James White’s Denial of God’s Universal Saving Will

Update and Note: Since a previously anonymous, but now outed, malicious blogger, who used to enjoy doxxing others while desperately trying to remain hidden himself (i.e., “Turretinfan,” who is really Peter Charles Flanagan [b. March, 1978; Facebook link (now deleted, but used to show he was/is dating a girl who calls herself “Marxist Girl”); Linkedin; Twitter; blog; 2003 DUI record; P&P description of Flanagan’s past odd behavior (cached [2]; picture with his logo]) seems consistently confused, the following in no way suggests that James White denied that God commands all men to repent and believe (thus putting them under an obligation). That’s clearly not the point at all. The point that was made during the call is that, according to White, God does not want, wish, will, or desire the salvation of any who are non-elect, according to His revealed will. That’s what it means to “deny God’s universal saving will,” as the title of this post plainly and accurately addressed. If James White thought otherwise, in a mainstream Calvinistic sense (which is what the caller, Jason, was addressing), then he would be in categorical agreement with John Murray, Tom Ascol, Phil Johnson (and here), and John Piper. He’s clearly not in agreement with them on this subject (as he himself has subsequently admitted, and as Phil Johnson has also even noted). The call itself (in addition to his earlier interaction with Gregg White) makes it quite plain. I made this same point (among others) to a blogger in the comment section of my first post, but Flanagan was either not seeing it, or is just ignoring it; the latter was likely the case. The issue was also not whether White distinguishes between God’s secret/decretal will and His revealed/preceptive will. Of course he does. That is yet another red herring. The real issue is whether God, in the revealed will, desires the non-elect to comply with His gospel commands to repent and believe, and therefore desires their salvation. Read what the real Turretin himself said on this, in contrast to the previously named, used-to-be anonymous blogger going by that name has said. Then take a look at what the Puritan John Howe said here (and here), as well as scores of other mainstream Calvinists on the will of God.

One will also notice that White, during the following exchange, sounds virtually identical to the later John Gerstner on the subject of God’s will. See the comments section below for more information.
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE PHONE CALL

The following exchange took place between James White and Jason from the UK on the Dividing Line broadcast on 4/10/08 (or here; see minute 42:39–56:08). Jason affirmed the well-meant offer, and he was a Calvinist, so he was asking from that perspective, not from the perspective of a non-Calvinist.

Download Audio Clip Here

Download a More Thorough Summary Paper of This Content Here

James White took a call and said:

Let's get to Jason over in the United Kingdom... What's up Jason?

Jason asked a question:

Well, yeah, I have a question for you regarding your Reformed theology, and it has to do with the free offer of the gospel. My question is simply this: Does God offer Christ, salvation or mercy to the non-elect, and does he in any sense will their salvation?

James White responded:

Well, that sounds very much like what Mr. Gregg was asking, though I think he was a little bit more specific toward the end. And the answer that I gave that I'll repeat now has two aspects. First of all, from the human aspect, the free offer of the gospel goes out to all people because humans do not know the identity of the elect. And since no one will have that knowledge other than God, the only way a human being can possibly answer the question is to say what scripture says; and that is, that any person who repents and believes in Jesus Christ will be saved. But I think the question as it is often---I think somewhat unnecessarily asked, because again it forces us into a similar situation as the last discussion of Adam [the previous call topic]---to ask the question well, if God has not eternally decreed the salvation of John Brown, then can we really say that there is a free offer of the gospel to John Brown? Again, the very phrase "free offer" demands that we discuss the means by which the free offer is made, but I've already said that the means is us, and since we don't know who the elect are, it sort of makes it a little bit like the discussion of supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism.

Jason commented:

But, I mean, there are Calvinist theologians such as John Murray and Phil Johnson, for example, who hold that view. Phil Johnson would even say that it's a hyper-Calvinist tendency to deny that God in some way offers salvation to the non-elect.

