so much treasure that the stores thereof would verily have been a burden for a troop of mighty men. When his own folk said unto him: Exult not; lo! Allah loveth not the exultant;
Q 28:77 But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah hath given thee and neglect not thy portion of the world, and be thou kind even as Allah hath been kind to thee, and seek not corruption in the earth; lo! Allah loveth not corrupters,
Q 30:45 That He may reward out of His bounty those who believe and do good works. Lo! He loveth not the disbelievers (in His guidance).
Q 31:18 Turn not thy cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness in the land. Lo! Allah loveth not each braggart boaster.
Q 42:40 The guerdon of an ill-deed is an ill the like thereof. But whosoever pardoneth and amendeth, his wage is the affair of Allah. Lo! He loveth not wrong-doers.
Q 57:23 That ye grieve not for the sake of that which hath escaped you, nor yet exult because of that which hath been given. Allah loveth not all prideful boasters,[2]
The god of Islam does not love unbelievers and sinners—the Quran’s theology is clear. But where are the comparable texts like in Scripture? They are not there. When there are no texts that actually say something like “God does NOT love the large majority of the world who are non-elect,” nobody should dare to affirm such about the God who is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
Arguments for the Hyper-Calvinist Error that God Loves Only the Elect
Are Exegetical and Logical Fallacies
1.) “Passages of Scripture prove that God does not love the non-elect.”
Scripture does say:
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. (Psalm 5:5)
5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” (Psalm 11:5-7)
Do such passages prove that God does not love the non-elect? By no means. While Esau was an unbeliever and Jacob was a believer, Romans 9:13 is not about God’s alleged eternal unconditional hatred of Esau, leading the Lord to create him in order to send him to hell. Paul is quoting Malachi 1:2-3, which is about God’s special blessings for the nation of Israel, blessings not given to the nation of Edom:
1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. 5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. (Malachi 1:1-5)
The fact is that Jehovah elected national Israel to special blessing, referring to the nation in Malachi 1:2-3 under the name of its founder, Jacob, while referring to the nation of Edom under its founder, Esau. Paul does not take Scripture out of context in Romans 9:13. After all, Romans 9 is a discussion of God’s election of the nation of Israel and the salvation of only the believing remnant within that elect nation (Romans 9:1-5, 27).[3]
Romans 9:13 never denies that God loved Esau—God is able to love sinners in one sense while hating them in another. More fundamentally, Romans 9:13 is not even about the individual people Jacob and Esau at all, except insofar as they are the progenitors of the nations of Israel and Edom. That God blessed the nation of Israel in ways He did not bless Edom proves nothing about the hyper-Calvinist idea that God has nothing but hatred for non-elect sinners.
What about Psalm 5 and Psalm 11? Scripture does indeed teach that God hates not only the sin, but the sinner. Scripture teaches both that God in one sense loves all sinful men (John 3:16) and in another sense that He hates sinners (Psalm 5:5; 11:5-7). Christians should affirm both truths and preach both truths, rather than denying one of them to affirm the other one. Is it possible that God can in one sense love someone and in another sense hate that person? Yes, for that is what He has revealed in His Word. It is at least as possible for God to exercise both love and hatred towards one person as it is for God to be one Being and three Persons at the same time.
Furthermore, Psalm 5:5 and 11:5-7 say nothing about God’s hating non-elect workers of iniquity. When the elect have not yet believed, God also hates them, for He hates “all” workers of iniquity. He is perfectly capable of both loving the elect individual and the Jewish people with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) while also hating them while they are workers of iniquity. If God can both in one way love and in another way hate elect persons who have not yet believed, He is just as able to both love and hate non-elect persons who never believe.
What the hyper-Calvinist needs is even one text that is like the dozens of passages in the Quran that say God does not love people—but there are no such texts in the Bible, for Jehovah is a God of love. Christians who take the Bible seriously show love to their enemies, like their God; and Muslims who take the Quran seriously show hate to their enemies, like their god. The evidence against God’s universal love is comparable with the evidence against Christ’s universal atonement: where are the texts that say Christ did not die for some people? They are simply not there.
2.) “Scripture talks about God’s love in passages that limit His love to the elect.”
There are indeed passages of Scripture that show that God has a special love for His believing, elect people. God has a special love for His people and a general love for all people, just as Christians have a special love for fellow believers (1 John 3:14) and a general love for all people. Christian husbands should have a special love for their wives, while they also love their enemies. When hyper-Calvinists argue that passages which speak of God’s special love for believers prove the conclusion that God actually hates the non-elect, they are employing the egregious exegetical fallacy and logical fallacy of negative inference.[4] Hyper-Calvinists need passages that say God does not love some people, not passages that say God does love some people. The passages they need are just not in the Bible—they are only in the Quran.
