GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #452

THE BLASPHEMIES OF UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION

Pastor Don Fortner

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Universal atonement is a blasphemous doctrine because IT DENIES THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. It denies that Christ, by his precious blood shed at Calvary, has satisfied anything. According to this heresy Christ did not satisfy the prophets, because the prophets declare that, “He shall not fail.”.They would have us believe that he did not satisfy a single Old Testament types, because in the Old Testament types every soul for whom a ceremonial sacrifice was made was ceremonially forgiven and accepted of God.

The Arminian blasphemers, by their hellish doctrine, assert that Jesus Christ failed to satisfy the law and justice of God by his sacrifice, insisting that many for whom he suffered and died must yet suffer the penalty of the law themselves under the everlasting wrath of God. They tell us plainly that the Son of God shall never see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, as the Scriptures everywhere affirm, because, according to their folly, there are vast multitudes for whom he endured his soul’s travail who shall never be brought to life as the result!

Universal redemption is a blasphemous, damning heresy for it affirms that THERE ARE MULTITUDES IN HELL FOR WHOM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST DIED IN VAIN! If Christ died in vain for any, if there is even one for whom Christ shed his blood in vain, then he is a failure to be pitied, not God to be worshipped. If his blood was shed in vain for some, then his death really accomplished nothing by itself. If his blood was shed in vain for one, then his blood was shed in vain for all. If Christ died for those who perish in hell his blood is meaningless, his sacrifice is mute, his work is worthless, both to God and to men. Such nonsense is utter blasphemy!

Universal redemption is a doctrine most clearly unscriptural and blasphemous inasmuch as IT SEPARATES THE PRIESTLY OFFICE AND WORK OF CHRIST, declaring that Christ sacrificed himself for and died in the place of a people for whom he refused to pray (John 17:9, 20). Nonsense!

Universal atonement is a blasphemous doctrine in that IT MAKES THE CROSS OF CHRIST A MISCARRIAGE AND ASSERTS THAT HE SHALL NEVER SEE OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL AND BE SATISFIED (Isa. 53:10-11). The glorious good news of the gospel is that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage.

Universal redemption is as useless as it is blasphemous, because IT GIVES SINNERS NO REASON TO LOOK TO, TRUST, AND HOPE IN CHRIST. The basis of our hope is redemption accomplished (Ps.130:7; Isa. 40:1-2), not redemption made possible.

This doctrine is as useless as it is blasphemous because IT OFFERS BELIEVERS NO REASON TO LOVE, OBEY, AND GLORIFY CHRIST. In the kingdom of God the motive for everything among God’s saints is gratitude (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:19-20). But if Christ did the same thing for those in hell as he has for me, I have no motive at all to worship and serve him. Instead I have a right to expect him, as Arminianism teaches, to reward me for my decision and deeds!

Above all else, I lay this charge against every preacher of universal redemption. He blasphemes God in that he DECLARES THAT JESUS CHRIST IS A FAILURE, a weak, frustrated, defeated failure, rather than the sovereign, effectual Savior of his people! At its very core, the blasphemy of universal redemption denies the very Godhood of our Savior. As I stated before,if Christ failed to accomplish what he purposed and tried to accomplish in his death, he is not God. A denial of Christ’s effectual, accomplished redemption is no less blasphemous and damning than a denial of our his virgin birth!

AMEN.