James White responded:

Again, if I just said that it is our job to offer salvation to the non-elect because we don't know who they are, then yes, the salvation is being offered to the non-elect. But when says [Jason: "but the offer is being made..."] someone in some way, then I need something more of a definition of in what way. Are we going to say for example that Christ gives, intercedes, or gives his life for the non-elect, even though it is not God's purpose to grant to them the freedom from their sins so as to accept this? When we say "some way," I interpret "some way" as the free and open proclamation of the gospel. Hyper-Calvinism requires us to go around and identify the elect. I'm not sure how we are supposed to do that, but we can't do it.

Jason then spoke:

I think the understanding is that, although God has reprobated certain people, there is [still] a desire on his part that they should be saved, even though he has a higher purpose. [Therefore] that doesn't happen. I think one example, one verse, that might indicate that would be Ezekiel 33:11, which says that, "As surely as I live, says the Lord God, I have no delight in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their way and live." And that's the claim for the whole of the nation of Israel, not just the elect within that community.

James White responded:

Yeah, and that's one of the problems I have with Ezekiel 18 or 33 being read into this particular issue, because I feel like we're being forced to somehow attribute to God some kind (for some reason)...some kind of an attitude or desire that I just never see, not only do I never see expressed, but it would likewise force us to say that God has an unfulfilled desire, but it's not really the same desire as he chooses to fulfill with other people. And we're left not only---you're not only left with the two-wills conundrum, now you've got multiple desires conundrums, which I don't, I just don't see a reason for it. The Ezekiel texts are talking to people who were saying that there was no reason for them to repent because they're already doomed because of the sins of their forefathers. That's why they repeated the parable of their teeth being set on edge because of the sour grapes that their fathers had eaten, and so on and so forth. And so what I hear Ezekiel as saying is an apologetic response to people who were saying there's no reason to preach to those people, there's no reason for us to even listen to the message of the prophets, because our repentance would never be accepted. Now that's different than Isaiah's commissioning where God specifically commissions him to proclaim a message of judgment, and says he's going to harden the hearts of the individuals who hear it. That's a completely different context. But, I just don't, if someone can explain to me where the idea comes from that we have to attribute to God a desire that he then does not fulfill. And then in fact, evidently, causes him to have an unfulfilled desire, unhappiness, pain, or something. I know where this comes from in liberal European theology because I went to Fuller Seminary for crying out loud. And I listened to all the stuff about...in fact we had somebody in [the chat] channel just a couple days ago talking about, "well don't you think that God suffers like we suffer, and he's sad like we're sad?"... and all the rest of this stuff, and I got all that at Fuller [seminary]. I know where it's coming from from there. But, within the Reformed realm of folks... I understand and have stood against hyper-Calvinism for a long, long time and people who think that we can somehow know who the elect are... but on the other side I want to go... alright. I fully understand how given the means that God uses to draw the elect unto himself, that there is a free offer of the gospel, that I can never look at someone... I do not have the right to reprobate anybody. I can't do that. I have to proclaim to everybody. But, I have a problem then saying in my proclamation of the gospel to others means that I then have to affirm some kind of a partially salvific desire... cause it can only be partially salvific. If it's truly a salvific desire, and it's truly a desire of God, does he not do whatever he pleases in the heavens and the earth?

Jason timidly said:

Mmm hmm. So, yeah. Good point.

James White continued:

So, you know, if it is his desire, then he's going to accomplish it. If it is not his desire... you know... I think that the "ambiguity" at that point (to use the term that so we've been using a lot [since the Steve Gregg debate]) is because...

Jason said:

Would you say though that you've perhaps placed yourself in a minority among Calvinists for taking that stance?

James White said:

No, no...I don't think so. I think that you have...I know what John Murray has said...but no. I don't think that that is a minority position at all. I think there are lots of folks in the past who have expressed, I think properly, the fact that Christ is to be presented to all men, and that we do not have the right to reprobate anyone. We do not know the identity of the elect...who did not go so far as to say, and what that means is that there is a partially salvific desire on the part of God. That he has a desire, but for some reason (that has never been explained to me) he chooses not to act upon it, and hence causes himself to be eternally unfulfilled. I don't see that in a large number of Calvinistic writers. There is a range of expression on this, but no, I don't think I am in a minority position. Again, if someone wants to explain to me what a partial salvific desire is, and how it is expressed in scripture, then great, I'll be glad to hear it. But...

