September 2, 2007 Bible Study
http://bible-truths.com/audio/09-02-07 Part 1.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/09-02-07 Part 2.mp3
DOES ALL MEAN ALL?
DOES SCRIPTURE PROVE GOD WILL SAVE EVERYONE ?
You will notice that I did not say, does scripture ‘say’ God will save all. There is a reason for that. I know all of us here believe God will save all of humanity. I know we all believe that fervently and we base it on the scriptures.
But today I’m going to play, not the devil’s advocate, but the theologian’s advocate. I want you first of all to give me some scriptures that state emphatically that God will save everybody.
Okay 1 Tim 4:10, let’s turn there and I’m going to play the theologian’s advocate and we’ll see what we come up with. This is the verse we have at the bottom of Bible-truths.com.
1 Tim 4:10 For to this we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of
all men, especially of those who believe.
Now what is it about that scripture that would make you think that God will or have to save all? What is in there, what word All. The word all, right? Wrong, pale face. You don’t understand hermeneutics or this good stuff taught in the seminaries of this world. So it’s wrong. The word ‘all’ can mean - all, completely, totality or as many as.
So they say, ‘well yes He is the living God who will save as many men, as He will save, however many that is. Those that come to Him out of free will choice and accept Christ. Yes He will save that many, that's all. The word pas in the Greek, that’s how many He will save, as many as He will save. He will especially save believers for sure, because God so loved the world, that whosoever believes on His Son will be saved. You will receive eternal life if you believe. Certainly the believers and all men who are not believers, but maybe will be believers in the ages to come, through this church age and however many there are. The all, the pas, the many will be saved too, but not everyone.’
Okay, another scripture from someone.
1 Tim 2:4 who will have
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now what is it in that verse that suggests everyone will be saved? All. Same word all - pas - as many as. So here’s their argument, if pas means as many as, then it doesn’t have to mean all, the absolute all, see. Next verse.
Col 1:20 And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile
all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven.
Okay what is the word in there that suggests He will save all? All - pas. He will save as many as. See here’s how a theologian commentary might go on that. “having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile ALL…” that’s the Greek word pas - as many as come to Him, accept Him, receive His sacrifice, etc., that’s how many, pas - all - as many as do what they have to do. See? So you’ve got to put all the scriptures together. You just can’t base it on one scripture.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
all will be made alive.
[Theologians] Those who accept Jesus shall be made alive in the kingdom of God, those that do not accept Jesus shall be made alive so they can suffer for all eternity in the lake of fire. They will all be made alive, you bet ya.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not purposing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance.
The all - pas - as many as, as many as come to repentance will come to repentance and as many as will not come, will not. So as many as will not, will not be saved.
Now let me show you that technically they are right about the word. Let’s prove that, where it says “all should be saved,” why do they say that doesn’t mean all? Because they despise the Word of God, that’s why. They despise the Word of God. They don’t say that this word never means all or complete or every or everyone. They only say it never means that when it’s talking about salvation. Why? Because they despise the Word of God. One day we are going to understand that, it’s only when it comes to salvation specifically and particularly. Not that there are other occasions that they know it doesn’t mean all, because that’s their proof to say that it doesn’t mean all when it’s talking about salvation. But the reason that they do that is they despise the Word of God and they don’t want everybody to be saved. They’re vengeful and hateful. There are people that have hurt them in their lives and they want those people to go to hell.
How many people, how many thousands of people have written me emails and not only said, ‘go to hell you _ _ or you _ _ _,’ and every foul name, in addition to all those that say, not quite so abruptly, ‘well Ray you’re going there, one day you will find out.’ Trust me, they want me to go there, they want me to some day wake up in hell burning and they will say, ‘ha ha ha, I told you Ray.’ If I’d say at that point, well I repent now, they would say, ‘well you can’t.’ Well why can’t I? ‘You can’t do good when God has determined that you have to do bad for all eternity.’ So I would say no, but I want to do good anyway. ‘You can’t, it’s not allowed.’ I’d say, God will not allow me to repent and do good here is hell? ‘No.’ What? Can you see the insanity of this stuff!
So here’s a verse, notice it.
Mark 1:5 And they went out unto Him
all…
Same Greek word, pas. Now if we said pas means every last one single one, here it is, pas means all, any, every, the whole, ever, as many as. Now if the meaning didn’t have that ‘as many as’ in there, we could say yes it does mean absolutely everyone. “…ALL the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem…” Do you really believe that every single person alive, all Judaea and the whole city of Jerusalem went out to Christ? The infants, the elderly that can’t walk? Of course not. Notice this next part; “…and were ALL…” same Greek word pas - all, every or as many as, “… baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.” Does that word pas in the Greek mean every single one there? No, it does not and we don’t even have to speculate on that, because of Matt 3.
Mat 3:7 But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, ye generation of snakes, who warned you to escape from the wrath to come?
v. 8 Bring forth fruit meet of repentance:
In other words he wasn’t going to baptize them unless they repented of all their evil doings. So we know for a fact the Sadducees and the Pharisees were not baptized and it says, “they were ALL baptized.”
