God “brought him (Abraham) forth abroad, and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.’ And He said unto him, ‘So shall thy seed (descendants) be.'” (See Genesis 15:5).
Ptolemy, an ancient astronomer in Alexandria, Egypt, who lived in the Second Century A.D. counted 1022 stars. He must have had better eyesight than Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer who lived nearly two centuries before Jesus Christ came to earth, as Hipparchus had only counted 850. It’s a pity they didn’t have access to God’s Word, or, if they did, failed to believe it, because God had previously indicated that the stars were numberless, just too many to count. Plus, the heavens wrap totally around this globe we live on, so, in counting the stars visible at any given point one must realize that there is a vast expanse of sky one never sees! Even astronomers, at least ancient ones, were not really deep thinkers. If I stand at the North Pole and look up, I am not seeing the same sky someone sees if viewing the heavens from the vantage point of the South Pole. And even though the earth is revolving, it would have to twist and turn and revolve in every possible direction for me to see the whole of the heavens. Even then I am only seeing a tiny portion thereof as it extends outward trillions of light years with stars and galaxies of stars everywhere.
So, are there really “few” that eventually are saved. God said Abraham’s spiritual descendants (see Romans 4 and Galatians 3) would outnumber the stars AS WELL AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH (see Genesis 13:16). When all is said and done, when God’s great work of bringing many sons to glory reaches its conclusion, Satan will have lost big time. The number of the redeemed of the Lord will be countless – trillions and trillions and trillions. The saving of mankind does not end with our Lord’s return. That’s actually when it begins. Right now God is merely building a cadre, as it were, of servants and sons who will assist our Father in expanding His family so greatly it will fill the universe. God help you to see and understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley