8.
Locks Up All Together
It is an undeniable fact
that many people believe in a literal hell
as a place of eternal torment for lost humanity. It is blasted across the
airwaves by some preachers of the word of God that billions upon billions of
humans created to be in the image of God are now toasting in God’s torture
chamber called hell with no chance of
ever being reconciled to God. Although they are dead, they somehow still live in human bodies that are not
destroyed by the literal fire that consumes and torments them. As they say,
these lost ones had free will, [1]
and they exercised their will by rejecting God’s Son, so God has no choice but
to banish them to an eternal existence away from His presence in which they
will be tormented with fire forever and ever and ever. After all, He is mad at
most of humanity and must take out His vengeance on them. Never mind that God
is love (1 John 4.9).
Some say that love does
not trump God’s justice. They even go so far as to say that God’s love demands
that He banish most of the world, the world that He created and loves, to a
never-ending existence that is worse than what has been devised by the worst
terrorists and torturers that have ever lived on earth. Then, to cap it off,
they say that those who make it into heaven will rejoice as they look upon the
lost, including some of their loved ones, being tormented in their hell. After
all, this is justice and all to the glory of God. Really?
It grieves my heart when
I think of such thinking passed off as truth. The most diabolical quality of
fallen man has been taken and made into a god in that image, all the while
declaring that this is according to the sacred Scriptures; and that this is the
heart of God that Scripture declares is love.
In essence, this line of
teaching is declaring that through the death of His Son, the Savior of the
world, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, God cannot save all
mankind, in fact, cannot and will not save most of mankind, and that His Son’s
death on the cross was a failure. Why? Because many say that it is up to man’s
free will to choose to be saved. Think about it! Adam’s one transgression was
an absolute 100% success in bringing death and sin into the very fiber of all
born of the human race, and yet, Christ’s one act of perfect righteousness,
ordained by God Himself, is unable to save all born of the human race; only a
relatively few will be saved by most accounts. If this were true, which it is not, then we would have to
conclude that God is rather weak and impotent; His plan of salvation is mostly
a failure and is totally dependent on man, not God.
God will
have all mankind to be saved.
But let it be shouted
from the rooftops that our God is not weak nor is He impotent in the plan of
salvation or in anything else, for that matter. He is the Savior of the world!
God the Father sent His Son to save the world, the whole world that He loves.
Man can fail and does fail at many things, but God cannot fail at anything that
He sets out to do, and He has set out to perfect mankind into His image and
likeness. If He does fail, then how can He be God, the Supreme and Sovereign of
His creation? We would have to declare that Scripture lies because we are told
that He works all things after the
counsel of His will (Ephesians 1.11 NASB), that it is
God our Savior, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge
of the truth (1 Timothy 2.4 KJV), and that we rely on the living God (not a
dead god), Who is the Saviour of all
mankind, especially [not exclusively] of
believers (1 Timothy 4.10 CV [added by writer]).
Did you catch the
greatness of these words: Who will have all men to be saved? Who do you
want to exclude from this all? Surely, God has not excluded anyone, so why do
so many who profess to hold to the name of Christ declare a doctrine that is
diametrically opposed to God’s word, which is spirit and life (John 6.63)?
It is amazing how so
many people read these verses and declare them to be true with one huge
exception: They only apply to ones who exercise their free will to choose
Christ as their Savior. Where in any of the verses cited so far is the concept
of man’s free will? Actually, where in the entire Bible is there a word about
man must exercise his will if he is to be saved? It is God’s will that is
worked out in the salvation of mankind. It is God who wills salvation, not man
who wills. This is why He had to send His Son to die for the sin of the world.
Only His Son could meet the righteous demands of God.
Consider these verses:
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
there is none that doeth good, no,
not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are
in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of
God before their eyes. (Romans 3.10-18 KJV)
This is God’s indictment
of mankind. None are righteous. None understand. None do good. None seek after
God. NONE! Another way of stating
this last truth is that mankind does not have the will or desire to seek after
God. None seek! If none seek after God, then if it is left up to man’s will to
be saved then none will be saved. Period! Just in case some might think that
they are special in this regard because they somehow “made a choice for
Christ,” let us be reminded: For there
is no respect of persons with God (Romans 2.11 KJV). We are all
included in this none.
If we would just step
back from the babel of Christendom, put aside the traditions of men and take
God at His word, we would see that His plan of salvation for all mankind is the
most glorious love story between the Creator and His creation. It is a love
story that leaves none, absolutely none of His creatures, out of His purpose
and plan. All are not included at the same time, but all will eventually come
in, for this is the purpose of the eons, the purpose of God in Christ Jesus,
His Son. His purpose is the reconciliation and restoration of all.
For God!
Now, there is one more
Scripture that proves the point and serves as the springboard for what follows.
For even as you
once were stubborn toward God, yet now were shown mercy at their stubbornness,
thus these also are now stubborn to this mercy of yours, that now they also may
be shown mercy. For God locks up all
together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all. O, the depth
of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His
judgments, and untraceable His ways! For, who knew the mind of the Lord? or,
who became His adviser? or, who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid Him?
seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be the glory
for the eons! Amen! (Romans 11.30-36 CV)
In Romans 9-11, Paul
wrote much about
Within this section of
Scripture, we discover one of the most profound truths of Scripture that blows
the roof off of this notion that man has a free will that will seek after God
and be saved. Consider several translations of the same verse.
For God hath
concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. (Romans 11.32 KJV)
For God confined
all in unbelief leading to disobedience, so that He should show mercy to all. (Romans 11.32 ALT)
For God hath shut
up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. (Romans 11.32 ASV)
For God did shut up
together the whole to unbelief, that to the
whole He might do kindness. (Romans 11.32 YLT)
For God has
locked up all in the prison of unbelief, that upon all alike He may have mercy. (Romans 11.32 WNT)
For God
locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all. (Romans 11.32 CV)
The first thing to note is that in all the
translations presented, God alone is the one taking the action. For God!
The second thing to note is that the subject of the
action includes all, which is the whole
of humanity. All together, the whole!
Strong’s Concordance states that the Greek word for all in this verse is pas, which refers to all forms of the
word, such as “all, any, every, the whole.” There are no exceptions in this all, just as there are no exceptions in
there is none righteous, none who understand, none who are good, and none who
seek after God, as well as all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23).
The third thing to note is in what all are together locked up or, as one translation implies,
imprisoned. All of us, without exception, are locked up in unbelief or stubbornness.
According to Strong’s Concordance, the Greek word
translated concluded (a very strange
rendering!), confined, locks up and shuts up means “to shut together, that is, to include or embrace.”
The Greek word translated stubbornness, disobedience and unbelief, according to Strong’s means “disbelief (obstinate and
rebellious); disobedient, unbelief.” The Concordant Greek Text English
Sublinear, which is an ultra-literal translation, has taken the words together-locks and the all and made them locks
up all together, and has taken the word un-persuadableness
and made it stubbornness.
Most people probably understand the import of the word unbelief, but the word stubbornness, as derived from un-persuadableness, adds another dimension to the meaning. No one can be persuaded. But persuaded in
respect to what? Well, if there is none righteous and none seek after God, then
it must be that man cannot be persuaded in respect to living a righteous, good,
God-seeking life. In other words, man’s will is not capable of being persuaded
when it comes to salvation and the things of God.
The stubbornness or
unbelief of mankind is not some aberration in God’s eonian purpose and plan.
No! It is in the purpose of God, and even more amazing, it is according to the
very plan of God. God Himself ordained it this way. He brought this creation
called man into being to be stubborn,
to be un-persuaded through his own
will. Why? So that God could show His mercy to His entire creation through His
divine will! God’s will is always intended to trump man’s will. We could say,
God shuts up free will!
Please do not lose the
import of what you just read. It was God’s full intention to lock up all in
stubbornness, even before eonian times. It wasn’t that mankind failed apart
from God’s will, so He had no choice but to lock up all and then come up with
some corrective measure to bring it back, as if it all caught Him by surprise.
No! No! How could a whole race be brought into being on this planet we call earth and all of them, absolutely all
(100%) of them have been (are, will be) stubborn or in unbelief? By some
estimates this earth has had from 50 billion to 110 billion people living on
it. [2]
According to some, it means that there have been about 50 billion free-will
agents on this earth that had the capacity to choose good and to believe, and
yet, according to Scripture, most did not
choose such a path. Never mind that the evangel of Christ did not go out except
in the last 4,000 years, which leaves a huge gap of 2,000 years.
Some say that mankind
(Adam) had to be tested. Did God not know that Adam would not only fail the
test but that all that followed him would also fail? No one, absolutely no one
learned from Adam’s sin. So, if we take the low end of the number, then 50
billion failed (probably something less than this to account for believers),
and the number grows every day that a new human is born. Sounds pretty hopeless
to me!
