Hi Phazel,
I like your thinking and believe you are on to it here. In our home we just studied this yesterday from LoF part XIV:
A word study will clearly show anyone that Jesus came to SAVE those who are and will be destroyed. And do I have a Scripture on that? I am glad that you asked. Here is a beautiful lesson that will show us just how important it sometimes is to know from what original word a word in our English translations came.
Here is the temporary fate of most humanity:
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to DESTRUCTION, and many there be which go in thereat" (Matt. 7:13).
Did Jesus come to SAVE all those who enter the broad gate to "destruction?" YES HE DID:
"For the Son of man is come to SAVE that which was LOST" (Matt. 18:11)!
There it is!
There is what? Where does that verse say that Jesus came to "SAVE that which was DESTROYED?" Why right in the verse, of course. You see, the New Testament was written in GREEK, and in Greek, here is what Matt. 18:11 says: "For the Son of man is come to SAVE that which was apollumi." And just what does apollumi mean in English? Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament: "#622 {92x} apollumi to destroy, to perish, or lose" (page 37). Ninety-two times in the New Testament we read of "destroy, destruction, destroyed/perish, perishing, perished/lose and lost, and they are all translated from the same one word, apollumi! So whether one is destroyed, perished, or lost, it matters not to Jesus—HE SAVES THEM ALL!
Old Testament too:
"O Israel, you have DESTROYED yourself; but in Me is your help… I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death…" (Hosea 13:7 & 14)!
"The righteous PERISH, and no man lays it to heart…" (Isa. 57:1)
And concerning lost Israel God says,
"I will seek that which was LOST, and bring again that which was driven away…" (Ezek. 34:16).
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost [apollumi—lost, perished, destroyed], but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
The further I get with my studies I see that destruction, perishing, apollumi, is good and beneficial to me... throughout scripture. It is being "deceived" that is actually harmful to us.
Bobby