I think if God went to all the trouble to say THE WHOLE WORLD he meant it.
1 Timothy 2
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
God is saying through these verses that he was a ransom for ALL so I believe him.
Heb 2:9
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
The Jesus that I know died for EVERY MAN not a select few as John Calvin taught. He died for every person within mankind. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes for everything in this world.
Rom 3:27,28
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Paul is clearly saying here that faith is NOT a work. How anyone can believe that faith is a work is beyond me. Faith comes from the word which is freely given to all as a gift as I was showing in Part 2 using Acts 10. They received from God just by hearing the word go forth. It is most definitely quick and powerful as
Heb 4:12 says
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
I have also shown in another article dealing with the TULIP by using
Isa 55:11
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
The word even says so in Rom 10:17
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The word of God works on people in ways we cannot imagine since it comes from God and he backs it up to set people free. If the word just works on a limited few than God needs to stop speaking, He doesn’t have much power anymore like he did when he created everything by the power of his word BUT now his word does not work very well which is sad IF Calvinism was true. Another thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is the word MUST go forth to set the captives free SO if Christians are NOT speaking the word to the world then it is NOT doing much since it must be heard to work on others. The word produces faith in others WHEN it is heard like in Acts 10. The word can be heard in the reading of it, the preaching from it, sharing it with others on a one to one basis, etc.