Do you mean to tell me
that a God who is Supreme and Sovereign over all His creation and one who is
perfect in all His ways, created that many people and not one of them, that is,
not one single person, ever, could be persuaded to be obedient and believe according
to his or her own free will. If you ask me, if this thought is left to stand
alone, we would have to conclude that when God created man He failed
colossally. Ah, but God did not fail, for His plan is a colossal success. Mankind
was brought forth to be stubborn, so that God’s Son could die for the sin of
the world and take sin away to the grave. Sin was imputed to all mankind
through Adam, and righteousness (or, justification for life) was imputed to all
mankind through the last Adam, Christ (Romans 5).
Oh, the wisdom of God!
It is proof that free will is a figment of fertile imaginations when it comes
to God’s purpose of the eons and the restoration and reconciliation of all.
The indictment of
mankind is that all are stubborn, and in this stubbornness, God Himself locks
up all mankind together. No one can get out of this lock box! We are all shut
up together. None of us can be persuaded. But here is the encouraging part: God
Himself locks us all up, so that He alone should be merciful to all. He will
treat all alike, for there is no
partiality with God (Romans 2.11 CV). In other
words, He alone is the one to release all humanity from this prison of stubbornness
or unbelief. He has the key to unlock it, and it is belief in His Son, which
is the faith of the Son of God that all
will eventually receive as a gift of God, so that all are saved, in their own
era, either at the former (first) resurrection, the latter (second) resurrection
(great white throne, lake of fire), or at the consummation of the eons.
A prisoner has no way
out unless the jailer unlocks the door, and this is the picture all of us must
see in order to understand this whole matter of the salvation of all mankind.
No wonder Paul had to
declare: O, the depth of the riches and the
wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments, and
untraceable His ways! For, who knew the mind of the Lord? or, who became His
adviser? or, who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid Him?
Paul netted it all out,
and it was none of mankind and all of God. Seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be
the glory for the eons!
Oh, let us get off our
high horses of pride and arrogance and be humbled before the Almighty God Who
is the Savior of all! He alone is responsible for our salvation, and He alone
will bring about the salvation of all mankind through His beloved Son. He alone
will bring all to bow the knee by His spirit, for no one can say “Jesus is
Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.3).
Every
knee.
That in the name of Jesus every knee should be bowing, celestial and terrestrial and
subterranean (Philippians 2.10 CV).
Paul did not just make up these words. As one who knew
Hebrew Scripture, Paul knew the heart of God for mankind, as spoken through
Isaiah the prophet.
“I have sworn by
Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not
turn back, that to Me every knee will
bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” (Isaiah 45.23 NASB)
The Lord has sworn by Himself. What has He sworn? Exactly
what Paul declared: Every knee will bow! His word has gone forth, and it will
not turn back to Him. God’s word is like pure gold refined in fire. His word is
righteous, and what He has sent forth according to His word will happen. Every
knee will bow, not by force but by the mercy and grace of God, and by His
spirit.
Destined
to fail.
Do you realize that God
brought forth man with the express purpose that he fail, so that God’s ultimate
purpose for man, to be conformed to the image of His Son, will be accomplished,
and in the consummation of the eons, God may be All in all? Yes, failure sums up the history of mankind, and it is
all by the design and sovereign will of God.
Failure is absolutely
essential to bring mankind; that is, all of us, you and me, to the end of
ourselves, so that Christ may be all in all and ultimately God the Father may
be All in all. No man will ever boast
before the throne of God. He will never boast in his own so-called free will. He will never boast that he
brought anything to the table in bringing about God’s purpose and plan. As Paul
wrote: But HE WHO
BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE LORD (2 Corinthians
10.17 NASB).
Just as the Lamb of God was
slain from before the disruption, or the foundation of the world, so was it
ordained of God that mankind would fail and fall short of His glory. Not only
would he fail but that he had to fail, and this is in accord with the purpose
of God. Simply, man was not given the ability to succeed on his own.
For apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15.5 CV)
Let us no longer be
blinded by the god of this eon. All mankind, without exception, is a failure and
absolutely no one deserves the grace and mercy of God. No one! We all miss the
mark and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23). Many who believe in the
Lord Jesus think that they made a choice for Christ because the preacher told
them they had to or else they would roast in hell forever and ever. You may
have had some legitimate emotional response that is still real to you this day.
You may have made an altar call or walked the aisle out of obedience. But if
you were truly saved of God, and the spirit of God took up residence in you,
then it had absolutely nothing to do with your aisle walk or with your free
will to put one foot before the other. It was all by the grace of God that
broke into your life and overwhelmed your unbelief, your stubbornness toward
God.
Paul declared: Yet the
grace of our Lord overwhelms, with faith and love in Christ Jesus (1
Timothy 1.14 CV).
John declared: But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh
nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1.12-13 NASB)
But of God
answers the whole matter of who is directing the grand drama of mankind. It was
not your will that saved you but the will of God that declares that He wills
that all men are to be saved.
As Jesus said: Every one whom the Father gives me will come to me, and
him who comes to me I will never on any account drive away (John
6.37 WNT).
It is the faith of the
Son of God that draws man, not his faith. It is the grace of God that
overwhelms man’s unbelief.
What and how much has
been given to the Son? All things!
All things
are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is,
but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will
reveal him. (Luke 10.22 KJV)
In these two verses, please note that the action is on the
part of the Father and the Son. You will search in vain for any action on the
part of man. The Father gives and the Son reveals.
Mankind’s
failure for God’s greatest glory.
Now,
let us continue along this line of failure.
When
we read Scripture, there seems to be failure on all levels. God alone is the Supreme in authority in the kingdom of
mortals, and to whom He is willing is He giving it, and low one of mortals is
He setting over it (Daniel 4.17 CV). And yet,
mankind on all levels fails, even in that which God Himself calls into being according
to His will.
Everything
seems so strange when one looks at history and at what is around us today. Why
is there so much failure? Why does God allow so much failure? Why does He let
it go on so long before He will step in and make everything right? Why is there
so much evil? Why must people die? There are a thousand and one questions that
could be asked and are asked every day.
If
we telescope out from the world system (the kosmos)
in which we live and look at the overall condition of mankind, we must conclude
that man’s history is marked by failure.
Here
is some good news: Mankind’s failure is
for God’s greatest glory. If we see this, we will see that mankind must
fail on all levels and all fronts, so that God’s purpose will be achieved, and
He alone will receive all the glory as All
in all. Our boast will be in the Son of God who will bring about God’s purpose.
Failure is by God’s design! But here is more good news: Woven through what looks like the greatest of failures is the golden
thread of God’s handiwork.
Surely,
everything that God does is a success. We know that the entire family of God
from all economies or eras throughout all the generations is being connected
together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, and that many are being
built together into a dwelling of God in spirit of which Christ Jesus Himself is
the chief cornerstone and the capstone (see Ephesians 2.21-22).
Let
it be indelibly written on our hearts that God’s eonian plan or plan of the
eons (ages) is being carried out exactly as God purposed and is being executed
precisely according to God’s timing. Nothing that has happened, is happening or
will happen is outside the will of God. Nothing! And, no man can change it. God
alone is the Supreme, and His will will be
done.
We
can look around us and wonder if God’s will is truly being worked out; but we
do not have to wonder if we believe that God alone is Supreme, that He is
operating all in accord with the
counsel of His will (Ephesians 1.12), and that out of Him and through Him and
for Him is all (Romans 11.36). ALL!
Satan,
the adversary.
Consider
Satan, the adversary of God and his (its) relation to mankind. So many people
place the blame for failure on this archenemy. They see him (it) as the
anointed messenger (angel) that started out good but turned evil; however, this
is not true. Satan was evil from the start. John tells us that from the beginning is the Adversary sinning (1
John 3.8 CV). In other words, he did not turn into a sinning
messenger after being created; rather, he was created evil; he was created to
be a sinning messenger.
This
may be hard for some to accept, but may the spirit of God open your eyes.
Speaking
of God, Isaiah gave us a truth that many have not fully understood. Former of light and Creator of darkness, Maker of good and Creator of evil (Isaiah 45.7 CV). Do you
understand the significance of this word? God is the Creator of evil. He alone
is responsible for evil. Consider Solomon’s wisdom: The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for
the day of evil (Proverbs 16.4 NASB). God is not
evil in any sense of the word. He is merely the Creator. He could be likened to
a chef baking a cake. The chef can bake a cake without ever eating it. He knows
what went into the cake, and it comes out in the form he planned for it, but if
he never takes a bite of it, he has no idea what the cake tastes like.
Likewise, God does not partake of evil in any manner whatsoever, but He is
still its Creator, for all comes forth from Him.
Seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him
is all: to Him be the glory for the
eons! (Romans 11.36 CV)
What
is evil? Is it not the antagonist of good? Only God is good (Matthew 19.17)!
