[Hulse’s prefacing remarks:]
One of the readers of Reformation Today has pointed out that John Owen, a foremost and respected theologian, restricted the meaning of 2 Peter 3:9 to ‘the elect’. The text reads as follows, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness: but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’
In seeking to refute Arminianism Owen became intolerant of the Arminian interpretations and said, ‘I shall not need add anything concerning the contradictions and inexplicable difficulties wherewith the opposite interpretation is accompanied.’ He also said, ‘That to believe that God has the same will and mind towards all and everyone in the world is to come not far short of extreme madness and folly’ (Owen’s works vol. 10, p. 348ff.).
We do not believe that God has the same will and mind towards all in the world in as much as he has by sovereign election determined to save a people for himself. We are dealing now with the question of his revealed will, in which he will have all to be saved. This Owen himself, and all the Puritan divines, maintained. The question before us is whether 2 Peter 3:9 should be included as one of the passages which either directly state or infer that God’s revealed will is for all to be saved. Under pressure Owen sought to restrict it, but was it necessary to do so?
Since this issue arose from the article by Bob Letham, ‘Theology well formed or deformed?’, we have asked him to give us an exposition of 2 Peter 3:9. He has responded as follows:
[Letham’s answer:]
The particularity of redemption is not endangered by adopting a more inclusive reference than Owen would allow. Indeed, Calvin himself understood Peter’s language in precisely that way. However, we would all agree that our ideas should not rest on human authority or tradition, but on biblical exegesis.