Saveable

The following are links to Reformed and Puritan theologians who taught, in a sense, the saveability of all men.

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Notes:

1. Feb. 20, 2019: Because of what the Puritan John Flavel (c.1630–1691) said about the impossibility of salvation in The Method of Grace (London: Printed by M. White, for Francis Tyton, 1681) on pages 78, 144, 82, 393, 394, and 444, one might think that he denied that the unregenerate (or the unregenerate non-elect) in this world are saveable. However, when one examines the context, he is talking about a moral impossibility in the sinner, or in all of the unregenerate as such (including the elect unregenerate), due to the hostility of their own hearts considered apart from the Father’s efficacious drawing power. This is standard Puritan teaching. When Flavel spoke of the “natural impossibility” of the salvation of some on page 82 in The Method of Grace, he is clearly referring to the Satanic impediments in the sense of “our own carnal reason as it is armed and managed by the subtilty of Satan.” By “natural,” then, in this instance, he’s referring to our own natures, in a moral sense, as they are cooperating with Satanic influence, not “natural” in the sense of physical or ontological barriers. Moreover, Flavel clearly taught the saveability of all men while they live in this world (based on the all-sufficiency of Christ) in the following works: The Method of Grace (London: Printed by M. White, for Francis Tyton, 1681), 307 (“There is yet a possibility of escaping the wrath to come: a door of hope opened to the worst of sinners: a day of grace is afforded to the Children of men, Heb. 3:15. God declares himself unwilling that any should perish, 2 Pet. 3:9. O what a mercy is this!”); The Fountain of Life Opened (London: Printed for Rob. White, for Francis Tyton, 1673), 350; The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation, and the Necessity of Conversion (London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691), 122, 123, 126, 128, 129; Navigation spiritualiz'd (London: Printed for M. Fabian in Mercers Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside, 1698), 71, 72, and 75.

2. October 31, 2022: “While the value of the atonement was sufficient to save all mankind, it was efficient to save only the elect. It is indifferently well adapted to the salvation of one man to that of another, thus making the salvation of every man objectively possible; yet because of subjective difficulties, arising on account of the sinners own inability either to see or appreciate the things of God, only those are saved who are regenerated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The reason why God does not apply this grace to all men has not been fully revealed.”—Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1936), 152.

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