3.) “Are you saying God loves sinners even while they are committing murder and adultery?”
God loves lost sinners even while they are committing the most abominable sins—while also hating both them and their sins in another sense. When David was committing adultery with Bathsheba, and when he was conspiring to murder Bathsheba’s godly husband Uriah, Jehovah still loved David. He still loves all the elect with His infinite and special love—He loves them, not their sinning. Why should God be able to love elect sinners while they are sinning but not able to love non-elect sinners while they are sinning? This hyper-Calvinist argument is groundless.
Denying God Has Love For the Non-Elect
Is Not Even the Error of Calvin and Mainstream Calvinism
Scripture does not teach Calvinism[5] (nor does it teach Arminianism). However, the idea that God does not love the non-elect is a false doctrine that even Calvin repudiated. John Calvin, commenting on John 3:16, taught that God loved the entire world—the whole human race, all men without exception—and Christ died for their sins:
For God so loved the world. … Christ brought life, because the Heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish. … And the words of Christ mean nothing else, when he declares the cause to be in the love of God. … For since he necessarily hates sin, how shall we believe that we are loved by him, until atonement has been made for those sins on account of which he is justly offended at us? … That whosoever believeth on him may not perish. … [H]e has employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term world, which he formerly used; for though nothing will be found in the world that is worthy of the favour of God, yet he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than an entrance into life.[6]
Hyper-Calvinists who are not willing to listen to God’s Word about Christ’s sacrifice for all men ought at least to listen to John Calvin, who taught Christ sacrificed Himself for all people, not for the elect alone:
Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God’s benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him.[7]
[A]n apostle … ought to wish that all should be saved, and that not a single person should perish … for it is the will of God that we should seek the salvation of all men without exception, as Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world.[8]
[Mark 14:24 reads: “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.”] … By the word many he means not a part of the world only, but the whole human race[.] … Therefore, when we approach to the holy table, let us not only remember in general that the world has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but let every one consider for himself that his own sins have been expiated.[9]
John Calvin preached that those for whom Christ died could be lost: “[I]t is no small matter to have the souls perish, who were bought by the blood of Christ … notwithstanding … God … will safely keep all those he hath chosen.”[10] Calvin likewise taught that God is both perfectly capable of and does actually exercise both love and hatred for the same person at the same time:
God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom. 5:8). Therefore he had this love towards us even when, exercising enmity towards him, we were the workers of iniquity. Accordingly in a manner wondrous and divine, he loved even when he hated us. For he hated us when we were such as he had not made us, and yet because our iniquity had not destroyed his work in every respect, he knew in regard to each one of us, both to hate what we had made, and love what he had made.[11]
Calvin taught that God exercises love, goodness and mercy towards the non-elect:
Meanwhile, we must remember that however feeble and slender the faith of the elect may be, yet as the Spirit of God is to them a sure earnest and seal of their adoption, the impression once engraven can never be effaced from their hearts, whereas the light which glimmers in the reprobate is afterwards quenched. Nor can it be said that the Spirit therefore deceives, because he does not quicken the seed which lies in [the non-elect’s] hearts so as to make it ever remain incorruptible as in the elect. I go farther: seeing it is evident, from the doctrine of Scripture and from daily experience, that the reprobate are occasionally impressed with a sense of divine grace, some desire of mutual love must necessarily be excited in their hearts. Thus for a time a pious affection prevailed in Saul, disposing him to love God. Knowing that he was treated with paternal kindness, he was in some degree attracted by it. But as the reprobate have no rooted conviction of the paternal love of God, so they do not in return yield the love of sons, but are led by a kind of mercenary affection.[12]
All creatures of God—including non-elect people—partake of His goodness and tender mercy, according to John Calvin:
From the power of God we are naturally led to consider his eternity since that from which all other things derive their origin must necessarily be self-existent and eternal. Moreover, if it be asked what cause induced him to create all things at first, and now inclines him to preserve them, we shall find that there could be no other cause than his own goodness. But if this is the only cause, nothing more should be required to draw forth our love towards him; every creature, as the Psalmist reminds us, participating in his mercy. “His tender mercies are over all his works,” (Ps. 145:9).[13]
Calvin affirmed that Jesus Christ loved specific sinners, like the rich young ruler, who refused to repent and were eternally lost:
