It is not, however, for us or anyone to answer the query which our Lord refused to answer, viz., “Are there few that be saved?” (Luke 13:23) The most we are privileged to do is to point out that “a ransom for ALL” has been given by our Lord and the promise that in “due time” ALL shall come to a knowledge of this great truth and to opportunity to attain everlasting life from him, the great Light who shall yet “lighten every man that cometh into the world.” (1 Tim 2:4-6; John 1:9) We should and do repeat during this age to all who have “ears to hear” the Master’s words:
“Strive to enter in at the straight gate: for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able, when once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door (the “door” or opportunity to the “High calling”).” Luke 13:24,25
In other words, the call, the only call of this Gospel age, (the “High calling” or “Heavenly calling”,) is to the narrow way of self-sacrifice: and no distraction of interest should slack our running for the great prize of immortality now offered. When the number of the “elect” is filled full and the great tribulation of the end of this age gives notice that the Church is completed and glorified, there will be many to take a different view of the worldly trifles which now hinder their fulfilment of their consecration pledges.
God’s plan of salvation for the general race of Adam is to extend to each member of it, during the Millennium, the offer of eternal life upon the terms of the New Covenant sealed for all with the precious blood of the Lamb. But there is no suggestion anywhere that immortality, the Divine Nature, will ever be offered or granted to any except the “elect” Church of the Gospel age – the “little flock,” “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” For the others of Adam’s race, the offer will be “restitution” (Acts 3:19-21) to life and health and perfection of human nature – the same that Adam possessed as the earthly image of God before his fall from grace into sin and death.
And when at the close of the Millennial age all the obedient of mankind shall have attained all that was lost in Adam and redeemed by Christ – then all, armed with complete knowledge and experience, and hence fully able to stand the test, will be tested severely (as was Adam), but individually (Rev 20:7-10), and only those found in fullest heart-sympathy, as well as in outward harmony, with God and his righteous arrangements, will be permitted to go beyond the Millennium into the everlasting future or “world [age] without end.” All others will be destroyed in the Second Death – “destroyed from among the people.” Acts 3:23
But although there shall be no more death, neither sighing nor crying, it will not be because the victors of the Millennial age will be crowned with immortality, but because, having learned to judge between right and wrong and their effects, they shall have formed characters in full accord with God and righteousness; and because they will have stood tests which will demonstrate that they would not wish to sin if the way were opened and no penalties attached. They will not have life in themselves (immortality), but will still be dependent upon God’s provision of food, etc., for the sustenance of life. Compare Rev 21:4, 6, 8; 7:16; Matt 5:6.
As the curse brought the death of mankind, so the removal of the curse means the removal of all legal objections to man’s return to all the original blessings bestowed upon him in Eden. But man, now degraded and imperfect mentally, morally and physically, is not fit, as Adam was, to enjoy the perfections of an Eden or Paradise condition; hence the divine purpose is that in the “restitution times,” during the Millennial age, mankind, whose sins have been atoned for by the death of the Lord Jesus, may be brought back by him, the Life-Giver and Deliverer, from the bondage of sin and death, to all the fulness of the perfection of the original likeness of God.
Not only so, but the divine plan we find is that man’s experience with sin shall constitute a lesson which will have an everlasting influence upon some, giving them to know, by personal experience, something of the “exceeding sinfulness of sin,” and of its sure reward or penalty, death: so that when, during the Millennial age, these shall be brought to a knowledge of righteousness, truth, goodness, love, and all the graces and qualities of divine character, the willing and obedient shall know and appreciate the privilege of eternal life in a way that Father Adam never would have known it, and never could have appreciated it.
To this end the dying has been a gradual process with the race in general, and to the same end the resurrection is to be a gradual process: inch by inch, as it were, mankind will be raised up, up, up out of the mire of sin, out of the terrible pit of degradation and death, to the grand height of perfection and life from which he fell in the person of father Adam. The only exception to this general program for the world, as presented to us in the Scriptures, being the few brought into harmony with God in advance, the seed of Abraham, natural and spiritual. Gal 3:29; Heb 11:39,40
Seen in this, the Scriptural light, the subject of immortality shines resplendently. It leaves the way clear for the general “gift of God, eternal life,” to be extended to all whom the Redeemer shall find willing to accept it upon the only terms upon which it could be a blessing; and it leaves the unworthy subject to the just penalty always enunciated by the great judge of all, viz.:
“The wages of sin is death.” Rom 6:23
“The soul that sins it shall die.” Ezek 18:4, 20
“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God [the curse, death] abides on him.” John 3:36
Thus, we find, on this subject as on others, that the philosophy of the Word of God is deeper as well as clearer, and more rational by far, than the heathen systems and theories (Far more rational than those held by the professing church, the church nominal). Praise God for his Word of Truth and for hearts disposed to accept it as the revelation of the wisdom and power of God!
But does doubt cry out,
How could God in resurrection reproduce the millions of earth completely so that each will know himself and profit by the memory of present life experiences?
