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Examined Doctrine
PASSAGE · BSB

1 John 2

10 positions in the corpus lean on this chapter. Cited verses are marked.

1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

2He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

3By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

4If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:

6Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.

7Beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one, which you have had from the beginning. This commandment is the message you have heard.

8Then again, I am also writing to you a new commandment, which is true in Him and also in you. For the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining.

9If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness.

10Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him.

11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

12I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through His name.

13I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

14I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

17The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

18Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

20You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

21I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

22Who is the liar, if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.

23Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.

24As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father.

25And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

26I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

27And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

28And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.

29If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

Who leans on it

Jacobus Arminius on extent of the atonementSTANDARD ACCOUNTAFFIRMS°Christ died for all; the atonement's benefits are applied on faith.Augustine on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCELEANS°Perseverance is a distinct gift of grace given to the elect; some of the truly regenerate — people with genuine faith, hope, and love — do not receive it and so do not endure. Augustine's own answer to why is a flat 'I d…Calvin on extent of the atonementDISPUTED READINGCONTESTED°The one place Calvin addresses the question head-on is his comment on 1 John 2:2, and he does two things there that are usually reported separately. He grants that the schools' formula — sufficient for the whole world, e…Second London Baptist Confession on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Chapter 17.1 takes Westminster's sentence and expands it into a paragraph: those accepted in the Beloved can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace. Paragraph 17.2 grounds that not in the believer's fre…John Owen on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The genuinely saved cannot finally fall, and Owen wrote a book of six hundred pages on it in 1654 against John Goodwin. He faces the apostasies of his own decade head-on rather than around them — "as many stars cast from…Justin Peters on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Eternal security, positional and relational, resting on the giver rather than the believer: salvation is God's gift and will never be revoked. He meets the easy-believism objection head on — those who profess and later w…R.C. Sproul on perseverance & eternal securityPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The genuinely converted cannot lose their salvation: "if you have it you never lose it, and if you lose it, you never had it." Prefers the term "preservation" to "perseverance," locating the guarantee in God's action rat…Wesley on election & predestinationPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Grounded in God's foreknowledge of who will believe, not an eternal decree that causes belief or unbelief. Reworks Romans 8:29-30 as the order salvation follows rather than a causal chain fixed from eternity: God's knowl…Wesley on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°Christ died for every person without exception, not only the elect. Stacks universal-scope texts against a definite-atonement reading and argues that universal invitation and definite atonement cannot both be sincere: if…Westminster Confession on extent of the atonementPRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°The restriction is stated in chapter 3 rather than chapter 8, and it is stated as an exclusive: no one other than the elect is redeemed by Christ. Chapter 8 then makes purchase and application coextensive - 8.5 says Chri…