{Note: On May 23, 2016, James White said, "I take the minority position [on the free offer] noted at the bottom of the [OPC] statement." The two men who put forward the "Minority Report" were Wm. Young and Floyd E. Hamilton.}

Jason said:

I think the answer might be though that it's not something we can fully understand, it's just something that seems to be taught in scripture in which we have to believe, I suppose.

James White said:

Well, I'll be honest with you. The only text that I've heard, other than the implication that you're taking from Ezekiel 33, is 2 Peter 3:9. And I know that there are those who look at 2 Peter 3:9, and they see there that universal salvific will. I think that I am giving a pretty consistent exegetical response to that, to say... well, okay. I have respect for men who have held that view, but I have not at any time seen any of those who take that view respond to what I said about the text. And that is, when you look at the pronouns, who is being referred to here? I've never... And if you look to a writer, and the writer expresses such and such a view, and you find no evidence that that writer had ever even encountered an alternate exegesis that is a sound exegesis, then I don't know that that writer's opinion is as necessarily as weighty as it could be otherwise.

For example, you may know that when John Owen wrote The Death of Death---and there would be a lot of people who would have a lot of problems with how "severe" John Owen was on certain issues---but, when John Owen wrote The Death of Death, and he tried to deal with the Hebrews 10 text, he clearly had never read Hebrews 10:29 in such a way as to see the one who sanctifies himself as Christ. Now remember, Death of Death was his first major work. Twenty-five years later, when he writes his commentary on Hebrews (now as a mature theologian), he has now exegeted that text, and he presents a completely different discussion now that he's had the time to work with the text. And he sees, Ah, this is something I didn't know back then. It didn't even enter into my thinking. And he then presents the idea that the one who is sanctified in Hebrews 10:29 is in fact Christ. He has set himself apart. So, the point being, could someone look at what he said in Death of Death... what if had never written his Hebrews commentary later on. And what if he had never even given consideration to the other exegesis of the text, which is just as valid as the one that he was operating on. If you've never heard the other interpretation, is your opinion on that text as weighty as people who have and give a response? That's what I am saying when someone looks at 2 Peter 3:9. I go, alright, who among these people have actually in their commentaries responded to what I think about the exegesis---obviously not me myself, but just simply those who would read it in that way. I think there is something important there to look into.

Jason said:

Okay. Well, that's food for thought.

James White said:

Okay. Thank you very much, Jason. Thanks for calling.

Jason said:

Okay. Thank you. Bye.

James White:

Uh, yeah. Well that was uh, that was quite interesting. hahaha And a lot of people in the audience are going, "What were you talking about?" We were, you know...I think it's unfortunate that, again, you know, Calvinists tend to be this way, and there's a reason why we are. But sometimes we focus upon some real minutia. And, I don't know how many times I have to say we don't know who the elect are, and therefore we proclaim the gospel to everybody. But there are some who would say, "and if you don't add to that that God has a partially salvific desire [laughter in the background]...you can go ahead and differentiate that he has a truly salvific desire for the elect, but you have to have a partially salvific will...I just go, what does that mean?! If you could tell me what it means, you know...is that common grace? Does that mean that God is kind to the non-elect? Okay. I've said that a million times. But that's not what I'm hearing. You know. And I just go, what does it mean to say that God desires to do something he then does not provide the means to do? What does that mean? And no one's ever been able to tell me. So, once somebody can tell me, then I can jump on the bandwagon I guess, if there is a bandwagon to jump on to. But if you can't tell me what it means, then...what can I say? Can't, can't go there. So, anyway, that's what that particular discussion was all about.

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OTHER RELATED NOTES

1) See also My Analysis of the Gregg/White Exchange on God's Saving Will

2) Here is David Allen's footnote in Whosoever Will with the relevant links:

