Luke 9:56
When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.
Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
John 12:47: “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
These verses convey a universal-saving-will on the part of God, which by no means requires Universalism, since John 3:16 makes plain that even though God has loved and given His Son for the world, only those in the world who believe, will experience the benefits of their gift from God. So for Calvinists to raise the specter of Universalism is just a Red Herring. You do not need Universalism in order to legitimately conclude that God, for His part, is indeed willing that the whole world be saved. But this does not coincide with Calvinism at all, which teaches that God created the vast majority of mankind, that is, those on the wide road to destruction, with the full intention to destroy them, somehow for the glory of God to “illustrate” His purposes in them. The verse in question is Proverbs 16:4, which states: “The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
To this, John Calvin explains:
John Calvin: “Solomon also teaches us that not only was the destruction of the ungodly foreknown, but the ungodly themselves have been created for the specific purpose of perishing (Prov. 16:4).” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, pp.207-208, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “...the wicked were created for the day of evil simply because God willed to illustrate His own glory in them; just as elsewhere He declares that Pharaoh was raised up by Him that He might show forth His name among the Gentiles (Ex 9:16).” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.97, emphasis mine)
So according to Calvinism, God has indeed willed to destroy men’s lives, by decree, from before the foundation of the world, which allegedly was to acquire glory in their suffering. Calvinism is simply inconsistent with what Jesus stated as His motives. Man fell by his own free will, and God, for His part, is willing to save them, however, only on His own terms, terms which are outlined at John 3:16.
