This post is a transcript of the above YouTube video, with minor alterations. Check out my channel for theology, woodworking, and more! Click HERE to subscribe.
One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody… God’s Love toward all His creatures is the fundamental and favorite tenet of Universalists, Unitarians, Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, Russellites, etc. … That God loves everybody is quite a modern belief. The writings of the church fathers, the Reformers or the Puritans will (we believe) be searched in vain for any such concept. (Pink 1918/2015, 42)
— A. W. Pink
This is not a defense of “Calvinism” as a whole. I am not strictly a Calvinist. I am a Christian. But I hold to some beliefs that fall under the larger umbrella that is “Calvinism.” I recently saw Trent’s video called “One Christian Truth Calvinists CAN’T SAY” (Horn 2024) and I thought it was worth talking about. Given that Trent is a Catholic and I’m a reformed protestant, I’m sure this is not the only thing we disagree on. My goal is not to target Trent specifically. My goal is to defend God’s sovereignty and show you why opposing arguments are flawed. Let’s get started.
God Loves Everyone?
Trent begins by saying that John 3:16 tells us God loves everyone. He believes God’s love for everyone is a core Christian truth that cannot be argued. He says Calvinism contradicts this truth. So it must be Calvinism that is wrong, not John 3:16.
This is a persuasive strategy. By pitting some guy’s theological ideas (Calvinism) against the Bible itself, he can easily convince people to side with the Bible and toss out Calvinism. I’m going to challenge Trent’s framework on two fronts.
- First, I am not convinced that the Bible actually claims “God loves everyone” in the way Trent thinks.
- Second, there are certain ways in which “God loves everyone” without contradicting Calvinism.
Trent unequivocally states that a Christian should be able to say this to anyone: “God planned for all eternity that you would be alive because he loves you and wants you to have eternal happiness in Him.” Let’s break it down.
“God planned for all eternity that you would be alive.” This I agree with, and it lines up perfectly with God’s sovereignty as described in the Bible. Psalm 139:13-16 and Ephesians 1 show clearly that God plans our days in advance. He creates us with intention.
“Because he loves you.” This is where Trent thinks he has Calvinists pinned. He even says, “It’s very instructive to watch Calvinists try to answer the question ‘Does God love everyone.’ Because you can see them trying to reconcile our common sense intuition—that God loves all people, and if he loves them he’d want them to be saved—with a Calvinist theology.”
Appealing to common sense is not an argument. When discussing theology, we should look to the Bible.
What John 3:16 Means
John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world…” This is the strongest evidence for Trent’s position. It’s the best he’s got, which as you will soon see, is not much. John does not say “God loves everyone.” He says “God loved the world.” If you look at how that original Greek word is used elsewhere in the NT, you quickly see that it can have different meanings depending on the context.
When Jesus’ followers tell him to show himself “to the world” (Jn 7:4, ESV), do they mean “to every human being?” No. Pharisees say of Jesus that “the world has gone after him.” (Jn 12:19, ESV) Do they mean every human being? No. When Paul says that the faith of his audience in Rome is “proclaimed in all the world,”(Rom 1:8, ESV) does he mean proclaimed to every human being? Of course not. Arthur Pink points this out, saying “the term ‘the world’ often has a relative rather than an absolute force.” (Pink 1918/2015, 43)
We also find phrases like “foundations of the world.” “Kingdoms of the world.” “gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.” “He was in the world.” “…before the world existed.” “The world” often refers to the created order in a more general sense.
How exactly does God love the world? Let’s keep reading in John 3. “he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV) Already, we have John referring to a specific group—those who believe. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (ESV) Interesting. What does “the world” mean in this verse? Does it mean “every human being?” No. It cannot, or else John would be arguing that everyone is saved, which is the heresy of universalism. Instead, a better definition of “world” in verse 17 might be “the created order in general, but specifically those who follow God.” This interpretation renders the verse like so (my interpretation): “For God did not send his Son into the created order to condemn it, but so the created order, specifically those who follow God, might be saved through him.” This interpretation is consistent with the context and much more in line with the rest of Scripture.
Some will argue that “might” removes the need to scrutinize “world.” After all, just because every single person might get saved doesn’t necessarily mean they will get saved, right? The problem here is that “might” is not a word of uncertainty in this context. The meaning in the Greek is clear—this verse is describing something that will certainly happen. Other translations, such as the Christian Standard Bible, New International Version, and New Living Translation avoid confusion by removing the word “might” entirely.
I propose that John 3:16 is referring to how God loved the created order in general (including all people he created), but especially the elect, in his act of sending Christ. This is more accurate than just saying “God loves everyone.” Trent’s interpretation is insufficient. He doesn’t even attempt to read the context, consider the original Greek, or explore the greater implications of his conclusions. In fact, he has to change the wording of the text and cut out the context in order to make his point. That alone should speak volumes.
“God so loved the world.” Many suppose that this means, The entire human race. … Unnumbered millions lived and died before the Saviour came to the earth, lived here “having no hope and without God in the world,” and therefore passed out into an eternity of woe. If God “loved” them, where is the slightest proof thereof? (Pink 1918/2015, 43)
— A. W. Pink
The World According to…
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
— 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (ESV)
That’s the same Greek word as before, “world.” Paul says God was reconciling the world, not counting their sins against them. Is Paul talking about every human being here? No. He cannot, for that would imply that God removes sin from everyone, which is again the heresy of universalism. Rather, Paul refers to those who are saved, the Christian church he writes to and the rest of God’s elect in the world at large. The context makes this perfectly clear. “reconciled us” … “gave us the ministry of reconciliation” Who is “us?” It’s the church Paul is writing to, of course. Christians!
Trent later brings up 1 John 2:2, which says: “He [Christ] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (ESV) Again, “world” does not refer to “everyone.” John is not saying that all sin is erased, saving all people. That would be heresy. His point is that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for any and all peoples in any part of the world. This can only be a measure of God’s potential ability to save, not who he actually saves. This is an important distinction. A Calvinist interpretation of God’s love and salvation for those who actually receive these things avoids the heresy of universalism and adheres to the Bible’s true meaning.
Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for all, but effective for those who actually believe. Just like a voucher program is sufficient for all who register for it, but only effective for those who take part in it.
God Loves His People
Now that we’ve thoroughly covered what the Bible says about “the world,” let’s take a quick look at what it says about God loving humanity. What we find is that God loves his followers specifically.
- “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8 (ESV)
- “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:10 (ESV)
- “We love because he first loved us.” — 1 John 4:19 (ESV)
- “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” — 1 John 3:16 (ESV)
- “Love one another, just as I have loved you” — John 13:34 (ESV)
- “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us” — Ephesians 2:4 (ESV)
- “The Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.” — Deuteronomy 7:9 (ESV)
So… does God love everyone? Well, it depends on what you mean by that. Does God give every human being common grace by allowing us the gift of life? Yes, and we’ll talk more about that in a moment. Does God love “the world” in his act of sending his Son to die and be the propitiation for the sins of those who believe? Yes, his love is for all mankind in that broad sense. But God does not “love every human being” in the way Trent means. God specifically and especially loves those who follow him—the Scriptures overwhelmingly support this.
Does God Want All to be Saved?
Going back to Trent’s thesis, he finishes with the idea that God “wants you to have eternal happiness in Him.” He supports this with 1 Tim 2:4, which says that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (ESV) This is a common objection to Calvinism. Let’s hear it in Trent’s own words: “Under Calvinism … God does not want everyone to be saved, because if God did want that, then God would have chosen to save everyone.”
The Calvinist answer to this is twofold.
First, it is helpful to view God’s desires on different levels. God may desire all people to be saved, but his greater desire is to save some rather than all. If we believe in an all-powerful God (which is the only kind of God the Bible supports), we all must believe in different levels of God’s desires. Unless I’m mistaken, Trent believes that God is powerful enough to save everyone, but that he chooses not to. The only difference is that I believe God’s greater desire is election (clearly presented at length in Ephesians 1 and Romans 8-9), whereas Trent believes God’s greater desire is free will (presented at length nowhere in the Bible). And to be clear, there is no room for the interpretation that God desires all to be saved, but is unable to accomplish this. As Arthur Pink puts it, “To argue that God is ‘trying His best’ to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent.” (Pink 1918/2015, 5)
Second, as Trent himself admits, 1 Timothy 2:4 might be saying that God wants to save “all kinds” of people rather than “all people.” If we look at the context, Paul is asking for prayer for kings and rulers. Maybe Paul’s saying God desires all kinds of people, even kings, to be saved. But then Trent says this: “Calvinists have to show these passages only mean that.” No, we don’t. That’s asking us to prove a negative, which is a logical fallacy. We don’t have to prove that any verse lacks a specific meaning. We only have to read the verse as it is and interpret it appropriately based on the context. The Bible thoroughly supports a sovereign God who predestines some to salvation and others to damnation for his own perfect purposes.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. (ESV)
— Proverbs 16:4
This is a good time to address another relevant verse. Near the end of his video, Trent references 2 Peter 3:9, but he leaves out an essential part of the verse. Here’s the whole verse:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
— 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
The “you” is the Christians Peter is writing to. In the verse before (and all over this letter) he calls his audience “beloved.” That’s why he mentions God’s promise, which he expounds upon in verse 13: “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” That promise is only for Christians. God is patient towards his elect, that we all might reach repentance.
Why Does God Send People to Hell?
Trent’s next blunder is his assertion that Calvinists believe people go to hell not because they reject God, but because God rejects them. This isn’t just a gross oversimplification, it’s wrong. Calvinists absolutely believe that people go to hell because they reject God. In fact, Calvinists say this is our default state as human beings. All of us sin (Rom 5:12). We all reject God, despite seeing evidence of his greatness in creation (Rom 1:20) and despite having the law of God written on our hearts (Rom 2:14). It’s only when God calls us to himself that we accept him (John 6:44). So yes, everyone who goes to hell was put there specifically because they rejected God. Paul says “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).
Calvinists also believe in predestination. Both ideas can be true at once.
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. … In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
— Ephesians 1:4-5, 11 (ESV)
This is one of several passages where we read that God chooses those who follow him before the world was even made. He predestined us, but that’s not all. He also works all things according to his will. God is absolutely sovereign. Oh, and while we’re here, I might as well mention verse 14, which tells us that the Holy Spirit is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” (ESV) This supports the Calvinist idea of Perseverance of the Saints.
No Calvinist believes that God turns away otherwise believing, repentant people because they aren’t on his list. Neither do they believe that God drags otherwise damned souls into heaven kicking and screaming. The reality is that people who are repentant were always on God’s list and those who reject him were never on his list.
John MacArthur
Trent then goes on to criticize John MacArthur, who appears to be inconsistent on the question of whether God loves everyone. John says that the campus crusade slogan “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” is not true. Currently, there’s a terrible plan for your life unless you repent. (MacArthur 2020, 0:15) Trent insists that a Calvinist should know that for the elect, there was never a terrible plan in store.
First, why use a clip from John MacArthur? He may have some Calvinist ideas, but surely a better source would be the Westminster Confession or the Bible. Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 would be much more worthy of Trent’s time. Second, Trent knows what MacArthur really means. MacArthur is simply saying that the phrase “God loves everyone” is incorrect in the traditional sense, as we’ve covered in detail. Of course, he would agree that there was never really a terrible plan for the elect, but his statement was implicitly about those who are not elect. When we are evangelizing, there’s no point in trying to discover who is elect and who is not. Only God knows. It’s our job to spread the gospel to all and let God’s work have its full effect in the hearts of those whom he chooses.
Evil Doctors and the Calvinist God
Trent then uses a clip from R. C. Sproul (Sproul 2017, 1:10) along with an illustration to suggest that Calvinists contradict themselves by claiming God loves everyone enough to give them life (the idea from Jesus’ teachings that “rain falls on the just and the unjust”), but not enough to let them accept him. This is simply the fallacy of false equivalence. The first idea is Common Grace, which is not the same thing as Trent’s idea that “God loves every human being.” It’s completely rational to say that God offers common grace and that he chooses whom he saves. Both can be true. Don’t let Trent pit apples against oranges and force you to choose one. It’s a false dilemma.
Let’s look at Trent’s illustration. He describes a doctor who injects a bunch of children with a slow acting cancer. The doctor treats and saves some of those children, leaving the rest to die. Trent says of the dead children, “the only thing keeping them from being saved was the doctor’s decision to not save them.” This is, again, a gross misrepresentation of the Calvinist viewpoint.
First, it is in no way appropriate to use a human doctor injecting cancer to represent God. There’s simply no comparison to be made between the two. God is perfect by his very nature and does not inject sin into us. In him is no darkness at all (1 Jn 1:5, ESV). Sin originates in our hearts, not God (James 1:13-15, ESV). Again, if Trent referred to an authoritative source such as the Westminster Confession, he would see these points laid out clearly. Reducing God down to a nefarious doctor strips away everything that makes him God, rendering the analogy meaningless. Our judgement of the doctor’s actions is based on his equal standing with us as humans. But God is completely different from us. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV). We can’t judge God for why he saves some, but not others.
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
— Romans 9:14-15 (ESV)
Second, the dead children that this doctor injected with cancer are a poor representation of sinful humans. Trent uses children rather than adults to use your emotions against you. Children are innocent and helpless. How dare that evil doctor inject them with cancer! But sinful men are not innocent children. They willfully reject God. That is why they are not saved. God’s greater plan in predestining each soul does not contradict the idea that every soul damned to hell is there because they rejected God.
Prisoners and Pardons
What’s funny is that Trent saw this rebuttal coming. He admits Calvinists would find his analogy to be flawed. So he presents another analogy, this time about a governor granting pardons to some inmates, but not others. The governor cares enough for the prisoners to keep them fed and clothed while they serve their sentence. This is akin to common grace. But the governor only grants pardons to some of the prisoners, not all. This is akin to God choosing whom he saves. But Trent says the analogy falls apart. The human prisoners deserve to be in prison because they chose to break the law. Trent says Calvinism is different because no such choice is offered to man. We’re just screwed if God doesn’t want to save us and there’s nothing we could have done differently.
But Trent mistakenly equates the prisoner’s crime to a lack of acceptance of God. That’s not accurate. I don’t think anyone who heard this illustration would assume that. The prisoner’s crime is the sin they chose to commit—they actively rejected God. The punishment is just. They could have chosen not to violate God’s law, but instead they violated it.
Trent goes on to say that the first analogy is actually more accurate to Calvinism because the cancer was imposed upon the children just like God’s decrees are imposed upon mankind under Calvinism. But Paul has an answer for this in Romans 9.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?
— Romans 9:19-23 (ESV)
Paul says that blaming God for predestining some but not others is missing the point. God can save whoever he wants. In glorifying himself, he creates some for mercy and others for wrath. That’s how it works. We are still responsible for our sin, as Paul himself affirms.
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
— 2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV)
God is sovereign and man is responsible.
How and If God Loves Everyone
Trent then points out that some Calvinists “bite the bullet” and admit that God does not love everyone, Arthur Pink being one of them. But we’ve already covered this in detail, so we’ll move on. What’s funny is that this quote originally has an asterisk next to it in Pink’s book, pointing to a later section specifically addressing John 3:16, but it appears Trent didn’t think that was worthy of his time.
Trent then says: “Another way Calvinists answer the question, ‘Can you tell anyone you meet God loves them?’ is to claim that we can say God loves anyone, even the damned, because he offers them salvation even though they will never respond to it.”
Yes… That is, in fact, the only appropriate interpretation of John 3:16 if you insist that “the world” means “every human being.” That he finds even this to be unacceptable is sad, to say the least.
Trent then shows a clip of John Piper reiterating this stance. Piper says we are able to say to anyone that God loves them because God sent his son to die, so that if they believe, their sins will be forgiven. (Desiring God 2018, 3:20)
Trent says this is Piper’s version of the gospel: “God loves you, if you believe his son died on the cross for you and spend eternity with him.” Trent says this is a conditional love, but that the real God unconditionally loves every human being.
Somehow, Trent thoroughly misrepresents Piper’s stance here.
First, Piper did not say God loves you “if.” Piper said God loves you by sending Christ. The “if” comes later, referring to whether the person believes, not whether God loves them. If a person believes, their sins are forgiven. Notice how Trent always has to tweak the language to make his point. His arguments don’t work if he addresses the opposing view honestly.
Second, Trent calls this a conditional love. Piper did not attach any conditions to his view of God’s love. But Trent appears to be attacking my position instead, that God only loves the elect in the fullest sense. It seems he’s forgotten the “unconditional” part of “Unconditional Election,” another Calvinist doctrine.
[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
— 2 Timothy 1:9 (ESV)
Third, Trent says that “the real God unconditionally loves every human being.” But Piper also believes God loves “every human being” in the sense that he sent his Son to the whole world. I would reiterate that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for every human being and requires nothing of them but acceptance. Christ’s sacrifice is efficient for those who are actually saved. But no, God does not love “everyone” in the same sense that he loves his followers.
We All Reject God
Trent then says that God “offers salvation to all and loves them enough to allow some of them to reject him if they choose.” Trent is presenting this position in contrast to Calvinism, but Calvinists do not object to Trent’s main point here. Every human being does have a choice to reject God. We all take it. That’s the meaning of Total Depravity. We are so corrupted by sin that we all choose evil. Trent is wrong by implying that man’s choice to accept God is what allows him to enter into a right relationship with God. Calvinism holds that God calls us first, and the Bible supports this.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
— John 6:44 (ESV)
Jesus affirms Total Depravity, Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the Saints in just this one verse!
I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
— Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
God is the one who begins a work in us and he will see it through.
Trent’s Gospel
Finally, Trent presents his version of the gospel: “God loves you. Believe his son died on the cross for you and spend eternity with him.”
Here’s a question. If I’m an unbeliever, why should I bother? God already loves me, right? So why is belief necessary? Surely God will watch out for me regardless, right? Surely he has my best interests in mind. After all, what good is his love if it doesn’t do anything?
We know that salvation through Christ is the only path to God, our only hope of avoiding his wrath. Trent’s belief that “God loves everyone” based on his feelings and a single Bible verse out of context is not only misinformed, but it discourages sinners away from repentance by making empty promises that amount to nothing when the day of judgement arrives. What exactly will God’s love do for every human being then, Trent?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I highly recommend you watch the videos listed in the sources below so you can get the full context. I hold to R. C. Sproul’s position. Enter your email to keep in touch with me. Thanks for reading. Godspeed.
Sources:
Horn, Trent. 2024. “One Christian Truth Calvinists CAN’T SAY” The Counsel of Trent. February 5, 2024. Educational video, 11:55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLIiq6kiBMw
MacArthur, John. 2020. “Should we tell unbelievers that God loves them?” Ligonier Ministries. June 8, 2020. Educational video, 1:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt6ycJsLhuQ
Pink, Arthur. 2015. The Sovereignty of God. Monergism Books. https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/pink/sov2015_p.pdf
Piper, John. 2018. “Can I Tell Everyone God Loves Them?” Desiring God. December 7, 2018. Educational video, 5:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQuGyOc37Io
Sproul, R. C. 2017. “Is It Biblical to Say That God Loves Everyone?” Ligonier Ministries. June 28, 2017. Educational video, 3:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTKnHRFZ29M
All Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
Veracity Quest 