1618–1733

For whom did Christ die: limited atonement from Gottschalk to Dort, Westminster and Owen

As early as the 9th century Gottschalk, proceeding from the doctrine of double predestination, concluded that Christ died only for the elect; most 9th-century writers regarded this with suspicion, but, according to McGrath, the teaching revived in later Calvinism. Against the Arminians the Synod of Dort (1618) taught that the atonement, fully sufficient for the salvation of all, is intended only for the elect, and that its efficacy depends not on the sinner's decision but on God's determination. The school of Saumur (Amyraut) tried to soften Dort with "hypothetical universalism", but was refuted by the Helvetic Formula Consensus. The Westminster Confession (1647) teaches that Christ purchased salvation "for all those whom the Father hath given unto him" (8:5), and John Owen in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647) argued that universal atonement only makes salvation possible, whereas limited atonement actually saves the elect.