104. On December 7 of 2001 on the Theology List, Phil Johnson said the following to a hyper-Calvinist: "The root of your problem is that you apparently imagine a conflict would exist in the will of God if God, who has not ordained some men to salvation, nonetheless desires all men to repent and seek His mercy. That is, in fact, precisely the false dilemma virtually all hyper-Calvinists make for themselves. They cannot reconcile God's preceptive will with His decretive will, so they end up (usually) denying the sincerity of the preceptive will, or else denying that the pleading and calls to salvation apply to all who hear the gospel." https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Theology_list/. Also, in a book addressing various issues related to Open Theism, Johnson dealt with the question of whether or not God in any sense “desires” what He does not bring to pass. He says that scripture “often imputes unfulfilled desires to God” and cites several important verses. He then rightly cautions against taking “expressions of desire and longing from the heart of God” in a “simplistically literal sense,” as this would result in compromising God’s sovereignty. Therefore, “the yearning God expresses in these verses must to some degree be anthropopathic.” Johnson says that, nevertheless, we “must also see that these expressions mean something. They reveal an aspect of the divine mind that is utterly impossible to reconcile with the view of those who insist that God’s sovereign decrees are equal to His “desires” in every meaningful sense. Is there no sense in which God ever wishes for or prefers anything other than what actually occurs (including the fall of Adam, the damnation of the wicked, and every evil in between)? My own opinion—and I think Dabney would have agreed—is that those who refuse to see any true expression of God's heart whatsoever in His optative exclamations have embraced the spirit of the hyper-Calvinist error.” (P. Johnson, “God Without Mood Swings,” in Bound Only Once: The Failure of Open Theism, ed. D. Wilson [Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2001], 118). This article can also be accessed here: http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/impassib.htm. Both of Johnson's quotes (in addition to his references on the will of God in his Primer on Hyper-Calvinism) would seem to implicate James White (Alpha & Omega Ministries) as a hyper-Calvinist since White concurs with Reymond's view that God does not desire the salvation of the non-elect in any sense. Both White and Reymond think affirming the contrary imputes irrationality to God, and Reymond explicitly appeals to John Gill's teaching in this respect. See R. L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology, 692–93. White is not just quibbling over optative expressions, as Johnson seems to think. Both Reymond and White reject the concept that God desires the salvation of all men. Whatever the case may be, it is nevertheless clear that White, a Reformed Baptist, is thoroughly out of sync with Sam Waldron's strong statements about the will of God and John 5:34 as he expounds the "free offer teaching in the 1689 London Baptist Confession. See Waldron's Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith (Darlington, UK: Evangelical Press, 1989), 121–22. In contrast to White, and as I noted during the John 3:16 Conference, Tom Ascol agrees with Johnson's orthodox Calvinist view that "God desires all people to be saved" in His revealed will. It is, therefore, troubling to think that Ascol (or anyone in the Southern Baptist Founders movement) would ally himself with White, a non-Southern Baptist Calvinist who rejects the well-meant gospel offer, when planning to debate other Southern Baptists on Calvinism. This was my point at the John 3:16 Conference.

David Allen, “The Atonement: Limited or Universal,” in Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism, ed. by D. L. Allen and S. W. Lemke (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010), 95–96.

3) In May of 2009, Dr. Robert Gonzales (who was Dean of Reformed Baptist Theological Seminary) wrote on God's wish that each and every sinner might be saved on the Reformed Baptist Seminary Blog (here is the old link, though it is now dead). In footnote #8, he said:

8. Most Calvinists who affirm the “free” and “well-meant” offer of the gospel do so because of their allegiance to Scripture and not from a cowardly desire to please men. For this reason, I was disappointed to read James White’s caricature of such Calvinists like myself (and those referenced above) in a post entitled “Of Squeamish Calvinists and Hyper-Arminians” (March 18, 2009); accessed May 30, 2009 at http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=3197; Internet. Ironically, White is reacting to Calvinists who view his rejection of God’s well-meant offer of the gospel as “hyper-Calvinist,” which he views as a kind of ad hominem argument. But exchanging ad hominem for ad hominem is not normally Dr. White’s debate methodology. For another specimen of ad hominem argumentation, see Sean Gerety’s “The Sincere Insanity of the Well-Meant Offer.” For a defense of the free and well-meant offer of the gospel, I would direct the reader to the following resources: R. Scott Clark, “Janus: the Well-Meant Offer of the Gospel and Westminster Theology,” in The Pattern of Sound Doctrine: Essays in Honor of Robert B. Strimple, ed. David Van Drunen (P&R, 2004), 149–79; Robert Lewis Dabney, “God’s Indiscriminate Proposals of Mercy,” in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological (reprint, Banner of Truth, 1967), 1:307f; idem, Systematic Theology (reprint, Banner of Truth, 1985), 555–59 Frame, 534–37; John Murray, The Free Offer of the Gospel (Banner of Truth, 2002); Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching (Banner of Truth, 1995); Stebbins, Christ Freely Offered; Waldron, Modern Exposition, 121–122. For helpful Internet resources, see Robert Lewis Dabney’s “God’s Indiscriminate Proposals of Mercy”: Phil Johnson’s A Primer on Hyper-Calvinism; John Piper’s “Are There Two Wills in God: Divine Election and God’s Desire for All to be Saved”; the historical resources on David Ponter’s Calvin and Calvinism and Theology Online, as well as and Tony Byrne’s “Theological Meditations.”