Consequently, Satan was created to be the adversary of God, so that mankind
would have a stark contrast to God. By having a contrast, mankind would come to
know the one true God of love and light, in whom there is no darkness (1 John
1.5). God is the one who created evil and the one who created Satan to be His
evil antagonist. Every step that God has taken has been followed by Satan.
Satan is like a shadow; for every step God takes in the light, there is a
shadow of darkness cast upon creation in general and mankind in specific. This
is by God’s design. If it were not so, how would we know good from evil, or
light from dark, or love from hate, or peace from war, or life from death?
Mankind needs the contrast to know God. This is the glorious wisdom of God that
answers the age-old question of why things are as they are. It is God’s doing
until the consummation when God will be All
in all.
You
might retort that mankind was never created to know evil; but who says?
Scripture surely does not state this. On the contrary, God placed the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil in the garden with full expectation that Adam
and Eve would partake of the tree. It was no accident that the tree was placed
in full view of mankind’s parents and that the serpent of old was waiting for
his moment of deception. After all, if we accept that God is Supreme and
Sovereign, and all things come through Him, then we must conclude that the
whole drama played out in the garden was written and directed by God.
Some
proclaim that prior to his fall, Adam was in the age of innocence, and that he
had to be tested to see if he would obey God’s one command. If this is true,
then it sure sounds like a formula for failure. Adam was the new kid on the
block. Satan, the old serpent, had been around awhile and was not ignorant of
God’s ways. The eternal God knows all and sees all, and He knew that in their
current state Adam, and especially Eve, were no match for the old devil.
Besides, God put Adam and Eve in the garden with the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil staring them in the face, as if to say, “Go ahead and eat!” Adam
had no experience with death, so how was he to know what it meant to die? The
serpent probably knew, but how was the first man to know?
Adam
was simply outgunned and destined to fail. Plus, Eve was out of his body, bone
of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. Based on God’s absolute law of love, Adam
had to love his body. He had to follow his wife in eating of the forbidden
fruit because he loved her as his own body. This is what Paul tells us in his
Ephesians epistle as he compares Christ and His body to Adam and his body. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but
nourishes and cherishes it (Ephesians 5.29 NASB). Of
course, there are many types and antitypes in the account of Adam and Eve, but
in its primal presentation, it reveals failure as ordained by God. Adam had no
choice but to sin because God had given him no choice in the matter. If he had
left Eve on her own, Adam would have broken the much higher law of love.
After
our first parents partook of the tree, what did God declare? “Behold, the man has become like one of Us,
knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3.22). Man was created to be perfected into
the image of God, and this requires that he have knowledge of both good and
evil. But this knowing was only the beginning of the process to conform mankind
into the image of the Son. It was God’s full intention that mankind would not
only partake of this tree but also live by this tree, at least for 6,000 years.
However,
mankind requires more than mere knowledge of good and evil. He must experience
both. He must have the contrast of the two, just as he must experience the
countless contrasts found throughout God’s creation (e.g., light and dark, love
and hate, victory and defeat, peace and war, life and death, health and
sickness, up and down, hot and cold, soft and hard, wet and dry, to name a
few). Adam and Eve were not instantaneously created in the image of God. They
were not created as some super-human, perfected beings.
Some
state that Adam and Eve were created perfect and that the were in the image of
God right from the start. If this were so, they never would have partaken of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They would have been smart enough
to know that when the serpent said they would not die that it was a lie. But
they fell for the lie, and death entered into all mankind from that day forward.
Then why was Eve first deceived by the serpent, and then Adam followed? The
answer is that they were not created perfect; they had to be perfected, as all of us do, and that
requires failure.
The
futility of mankind.
We
have been so indoctrinated with so much unscriptural babel that it is probably
hard for most believers to imagine that mankind, who was created to be in God’s
image and likeness, was predetermined to fail. If it is any consolation, I am
still struggling to get all the babel out of my thinking that has been thrust
into my mind over the last twenty-five years.
One
would think that God is so invested in a creation that He made to be in His
image that He would go all out to prevent it from failing, even programming
its genetic pool if need be, so it would not fail. Many theologians, teachers,
pastors and preachers of Christendom declare ad nauseam that God did not want robots, so He gave mankind a free
will to make their own choices. In other words, mankind can choose to believe
or not to believe in God. Salvation is entirely dependent on mankind and not on
God who, by the way, is the Savior of all
mankind (1 Timothy 4.10) and wills
that all mankind be saved (1 Timothy 2.4).
If
mankind has a free will to be saved, then answer this one question: Did Paul,
the apostle of the nations, the chief or foremost among all sinners (1 Timothy
1.16), who was severed from his mother’s womb and called by His grace
(Galatians 1.15), have a choice in the matter on the road to Damascus? On that
infamous road, according to his own testimony, Paul was ignorant and in
unbelief, and yet the grace of our Lord overwhelmed his ignorance and unbelief,
with faith and love in Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 1.13-14). Do you read of any
free will in regard to salvation in Paul’s testimony or in any of his epistles,
for that matter? Even where he exhorted the brethren to be carrying your own
salvation into effect, Paul wrote: For it
is God Who is operating in you to will as well as to work for the sake of His
delight (Philippians 2.13 CV). Notice that it is God
who operates in you to will. Where is
there a free will independent of God in Paul’s words? There is none. We are
totally dependent on God even to please Him.
In
the context of declaring the foolishness of God is wiser than men, consider how
Paul viewed the whole matter of salvation.
But by His doing
you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification, and redemption…. (1 Corinthians 1.30 NASB)
By
God’s doing you are in Christ! Not by your doing, not by your will, not by your
wisdom, not by anything that comes from you!
Either God does it or it does not happen; pure and simple.
Saul
(prior to his encounter with Christ) was heading to
Was
Saul walking on that road that day wondering how he was to be saved? Was he
pondering how to ask the Lord into his heart? Was he seeking some meeting of a
local ecclesia, so that he could walk the aisle, make an altar call, and tell
everyone that he had accepted Christ into his heart? No! Such thinking was
totally foreign to Saul’s thinking on that day. He set out to destroy those who
had been called of the Lord. To him, the One called Jesus was an enemy of his
entire belief system and teaching.
How
was he saved on that road? He was saved by the grace of the Lord that
overwhelmed his ignorance and unbelief! Saul had no time to rationalize what
was happening to him. He had no time to stand in the midst of the light and
refuse the One speaking to him. Simply, he had no choice in the matter. It was
a settled matter; a matter settled from the risen Christ seated at the right
hand of His Father in heaven. He was called and chosen by the will of God. He
was extricated out of the present wicked
eon, according to the will of our God and Father, to Whom be the glory for the
eons of the eons (Galatians 1.4-5 CV). Again, the
will of God is what was operative in Paul’s life.
In
his epistles, Paul acknowledged that it was not even his faith that saved him
or anyone else’s faith, for that matter.
I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me; but in that I now live
in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of
the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me. (Galatians 2.20 DNT)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2.20 KJV)
For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift…
(Ephesians 2.8 DNT)
For by
grace you have been saved, through faith, and this [is] not from you; [it is] the gift of God… (Ephesians 2.8 ALT)
Notice
that in each case, it is not Paul’s faith or our faith but the faith of the
Son, and that this faith is not of yourselves but a gift from God. Thus, the
whole matter is based on a faith that is received. How can we say that our
so-called free will saved us? Of
course, many seem to take this view, but it is not based on Scripture.
Christendom has placed man at the
center of his destiny and made him the hero or villain in his fate, when God
alone has set the destiny of His entire creation, and He alone will receive all
the glory. If He does not, then He
is not the Supreme; man is.
God
has allowed man to fail on all levels and all fronts, for without failure man
will never truly know God. Further, if man succeeded in his own might, it would
be to his own glory and not to God’s glory. The boast would be in man.
Adam
failed and death passed through into all
mankind, on which all sinned (Romans 5.12 CV). Every
human that has followed Adam has failed since all sin. What is sin? It is
missing the mark, making a mistake, failing of the ideal.
The
ancient world failed.
Consider
the condition of mankind, especially of the ancient world, as described by Paul
in Romans 1.18-23. Mankind is without excuse, for God has revealed Himself to
His creatures through His creation. God manifest in His creation was to lead
mankind to worship the Creator. What did mankind do when they saw these
invisible attributes of God? They sought to worship what they perceived. In
other words, mankind did exactly what they were supposed to do, and that is
worship, but they failed by worshipping the created rather than the Creator.
Mankind failed to see the invisible God and took what they could see and
worshipped it instead. The result was that God turned mankind over to the lusts
of their heart. Mankind failed! (Is it any different today? Hardly!)
Every
human that has followed Adam has failed, even the greatest of God’s people.
Just look at the history of the men of God recorded in Scripture and you will
see men of great fleshly weakness. Who can argue that Ishmael, who came from
the loins of Abraham, was not a failure when we look at the daily crisis and
the dark clouds looming over the
Until
man comes to see the futility of living without God, there will be evil; there
will be darkness; there will be hatred; there will be war; and there will be
death. But God knows that all of mankind
will not and cannot come to the point of futility on their own. In other
words, we (all of us) could never figure it out on our own. Never! Just
consider the 6,000-year history of mankind. We could say that the last century
and even the last few decades have been a technological miracle as man’s
genius has reached heights that have never been seen in the 6,000 years of
history. However, on a moral and righteous level mankind’s history is an abject
failure. Man has not been able to overcome the evil heart of man; he has not
been able to dispel darkness; he has not been able to make a world of total
love for one another; he has not been able to govern righteously; he has not
been able to stop war; and, most of all, he has not been able to overcome
death. Simply, mankind has not been able to reach the heights of glory. All of
this is in spite of all the tremendous technological advances and enlightenment
that have occurred, even in the last one hundred years. Man is an abject
failure when it comes to his heart.
Have
you considered the countless number of laws that governments put into place in
our age of great enlightenment? My home state just enacted 900 new laws. Do you
honestly think that all these laws are to allow us to have what we call free will, as if we can exercise our
will as we please and when we please? This is what free will demands, and yet, none of us can truly exercise our will
in this fashion. Why are there laws? To constrain our will! We are constrained
all the time. Don’t you think that the Almighty can constrain our will to win
us over to His love? Think about it!
The
nation of
Over
2,000 years after Adam failed, God brought forth a special creation, a specific
group of people that are called God’s people, the ancient nation of
In
His wisdom, God brought forth a nation chosen to be His nation above all the
nations of the earth, called out from among the nations as a peculiar people,
the apple of His eye and the wife of Jehovah. They were called to be above all
the nations, with the blessing of God flowing through them, a royal priesthood
and a holy nation set apart unto God. The nations were to learn of God and His
ways through them, and to know the blessing of God. If
But
what happened? They failed and their glorious destiny came apart each step of
the way. It came apart at Mount Sinai as Moses was up on the mountain receiving
the commands of God; it came apart as they worshipped a golden calf; it came
apart as they approached the promised land and doubted God and listened to the
fear of man instead of holding to the promise; it came apart when they demanded
a king; it came apart when they joined themselves with the nations of the world
and became more vile and evil than the worst of the nations; it came apart when
they became adulterous whores running after other nations; it came apart when
they worshipped false idols; it came apart when they shook their fists at God
and declared they had no king but Caesar; and it came apart when they demanded
the crucifixion of their Messiah.
What
a sordid history for God’s people! They have had a failed history, and yet God
called them out of
Did
God stop loving His people and not plan for their redemption? Of course
not! In the fullness of time, God sent
His Son, the Messiah of Israel, to this earth. He is called Jesus because He had a very specific
mission.
Now she shall be bringing forth a Son, and you
shall be calling His name Jesus, for
He shall be saving His people from their
sins. (Matthew 1.21 CV)
At
His first advent, did He succeed in saving His Jewish brethren from their sins?
Did they accept His offer? Absolutely not! Instead they made the most profane
demand that God’s people could ever make—kill God’s Son.
Pilate is saying to them, “What, then, shall I be
doing with Jesus, who is termed Christ?” They are all saying, “Let him be
crucified!” Yet the governor averred, “What evil does he?” Yet they cried
exceedingly, saying, “Let him be
crucified!” (Matthew 27.22-23 CV)
Can
you imagine that this came from the mouth of God’s chosen nation? Perhaps it is
difficult to imagine, yet this was a fulfillment of Scripture.
To His own He came, and those who are His own
accepted Him not. (John 1.11 CV)
Jesus
did not save
Instead
of embracing Him, the very ones He came to save demanded His death as if He
were a common criminal. He turned from being the Savior of His people to being
the Savior of the world, the Lamb slain for the sin of the world.
As
the Savior of His people, why didn’t He go all out to change their minds? From
all appearances, His ministry to His blood brethren was a failure, but it was a
failure according to Scripture. It is recorded that He spoke in parables, so
that they would not understand. He explained the parables only to a handful of
those closest to Him. Some were given light, but the majority were left in
darkness.
It
was God’s design for them to remain in darkness. In the divine drama (play) of
God, this act in God’s play outwardly was to be a failure. It was to be a
tragedy. Jesus’ mission to the lost sheep of the house of
And, approaching, the disciples say to Him,
“Wherefore art Thou speaking in parables to them?” Now, answering, He said to
them that “To you has it been given to
know the secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, yet to those it has not been
given. For anyone who has, to him shall be given, and he shall have a
superfluity. Yet anyone who has not, that also which he has shall be taken away
from him. Therefore in parables am I speaking to them, seeing that, observing,
they are not observing, and hearing, they are not hearing, neither are they
understanding. And filled up in them is the prophecy of Isaiah, that is saying,
‘In hearing, you will be hearing, and
may by no means be understanding, and observing, you will be observing, and may
by no means be perceiving. For stoutened is the heart of this people, and
with their ears heavily they hear, and with their eyes they squint, lest at
some time they may be perceiving with their eyes, and with their ears should be
hearing, and with their heart may be understanding, and should be turning
about, and I shall be healing them.’” (Matthew 13.10-15 CV)
As
the last act of this wicked eon is played out, those that call themselves Jews
of the state of
“
There
is only one conclusion that can be made: Jesus’ ministry to the lost sheep of
the house of
However,
it still leaves us with the pressing question: Why did they have to fail so
miserably? Surely, God could have kept them from going into such apostasy. He
could have opened the eyes of their heart to understand. He could have spoken
to them in plain language. Surely, He could keep them from any future apostasy.
Then why didn’t He do it? Why won’t He do it? Be patient, we will get back to
the answer.
The
embryonic ecclesia.
In
Matthew, we see this failure over and over again. We even see His closest
disciples not understanding and Jesus having to rebuke them for lack of faith.
The few gentile proselytes brought into the picture seem to have had more faith
than all of
This
small, motley group of twelve men became part of a mighty move of God on the
day of the Pentecost. As the tongues of fire fell upon them, they became
empowered to take the evangel of the kingdom to their fellow Israelite
brethren. However, they failed in their mission as well. They were unable to
get their fellow brethren to see that they had demanded the death of their
Messiah and King. It is true that on the day of Pentecost there was a mighty
wind and many believed, but it was a relatively small number, a remnant. The
rest of the Israelites rejected the message.
After
Pentecost, some of the embryonic ecclesia, which was comprised mostly of saints
from among the circumcision, looked down upon the saints from among the
uncircumcision. They failed to see them as co-equals in God’s plan. They saw
them as proselytes that could only be blessed through them. Some of the
leaders of the believers from among the Jews wanted the believers from among
the nations to follow the traditions of Moses. It took the revelation given to
Paul some years later to open the eyes of saints to the truth of the one body
in Christ.
Earnest
of the spirit.
There
are two important points that need to be understood regarding the ecclesia that
grew out of Pentecost in 33 AD that answer why the ecclesia has failed.
First, even though on the day of Pentecost the spirit of
God was poured out upon the ecclesia, it was only an earnest of the spirit that
was received. During the Pentecostal Age, those who have been given the
faith of the Son of God to believe have also been given an earnest of the
spirit of God (2 Corinthians 1.22; 5.5; Ephesians 1.14), which means that they
have been given a taste of the spirit but not the full anointing of the spirit.
Consequently, they have not entered into the full promise of God in His Son,
and this involves a full anointing of the Holy Spirit; therefore, they only
have an earnest of the spirit in this eon.
Second, Pentecost was celebrated with leavened bread
(Leviticus 23.17), which indicates that God never intended for the Pentecostal
Age to be a huge success. Leaven is corruption, which has been manifested
throughout this age as God has called out a people to Himself. Thus, failure
was built into the Pentecostal Age. This is the meaning of the parable of the
leaven (Matthew 13.33).
Now,
this fact alone should humble us who are now in the ecclesia of God nearly two
millennia beyond Pentecost.
The
present ecclesia.
Before
throwing too many stones at our early brethren, we need to examine the
condition of the ecclesia in our own day to see if we are living in a glass
house. Are we any different from
Are
we holding to the unity of the spirit? Have we attained to the unity of the
faith (Ephesians 4)? Are we truly ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians
5.18-21)? Have we successfully embraced the word of the conciliation in our
lives, or have we fostered discord and dissent? Are we functioning as one body,
or are we fractured into countless splinters? Are we walking by faith, or have
we fallen into the depths of apostasy, even the depths of Satan? Are we
separated from the evil world around us, or have we joined forces with it? Are
we different from the world, or are we like the world?
Well,
many questions of this sort could be asked, but what does Scripture tell us?
