Hebrews 2:3
Hebrews 2:1-3 (see also Hebrews 10:31)
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
John Calvin comments: “It is not only the rejecting of the Gospel, but even the neglecting of it that deserves the severest penalty in view of the greatness of the grace which is offered in it. Therefore he says--so great salvation. God wishes His gifts to be valued by us at their proper worth. The more precious they are, the baser is out ingratitude if they do not have their proper value for us. In accordance with the greatness of Christ, so will be the severity of God’s vengeance on all despisers of the Gospel.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Hebrews and I and II Peter, p.19, emphasis mine)
Calvin adds: “Notice that the word ‘salvation’ is applied here by metonymy to the doctrine, because, just as God wills that men should be saved in no other way than through the Gospel, so when it is neglected the whole salvation of God is rejected.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Hebrews and I and II Peter, p.19, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “But here he runs full sail against God for determining some from their very creation to destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.78, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “At this point in particular the flesh rages when it hears that the predestination to death of those who perish is referred to the will of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.208, emphasis mine)
Calvin states: “If we are not ashamed of the gospel, we must confess what is there plainly declared. God, by His eternal goodwill, which has no cause outside itself, destined those whom He pleased to salvation, rejecting the rest; those whom He dignified by gratuitous adoption He illumined by His Spirit, so that they receive the life offered in Christ, while others voluntarily disbelieve, so that they remain in darkness destitute of the light of faith.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.58, emphasis mine)
Calvin addresses the contradiction:
John Calvin writes: “That Christ, the redeemer of the whole world, commands the Gospel to be preached promiscuously to all does not seem congruent with special Election. ... But the solution of the difficulty lies in seeing how the doctrine of the Gospel offers salvation to all. That it is salvific for all I do not deny. But the question is whether the Lord in His counsel here destines salvation equally for all.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.102, 103, emphasis mine)
Often times, in what are called “warning passages,” if the Calvinist infers that it is speaking exclusively of the Calvinistically elect, then the Calvinist will merely infer that they are hypothetical warnings, which never actually come to fruition, and merely serves to keep the Calvinistically elect in line.
Question: How can a person “neglect so great a salvation”?
Answer: Consider the parable of the Marriage Feast according to Matthew 22:2-10.
Question: If Jesus died for you, and graciously calls you to salvation, and enables you to receive His grace, but you freely reject it, then you are accountable, not only for your violation of the Law, but also for rejecting His free offer of pardon from the Law. So which is the more egregious violation in God’s sight? Violating the Law, or rejecting the free offer of pardon from the Law?
Answer: The latter, according to Acts 17:26-31: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” God “overlooked” the violation of the Law done in ignorance, but will not overlook the rejection of His grace, done in full knowledge, to receive pardon from the violation.
Question: How can a person neglect the “greatness of Christ” and the “greatness of the grace which is offered,” unless Jesus died for that person? In other words, if Jesus didn’t die for them, exactly what “grace” are they neglecting?
Answer: That’s why you have to have an Unlimited Atonement. This is not speaking of a Common Grace, since salvation is in focus. (Calvinists often bemoan their critics failure to understand “The Reformed Faith.” But the real problem is that Calvinists too often cover their eyes and pretend certain problems don’t exist.)
Question: If God eternally passed by them, according to the Calvinist doctrine of Preterition, exactly which “grace” are they neglecting?
Answer: Logically speaking, how can one neglect something that they’ve never been given (in keeping with the Calvinist doctrine of a Limited Atonement)?
Yet, according to Calvinism, God rejected them for salvation, before they were born. Additionally, according to Determinism, God scripted every thought, word and deed, thus making nonsense of the concept of a person truly rejecting anything.
Question: But if it’s not “destined” for them, then what are they rejecting, and who, really, is rejecting who?
Answer: When Calvin admits that an Unlimited Atonement “does not seem congruent with special Election,” at least he is not covering his eyes and pretending that the problem does not exist (and while condemning his critics for failing to accurately understand him, as many Calvinists often do). Nevertheless, this still goes right back to the original question of how can a person neglect a “salvation” in an Atonement for which they’ve been “passed by” to receive? What are they neglecting?