4) Micah Burke (2), who is a friend of James White, and also one who contributes to White's blog (even doing some of the work on the graphics), has also explicitly denied that God desires the salvation of all men. See his comment here (click). He said:

The claim that God desires the salvation of each and every person who ever lived is simply false, no matter how many times verses are wrongly pressed into service of that falsehood.

He also seems disinclined to think the gospel is an offer (see here [click]). Similar to Micah Burke, a lady named "Nina," who has used the nickname "a5pointer" in various chat rooms (on Paltalk as well as in White's #prosapologian chat channel), denies God's love for the non-elect, His common grace, as well as the well-meant offer of the gospel. Her name appears in the acknowledgements in White's The Potter's Freedom (Amityville, NY: Calvary Press, 2000), since she was/is a close friend of White's. He has stayed with her and her family when he has traveled to do ministry. It is common for people with these extreme views to hover around White. Even though White himself believes in a a kind of common love and grace of God (probably only in a mere temporal/physical Gillite sense), he does nothing to refute those (e.g., Protestant Reformed Church, Gordon Clark[ian], and Arthur Pink-types) who disagree. White has never labored in writing or on his Dividing Line broadcast on the subject of God's universal love and grace. And, like Burke, he is not fond of thinking of the gospel as an "offer," except merely as a "presentation," not in the sense of a "proffer." Notice above, in Jason's call, that Jason asked about God's "offer [of] Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect." White didn't address that offer topic specifically, but only insofar as to speak of our need to "preach" to all indiscriminately, preferring rather to say that "Christ is to be presented to all men." That was side-stepping the specific question or issue of the gospel call as an "offer of Christ, salvation or mercy" to the non-elect. Since White limits even the sufficiency in Christ's death to the elect alone (The Potter's Freedom, 232), as Nina also did in conversations I had with her in Paltalk, he knows he can't say God is "offering salvation" to any who are non-elect since there is no substitutionary provision for the non-elect in the death of Christ. This is why at the end of the call White said, "what does it mean to say that God desires to do something [i.e. give Christ, salvation, or saving mercy to the non-elect] he then does not provide the means to do [i.e. in the death of Christ]?" His strictly limited view of the death of Christ causes him, for consistency's sake, to deny that God desires the salvation of any for whom Christ has not provided a satisfaction. In The Potter's Freedom (ibid.), White even said that the Lombardian Formula assertion (i.e. that Christ suffered sufficiently for all, but only efficiently for the elect) is "not fully Reformed." That would be news to Calvin (and scores of other Reformed men), who clearly affirmed the truth of the assertion, but limited its explanatory application in the interpretation of 1 John 2:2.

5) Another blogger, who in the past used the name Byroniac (or just Byron [aka Byron Smith]), also denied that God desires the salvation of all men in the revealed will (see here [click]).

I first asked him:

1) Do you think that God desires to save all men in his revealed will?

Byron said:

1) No, because God never promised or expressed desire to save people apart from repentance and faith that I know of.

Notice that Byron caricatured the opposing position, as though we believe God desires to save people "apart from repentance and faith." Rather, we believe (with John Murray, et al) that God desires men to repent and believe, and so to be saved.

I then asked:

2) Do you think that the denial of God's universal saving desire is hyper-Calvinistic?

