Some future morning as the unfolding plan of God is complete, all people who once lived and died on earth will be gathered together to partake of God’s rich mercy, with endless joy, we will reign in Life as a son or daughter of God, in the heavenly city of God. Raised to God life, death no longer controlling the spirit and soul, all people will join us believers who are now raised to develop a spiritual body that never dies.
Even now, in the remnant elected by God’s grace a firstfruits company of His creative purpose has redeamed purpose, have spiritually entered heaven’s portals to be partaking of the city of God. These ones have found their way by faith, and are NOW ALIVE spiritually AND BECOME A HOME FOR GOD. A mighty transformation shall come, it is to be experienced ultimately by ALL MEN. The scriptures clearly proclaim Jesus is the savior of all, and none will be able to resist Him, praise the Lord!
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:3-6 NAU
We have heard much about evangelizing the nations and are flooded with well meaning programs designed to “save the world for Christ.” In this generation preachers have told us this mission must be accomplished before Jesus Christ can come again. We hear of glorious revivals at home and abroad, of fresh missionary efforts in various directions, and of great crusades attended by tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people, radio and television broadcasts are beamed by satellite to nations of the earth. Large sums of money are devoted to these endeavors and preachers give assurances that support for them is adequate effort to evangelize the nations.
Yet compared to the present population, estimated today a world population over seven and a half billion people, most of these people have not received Jesus Christ as Lord. And multiplied billions have died and gone on to the unseen without any word, faith in, or contact with Jesus Christ. Even if all the people of this present generation would now become believers, it would only be an infinitesimal fraction of all the people who have ever lived. It is estimated that about one hundred and sixty billion human beings have lived on the earth just in the last six thousand years.
Of these, the very broadest estimate could reasonably be made that less than three billion people were truly Christian believers. This broad estimate would leave the immense aggregate of one hundred and fifty seven billion (157,000,000,000) people who went to their graves without faith in God’s King, having no hope in the only name given under heaven whereby one might be saved. Indeed, the vast majority of people never heard of, or knew of the name of Jesus. They could not believe in Him of whom they had not heard.
What, I ask, has become of this vast multitude, and what is to be, their future condition? Did God make no provision for these billions, whose condition and future circumstances He must have foreseen? Could it really be true that our loving Father made no provision for these wretched and hopeless ones, leaving them to be eternally tormented as so many of His children in church heavens now proclaim? Do you really believe that God, the all-wise, all-merciful, loving Father has no plan working out His purposes toward fallen mankind? WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ... for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." I Timothy 2:1-6
This text is a rare beauty in the scriptures. Like a precious diamond, it shines with radiance that dazzles the mind. It drops pure fragrance, a distilled essence that fills the chambers of our heart. It should challenge everyone who reads it to open their understanding to let it engrave the truth deep into our hearts. Every saint of God can penetrate the vast reality of it.
"I exhort therefore, that ... supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men ... for ... God our Saviour ... WILL have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of truth."
The mind and will of God is far more determined than we realize, it is beyond men’s natural thinking, believers simply have not understood the scripture, nor His intentions unless His Spirit has enlightened them. God's WILL is to save all men. He continually fills our minds with this great truth as the Spirit of God subdues every thought that does not align with His will. This scripture contains rays of light that reveal the deep intent of God toward the billions of dead in the unseen. His complete will is revealed, in its fullest measure, and God will perform it. It is His main objective. Clearly this text states GOD WILL HAVE ALL MEN SAVED.
When we seek God, He expands our limits beyond ourselves and our individual needs to pray for all men. We use this as a guideline for our behavior and feelings toward all other people. We seek to love others patiently, even those who despitefully use us, even those who are open enemies. We are taught it is God's will that all men know the truth and are to be saved.
In effect we can become participators with Him even now in the fulfilling of His will. If we accept what this scripture teaches, and believe it, we can leave it to God to fulfill all that He intends to do in His due time. GOD WILLS that all men be saved. Faith in His ability to accomplish those beautiful words now possesses our hearts and has inspired our life. Our prayers and intercessions are now FOR ALL MEN. We are learning to see and deal with each person in the proper light — not after who he is, what he does, or what he deserves, but in the light of God's will for him.
God so loves miserable and worthless human creatures that He sent His Son for them, to be crucified of men. Jesus prayed for these same men to be forgiven for they knew not what they did. We too can be inspired to love those who crucify us and really pray earnestly for them. God's mindset for the salvation of all men should be placed in each one of us. His unfathomable love for all who are lost and miserable is real, yet He determines when we all should be saved.
Christians moving into the Feast of Tabernacles now learn to think more like God, to be filled with the consciousness of His will. They continue until it possesses and devours them, becoming even now an extension of the will of God to those hurting and in need, no matter where they are. Obedience to the revelations given of scripture in the form of agreement takes us to the path of greater oneness with GOD. He instructs every man about the truth BY THE SPIRIT, in order to save every man.
Since our eyes have caught the vision of the will of God to save all men and our ears have heard the saying, "I exhort THEREFORE, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made FOR ALL MEN," our hearts respond with eagerness. We are set aflame with His love to breathe out a fervent prayer, "YOUR WILL BE DONE IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!"
God's purpose is set to perform beyond and above the scope of any earthly yoke that has a hold on our life. He is breaking the holds of vanity, bitterness, and judgmental attitudes within the believing souls of those who follow Him in order to save them. Those who think they shall enjoy heaven while billions for whom Jesus Christ died writhe forever in tormenting flames of hell, possessed by darkness and death, are narrow-minded, to say the least. How broad our intercession should be!
