Syndicated Column by Steve Hays
In 5-point Calvinism, is limited atonement and/or limited election in tension with the universal offer of the gospel?
i) God doesn't directly offer the gospel to every individual, or directly command every individual to believe the gospel.
In that respect, the offer of the gospel parallels special revelation. In might be more efficient if God privately revealed himself to every individual, but instead, God resorts to a public revelation. A mass medium.
One reason, perhaps, is that humans are social creatures, so having Scripture as a common reference point is a unifying principle.
Be that as it may, the offer of the gospel is like a recipe. If you follow the instructions, this will be the result. A recipe doesn't order anyone in particular to use that recipe.
ii) In nature, there's a principle of redundancy. For instance, a maple tree produces far more seeds (or maple copters) than will every take root and become trees in their own right. But the redundancy is purposeful. If enough maple trees produce enough airborne seeds, that greatly raises the odds that some of them will take root and produce trees in their own right.
Likewise, many animals produce multiple offspring, only a few of which survive to maturity. But in order to at least achieve a replacement rate, it's necessary to produce offspring in excess of the replacement rate, to offset the loss of the offspring that are eaten by predators before they reach sexual maturity and repeat the reproductive cycle. By the same token, multiple sperm raise the odds that one will fertilize the ovum.
Humans imitate this principle. For instance, absent vaccination, some people will contract a serious communicable disease and some won't.