Jesus beholding him, loved him [Mark 10:21]. … [A]ll the creatures of God, without exception, are the objects of his love. To distinguish the degrees of love is, therefore, a matter of importance. As to the present passage, it may be enough to state briefly, that God embraces in fatherly love none but his children, whom he has regenerated with the Spirit of adoption, and that it is in consequence of this love that they are accepted at his tribunal. … But God is sometimes said to love those whom he does not approve or justify; for, since the preservation of the human race is agreeable to Him—which consists in justice, uprightness, moderation, prudence, fidelity, and temperance—he is said to love the political virtues; not that they are meritorious of salvation or of grace, but that they have reference to an end of which he approves. In this sense, under various points of view, God loved Aristides and Fabricius, and also hated them; for, in so far as he had bestowed on them outward righteousness, and that for the general advantage, he loved his own work in them; but as their heart was impure, the outward semblance of righteousness was of no avail for obtaining righteousness. For we know that by faith alone hearts are purified, and that the Spirit of uprightness is given to the members of Christ alone. Thus the question is answered, How was it possible that Christ should love a man [like the rich young ruler] who was proud and a hypocrite, while nothing is more hateful to God than these two vices? For it is not inconsistent, that the good seed, which God has implanted in some natures, shall be loved by Him, and yet that He should reject their persons and works on account of corruption.[14]
One should not be surprised that many Reformed Calvinists agreed with Calvin that God loved the non-elect:
God’s Universal and Particular Love. Wolfgang Musculus: What did God love? He says, “God so loved the world.” When he uses the word world here we must understand nothing else but the whole of the human race.… It ought to be noted here first that he does not say, “For God so loved his people, Israel,” but “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.” … And no one should think that this love of God, and that which comes from it, the giving of his Son, is directed less to himself or herself as an individual for the reason that it is aimed generally at all people. As there is no mortal who is not a part of this world loved by God, so there is no one to whom God’s love does not extend except those who exclude themselves from his favor through their unbelief. Therefore, the love of God and the giving of his Son ought to be joined to an indubitable and personal faith, as we see with the apostle [Paul], who says, “who loved me and gave himself for me.” We should also consider how wonderful God’s love is, a love he has for this world, that is, the human race wretched in so many ways, morally depraved, blind, filled with countless sins, addicted to idolatry, miserable, disobedient, yes, corrupt to its very root. And then there is God who pursues with hatred all injustice, iniquity and wickedness. The misery of our birth, even if there was no corruption and depravity, is clearly unworthy of the love of the divine majesty. What else, I ask, will we suppose to be the cause of this love which is so wonderful, which swallows up everything, than an incredible and infinite goodness? This goodness not only conceives this love for the world but also is able to hold back from blotting out the depravity of so many ages which endures and grows immensely. … Commentary on John 3:16.[15]
Calvinism is a serious error. Scripture does not teach the unconditional election of sinners, but that sinners are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Peter 1:2) and are “chosen … to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Christ took upon Himself the sins of the entire human race (2 Peter 2:1; John 3:16; 1 John 2:2; 1 Timothy 2:4). Sinners are indeed so depraved from the imputation of Adam’s sin, their sinful corruptions, and their horrible personal transgressions that they will never come to Christ unless the Savior draws them by His Spirit, but He draws “ all men” (John 6:44; 12:32). Furthermore, no verse in Scripture states that the Holy Spirit’s drawing is irresistible—on the contrary, the Bible states: “ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51). God is willing that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) and He “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but has pleasure in their turning and being saved (Ezekiel 33:11). Men are not lost because God does not love them or because He does not wish to save them, but because they are not willing to come. Calvinist soteriology is seriously in error.
Calvin also affirmed other fearful heresies, such as baptismal regeneration. He taught that nothing is plainer than the (alleged) truth that one is born again in baptism:
We assert that the whole guilt of sin is taken away in baptism, so that the remains of sin still existing are not imputed. That this may be more clear, let my readers call to mind that there is a twofold grace in baptism, for therein both remission of sins and regeneration are offered to us. We teach that full remission is made, but that regeneration is only begun and goes on making progress during the whole of life. Accordingly, sin truly remains in us, and is not instantly in one day extinguished by baptism, but as the guilt is effaced it is null in regard to imputation. Nothing is plainer than this doctrine.[16]
Calvin declared: “by the washing of baptism men are born again … [I] hav[e] distinctly asserted, that men are regenerated by baptism.”[17] The sacrament of baptism brings forgiveness of sins:
[T]he Sacraments are effectual . . . that is the reason why in Baptism we truly receive the forgiveness of sins, we are washed and cleansed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are renewed by the operation of his Holy Spirit. … [B]aptism has that power and whatsoever is there set forth to the eye is forthwith accomplished in very deed.”[18]
Those who embrace the Biblical truth of justification by grace alone through repentant faith alone based on the imputed righteousness of Christ alone (Romans 4) and consequently reject baptismal regeneration should consider if it is wise to embrace the Calvinist soteriology of a fallible man who believed in the hellish heresy of salvation by baptism.
