Is everyone saved?

Question / Comment - Everyone will be saved and go to Heaven!

I would like you to explain Roman's 5:18-19 'Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.'

And 2 Cor 5:18-21 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'

Surely Christ has redeemed the whole world and coming into the revelation of this fact will indeed save our soul's..

According to these passage's, I think that they speak for themselves. I do believe that all will go to heaven. The reason why I believe this is that I believe that God The Father and the son made covenant to redeem the entire world. But that it was made to embrace the whole world. I believe that it was through Christ's faith and obedience that we all have received eternal life. Our faith only embrace's the fact that Christ did this for us all.

FOR GOD HATH CONCLUDED THEM "ALL" IN UNBELIEF, THAT HE MIGHT HAVE MERCY UPON "ALL". Romans 11:32
If we just simply read the verses that follow the above statement made by Paul (33-36) we will notice that those of us who are caught up in the "having to believe to be saved" are pretty much trying to decide for God who will make it and who won't. Yet we see that Paul states... "For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?" Evangelical Christianity and other religions along with them - who base their relationship with God on their performance - are the ones who seem to continue to know the mind of God and be His counselor. When someone takes the position that "believing" is what determines who is saved and who isn't, they are pretty much saying that they have figured out the "depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! and have reached the point of understanding God's judgments, and have found out about His ways". If we just simply look to Christ and realize that it was "For Him, and through Him, and to Him, are "ALL" things; to who be glory forever", that God DECIDED to save the entire world, we wouldn't have the mess that we have in our religious institutions today. The fact is that none of us have ever been able to tell God who gets in and who is out. The covenant was made between God the Father and God the Son and man was left totally out of the picture. When Adam fell, everyone fell and God did not ask anyone for permission to conclude all in unbelief, just as He did not ask anyone’s permission to conclude "ALL" under mercy. God's love is not like ours. He made the decision of choosing to save "ALL" in spite of us "ALL". So it can be said that God did not give anyone the choice to be saved. He violated their so called "Free Will" by declaring everyone guilty so that He might be the justifier of "ALL". As long as the heart is not established in Grace, we will always have the tendency as human beings in taking things out of context and seeing salvation in light of performance and earning it by good works.

Grace and Peace.

Reply:

Hi, thanks for the question and your comments.

It is fair to say that we see things quite differently. In fact, I would be surprised if even you believe some of what you have written above. I don't mean to be rude or offensive in saying this, but let me explain what I mean. You use Romans 11:33-36 to basically say that we cannot know God's mind or who it is that will be saved. So even though God's word tells us over and over that salvation is available to those that believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus on our behalf, you undermine such faith in the word of God by saying that we can't know the mind of the Lord. And yet, you have no problem in quoting verses that you believe support your position of universal salvation, so you obviously do believe that we can know the mind of the Lord in these matters because of what the Bible teaches. Hence, you don't really believe what you have written above.

Of course we can know the mind of God in these matters! Christians are His ambassadors, with a message from God. (2 Cor 5:20). We are not to be wishy-washy on what that message is or simply say that we don't really know what God thinks on something as important as salvation! While the things of God are hidden from the natural man, we have the word of God, Christians have the Spirit of God, and through these we 'have the mind of Christ' as Paul writes. (See 1 Cor 2:10-16).

You write "When someone takes the position that "believing" is what determines who is saved and who isn't, they are pretty much saying that they have figured out the "depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! and have reached the point of understanding God's judgments, and have found out about His ways".

No, a person who takes the position that "believing" is what determines who is saved and who isn't, is simply expressing their faith in both the word of God and the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. It isn't complicated... it is quite simple.

As Jesus said in John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” Again, it isn't complicated. The whole basis of the great commission that Jesus gave to the Church is based on this very principle... the whole reason that Jesus told us to go into the entire world and preach is so that people will believe and be saved, and not perish. Listen again to the words of Jesus, spoken after His resurrection, in all their glorious SIMPLICITY - 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.' (Mark 16:15-16)

Nor is salvation (if it is a true faith) 'a performance and earning it by good works' although some 'Christian cults' and other religions may wrongly view it this way. To place your faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation is the total opposite of trusting in yourself and your own good works or ability.
As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 4:3-5 'What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.'

As for answering your query concerning Romans 5:18, the old saying applies here - 'Take a text out of context, and you are left with a con!' The whole book of Romans testifies to the fact that salvation is available to those who believe and have faith, and that those who reject God and salvation will perish. It certainly doesn't teach that salvation is just given to everyone whether they believe in Jesus or not, or desire salvation or not. For example some of these verses leading up to 5:18 include Rom 1:16-17, 18-32 (which shows that the wrath of God abides on those that reject the truth), 2:5-12 (the unrepentant are storing up wrath for themselves and will 'perish'), 3:22, 26-28 (justification and salvation is available through faith... to those that 'believe'), 4:1-8 (again, as both Abraham and David found, God credits 'righteousness' to those who have faith), 5:1 (justification is by faith), 17 (and this gift of righteousness is available to all because of what Jesus did, but it needs to be received). Later on, Paul returns to this topic and again shows that faith and belief are essential to salvation. See Rom 10:1-11.

William MacDonald, author of the Believers Bible Commentary writes well concerning Romans 5:18 when he says "The two 'alls' in this verse do not refer to the same people. The first 'all' means all who are in Adam. The second all means all who are in Christ. This is clear from the preceding verse "those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness..." The gift must be received by faith. Only those who trust the Lord receive justification of life."

It seems to me that you are focusing on the gift of salvation that is available to the entire world, (which is correct) and totally overlooking the need on man's behalf to accept and receive that gift through faith. Though Jesus has paid for the sins of the entire world, it is still true, as Jesus Himself to one unbeliever, that 'you shall die in your sins: for except you believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins.' (John 8:24). Or, to use another analogy that Jesus Himself used concerning salvation -

'Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.' I'm sure you know the story... Those in Israel that had been bitten by the poisonous snake simply had to look to the bronze snake upon the pole to be healed and live. If they looked, they lived. If they didn't look, they perished. Jesus used this analogy because the same is true for the human race spiritually. If we look to Jesus in simple faith, we live. If we don't, we perish.

So, the bottom line is that there is a Heaven, and there is a Hell. To believe that everyone just ends up in Heaven no matter what may be a nice thought for a person to hang onto but it is a blind assumption not based on the word of God. Jesus, previewing and speaking of the judgment of mankind at the end of the age said -

'“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels...Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt 25:41-46)

In no passage concerning the judgment to come is there any thought whatsoever of 'some' covenant made between the Father and the Son to save ALL mankind, irrespective of their faith, their life, and their will. There is only eternal life to the righteous and eternal punishment to the unrighteous.

"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books... The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.' Rev 20:11-15

I do hope so of this helps. I have not written anything to purposefully offend you but the truth about salvation is obviously important! We all have a responsibility to accurately declare the mind of God as revealed in His word.

All the best. May God bless.