Bunyan On Wanting Salvation

1628-1688

Hardshell Baptists say - "the man who wants salvation already HAS it." I dealt with this in a short posting (see Was Balaam Saved?), disproving it. Now let me cite from Bunyan on this point.

Bunyan wrote (emphasis mine):

"...there is not only in carnal men a will to be vile, but there is in them a will to be saved also, a will to go to heaven also: But this it will not do, it will not privilege a man in the things of the kingdom of God; natural desires after the things of another world, they are not an argument to prove a man shall go to heaven whenever he dies; I am not a free-willer, I do abhor it, yet there is not the wickedst man, but he desires some time or other to be saved; he will read some time or other, or it may be pray; but this will not do, It is not in him that wills nor in him that runs, but in God that shews mercy; there is willing and running, and yet to no purpose, Rom. 9. 16." (Justification - here)

Thus, the Hardshell idea that the want for salvation is proof of actual salvation, leads to Universalism.