Now the spirit is saying explicitly, that in
subsequent eras some will be withdrawing
from the faith, giving heed to
deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, in the hypocrisy of false
expressions, their own conscience having been cauterized; forbidding to marry,
abstaining from foods, which God creates to be partaken of with thanksgiving by
those who believe and realize the truth, seeing that every creature of God is
ideal and nothing is to be cast away, being taken with thanksgiving, for it is
hallowed through the word of God and pleading. (1 Timothy 4.1-5 CV)
Now this know, that in the last days perilous periods will be present, for men will be
selfish, fond of money, ostentatious, proud, calumniators, stubborn to parents,
ungrateful, malign, without natural affection, implacable, adversaries,
uncontrollable, fierce, averse to the good, traitors, rash, conceited, fond of
their own gratification rather than fond of God; having a form of devoutness,
yet denying its power. (2 Timothy 3.1-5 CV)
For the era will be when they will not tolerate sound teaching, but, their hearing being tickled,
they will heap up for themselves teachers in accord with their own desires,
and, indeed, they will be turning their hearing away from the truth, yet will
be turned aside to myths. (2 Timothy
4.3-4 CV)
How
many of the Lord’s people today have turned aside to myths? Just consider the
myths surrounding hell, death, afterlife and soul immortality, to name a few
things that many hold to in these last days. They are doctrines of demons. Or,
we could add the Hollywood-type emphasis on end-time events and even the “rapture.”
To this we could add prosperity and blessing teaching, anointing oils, daily
prophecy over lives and seeking for miracles, to name a few more. What about
riches? The world seeks for wealth and so does Christendom. Has anyone thought
about
What
about power? So many today are looking for the miraculous, the signs and the
wonders. They are looking for manifestations of power. It should remind us of
when the disciples wanted to call fire down upon a Samaritan village that did
not receive Jesus, on account of which Jesus rebuked them (Luke 9.54-55).
Can
anyone argue the fact that today there is so much diverse and contrary teaching
being given in the name of Jesus that it leaves one’s head spinning trying to decipher
what is true and what is false? To make matters worse, many preachers claim
they are preaching “the word,” and the unsuspecting pew sitters or radio and
television listeners do not know if it is “the word” or not, because they have
not studied the word to prove it.
When
a pastor tells his congregation that they must tithe to him otherwise they will
be cursed, then we must run out of
the house of
I
am not casting stones at my brethren in Christ who hold views contrary to
Scripture (or, mine for that matter), for I too have held many of these views
and even this day am trying to rid myself of baggage that has accumulated over
many years. I am not there yet, but I keep pressing on in pursuit of the truth.
It is far too easy to accept a teaching that sounds right, and yet it is from
Satan’s tool bag or from our own carnal minds that never rise above the dust of
the earth. We need to remind ourselves that Satan disguises himself as an angel
of light, and where is this disguise most manifested? In the doctrine or
teaching of Christendom!
It
is
For
many years I have been crying out to know the truth. When I share this with
some, I am greeted with disdain rather than encouragement. There are so many interpretations
of Scripture that God’s people have long discarded the thought that God has
absolute, spiritual truth, and they have bought into the relativism of the
world. After all, they say that it is good to have many views of the same Scriptures.
It makes us well-rounded! I don’t care to be well-rounded, which to me is like
saying I want to be fat; I want to know the truth. Besides, they say: “No one
man has a lock on the truth. How can you expect to come into it?” According to
this thinking we might as well leave our Bibles on our coffee tables as dust
collectors.
When
you challenge some traditional, institutionalized teaching, such as billions
upon billions of lost humanity being thrust into an eternal oven to be toasted
for ever and ever with no chance of reprieve, you are given a book or a paper
by some well-known commentator who refutes the salvation or reconciliation of
all, as if he is the last word on the matter. In fact, this has happened to me
twice on the matter of God is the Savior of all mankind, and the eventual
salvation of all mankind. I was directed to the same article written by the
same author by one person in the
Cutting
the word of truth.
Consider
the great lack of sound teaching in our day. Who is heeding Paul’s exhortation
to Timothy?
Have a
pattern of sound words, which you hear from me, in faith and love which are
in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 1.13 CV)
A
sound pattern is more than taking words and piecing them together to support
one’s position or message that one wants to sell to the people. It is holding
to the proper framework of Scripture. It is like a puzzle with every piece of
the puzzle being framed together until the whole picture comes into view. To do
this, there needs to be a correct cutting of the word.
Endeavor to present yourself to God qualified, an
unashamed worker, correctly cutting the
word of truth. (2 Timothy 2.15 CV)
To
get the puzzle pieces, we need to cut the word in such a way that it will form
the proper picture; otherwise, the pieces will never fit, and we will have to
force them together. Have you ever tried to force the pieces of a puzzle
together that do not fit? The result is that the picture does not look right
when we are done, or worse yet, we are not able to finish the puzzle. We end up
with an incomplete picture. This is what some, who love the Lord, are
unwittingly doing in our day.
I
am reminded of my father who recently died (and now awaits the resurrection).
When he could not fit puzzle pieces together, he would take his pocket knife
and cut the pieces to fit. This is not the type of cutting that Paul meant.
Essentially, my dad was destroying the puzzle. This is exactly what many
preachers do when they do not cut the word properly; they take words and cut
them to fit, but they do not fit. If we are honest with one another, most all
of us have done this to some degree, and many do it all the time without any
hesitation.
When
this is done, the whole picture or framework of Scripture is ruined, and worse,
something that is not even logical is created. If many of the preachers today
would step back and logically analyze what they are saying, they would discover
that they make no sense and contradict Scripture after Scripture.
There
is another analogy to be made with a puzzle, and that pertains to losing a
piece of the puzzle. If a piece is lost, then the picture cannot be completed.
The same thing happens with the word if we leave out pieces that help to
properly frame God’s purpose and plan. And this is what is done so often,
particularly with words that are difficult to fit in the puzzle. They are often
ignored altogether.
We
need to be seekers of the truth of Scripture, not merely of the words of Scripture.
We need to keep searching and when a piece does not fit, rather than forcing it
into our mindset or our traditions and biases, or leaving it out completely, we
need to examine it carefully to see why it does not fit.
All
of this is to state the obvious: There is as much failure today throughout
Christendom as there was for
Apostasy
must come, and it has come. Falling away from the faith must come, and it has
come. Following after doctrines of demons must come, and it has come. Not
cutting the word properly must come, and it has come. The era when they will not tolerate sound teaching, but,
their hearing being tickled, they will heap up for themselves teachers in
accord with their own desires, and, indeed, they will be turning their hearing away from the truth, yet will be
turned aside to myths must
come, and it has come.
Systematizing
of the deception.
Dear
brethren, we have played a fool’s game with God’s word by failing to dig for
God’s truth and instead have accepted the traditions of men that came along
after the embryonic ecclesias passed off the stage of history, and even worse,
we have made up our own interpretations to satisfy the flesh in which there is
no good (Romans 7.18).
According to Paul, the body of Christ is to mature
until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the realization of the son of
God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the complement of the
Christ, that we may by no means still be minors, surging hither and thither and
being carried about by every wind of teaching, by human caprice, by craftiness with a view to the
systematizing of the deception (Ephesians 4.13-14 CV).
Only
an adversary could devise a way to systematize the deception. This has been one
of Satan’s greatest achievements. He has not only succeeded in taking what is
false but in taking it and packaging it into a systematic framework and then
passing it off as the truth of Scripture. It appears as light but at its very
core is darkness. Many of God’s people have been hooked into this
“systematizing of the deception.” I confess that at times in my life I have,
so I only have the greatest amount of compassion on my brethren who write and
teach in this day.
Systematizing is not merely accepting something false; it is
building an entire framework based on a deception, so that everything is seen
through this deception. For example, if it is held that every believer
immediately goes to heaven in death,
then this becomes a framework by which all other Scripture related to such
things as death, life, soul, resurrection and judgment is explained. When Paul
wrote that he would rather be out of the body and at home with the Lord, such a framework holds that Paul taught
that when a believer dies he goes to heaven immediately, which is contrary to
Paul’s expectation of the out-resurrection
(Philippians 3.11). The result is that the one thing that is essential to
the hope of believers is systematically put in a lower place of importance, ignored
or distorted.
What
is the result of this “systematizing of the deception”? God’s people are not
growing up in Christ. They are minors, babes in Christ, not mature saints. They
are carnal, not spiritual. This systematizing can be likened to putting a frog
in a pot of water over a fire. At first, the water is lukewarm which is
soothing to the creature, and it is lulled to sleep. When the water gets to the
boiling point, the damage has been done, and it is too late for the frog to
jump out of the water. In like fashion, some of God’s people are being bathed
in lukewarm teaching. They are laughing and clapping at teaching that is
failing them, and they do not know it. Praise God; He locks up all together, so
who of us can cast a stone at our brethren? Let us pray continually for the
eyes of our heart, as well as all of our brethren to be enlightened.
What
are we to conclude? Failure is written across all the people that God has
called and chosen. Failure is written across all mankind and its history.
God
locks up all in stubbornness.
This
leads to the answer to the pressing question of why. Why would God allow this
to happen, even to that which holds to the name of His Son on this earth? This
leads us back to this matter of stubbornness.
