ALMOST PERSUADED
By
C.S. Anderson
“For, even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus
also,
in Christ shall all be vivified” (1Cor.15:22)
in Christ shall all be vivified” (1Cor.15:22)
“God wills all mankind to be saved!” But you say you cannot accept it as truth
because it is so much out of line with the common accepted beliefs!
You will not have to study it, but just take a brief
glimpse at this passage: 1 Cor. 15:22: “For even as in Adam, all are dying, thus
also in Christ all shall be vivified.”
If we limit salvation to believers in Christ, more commonly termed
“Christians”, we are bound to limit death to believers in Adam, and yet we know
all are dying. Then, again, we come face to face with this
passage in Col. 1:20 “Through Him to reconcile all” ¾ or does it say: “the all, except Judas, Satan, Adam,
Pharoah, etc.?”
The Good Shepherd searches long and hard until he
finds the 99 sheep. Then, does He say,
with a heavy sigh: “I guess I’ll just have to let the other go?” Or does He reason thus: “If I can recover 99,
does it not speak well for the possibility of finding the last solitary one?”
After all, aside from these definite Divine declarations
and many more throughout the Word, do you not wish that it were true?
Surely you would like to see every creature happy and serving God! Yes,
my friend hesitatingly replies. Well,
then do you not think that God, our loving Heavenly Father, would like to see
it that way even more so than you? Jesus
said: (Matt. 7:11) “If you, then, being wicked, have perceived how to be giving
good gifts to your children, how much rather your heavenly Father?” Still another faint, halting “yes” comes
struggling through! Again ¾ I press a little harder now: If God would like all to be reconciled to
Himself, ever so much more than you would, and still fails to accomplish it, is
it because He lacks the power? Surely you agree He doesn’t lack the
desire! Is it really too hard for Him? Can anything be too hard for God? “No, I cannot say that this is impossible”
comes the blushing reply.
Well, then, isn’t it just good judgment to forget all
about the commonly accepted beliefs and disregard entirely all the tangled
traditional teachings regarding salvation and fully accept the clear and
definite Divine declaration that: “God wills all mankind to be saved?” (1Tim. 2:4).
Even man, with his imperfect
sense of justice and righteousness,
requires of his enemies a “full surrender”, not compromising in the least with
those whom he considers destroyers of the right. Would God require less of those who have been
opposed to Him? Could He be supreme,
while death, destruction or devil in any form holds full sway? It is this vision of victory that elicits
Paul’s “Thanks be unto God” (1 Cor. 15:57).
Victory again is in full view when our blessed Lord said: “I will draw all to Myself” (John 12:32), and
again: “To Him every knee shall bow” (Phil. 2:10:11).
This cannot be enforced worship because it is “to the
glory of God, the Father”, and “The Father seeks only such to worship Him as
worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It is a grand and wonderful theme! The beloved
Psalmist reveled in it until he attained his highest note of praise:
“Let everything that hath breath, praise ye the Lord” (Psa. 150). Not even the least of the least was left
out. How else could He be “All in All”
(1 Cor. 15:28)?
Yes, indeed, God wills all mankind to be saved! And if He is “operating the all according to
the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11) then out whole earth, including all of
its inhabitants, past, present, or to come, is but a little part. God has sworn to “fill the earth with His
glory” (Num. 14:21) ¾ a glory which, by His
matchless grace, He will display in the oncoming eons, through the church, to
the farthest out-reaches of His vast universe (Eph. 2:7). All this is because “God is Love” (1 John
4:9).
God’s love is
planning all
His wisdom is
directing all
His power is
controlling all
That
He may be All in all.
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