In what has come to be known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (See Matthew 7:13-14).
Well, that settles the issue, doesn’t it? Jesus Himself, the Savior, said quite plainly that few find their way through the narrow gate that leads to life. And really, isn’t that obvious. Look about you. Look at world history. Compared to humanity as a whole, especially looking at humanity’s long history, comparatively few are, or were, Christians. Billions and billions are Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and a host of other religious and cultural persuasions. Evidently hell will be quite crowded! There will be a lot of elbow room in heaven – maybe one inhabitant for every ten million miles!
But wait a minute. What about that passage in the 7th chapter of Revelation where John says, “After these things I looked, and behold, A GREAT MULTITUDE WHICH NO ONE COULD NUMBER, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, CLOTHED WITH WHITE ROBES, with palms (of victory) in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'” (See Revelation 7:9-10).
“Salvation to our God!” I believe that is just another way of saying, “God really knows how to redeem and save, doesn’t He?” And let me assure you He really, really does. Jesus called God “the Lord of the harvest!” (See Luke 10:2). He is at the controls. He knows what He is doing. And both He and Jesus do all things well.
Do you really think God’s plan of salvation is so basically flawed that the final result is that only a few of Adam’s descendants will inherit eternal life and most will miss out altogether?
The sixth chapter of John’s gospel account contains some of the most startling statements Jesus Christ ever uttered. In fact, what He said was so astonishing that John says, “From that time MANY of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him” (See verse 66, John 6). They were staggered at what Jesus said. They just could not accept it. It was evidently too big a pill for them to swallow. What on earth had He said?
“ALL that the Father gives to me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). And again, “No man CAN come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up (from the dead) at the last day” (John 6:44). And the final remark that prompted many of Christ’s disciples to depart from Him permanently? “And He said, ‘Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” (John 6:65).
Jesus was clearly saying that all mankind were not given Him to save in this present life and age! God is not trying to get the world saved during this present era, nor has He done so in any previous era. All God has an interest in saving during this age, an age that began with our father Adam, is what Bible language identifies as the “elect.” In the 45th verse of John 6, Jesus is speaking of these elect ones when He says, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard (the truth), and has learned of the Father (having their minds opened by God to understand) comes unto me.”
If no Aztec Indian became a follower of Jesus Christ it is because none of them were given to Jesus Christ by the Father during the era in which they lived! Ditto for the Incas, the Olmecs, the Toltecs, the aboriginal Apaches, Blackfeet or Cree!
God is the Lord of the harvest of salvation. He is in charge. He knows what He is doing, and He is exceptionally good at what He does.
Yet Jesus died for all, tasting death for every man – every descendant of Adam! “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that ANY should perish (lose out on eternal life), but that ALL should come to repentance” (See 2 Peter 3:8-9).
The apostle Paul had his mind wondrously opened to just what God is doing with humanity. In writing to the believers in Rome, Paul said, “For the earnest expectation of the creature (of all the descendants of Adam) waits for the manifestation of the sons of God (for the show to get on the road, so to speak when the elect are changed from mortal to immortal at the resurrection), for the creature (humanity) was made subject to vanity (for the most part a useless, vain existence), not willingly (humanity had no real say or choice in the matter), but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope (humanity’s future holds something wondrous and God inspired), for the creature itself (humanity and all created beings) shall be (in the future) delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (all will come to enjoy what the elect enjoy), for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also (the elect, too), which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (See Romans 8:19-23).
Friends, Satan didn’t throw a monkey wrench into the works in the Garden of Eden. He didn’t slip in the back gate while God wasn’t looking. God allowed Satan to get to Adam and Eve, because He saw clearly that He needed three things to reproduce His character and image in other intelligent beings. He needed 1) time, and He needed 2) a downward force pulling against them, and 3) the nourishment provided by God’s Word. Look at it this way: In order to produce a physically powerful, somewhat perfect physique, it takes time, proper nourishment, and exercise in order to produce that physique. And in order to reproduce His character in other intelligent beings, God knew this was going to take time – a lot of time, proper spiritual nourishment and guidance, and He needed a force pulling against them whereby a choice would have to be made, and when made consistently and continually His very own righteous character would be reproduced in others.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called (the elect) according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow (God foreknew we would be born in a time and place where we could be nourished by the Word of God), He also did predestinate to be conformed (through time and continuous spiritual growth) to the image of His Son, that He (that Son) might be the firstborn among many brethren!” (See Romans 8:28-29)
That is one of the most stupendous statements ever penned. Truly converted men and women, human beings who have been enlightened by God, forgiven their sinful past and had God’s Holy Spirit imparted to them are truly children of God and brethren of one another and of our Elder Brother Jesus Christ. And we have been selected by our Creator to assist Him in bringing many other human beings into the family of God.
For the present time, God has chosen to hide Himself from most of humanity: “Truly you are a God that hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!” (See Isaiah 45:15). “And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him, whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only?” (See Job 34:29). “But Israel (as well as all other nations) shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.” (See Isaiah 45:17).
“I am the LORD, and there is none else. There is no God beside me” (See Isaiah 45:5). “And the LORD has sent unto you (Israel) ALL His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them…” (See Jeremiah 25:4). There were no Babylonian or Amorite prophets. The only prophet sent to Egypt was Moses for the sole purpose of commanding Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. There was only one prophet sent to a Gentile people and that was Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh, Assyria to warn them they were on the verge of being destroyed, NOT to invite them to inherit eternal life! Yet the writer of Hebrews informs us that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. (See Hebrews 2:9). And Paul says, “One died FOR ALL!” (See 2 Corinthians 5:14).
Brethren, it is the never ending story. I have but given you a synopsis of that grand revelation. Read it for yourselves in the holy scriptures. It was there all the time. God help you to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley