Again, it is written that "God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son." Now if He loved the world, He loved every individual in
the world. He loves every soul of the human race. Not color, nor
climate, nor civilization, nor any special epoch of the world's
history, can make any restriction.
Now if God loved the world, He expressed His love for the world; and how
did He express it? By giving his Son. Then He must have given His Son
for every soul of man. It would be no expression of His love for me to
give His Son for somebody else. But He loved me personally, and gave His
Son for me personally. Hence Paul could say: "He loved me, and gave
Himself for me." And so everyone of the human race may truly say.
A THEORY.
Generality here tends to confusion and mistakes. It has been too much
the habit to think and speak of God as giving His Son for the world, and
yet holding a reserved and unexpressed idea that He gave His Son only
for the saved. Such an idea is not often expressed publicly, and I
believe is not held heartily, But it is formally professed; it is theory
in a certain creed. Not only so, but it is felt that universal atonement
involves universal salvation; and that is an issue which in many cases
men are not prepared to accept In fact many plain statements of
Scripture are twisted and tortured out of their plain meaning,
apparently to avoid the issue of universal salvation.
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