Free offer of the gospel

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The free offer of the Gospel refers to the offer of salvation in Jesus Christ to all people. It is generally accepted by Calvinists, but rejected by a few small Reformed denominations, such as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Australia^[1] and the Protestant Reformed Churches in America.

1 General Call vs. Free Offer
2 Dispute
3 References
4 External links

[edit] General Call vs. Free Offer

The free offer of the gospel builds on the general call, which can be found in the Canons of Dort. This states: "Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gospel" (II.5).

The free offer gets its name from an essay by John Murray, titled "The Free Offer of the Gospel." It is related to the belief that "God not only delights in the penitent but is also moved by the riches of his goodness and mercy to desire the repentance and salvation of the impenitent and reprobate."

Based upon this belief, Murray concludes that: "The full and free offer of the gospel is a grace bestowed upon all... The grace offered is nothing less than salvation in its richness and fullness. The love or lovingkindness that lies back of that offer is not anything less; it is the will to that salvation." ^[2]

[edit] Dispute

This idea has caused dispute in Calvinist circles concerning whether or not an evangelist can sincerely say that God desires the salvation of everyone in attendance and is waiting and hoping for them to "repent and believe." The concern is that this message is no different than the Arminian delivery. The heart of the matter, according to the majority report submitted to the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1948, is "whether it can properly be said that God desires the salvation of all men."^[3] Those taking the negative position are sometimes labeled Hyper-Calvinists.^[4]

This label is disputed, however, in that some who deny the free offer accept the idea of a "general call". David J. Engelsma states: "Ours is a denial that arises out of the Reformed faith itself, that is in perfect harmony with all aspects of the Reformed faith (including the serious, external call to all who come under the preaching!), and that is made for the sake of the maintenance of the Reformed faith. It is not a rejection of the church's duty to preach the gospel to all men indiscriminately. We believe that the many must be called."^[5]

John Gerstner, a former student of Murray, states: "With tears in my heart, I nevertheless confidently assert that they erred profoundly in The Free Offer of the Gospel and died before they seem to have realized their error which . . . still does incalculable damage to the cause of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of His Gospel." ^[6]