Hypothetical Universalism is a Reformed Limited Atonement variant doctrine which states that Christ died sufficiently for every person, thus being sent to the whole world as a sacrifice for our sins, however, His death is only efficient for those who are elect, or predestined for salvation.
but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the olde Testament, or the newe, and that which the catholicke fathers, and auncient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine.”[11] The judgements and the teachings of the Early Church Fathers were held in high authority due to their chronological closeness to the life of Jesus Christ and the Apostolic Era and were hotly debated during the Reformation as both the Hypothetical Universalists and those against, commonly referred to as Owenians, fought to defend their interpretation of the early sources as correct.
[12] Richard Muller rightly says that “[t]he Reformers and the Protestant orthodox held the tradition in relatively high esteem and continued to cite the councils of the first five centuries and church Fathers generally as authorities in doctrinal matters”[13] The topic of Christ's atoning sacrifice and the extent of His death were from the start an intensely debated point, with Johann Windeck writing against Jacobus Kimedoncius and Theodore Beza in his Controversiae de mortis Christi efficacia[14] in which he provides over 25 pages of apologetic for his view on Christ's atonement.
Bishop John Davenant also set out to defend his view of Hypothetical Universalism through a survey of the 5th century, regarding Augustine he notes that Vincentians accused him of teaching that the Lord Jesus did not "suffer for the salvation and redemption of all human beings.”[15] This claim was often levied at the Augustinians by their opponents and later interpreters of Augustine would presume this as true.
[18] This argument became a key hermeneutical tool in the particularist language of the early and medieval church Fathers.