On November 4-5 we held our Third Pacific Northwest Regional Convivium in Moscow, Idaho. The convivium was kicked off by a presentation from Michael J. Lynch.
In his talk, Lynch dispelled common myths, held by Reformed and non-Reformed, about the five points: that they present non-Christians as utterly devoid of good, teach a deterministic system that rules out free will, and allow the elect to “live like the Devil” and still be saved. Drawing on his specific area of expertise, Lynch also showed that the Synod of Dort’s statement on “limited atonement” (not actually called so in the canons) was a consensus statement, allowing for at least three different views current at the time.
Lynch, a doctoral student at Calvin Theological Seminary, is currently doing his dissertation on John Davenant’s hypothetical universalism, and anyone interested in the subject of limited atonement should be sure to consider his work.