Byron responded as follows, and note carefully where he heard the same beliefs:

2) No, and why would it be? I agree with James White: if God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, then if He desires something, how can He possibly be frustrated in that desire? What could frustration in the context of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence possibly mean?

Byron's thinking on God's will was identical to Micah Burke's views, and Byron was being fed his views from the same source that Burke was, i.e. through James White. Incidentally, Byron has now abandoned the Christian faith. He is presently an agnostic or an atheist.

6) Like Burke and Byron above, another avid listener to White's Dividing Line broadcasts and a follower of his teaching in the past, Mark Farnon (aka "Tartanarmy"), said (in Nov. 2008):

Now the other matter concerning God's universal saving will or His desire for all to be saved. This one is a no brainer for me, and I am totally on the same page as Dr White and Robert Reymond, who Tony is more than willing to also Label as Hyper. Oh the shame! The idea that God desires, wills the salvation of everyone makes God schizophrenic, and I have said this many times. This is the reason Dr White responds as he does, about God having these unfulfilled desires and disappointments etc. Dr White is spot on, and just because Byrne and others wish to embrace irrationality, does not change the argument at all. Call it paradox if you wish and celebrate that kind of thinking, but I do not wish to go down that slippery slope, and for good reasons.

Note that Mark Farnon, like Micah Burke and Byron Smith above, rejects the concept that God desires the salvation of any who are non-elect, and identifies that same teaching in both White and Reymond. They are not mistaken about White's views. They understood what White thinks. Farnon was a fan of Arthur Pink, but went even further, often cutting-and-pasting Hoeksemian PRC and Clarkian literature in response to those who argued for the well-meant offer and the common love of God.

7) As one reads and listens to the way James White misrepresents his Calvinistic opposition on the will of God (as Dr. Robert Gonzales noted above), one can't help but notice the striking parallels between himself and the later John Gerstner on the point. Gerstner, later in life, sided with the Protestant Reformed Church in their denial of the well-meant offer (i.e. their denial that God desires the salvation of any who are non-elect). Notice Gerstner's way of speaking below. If God does desire the salvation of the non-elect in the revealed will, as Murray taught, then, according to Gerstner:

God...is not the living, happy God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but an eternally miserable being weeping tears of frustration that He was unable to prevent hell and can never end it thus destroying Himself and heaven in the process.

On more than one occasion, White has misrepresented his "Squeamish Calvinist" opponents, as if they (as Dr. Gonzales noted above) are saying:

We [in "Squeamish Calvinist" thinking] need to insist that God has freely and inalterably decreed that which completely bums Him out. God has issues. He's conflicted.

Such a statement is virtually identical to what Gerstner said. There is no difference between Gerstner's later view, Herman Hoeksema's view, Gordon Clark's view, and Robert Reymond's view when it comes to the specific issue of denying that God desires the salvation of any who are non-elect in the revealed will. They have differences over other theological matters, but not in that area, and White has explicitly sided with Reymond, and thus also, by necessary entailment, with the later Gerstner, Clark, and Hoeksema.

Note again the striking parallel with Gerstner above when White said that he:

…refuse[s] to portray God as having eternally decreed His own unhappiness…I see no evidence that God will be standing upon the parapets of hell weeping for eternity because of His failure to accomplish His will.

With Sproul, all mainstream Calvinists, with respect to God’s will of disposition, grant that, “It is dangerous to speak of a conflict of interests or of a clash of desires within God.” But, with Sproul, mainstream Calvinists also say, “Yet, in a certain sense, we must. He wills the obedience of [all] His creatures. He wills the well-being of [all] His creatures” (R. C. Sproul, Can I Know God’s Will?, vol. 4 of The Crucial Questions Series [Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009], 22–23). This is nothing new. Luther even wrote that, with respect to God’s will of disposition expressed in Ezek. 18:33, that “This disposition proves that God is ready to pardon, to forbear, and to forgive sins if only people were willing to come to their senses. But because they continue to be stubborn and to reject every remedy, He is tortured, as it were, by their wickedness” (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 2: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 6–14, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann [Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999], 22). White is no more in R. C. Sproul’s position on this subject than he is in Luther’s, Calvin’s, John Murray’s, Phil Johnson’s, Tom Ascol’s, or Sam Waldron’s position; rather, He’s with Gill, Clark, Gerstner, and Reymond.