We also know that when they asked Christ, “By what authority do You do these things?” (Matt 21:23) He said well I’ll answer you if you first tell Me by what authority did John the Baptist, baptize? They got together and said, well what’s He trying to do here? Let’s see, we could say that he just did his own thing. Well no, we can’t say that, because the people thought he was a man of God. They’ll hate us and stone us. But if we say, he was a man sent from God, then Christ will say why weren’t you baptized. So this is proof that they weren’t baptized. So they said verse 27, we can’t answer that Lord. “… And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” So we have proof that pas does not always mean all.
1 Tim 2:4 who will have all (Gk. #3956 pas - all, any, every, the whole, every, as many as) men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So when we find, “who will have all men to be saved.” We can’t base that on the word pas, even though we know from the context that it is speaking of all.
Now we are going to take a look at a number of scriptures and hopefully we will start getting some clarification on these important matters. So I have 1 Tim 2:4 and you already brought it up that God our Savior will have all men saved. Actually the theologians find 2 problems with that. The word will comes from 2 different Greek words primarily in the New Test.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
When it says, in the Lord pray, “Thy will be done…” That is the strong form of the word ‘will’ and it means absolutely, it absolutely must be done. But then you have the weaker form, I say weaker when it’s not speaking in God’s absolute declaration, but it means a sincere desire to do something. Christ used it many times, Paul used it many times. But I’ve shown in an email on our site, 7 places where it has to be more that a wish, (
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3098.0.html - I believe this is the email Ray was referring to). Because it absolutely has to come about by the context. But sometimes it doesn’t, it just means a desire. Paul said, I desire to come onto you, but Satan hindered me (1 Thess 2:18). Well he didn’t come, he didn’t absolutely say I will come and therefore it is written in stone and it will happen, you see.
Here’s where it says “who will” (1 Tim 2:4), it’s that weaker form of desire. So you can translate it, “God who desires that all…” so they say, since it’s only a desire, it doesn’t have to come about, see. That’s when you liken God to a man. But you are breaking the first, second and third commandments there, and the fifth, of dishonoring your Father. They break 4 commandments there by saying, when God desires something He can’t always have it. Why? What kind of nonsense is that?
How could a human conceive that the Creator of the universe, desires - inside emotional feeling, He desires or wants, desires to have something, but He can’t have it. That’s blasphemy. But they don’t so. It is blasphemy, because you are bringing God down to a human level. We humans desire, I desire for my knees to get better, it’s not happening. But if God desired for His knees not to hurt, guess what? They wouldn’t hurt, but God doesn’t have knees, but if He did. So first they say His will there, is nothing more than a unobtainable weak wish. All means just as many as, as many as do whatever other scripture say they have to do, in order to be saved. That scripture proves no such thing, as God will save all humanity (1 Tim 2:4).
It is in just such type situations, where people read some of my material. Rather than thinking how they are going to internalize these spiritual lessons, they are thinking how they are going to externalize them and go out and make a fool out of their pastor. Now I can’t tell you how many have tried and fail flat on their face. Then they write me back and say, ‘Ray, I’m meeting with my pastor again on Tues., I told them about this or that scripture, but he said this, this, and this, now I don’t know what to do, help please.’ I say, you made your bed, now sleep in it. Don’t think I’ve not made some enemies there. Sometimes I give them the answer, but I say, you’re play with fire. You think you’re somebody, you think you understand, you think you can take on the theologians of the world? They have been studying these things by the hundreds of thousands for 2000 years.
Well you will say, ‘Ray, who do you think you are by doing this.’ Well I’m a little more cautious than that. It says, men jump in where angels fear to tread. How true, we jump in sometimes where even an angel would be afraid to go. We need to be careful about such things.
Why isn’t there a Greek word like all, that always does mean all and every, without exception? Why does this Greek word have that loop hole in it? Why didn’t God have at least one word that means all - every - absolutely bar none, then use it. Then the theologians wouldn’t have an excuse to blaspheme God and say He is not going to save everybody, but torture most of them in hell. Why didn’t God provide such a word? Because if He did, how would Satan deceive the whole world?
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world;
You see, how would these theologians be deceived, if there was no room for deception?
Isa 28:13 Therefore shall the word of Jehovah be unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and TAKEN.
That means taken captive in there own demented minds. It’s the way the Word of God is, here a little there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept. But if you have a heart that doesn’t think the rest of humanity is as good as you, then there is room to pervert the scriptures, pervert your mind and be easily deceived. Now that’s why there are these loop holes. That’s why all doesn’t always mean all, when it says, God will save all. They can say, ‘well it doesn’t always mean everyone, so your doctrine is wrong.’
We had a saying back in Pennsylvania, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
DO ALL SCRIPTURES USING ‘ALL’ MEAN ONLY SOME?
We have shown where some scriptures, at least, using the word ‘all’ means only some. Do all scriptures that use the word ‘all’ means only some? We’ve got to prove our points here, one at a time, as we go.
Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, that every (pas - all) idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Does anyone, we or the church or theologians, believe for one minute that He only means some of the idle words spoken by man will be judged? Only some? Does anyone believe that? Not even the theologians believe that’s only talking about some, many or a few. They believe that means all. Why? Because they have no problem with that being all, they have no problem with saying, ‘yea I need to judge all my own idol words, I can’t be saying any idol words anymore than anybody else.’ They’ll agree with that, because it doesn’t save everybody, so they still have that nasty little doctrine to hang on to, you see.
Mat 4:4 But He answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every (pas - all) word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Again theologians say, ‘well that does mean every or all, it mean we should live by some of God’s Words and the parts of God’s Word you don’t like, we can throw those away.’ No they wouldn’t say that.
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
You know I could play their game and say, that’s the word ‘pas’ it means some or many, it doesn’t mean absolutely everyone. I’m one that it doesn’t include, I’ve not sinned. We know some people who have claimed that, just a little while back. They say, ‘I no longer sin.’ Of course it is in the past tense, so even if you are sinless now, it says “have sinned,” at least in the past. Really would any theologian say that doesn’t mean all? No they wouldn’t. But when it says “all have sinned” they say it means all. But when it says all will be saved, it doesn’t mean all. What’s their proof? What’s our proof?
Now do you see why I put this study together today? They don’t have a personal problem with being a sinner, but they have a major problem with everybody being saved. They just don’t like that, you see. So we are going to have to go a different route here, if we want to expose those that contradict the Word of God. It’s one thing to just say it, but if you are going to really expose it, then you have to prove it.
So this one say “all have sinned.” Can we find other proof that the “all have sinned” means everyone? Yes we can.
Rom 3:12 They are all [is that proof? No not according to theologians] gone out of the way, they are together [is that proof that all have sinned? No, not according to theologians] become unprofitable;
There is none that doeth good, no not one:
There‘s the proof, you can‘t fight with that. Is there one person who has never sinned? “No not [even] one.” You have a double negative “no not one.” So yes we do have proof.
Here is another one. What Jesus Christ said “there is none good,” none (Matt 19:17). Now that excludes any, but God. So yea we can prove that all have sinned means absolutely everyone.
Now can we prove that all will be saved, means absolutely everyone will be saved? Any suggestions?
[Comment: Is all, especially believers proof? (1 Tim 4:10)] Yes especially believers, but what about “all (pas) men,” the all is the many. He will save many that come to Christ, in the future and especially those who are already believers. I told you I was going to play the theologians advocate here.
[Comment: Well, Col. 1:20, should cover just about everybody] We already went over that, but what in that scripture did she base it on? ‘All’ it was wrong, there is more in that scripture than what she based it on. That is a good scripture, but not the point that was brought out. That’s why I just glossed over it.
You are going to find as we go over this, that there are many scripture that say nothing about the salvation of all men, that prove that God will save all men. The scripture doesn’t say any such thing, but yet it is proof. That’s what I meant by what we use to say, there more than one way to skin a cat. There is more than one way to get from here to Toledo. You can take the shortest cut, but there are other ways and they will get you there too.
Now it says “no not one” now I want to prove that the “no” in the Greek is ‘ou’ and it never means some or any. I want to prove that, so we know each word is going to nail it down.
Mat 7:21
Not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but…
It says ‘not,’ it’s the same Greek word ‘ou,’ it’s translated a lot of times no, not, nay, neither, never, none, nothing, that’s what it says in Strong’s. That is pretty powerful. Now does that mean some or a few? No, it’s no, not, nay, neither, never, none, nothing. “Not EVERY one...” Guess what? ‘Every’ there is the same word translated ‘ou,’ it’s the word ‘pas’ that means - all, some or many, okay.
“…that say unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;” No not any “… that say to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;” but that is not the end of the sentence. “But,” here is the disclaimer, “but,” here is the exception to the rule. None, absolutely none, BUT. You can eat all the M&Ms, BUT the yellow ones, I want those. According to that statement are you allowed to eat even one yellow M&M? No. You can eat all of them, BUT.
Now here it doesn’t say all of them, but none of them. It says, “Not every one” but in the Greek it’s no ou. ‘No all’ should be saved, but it doesn’t sound right, it’s not proper grammar to talk like that. So they say instead of ‘no all’ that say unto Me, Lord, Lord…” “Not(same negative, no - not) every (pas - all)” and it’s proper, it’s the same. It’s not a bad translation, that’s the way it should be translated “Not every” but when you say “not every” aren’t you suggesting maybe there are some? See when you say, not every one will make it to the Olympics, well some will, right. But then you have the ‘but.’ So yes it can be translated “not every one.” Every one “but,” here’s the “but,” see so it’s still proper. So now we have literally, “ou pas - no all,” which means “no all, no any, no many, no whatever many or few.” “But (only) he that does the will of My Father” (Matt 7:21b). So not a single person that DOESN’T do the will of Jesus’ Father, will be in the kingdom.
The no not, the not all, the no all, clarifies that. None, none whatsoever, no exception. So here the negative, no -not - neither - nor - never - ou, it means every, there is no exception.
Now let’s see where we can find that word and see what we can figure out from that.