we disbelieve the record will that make it false?  No; our unbelief cannot alter the fact.  Let the record then be proclaimed to every creature—­saying God has promised and given you eternal life in Christ before the world began, and calls upon all to believe it.  But suppose they should all reject it saying we do not believe one word of it, would their unbelief make the promise or record false?  No.  Would not then the record prove true?  It would.  Then the whole world would, of course, receive that eternal life which is promised and given them in Christ.  No, says the objector, they will not believe.  But can their unbelief make God’s promise of none effect?  Can it put that truth out of existence and make it a falsehood?  We would ask the objector, what will they not believe?  Answer; they will not believe that God has given them eternal life in his Son.  Very well,—­then the whole amount of the objection is that God has given them eternal life in Christ, but they will not believe it, and because they will not believe it, they never shall obtain it!  Then we must contend (if they never obtain it) that it was never given to them, and if not given, then the record is false; because the record declares that God has given them eternal life in his Son.  It then follows that their unbelief can make the faithfulness of God without effect by rendering the word, he has given, false.

But says the objector it ought to be stated conditionally as follows—­ God first calls upon men to believe, and if they will believe, then Christ will become their Saviour, and then they will receive eternal life in him and not before.  But does not the objector see that he has stated no fact for them to believe in order to make Christ their Saviour?  I ask what does God call upon them to believe?  There must be some truth presented before men can be called upon to believe.  God calls upon men to believe, what—­That Christ is their Saviour?  But you said he was not their Saviour till after they believed.  It then follows, according to the objector’s statement, that he is not the Saviour of unbelievers.  Now do you not perceive that if you should call upon them to believe that he was their Saviour, you would call upon them to believe a lie—­that you would call upon them to believe what did not exist?  And what does not exist cannot be true.  Grant says the objector that he is the Saviour of the world, still as many as do not believe in him shall never be saved.  But how can he be the Saviour of a man, he never saves?  Two individuals are drowning in the water; you exert all your power to save them, but fail.  Can you call yourself the saviour of those two men from temporal death?  Impossible.  In order for Christ to be called the Saviour of the world, he must save the world; otherwise there is not a shadow of propriety in giving him that name.  And John says “We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.”—­“We know, indeed, that this is the Messiah the Saviour of the world.”