George Whitefield on Extent of the atonement
Definite — for the elect, effectually
You cannot make good the assertion that Christ died for those who perish without holding that all the damned souls would hereafter be brought out of hell
THE POSITION
Christ did not die for those who perish, and he argues it by reductio: anyone who says he did must end in universal salvation, and he cites a Moravian, Peter Böhler, who had conceded exactly that. He reads the "us all" of Romans 8:32 — Wesley's own text in Free Grace — as all the saints. A definite atonement does not narrow his preaching; the same letter requires preaching "promiscuously to all."
32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
8 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Anglican priest and field preacher of the Evangelical Revival and the First Great Awakening, who crossed the Atlantic seven times and died on his last American tour. Wesley's Oxford companion and, from his 1740 letter answering Free Grace, his public opponent on election — the Calvinist half of the Methodist split, set here beside Wesley and Edwards. This entry rests on that letter and eleven of the sermons printed in the standard selected editions.
Cite this page
"George Whitefield on Extent of the atonement", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/whitefield/atonement-extent (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/whitefield/atonement-extent).