We answer that even in recordings and video man is able to preserve his own words and reproduce them; much more is our Creator able to reproduce for the entire race such brain organisms as will perfectly reproduce every sentiment, thought and experience. David seems to refer to the power of God in a manner that might be applicable either prophetically to the resurrection or reflectively to the first birth. He says:
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My substance [organism] was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance [gradually] were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.” Psa 139:14-16 (E384-404)
“Strive to enter in at the straight gate: for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able, when once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door (the “door” or opportunity to the “High calling”).” Luke 13:24,25
In other words, the call, the only call of this Gospel age, (the “High calling” or “Heavenly calling”,) is to the narrow way of self-sacrifice: and no distraction of interest should slack our running for the great prize of immortality now offered. When the number of the “elect” is filled full and the great tribulation of the end of this age gives notice that the Church is completed and glorified, there will be many to take a different view of the worldly trifles which now hinder their fulfilment of their consecration pledges.
God’s plan of salvation for the general race of Adam is to extend to each member of it, during the Millennium, the offer of eternal life upon the terms of the New Covenant sealed for all with the precious blood of the Lamb. But there is no suggestion anywhere that immortality, the Divine Nature, will ever be offered or granted to any except the “elect” Church of the Gospel age – the “little flock,” “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” For the others of Adam’s race, the offer will be “restitution” (Acts 3:19-21) to life and health and perfection of human nature – the same that Adam possessed as the earthly image of God before his fall from grace into sin and death.
And when at the close of the Millennial age all the obedient of mankind shall have attained all that was lost in Adam and redeemed by Christ – then all, armed with complete knowledge and experience, and hence fully able to stand the test, will be tested severely (as was Adam), but individually (Rev 20:7-10), and only those found in fullest heart-sympathy, as well as in outward harmony, with God and his righteous arrangements, will be permitted to go beyond the Millennium into the everlasting future or “world [age] without end.” All others will be destroyed in the Second Death – “destroyed from among the people.” Acts 3:23
But although there shall be no more death, neither sighing nor crying, it will not be because the victors of the Millennial age will be crowned with immortality, but because, having learned to judge between right and wrong and their effects, they shall have formed characters in full accord with God and righteousness; and because they will have stood tests which will demonstrate that they would not wish to sin if the way were opened and no penalties attached. They will not have life in themselves (immortality), but will still be dependent upon God’s provision of food, etc., for the sustenance of life. Compare Rev 21:4, 6, 8; 7:16; Matt 5:6.
As the curse brought the death of mankind, so the removal of the curse means the removal of all legal objections to man’s return to all the original blessings bestowed upon him in Eden. But man, now degraded and imperfect mentally, morally and physically, is not fit, as Adam was, to enjoy the perfections of an Eden or Paradise condition; hence the divine purpose is that in the “restitution times,” during the Millennial age, mankind, whose sins have been atoned for by the death of the Lord Jesus, may be brought back by him, the Life-Giver and Deliverer, from the bondage of sin and death, to all the fulness of the perfection of the original likeness of God.
Not only so, but the divine plan we find is that man’s experience with sin shall constitute a lesson which will have an everlasting influence upon some, giving them to know, by personal experience, something of the “exceeding sinfulness of sin,” and of its sure reward or penalty, death: so that when, during the Millennial age, these shall be brought to a knowledge of righteousness, truth, goodness, love, and all the graces and qualities of divine character, the willing and obedient shall know and appreciate the privilege of eternal life in a way that Father Adam never would have known it, and never could have appreciated it.
To this end the dying has been a gradual process with the race in general, and to the same end the resurrection is to be a gradual process: inch by inch, as it were, mankind will be raised up, up, up out of the mire of sin, out of the terrible pit of degradation and death, to the grand height of perfection and life from which he fell in the person of father Adam. The only exception to this general program for the world, as presented to us in the Scriptures, being the few brought into harmony with God in advance, the seed of Abraham, natural and spiritual. Gal 3:29; Heb 11:39,40
Seen in this, the Scriptural light, the subject of immortality shines resplendently. It leaves the way clear for the general “gift of God, eternal life,” to be extended to all whom the Redeemer shall find willing to accept it upon the only terms upon which it could be a blessing; and it leaves the unworthy subject to the just penalty always enunciated by the great judge of all, viz.:
“The wages of sin is death.” Rom 6:23
“The soul that sins it shall die.” Ezek 18:4, 20
“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God [the curse, death] abides on him.” John 3:36
Thus, we find, on this subject as on others, that the philosophy of the Word of God is deeper as well as clearer, and more rational by far, than the heathen systems and theories (Far more rational than those held by the professing church, the church nominal). Praise God for his Word of Truth and for hearts disposed to accept it as the revelation of the wisdom and power of God!
But does doubt cry out,
How could God in resurrection reproduce the millions of earth completely so that each will know himself and profit by the memory of present life experiences?
We answer that even in recordings and video man is able to preserve his own words and reproduce them; much more is our Creator able to reproduce for the entire race such brain organisms as will perfectly reproduce every sentiment, thought and experience. David seems to refer to the power of God in a manner that might be applicable either prophetically to the resurrection or reflectively to the first birth. He says:
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My substance [organism] was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance [gradually] were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.” Psa 139:14-16 (E384-404)