There is a concern for all men before the throne of God. We are commanded to pray for all men, intercede for all men — not only a few, a mere handful of present time believers. If all men are not saved, those prayers would represent impotence on God's part to do it. If the darkness of death can possess forever the souls of those on behalf of whom Jesus died, we who pray will also be impotent.
The future salvation of all men in no measure diminishes our responsibility to evangelize and teach the lost. IT INCREASES IT A HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN BILLION FOLD! Previously I felt responsible to pray for us few, us four and no more, hoping to be rescued through my effort in prayer. Now I know the responsibility is to pray and fight in the spiritual battle for the souls of all men until the last battle is won and no enemies to Him are left. Our prayer life can actually carry the anointing of deliverance that CAN and WILL be answered to accomplish some of His will in the spiritual life of other men!
Whenever scripture introduces this “I WILL” of God, then we should immediately erase the ideas of men. The self-efforts of man are then brought face to face with the sovereignty of the Almighty God. In the face of His sovereignty, all of man's hostility and unbelief is as nothing. Whenever God decrees "I WILL do it," man cannot ever deter that sovereign operation. Man also has tremendous power of will, but when a man says in his heart, "I will not” to God, he goes down as swift and sure as an arrow to its mark, swift as a stone into the depths of the sea. He will sink to a deep dark depth, cast down to endure that judgment until a fiery Word mixed with cleansing brimstone comes to change him.
Our God is a consuming fire and we shall all be changed by Him. Those who stand on the celestial sea of glass know it is mixed with fire. God has consuming fire that plans on burning out of us all the hidden deep dark dross that is unlike the Firstborn. He makes a way out of every fiery trial, and sooner or later we learn the great delivering truth THAT OUR WILL IS SUBJECT TO HIS WILL.
The will of God is always effectively dominant in His Kingdom. As the origin of all creation, our Father holds our very existence as His sons and daughters certain. Our inner being is to be placed in Him, for our blessed destiny is fixed as saved souls filled with truth. Until the day God intervenes and apprehends us sovereignly by His grace, we could never have been different than what we are. This is the case when the apostle said:
"And you He made alive, when you were dead, slain by your trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked habitually. You were following the course and fashion of this world - and were under the sway of the tendency of this present age - following the prince of the power of the air. You were obedient to him and under his control, the demon spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience…who go against the purposes of God.
Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in passions of our flesh - our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature; obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind - our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings. We were then by nature the children of wrath…like the rest of mankind." Ephesians 2:1-3, Amplified
Men have their blood saturated with sin and lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases WHICH HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT EFFECT OF THEIR PERSONAL TRANSGRESSION. Multiplied diseases upon our earth today are THE RESULT OF HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES. Beloved, such is the unspeakable POWER OF DISOBEDIENCE, a power beyond the scope of human imagination. I now invite you to meditate deeply upon these inspired words penned twenty centuries ago:
"Well then, as one man's trespass - one man's false step and failing away - led to condemnation for all men, so one Man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal, and right standing with God, and life for all men." Romans 5:18 Amplified
Can we not see by these words what a mighty power there is in both obedience and disobedience? Two persons, two acts, and two sentences affecting ALL MEN are brought before us in this passage of disobedience and its race-wide, life-destroying result, speaking of the universal tragedy that has befallen all men. Christ Jesus's act of obedience has life-giving results, glorious hope, and consolation from God for ALL MEN.
Is it strange that the negative side of this passage is usually believed without hesitation, while the positive side is strongly denied by Christians held in the carnal mind? In order to understand the effectiveness of the Lord’s success and the scope of His saving work set forth in this passage, it is only necessary to believe implicitly what it states.
Our problem seems to be simply this. We know the horrible manifestation of sin and death in us, because it is a matter of history and a clear fact of the present situation. The present day churches that are supposed to represent God reject the glorious outcome of God saving ALL men by overwhelming grace because it is does not fit the doctrine handed down by their traditions. Men, like doubting Thomas, will not believe until they see.
Only a few have believed the truth effectively thus far. They are those apprehended to be SONS OF GOD. Even now, they are believing for what they cannot see. Indeed the whole creation groans for God's manifestation in sons to answer their cries:
"For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God. For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we are aware that the entire creation is groaning and travailing together until now.
Yet not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the first fruit of the spirit, we ourselves also, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body. For to expectation we are saved. Now expectation, being observed, is not expectation, for what anyone is observing, why is he expecting it also? Now, if we are expecting what we are not observing, we are awaiting it with endurance.” Romans 8:19-25 concordant
If the life of God is not to overflow super-abundantly to all men, then a manifestation of God in Sons is TOTALLY WITHOUT PURPOSE and all that the scripture teaches has been a great farce and a wicked hoax. I do not hesitate to declare that the scripture is inspired of God and is true. God will have ALL MEN be saved and come to acknowledge the truth:
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach." I Timothy 4:9-11
"We have suffered reproach because we have trusted in the Living God as the Saviour of all men, specially [in a special measure of salvation] those that believe." I Timothy 4:10
We have been exhorted by unthinking brethren to stop teaching it or to at least minimize it. To do so would be a violation of the Word of God and rebellion against the clear command of God. "These things COMMAND AND TEACH." This is a message we are commanded to teach.