For God locks up all together in
stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all. (Romans 11.32 CV)
Do
you understand the greatness of these words? In the context of Paul’s epistle,
we might be tempted to think that the locking up is only for
If
any of us could reach God’s end by our own might without any failure, then we
would take the glory for ourselves. We would consider ourselves better than all
the others who failed. Even the body of Christ would do this and, in fact, is
doing it in this day. Just consider the glee that seems to emanate from some
circles of believers at the grotesque notion that the lost are roasting in an
eternal fire. It is as if they are saying: “We made the right choice, so we
deserve heaven. You made the wrong choice, so you deserve hell; it’s your own
fault. Burn brother!”
Let
us restate these words. God locks up all,
leaving all in a place of
stubbornness (unpersuadable), so that all
will receive His mercy, and all will
be included in His grand purpose and plan, and all will give the glory to God. Let us state this in another way: No one will fail to receive His mercy; no one will be left out of His grand
purpose and plan; and no one will
take glory for himself. It is to the glory of God. O, the wisdom of God.
O, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge
of God! How inscrutable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! For, who
knew the mind of the Lord? or, who became His adviser? or, who gives to Him
first, and it will be repaid Him? seeing that out of Him and through Him and
for Him is all: to Him be the glory for the eons! Amen! (Romans 11.33-36 CV)
Who
knew, who became, who gives? The answer is the
God of all!
The
key to our understanding is the word all,
which means that nothing is left out. In God’s wisdom, all must fail; all must be
locked up in disobedience and stubbornness, so that all will come to God’s end. Do you get it? All will come to God’s end, to His purpose!
There
is no other way for God to reach His end. What is His end? It is that He will
be All in all! He locks up all for all. How can God be all if He
annihilates billions of His human creations in the second death or leaves them
to be tormented and tortured in literal flames of fire forever and ever? Think
about it!
Out
of Him and through Him and for Him is all.
To
most people, these words probably have been lost in a sea of confusion. There
are three clauses in this verse.
First, all is out
of God. Everything comes forth from God; nothing, absolutely nothing in His
creation comes out of any other source but God. He is the Supreme, and all
comes out of Him, including the adversary.
Second, all is
through God. Everything that is and that happens must come through God;
nothing, absolutely nothing that happens in His creation can come through any
other source but God. He is the Supreme, and all is through Him.
Third, all is for
Him. Everything in His entire creation is for Him; nothing, absolutely
nothing in His creation is for any other purpose but God. He is the Supreme,
and all is for Him.
How
can mankind come to know this great truth and come into the experience of it
without experiencing failure? Mankind needs a contrast of who God truly is so
that they will know Him, love Him and serve Him, not out of obligation but out
of true love and adoration. In the day that God is All in all, all mankind will know God and failure will be no more.
God does not fail!
So,
we must conclude that the first Adam failed; the ancients that followed failed;
the nation of
The
end from the beginning.
Declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which
have not been done, Saying, “My purpose will
be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46.10 NASB)
Dear
beloved brethren, our God has told us the end from the beginning. His purpose
is to be All in all, and nothing will stop Him from becoming All. His purpose has been established,
and He will accomplish it.
The
Creator, the Potter.
Have
you ever wondered why God would harden the heart of Pharaoh or even take an
unbelieving king like Cyrus and make him His anointed?
And the LORD
hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD
had spoken to Moses. (Exodus 9.12 NASB)
Thus says the LORD to Cyrus
His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before
him and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates
will not be shut…. (Isaiah 45.1 NASB)
Paul gives the clearest answer to this question in all
Scripture.
Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never
be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL
HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God
who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I
RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE
PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He
desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who
answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you
make me like this,” will it? Or does not
the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel
for honorable use and another for common use? (Romans 9.13-21 NASB)
Let us consider Paul’s argument as presented.
First, Esau is
brought into the picture to make the point that God is not unjust in His
determinations. At first glance, we might think that it was, in fact, justice
that Esau was disqualified; after all, he sold his birthright for food. But
there is something else behind the Lord’s rejection of Esau.
Second, mercy is
brought back in by quoting the Lord Himself. The Lord will have mercy on
whomever He will have mercy. In other words, God calls the shots, not man when
it comes to His mercy.
Third, man’s
condition does not depend on man’s will or the man who runs, but on God who has
mercy. The word run refers to the course
that man is on as if on a race course. Notice, Paul again emphasizes but God, which is the same wording as for God.
Fourth, simply,
God will harden hearts as He sees fit to accomplish His purpose. He raises up and
He tears down to demonstrate His power, not for the sake of a show of force but
because He has a purpose.
Fifth, Paul
asks: Who can resist the will of God? This is a mighty pregnant statement that
needs to give birth in our hearts. No man can resist the will of God. If we
accept this as the truth, which we had better, then it answers the question of
the salvation of all mankind. It is God’s will to save all. Consequently, whose
will is strong enough to resist God’s purpose to save all mankind; eventually,
even the ones whose hearts He hardens must yield to the will of God.
Sixth, God is
the Potter and mankind is the clay pot. The Creator has the right to make one
vessel a vessel of honor and another for common use. Has the created any right
to question the Creator? As the Creator, God has responsibility for His
creation. He made it, and He must keep it. It is not in the will of man to have
responsibility for his ultimate destiny. God creates and calls forth vessels of
honor and dishonor with purpose. After all, let us not forget that He is the
God of the living. What is death and failure to the God who sees the end from
the beginning? He alone has determined the course of events, as well as the
outcome.
In light of the Potter, consider Pharaoh whose heart was
hardened by the Lord. Do we not think that after a few plagues that Pharaoh was
willing to let God’s people go? Surely, he must have thought to himself that
enough is enough, but God had another plan that dealt with the heart of the
sons of
Seventh, all this
is necessary so that God’s word will not fail (Romans 9.6), for when His word
goes forth it does not turn back; it accomplishes all that it was intended to
accomplish.
At
this point, let us turn to the cross, for it is here that all comes together. It is here that all failure is remedied, and it is here that all mankind is saved. Did you grasp these words? All mankind is saved!
The
absolute success of the Cross.
We
know that the world does not acknowledge the cross for what it truly means. To
the world, it is a failure. Christ is merely one of many men who left their
mark on the world, but He is in the grave like all the others or perhaps in
some after-life state, depending on which pagan view one holds.
If
we look at the cross of
He
came to save His brethren but He could not, for they were in unbelief; and at
the crucial hour, He could not even save Himself from death. From mankind’s
view, it would appear to be utter failure again for mankind; the Second Man had
failed. Mankind’s view is always distorted through the lens of sin and death.
But
praise God; it is God’s view that matters; the view from the heavenly throne of
grace and mercy; the view of Him from whom all flows. It was all in His perfect
plan and according to His purpose; the
One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will (Ephesians
1.11 CV).
Let
men say that Christ could not save Himself or that God abandoned Him, as if the
power of death would forever hold Him in its mighty grip; but Scripture says
that God raised His Son from the dead, for it was not possible for death to
hold Him. Please understand that on the cross the Son of God DIED! He did not
fake it; He did not avoid it; and He did not spend three days in the torture
chamber called hell. He died as all
men die, and He was raised from the dead by His Father, as all men will be
raised by the Father.
Men! Israelites! Hear these words: Jesus, the
Nazarene, a Man demonstrated to be from God for you by powerful deeds and
miracles and signs, which God does through Him in the midst of you, according
as you yourselves are aware—This One, given up in the specific counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you, gibbeting by
the hand of the lawless, assassinate, Whom God raises, loosing the pangs of
death, forasmuch as it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (Acts 2.22-24
CV)
Let
it be shouted from the rooftops and the pulpits of every so-called “church” building
that bears the name of Christ: The death
of God’s Son on the cross is an absolute, unequivocal 100% success according to
the counsel of God’s will!
Most
preachers would probably agree that the cross is an absolute success.
Unfortunately, their preaching often does not reflect this great truth, for
they place exceptions in the finished work of the cross that today extends to
all mankind without exception. What
has resulted throughout the Christian world? The result is that the majority of
the body of Christ believes that the cross was a failure? If this does not
raise a reaction from you, then you must be spiritually asleep or dead.
To
a majority of believers, the cross is an absolute success for them because they
made “a commitment to Christ.” However, it is not a success for the rest of mankind,
for they did not make this commitment. In other words, the cross is a success with limits, with exceptions, for the success of the cross ultimately depends on
man. So that there is no misunderstanding, I reject this line of thinking.
Stand
in the pulpits of today and proclaim that Christ has saved all mankind without exception, and you will most likely be severed
from that group of believers or be ignored to the point that you must leave.
The big lie is that just like death is not really death but life, so all is not really all but all with exceptions.
