Of course Jesus Christ atoned for the many, but not for each and every person who had ever lived and will yet be born.
To say, believe, and teach that the "all" in the scriptures for whom Christ is said to be a propitiation or atonement refers to each and every person who had ever lived and will yet be born is simply erroneous and foolishness. For atonement makes sense to the living and the yet to be born, but not to those who are already dead and in their graves. So, the "all" in the scriptures for whom Christ is said to be a propitiation or atonement could only refer to the living in those times when Jesus Christ made atonement, and to the yet to be born people. To force that the "all" in the scriptures for whom Christ is said to be a propitiation or atonement refers to each and every person who had ever lived and will yet be born would be forcing that Jesus atoned for even Adam, Eve, Cain, those whom God condemned and destroyed until the generation of Noah, those whom God condemned and destroyed in the flood in Noah's time, the Egyptian firstborns whom God killed in the Exodus, Pharaoh and his men whom God destroyed, the idolatrous children of Israel whom God killed in wilderness, those whom God killed in the taking of the land of Canaan, the false prophets, Judas, and all the pagans and sinners who had lived and died, whom God had given up to uncleanness, to vile passions, and to a debased mind, before Jesus' sacrifice of atonement. And that, you only contend to believe but could not obviously explain or tell us why Jesus Christ would have made atonement for them dead people. And that even make it foolishness when you say and I quote "that atonement refers to the needed reconciliation between sinful mankind and the holy God." Foolishness in that, how could dead people in the grave be reconciled to God, and what for?
Tong
R0477
Ah, how you would limit God! It's sad, really. How was Abraham saved again?
Romans 4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham
believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!
Why do you want to limit the atonement? If Abraham's sins were atoned for, long before Christ was born as a human, why would you claim others who lived before the cross were not atoned for? If Christ didn't die for Cain, why did God blame Cain for his sin? Could Cain have made a different choice if he had truly believed and trusted God, even if he only had part of the information about who God is? Of course, he could have!
Romans 1:20
For from the creation of the world the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
From the creation, we have been given enough knowledge and enough light to trust in God.
Those of Noah's day were destroyed because they refused God! Would God be just in destroying those who had no other choice but defy him? The fact that there was a righteous man at that time proves my point! Was Noah not justified by the cross? The resurrection of Christ doesn't only work in one direction, else no one in the past could have been saved.
All the people that you mention who God destroyed were destroyed because they didn't follow the light God gave them, otherwise God is just a horrible monster who likes to kill his creation for no fault of their own.
BTW, there are no dead people. They all still exist somewhere. And they all had their chance at salvation in their lifetimes.