Book review on "Chosen But Free" by Norman Geisler

In the Book Chosen But Free , Norman Geisler the author makes a statement that Calvin has been misunderstood by the neo –Calvinists of our present day and that Calvin was not an extreme Calvinist like the neo-Calvinists make him out to be today.  Geisler has a decent amount of evidence for this claim in his book.  Geisler claims that Calvin believed in unlimited atonement as he states in his book, “While Calvin believed that the benefits of the Atonement are applied only to a limited group, he held that the extent of the Atonement is unlimited…Christ died for the sins of the whole human race” (p.200). Geisler’s belief is that the neo-Calvinist took the idea of limited atonement as a misunderstanding by Calvin or as a spring board to prove that Christ only died for the elect. This belief does make sense to me after all this is not the first time that someone has twisted the words of a leader. The book states that these extreme Calvinists have basically taken the simple principles first introduced by Calvin and have distorted and corrupted them dramatically. Geisler goes on to into further details about how Calvin believed that Christ died for the whole world not just for the elect and backs it up with scripture and the words of Calvin. For example the book says that Calvin believed that no one should parish and in a quote by Calvin he states “This is his wondrous love towards the human race, that he desires all men to be saved , and is prepared to bring even the perishing to safety. We must notice the order that God is prepared to receive all men into repentance, so that none may perish. These words indicate the means of obtaining salvation, and whoever of us seeks salvation must learn to follow in this way” (p.202). This clearly states that Calvin did not believe in only a select few being saved. Also in the book Geisler says that Calvin believed that the offer of salvation was never limited in its offer just in its effect, just like a person cannot benefit from the perks of having a membership to an exclusive gym or resort without the actual membership. This is also true with salvation, a person will not benefit from salvation unless they receive salvation through faith and belief in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior.  Calvin’s views on Calvinism is hard to interpret while he did seem to lean toward some points of extreme Calvinism such as encouraging  extreme Calvinism’s T-U-L-I-P  according to Geisler,  he also seems to make it clear that he strongly believed that everyone had a chance at salvation.  This is confusing and makes perfect sense why confusion would happen when understanding where Calvin stands, but this does not give people the right to twist and distort what Calvin said just to prove their extremist view. This is why   Geisler’s view seems to be the most believable view of Calvin’s view on atonement because it points toward a simpler and more practical view.