8) There is no tertium quid between John Murray’s position on the free offer and those who deny that God desires the salvation of all men. White said after the John 3:16 Conference that he was “thankful Phil [Johnson; who sides with John Murray] can put up with my [White's] slightly “stiffer” form of Calvinism. I would be more on the [Robert] Reymond side than the [John] Murray side, for example, and I am for a pretty obvious reason, I hope.” Saying you’re “more on the side of” Reymond than Murray is like one pregnant woman saying to a non-pregnant woman that she is “more pregnant” than the other. It's fudging. Either you’re on Reymond’s side (who sided with Gill as over against the early John Gerstner's views) and therefore deny God’s universal saving will, or you’re not. And, if you’re on the Reymond side, you are also on the Gill/Hoeksema/Clark side on the revealed will of God.

What Iain Murray said of John Gill is also quite true with respect to James White:

In accordance with this, Gill claimed that all texts appearing to show a favourable desire on God's part towards all the lost [i.e. the non-elect] do not have any reference to their salvation.

When it comes to biblical passages, this is exactly what James White does. If one wants to know what White really thinks, watch how he interprets all of the controversial texts on this matter. For instance, even with respect to John 5:34, Michael Brown (a non-Calvinist) in a debate in March of 2010 (see minute 29:48–30:04) asked White:

So when he [Jesus] says “I say these things to you that you may be saved” in the 5th chapter [John 5:34], does he mean that or not?

James White responded (click for the clip):

He means that to those that the Spirit is going to [effectually] draw to Him. Preaching is always used as the means by which the elect people are brought in to relationship with Jesus Christ.

See that? "He means that to...the elect...", i.e. not to any who are non-elect. This is what James White does with every biblical passage that Calvinists themselves have used (including Ezek. 18:23; 33:11; Matt. 23:37; Rom. 2:4; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9, etc.) to argue for God's desire in the revealed will for the salvation of the non-elect.

In contrast, look at what Sam Waldon (a Reformed Baptist, like Robert Gonzales) said about the passage in his exposition of the free offer and the 1689 LBC (click). Sam Waldron has further expounded that text excellently in his The Crux of the Free Offer of the Gospel (Greenbriar, AR: Free Grace Press, 2019), 17–24. This book was endorsed by Joel Beeke and Paul Washer, among other mainstream Calvinists. Waldron considers the desire of God for the salvation of all men to be the very crux, core, and heart of God's own sincerity in His free offer of the gospel, while White considered it "some real minutia" in his phone call with Jason.

9) With respect to how White treats the various controversial passages, see Dr. Cornelis Venema's critical comments about James White on Matt. 23:37 here (click). As early as 2002, Venema was observing how "On his [White's] reading, the text does not express any desire for the salvation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some of whom may be non-elect." Venema also finds fault with White on 2 Pet. 3:9 as well (in The Outlook 52:5 [May 2002]: 22), noting how White's interpretation involves "objections to the claim that it teaches a well-meant offer of the gospel." Though he commends White's book, The Potter's Freedom, he says the book "betrays at times [regarding Matt. 23:37, Luke 13:34, and 2 Pet. 3:9, at least] a bit of overzealousness." That's Venema's kind way of saying White has gone too far in the opposite direction in reaction to "Geisler's Arminian view of election."

10) This is typical of James White. Here, in a recent DL broadcast on Tuesday, November 14th, 2023, he flat out says it is not true that God wants every individual to be saved. 

Also typical of him, he later goes on to set up his usual false dichotomy (which is also a key premise in his Potter’s Freedom book), which is this: Either (1) God only wants to save the elect, or (2) God equally wants everyone to be saved. Consistently missing is the mainstream Calvinist position that says God desires all men to be saved, but purposes to save only the elect. White doesn’t merely think that “The Big Three” (i.e., Matt 23:37; 1 Tim 2:4; and 2 Pet 3:9) do not teach that God wants every person to be saved. Notice that he said, “all you have to do is look at the bible [as a whole] and that’s obviously not true.” Categorically, then, he thinks it is false to say that God wants every person to be saved.