In the garden, the serpent told Eve not
to die shall you be dying (Genesis 3.4 CV). In more
plain English, the serpent said that mankind would not die, and today
innumerable believers have also come to accept this lie. After all, many
people see death as not really death but merely as an immediate portal into
another existence in heaven or in hell. This is a lie! By the same token, the
word all is not seen as an
all-inclusive word. It is all with
billions of exceptions. In fact, all
is not even some but a few in the minds of many. They have very few saved and
the majority lost in a fiery oven to be tormented with no chance of escape.
Paul
wrote: We are working for the good of
all, yet specially for the family of faith (Galatians 6.10 CV). Why would he make such a statement if all were not included in
God’s purpose and plan? Surely, he could have simply stated that they were
working for all of the family of faith, but he did not state this. Paul worked
for the good of all because he knew
that the cross was an absolute success for all.
The
most grotesque systematizing of the deception has occurred in relation to the
effectiveness of the cross, and many have embraced this deception to the point
that brethren who challenge this deception are told they are going to “hell.”
This in itself is a sad commentary on the failure of God’s people.
This
is how the deception goes. Adam successfully caused death and sin to enter
through into all mankind. There is no exception for any born of Adam’s race,
which includes all mankind. In other words, Adam’s one transgression was an
absolute success in bringing death and sin unto all mankind, and those born of
Adam’s race have no choice in the matter. If they are born of man, they must
die as man. Now, this is true.
However,
when it comes to Christ’s one act of righteousness, it is an entirely different
matter. As the deception goes, Christ’s one act of righteousness potentially leads to life for all, only if one believes on his own volition
(free will). In other words, man has a choice in the matter, and unfortunately,
most men will not make the choice while in the body, so they will die in their
sin and be forever lost. By some accounts there are perhaps 50 billion humans
now being tormented in hell. Is there something odd about this reasoning?
Mankind has no choice in the matter of death and sin but now must make a choice
in the matter of life. Mankind had no free will in becoming a sinner and
ultimately facing death but now has a free will to determine his destiny in
heaven or in hell. Does this make any sense to you? Isn’t it rather strange
that billions upon billions of people, who had the spirit of life breathed into
them, made a free will choice to die and have rejected God’s promise of life?
Why is it that the majority of mankind (not the minority) has chosen, according
to their own free will, not to go the way of life? Isn’t it far more logical
that if man’s free will were operative in the matter of salvation that most of
all mankind would choose to live? After all, most of mankind seems to fear
death. When we fear something we generally desire to stay away from that thing.
Think about it!
Consider
this question: Why is Adam’s one transgression more successful (in a bad sense)
than Christ’s one righteous act (in a good sense)? Has God ultimately failed?
Is God not able to save all mankind? Did He make the ultimate sacrifice knowing
that billions of His creatures, made to be perfected into His own image, are
going to be cast into a fiery lake to be tormented forever? God is the Supreme
and all comes out of Him, through Him and for Him is all. Are we to conclude
that it is His will that there are exceptions to His all?
Dear
brethren, open your hearts to God’s love and search Scripture to see if this is
in fact true. If it is true, then we must conclude that God has failed and the
cross was not able to undo all that Adam did. Now, some will argue that it is
man’s failure, not God’s, but it is not, for if man fails to reach God’s end,
it is God who fails. Man is helpless in
his sin, so why do we make man a hero in his own salvation, as if he can save
himself?
So
that no one takes these words wrongly, please understand that I am stating
that, according to Scripture, this matter of Christ’s death potentially saving mankind is a deception of the highest order. Even
worse, it has been woven into the very teaching of Christendom until it has
become a systematized deception.
I
realize that these are serious allegations, but let us turn to God’s word with
an open heart and see what is revealed. To do this, we must accept that the
word all means exactly all, and not all with exceptions or all
with some excluded.
One
of the greatest deceptions that has been systematized involves the word all. Just as death does not mean death
to most people, the word all does not
mean all but something less.
Only
in Christ.
Before
proceeding further, there is a very dangerous counterfeit that we must guard
against that states all mankind will eventually find favor with God, but there
are many ways to this favor, only one of which is through God’s Son. This must
be rejected. There is only one way to
God, and that is through His Son who is the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection
and the Life. Apart from Christ, there will be no favor with God. In this
eon, we must be saved by grace through faith, the faith of the Son of God.
Today,
many Christians see the state of
But he is a Jew who
is one inwardly; and circumcision is
that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his
praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2.29 NASB)
Let
us not forget that a partial hardening has happened to
Now,
to bring this essential matter into focus, consider the following contrasts.
All
saved in their own era.
Let
some say that only a few will receive the mercy of God because they made “a
decision for Christ”; but Scripture says God locks up all to give mercy to all.
For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all.
(Romans 11.32 CV)
God is going to shower His mercy on all because He has shut up or locked up all. Whom do you want to exclude from this all?
Let
some say that only those who make “a free-will decision for Christ” will be
drawn to Christ; but Scripture says that all
will be drawn to Christ.
“And I, if I should be exalted out of the earth,
shall be drawing all to Myself.”
(John 12.32 CV)
Was
Christ exalted, which refers to the manner of His death? Of course, He was.
Then what are we to conclude? There is only one conclusion, and that is, He
will draw all to Himself. It does not
say that He will draw all at the same time, but He will draw all eventually. It
also does not state that He will draw only all mankind. It states that He will
draw all, which is an all-encompassing drawing that has to include all of mankind, all of the messengers and all
of God’s creation. Nothing is left out of this drawing. It is universal!
Actually,
the word draw in the Greek is best
translated with the word drag, which
gives a stronger meaning to this verse. Jesus will drag all unto Himself. There is a force to this word that implies
that if necessary Christ will drag all to Himself just like a magnet drags
metal to itself. Once the magnetic field gets hold of a certain type of metal
object, the object has no choice but to be caught by the magnet. Christ will
eventually catch all.
Let
some say that God is the Savior of only relatively few of mankind, those called
believers; but Scripture says that God is the Savior of all mankind.
We rely on
the living God, Who is the Saviour of all mankind, especially of
believers. These things be charging
and teaching. (1 Timothy
4.10-11 CV)
Scripture
does not state that God is the Savior of believers only. He is the Savior
especially of believers in this eon, for they are the ones who are called out
to enjoy the celestial allotment. However, it does not state that they are the
only ones who will be ultimately saved. All
mankind is included.
Let some say that all will not be saved; but Scripture says that God wills that all be saved.
“Our Savior,
God, Who wills that all mankind be saved and come into a realization of
the truth.” (1 Timothy 2.3-4 CV)
Consider how the King James states this verse: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth (1 Timothy 2.3-4 KJV)
God our Savior Who will have all men to be saved is a
mighty powerful affirmation of God’s will. Unfortunately, many translations use
the words wishes, desires and wants, as if God is begging mankind to be saved. This is gross interpretative
bias to maintain the false doctrine that man has a free will in the matter of
his salvation.
Do you think that God sent His Son to this earth to die on
a wish, a want or a desire to save mankind? It is as if God said to His Son:
“Well, Son, I am not sure this plan is going to work, but I desire for it to
work. At any rate, You go down there and be totally humiliated and suffer an
agonizing death, and let’s see what happens. Perhaps mankind will respond to
our gesture of love.” What kind of Savior would He be if His vicarious death
were not an absolute, perfect success to save all mankind? Let us keep in mind that it is God who devised this plan of salvation,
not man. If we devised it, at best it would be a wish or a desire. But for
God it is an entirely different matter. Do we not think that God’s will can and
will trump man’s will. Why? Because He sent the Savior of the world to die for
all the sin of the world! Why? Because God loves the world! Why? Because God
wills that all mankind eventually will be conformed to the image of His Son.
God
wills, not man, not preachers. Who will cancel out God’s will? Will man cancel
it out? Will man reverse God’s will? If God wills it, then how can we say that
it will not happen? It must happen because it is in God’s will that all be saved.
Let some say that God is holding all mankind’s offenses against
them; but Scripture says that God is not reckoning their offenses against
them.
Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through
Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was
in Christ, conciliating the world to
Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word
of the conciliation. (2 Corinthians 5.18-19 CV)
God is not reckoning mankind’s offenses to them. He has
conciliated the world to Himself. Is the world only made up of believers? Of
course not!
Let
some say that the blood of the cross was only for those who believe; but
Scripture says that God has reconciled all,
having made peace through the blood of His cross.
“Through Him
to reconcile all to Him, making peace through the blood of His cross.”
(Colossians 1.20 CV)
The
blood of His cross has brought peace to all, which includes not only mankind
but all God’s creatures, including His messengers. Who of mankind is excluded
from this peace? Do we exclude the vilest sinner, as if Christ’s blood could
not reconcile such a one to God? Again, it does not say that all are reconciled
at the same time, just that all are reconciled.
If
you don’t believe that the vilest sinner can and will be saved according to the
will of God and not the will of man, consider Paul the foremost among sinners,
who became our apostle. By Paul’s own account he was the chief among sinners.
