The two positions are this:
Calvinism: Christ died ONLY for a few
Orthodox Christianity: Christ died for all.
It's not more complicated. Traditional Christianity is NOT saying that thus all are saved (universalism came out of hyper-Calvinism) because there is another factor: Faith. But hyper-Calvinism is saying that for most, there is nothing for faith to grasp since Jesus isn't for them, Christ never died for THEM.
Of course, there is not a single verse that says Christ died ONLY, EXCLUSIVELY, SOLELY, JUST for the LIMITED few. There are verses that speak of Christ dying for the elect, but it doesn't say "ONLY" for the elect, and that's the issue. If I posted that Donald Trump is a US citizen, that would not mean that ergo no one else is.
There are MANY verses that speak of Christ dying for all. Among them (all brought up here) are:
1 John 2:2
Isaiah 53:6
Luke 19:10
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Hebrews 2:9
John 1:29
1 John 4:14
John 4:42
John 3:14-16 (see with Numbers 21 where the staff is for ALL who look upon it)
and so many, many more...
Now EVERYONE agrees that this death benefits only those who have the divine gift of faith; it is faith that apprehends/trust/relies/embraces/applies the work of Christ to the individual. But that's a whole other issue. The issue here is this: For most people, is there anything for that faith to apprehend? Is the issue NOT the object of faith (Christ) but rather whether Christ has anything to offer them, anything for them?
IMO, the hyper-Calvinists invention is certainly unbiblical. It is nothing more than a "logical extension" of some other aspects of TULIP that are equally unfounded. It simply has NOTHING in Scripture or Tradition to support it. And worse.... it creates a terror since the issue is no longer whether faith is directed to Christ but whether Christ has anything for an individual - and since there is no short list of those for whom Christ died, there's no way to know if Christ died for any individual (including the one we see in the mirror). The glory of the orthodox, traditional view is that Christ died for all - and therefore for YOU (no if, ands or buts.... no doubting... no terror), the issue then is whether one has faith in that and thus embraces and applies that. If one does, there is justification.
It seems to ME that nearly all Calvinists LONG AGO repudiated the "L" of TULIP and have simply changed it to the biblical, orthodox view we find in the rest of Christianity; virtually all Calvinists are not "Five Point Calvinists" (likely not 4 or 3 either, lol) or have changed the "L" so that it has to do with the presence or absence of FAITH, not CHRIST and the Cross.
I hope that helps.
- Josiah
I hope that helps.