Nevertheless, even Calvin did not twist the plain statements of Scripture into the hyper-Calvinist dogma that God does not love the large majority of the world who will never believe on Christ, but only hates them with an eternal hatred, creating them in hatred and ordaining their sin for the purpose of eternally damning and tormenting them. Such monstrous blasphemy is neither the teaching of Scripture nor even the teaching of John Calvin, and it should not be the teaching of any church or Christian that professes allegiance to the Triune God of love (1 John 4:8).
[1] Matthew 4:8; 5:14; 13:35, 38; 16:26; 18:7; 24:21; 25:34; 26:13; Mark 8:36; 14:9; 16:15; Luke 9:25; 11:50; 12:30; John 1:9-10, 29; 3:16-17, 19; 4:42; 6:14, 33, 51; 7:4, 7; 8:12, 23, 26; 9:5, 39; 10:36; 11:9, 27; 12:19, 25, 31, 46-47; 13:1; 14:17, 19, 22, 27, 30-31; 15:18-19; 16:8, 11, 20-21, 28, 33; 17:5-6, 9, 11-16, 18, 21, 23-25; 18:20, 36-37; 21:25; Acts 17:24; Romans 1:8, 20; 3:6, 19; 4:13; 5:12-13; 11:12, 15; 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, 27-28; 2:12; 3:19, 22; 4:9, 13; 5:10; 6:2; 7:31, 33-34; 8:4; 11:32; 14:10; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 5:19; 7:10; Galatians 4:3; 6:14; Ephesians 1:4; 2:2, 12; Philippians 2:15; Colossians 1:6; 2:8, 20; 1 Timothy 1:15; 3:16; 6:7; Hebrews 4:3; 9:26; 10:5; 11:7, 38; James 1:27; 2:5; 3:6; 4:4; 1 Peter 1:20; 3:3; 5:9; 2 Peter 1:4; 2:5, 20; 3:6; 1 John 2:2, 15-17; 3:1, 13, 17; 4:1, 3-5, 9, 14, 17; 5:4-5, 19; 2 John 1:7; Revelation 11:15; 13:8; 17:8.
[2] Obviously, this list makes an exegetical point, not one of historical dependence. It would be easy for the Bible, a much bigger Book, to have one or many statements that God does not love one or more categories of people, when the Quran, a much smaller book, has many such statements. The Quranic suras illustrate this exegetical point. Hyper-Calvinism developed out of less extreme forms of Reformed theology. It did not develop through some kind of influence from Islam.
[3] See “An Exposition Of Romans 9, Including A Demonstration That The Chapter Does Not Teach Calvinism,” elec. acc. https://faithsaves.net/soteriology/, for an exposition of Romans 9, demonstrating that the chapter does not teach unconditional individual election to eternal salvation.
[4] “It does not necessarily follow that if a proposition is true, a negative inference from that proposition is also true. The negative inference may be true, but this cannot be assumed, and in any case is never true because it is a negative inference” (D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996] 101–102).
[5] cf. Thomas Ross, “A Brief Statement on What Scripture Teaches in Relation to the Five Points of the TULIP of Calvinism” & “An Exposition of Romans 9, Including a Demonstration that the Chapter Does Not Teach Calvinism,” elec. acc. https://faithsaves.net/soteriology/.
[6] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 122–126.
[7] John Calvin and John Owen, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 211.
[8] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 157.
[9] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 3 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 214.
[10] John Calvin, “Sermon VI: 2 Timothy, Chap. 2 Verse 19,” in A Selection of the Most Celebrated Sermons of John Calvin (New York: S. & D. A. Forbes, 1830), 84.
[11] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997) II:16:4.
[12] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997) III:2:12.
[13] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997), I:5:6.
[14] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 398–399.
[15] Musculus, Commentarii in Ioannem, 1:87–88; citing Gal 2:20, in Craig S. Farmer et al., eds., John 1–12: New Testament, vol. IV, Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014), 104–105.
[16] John Calvin and Hendry Beveridge, Tracts Relating to the Reformation, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851), 85–86.
[17] John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Tracts Relating to the Reformation, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1849), 340.
[18] John Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy: Facsimile of 1583 Edition (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987), 1244.
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