He was not trying to be humble but was stating a fact. He was the worst of the
worst. He persecuted the risen Christ, the Son of God. How do we know this?
Because Jesus declared so as He blinded Saul on the road to
And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto
me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. (Acts
22.7-8 KJV)
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief…. (1 Timothy 1.15 ASV)
For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the
Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I
persecuted the
I persecuted to death this new faith, continually binding both men and women and throwing them into prison….
(Acts 22.4 WNT) [But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter
against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest…. (Acts 9.1 ASV)]
And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being
exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. (Acts
26.11 KJV)
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be
called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. (1 Corinthians 15.9 KJV)
This was not a man who was trying to gloss over his
accountability for his actions. No; this was a man who was rightly judging
himself. Persecuting the ecclesia of God was persecuting the risen Christ
Himself. Paul even compelled his brethren to blaspheme! This was a most serious
and egregious offense. No wonder Paul saw himself as the chief among sinners
and the least of the apostles. Yet, the Lord chose this persecutor and
overwhelmed his ignorance and unbelief, and not only saved him but put him into
the most glorious service anyone has ever been given in the ecclesia of God.
Paul alone is proof that God will save the vilest sinner, not because of his
free will choice but because God wills it so.
Let
some say that billions will end up in an eternal torture chamber, dead, yet
alive; but Scripture says that all are dying, yet shall all be made alive.
“For even as,
in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified
[made alive].” (1 Corinthians 15.22 CV) Life to
all!
Who can argue that in Adam all are dying? Look around you; who is
not dying? Do believers never experience death? Of course not, for we all die.
But notice that in Christ shall all
be made alive. Now, some will argue that this means once you believe you are in
Christ and then you are made alive. But that is not what this states. As he did
in his Roman’s epistle, Paul was contrasting the two positions of mankind. All
mankind, including believers, find themselves in Adam in relation to death, for
all die. Consequently, all mankind ultimately must find themselves in Christ,
for shall all be vivified. The wording is very important. Paul revealed the
truth that all are dying and shall all
be made alive. Death came through Adam to all; life will come through Christ to
all.
Do not be deceived; there is only one way for all mankind to be
saved and to be made alive, and that is through Christ; He is the only way.
Let some say that Adam’s one sin brought death to all, but
Christ’s death only potentially brought life to all; but Scripture says that
Christ’s death overcame one man’s sin and brings life to all mankind, without
exception.
For if, by the offense of the one, the many died,
much rather the grace of God and the gratuity in grace, which is of the One
Man, Jesus Christ, to the many
superabounds. … Through
one offense for all mankind for condemnation, thus also ... through one just
award for all mankind for life’s justifying. (Romans 5.15, 18 CV)
Because of the offense of one, the many died. Through the grace of
God through one, the many shall be justified. Now some will argue that the many
does not include all. However, Adam plus the many equals all mankind, and
Christ plus the many equals all mankind. Adam and Christ stand out as unique
among mankind; therefore, they are one and the rest are many. Further, Paul
went on to define the many as all
mankind.
Who is excluded from all mankind?
Who will not receive life’s justifying? One offense led to condemnation for all mankind, and one just award will
result in life for all mankind. How
can anyone refute God’s use of the word all?
Let
some say that only a few were ransomed; but Scripture says that Christ is the correspondent
Ransom for all, each in their own
time.
For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and
mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (the testimony in its
own eras)…. (1 Timothy 2.5-6 CV)
Christ
is giving Himself as a correspondent Ransom for all—not some, not a few, but all.
But notice that it is not all at the
same time. The testimony is in its own eras, which means that all will not
benefit from this at the same time, but all
will eventually benefit, even if from the first to the last of the
recipients of God’s mercy and grace there are 2,000 years or more.
The word of God locks up all together under sin, so that each in
its own era may be released by faith. Today, the promise is for those who are believing.
But the scripture locks up all together under sin, that the promise out of Jesus
Christ’s faith may be given to those who are believing. Now before the coming
of faith we were garrisoned under law, being locked up all together for the
faith about to be revealed. (Galatians 3.22-23 CV)
Let
some say that Christ could not save His brethren from their sins; but Scripture
says that all
For I am not willing for you to be ignorant of this
secret, brethren, lest you may be passing for prudent among yourselves, that
callousness, in part, on Israel has come, until the complement of the nations
may be entering. And thus all
Who
of the Israelites is to be left out? Some will not enter the joy of the
Messianic kingdom, for these ones will not be forgiven for this eon (wicked
eon) and the next eon (Messianic kingdom), but Scripture does not say that they
will never be forgiven for their sin of blasphemy (Matthew 12.31-32). Their
chastening is for a long season (i.e., they remain dead, not tortured), but not
for eternity, for some will face the purging fire of the second death to
perfect them and make them ready to enter into the glory of God. This is the
mercy of God.
Let
some say that all will not be saved; but again Scripture says that all will be saved but in their own order
and time.
And each in his
proper order, a first-fruit Christ [anointed firstfruit], afterwards those
who are the Christ’s, in his presence, then―the end, when he may deliver up
the reign to God, even the Father, when he may have made useless all rule, and
all authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15.23-24 YLT
[literal])
Christ
stands alone as the Firstfruit that rose from among the dead. He is the
Firstfruit of those who are dead. This happened about 2,000 years ago. With the
first resurrection, a company of conquerors will rise from among the dead as
anointed firstfruits. At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, the
remaining dead will rise to be judged at the great white throne. Believers that
did not conquer in life and unbelievers will appear before the throne.
Thereafter, or after this eon, there will be the consummation when Christ gives
up the kingdom to the Father.
Let some say that death will keep the unbelievers forever in its
grip; but Scripture says that death will be abolished.
For He must be reigning until He should be placing
all His enemies under His feet. The last
enemy is being abolished: death. (1 Corinthians 15.25-26 CV)
The
first death will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death (see
Revelation 20.14). So which death is abolished? Death is death, whether it is
the first type of death (of the body) or the second type of death (of works).
As long as death exists, Christ cannot give up the kingdom to God the Father.
He must defeat all types of death in order for God to be All in all. When does this occur? It occurs at the consummation.
Before mankind moves beyond the eons as we know them, all the resurrected dead
that will appear at the great white throne eventually must be purified, that
is, purged of all dross, imperfections and evil, through spiritual fire, so
that God is All in all. The fire is
not for torture but for purifying. God is spirit, and God is a consuming fire
(Hebrews 12.29). The lake of fire is a spiritual, consuming fire designed to
save billions and billions of lost people, not to destroy them. It is the
spiritual and moral law of God, which is His word, for His voice hews out
flames of fire (Psalm 29.7 NASB).
This
leads to the conclusion of the matter. It brings us to the very purpose of the
eons, and it answers why God allowed all the failure.
All
in all.
Let
some say that God is not after all and will not have all; but Scripture says
God will be All in all.
For He subjects all under His feet. Now whenever He
may be saying that all is subject, it is evident that it is outside of Him Who
subjects all to Him. Now, whenever all may be subjected to Him, then the Son
Himself also shall be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all. (1
Corinthians 15.27-28 CV)
This
is the end to which God is driving mankind with all its failures. It is
accomplished in His Son, who has not and will not fail. Christ Jesus must rule until
He has subjected all to Himself, and He willingly subjects Himself to the
Father, so that God may be All in all.
What
does it mean that God may be All in all?
It means that God fills His entire creation with Himself. He is all, and He is
in all. It does not mean that mankind somehow becomes absorbed in God and
ceases to be. No; it means that God becomes all to all His creatures. The love
of God will so fill the creation that He will be the true Father of all. All
His creation will be related as one family under God. All mankind will be in
the image of the Son of God. All mankind will have been built into God’s
spiritual house, a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit (Ephesians 2.21-22). Love will
fill all, and all will love and adore Him. There will be a sweet sound of love
and adoration filling all of creation.
God
locks up all together, so that no one will be able to boast in himself. When
all arrive in glory, the boast will be God
is love. No one will have deserved the favor of God in that day; but all
will receive it.
Those
who arrived first will embrace all who come through the purging fire of God
when all is consummated. All mankind will be related, for all will have one God
and Father. No one will boast in himself in that day; all will boast in God who allowed all to fail that all will
know Him and all will finally be in
the glorious image and likeness of His Son. It is the result of the mercy and
grace of God!
God
will be the happy God and His glory will fill all. This is the purpose of the eons.
[1] Free will implies that one can make decisions absent any external
influence. In other words, one decides to act without any consideration of an
influence outside of himself. Can you think of any decisions that any of us make
that are like this. Everything we do has some external influence that leads us
to do what we do. Consequently, it is God’s will that overpowers our will.
[2] Those who believe that Adam was formed from the
soil about 6,000 years ago hold to the 50+ billion figure, which is man’s best
guess. Those who believe that man evolved over a much longer period of time
hold to the 110 billion figure. I hold to the 6,000 years.