CHRIST DIED FOR THE ELECT ONLY"
"Calvinists believe in “penal substitution” regarding Christ’s death. They believe that Christ died for only the elect. This is called “limited atonement” in that they believe the atonement is limited in that it was intended only for the elect.
Baptists believe in “general atonement,” that is Christ died for all sinners and by their free will they determine whether to respond to it receptively in faith. Only a minority of Baptists believe Christ died just for the elect.
Our comment: Again note the begging of the question. 'Calvinist' is contrasted with 'Baptist'. But John Gill was a Baptist of the Baptists. John Bunyan was a Baptist, J.C. Philpot was a Baptist, William Gadsby was a Baptist, C.H. Spurgeon was a Baptist - and they all believed in limited atonement.
Dr. Price is right that Particular Redemption and Penal Substitution go together. If Christ has died in the place of a person, that person has to be saved, because, as Toplady said
'Payment God cannot twice demand,
Once at my bleeding surety's hand,
And then again at mine.'
That is why historic Arminians have held to the Governmental theory of the atonement, that Christ's death was merely a display of divine justic equivalent to, but not identical to, the penalty due to all who would be saved.
But only the Calvinist believes that Christ died to SAVE anyone. The General Baptist thinks He died to make men able to be saved. There is all the difference in the world between these two.
What theory of the atonement does Price hold? Does he think that Christ died only to show the justice of God (Grotian or governmental)? Or that the atonement was primarily designed to affect us to love God (moral influence)? Because historically the vast majority of evangelicals have taught penal substitution. Charles Wesley wrote:
O love Divine, what hast Thou done?
The immortal God has died for me;
The Father's co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree.
Here is confidence, when the Spirit speaks to the heart and causes us to cry 'Abba, Father', we can say 'Father thou knowest He hath died in my place'.
'He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.' Those for whom Christ died shall ALL be saved.
