a) Holy Scripture positively declares in a number of passages that God wills the salvation of all believers, whether predestined or not. Jesus Himself says in regard to the Jews: Matth. XXIII, 37: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I (_volui_) have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not (_noluisti_).” Two facts are stated in this text: (1) Our Lord’s earnest desire to save the Jewish people, anciently through the instrumentality of the prophets, and now in His own person; (2) the refusal of the Jews to be saved. Of those who believe in Christ under the New Covenant we read in the Gospel of St. John (III, 16): “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him(470) may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” However, since many who believe in Christ do actually perish,(471) the divine _voluntas salvifica_, in principle, extends not only to the predestined, but to all the faithful, _i.e._ to all who have received the sacrament of Baptism.
b) The teaching of the Fathers can be gathered from the quotations given under Thesis II, _infra_.
c) The theological argument may be briefly summarized as follows: God’s will to save is co-extensive with the grace of adoptive sonship (_filiatio adoptiva_), which is imparted either by Baptism or by perfect charity. Now, some who were once in the state of grace are eternally lost. Consequently, God also wills the salvation of those among the faithful who do not actually attain to salvation and who are, therefore, not predestined.
*Thesis II: God wills to save every human being.
This proposition is _fidei proxima saltem_.
Proof. The existence of original sin is no reason why God should exclude some men from the benefits of the atonement, as was alleged by the Calvinistic “Infralapsarians.” Our thesis is so solidly grounded on Scripture and Tradition that some theologians unhesitatingly call it an article of faith.
a) We shall confine the Scriptural demonstration to two classical passages, Wisd. XI, 24 sq. and 1 Tim. II, 1 sqq.
α) The Book of Wisdom, after extolling God’s omnipotence, says of His mercy: “But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made.... Thou sparest all, because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls.”(472)