Hi Joe Jesus can indeed save mankind ... He saved me. God will have all men to be saved, God never willed for any man to ever be lost. That is God's will ... sadly it is not every man's will to be saved. The Light has come into the world, the Light which lighteth every man but men preferred darkness to the Light because their deeds were evil.
I am not a hell-fire preacher, I like to preach the GOOD NEWS. Anyone who preaches the good news soon learns that while some are attracted and saved the most people are indifferent and some there are who loathe and detest it. It's just that way.
You think everyone is like YOU, inwardly but everybody is not like you. You do not see the inner man to know what is there.
When folks looked at the Pharisees, Christ's mortal foes, they saw doves for that was their outer appearance. But Christ saw vipers. The people saw sheep but Christ saw wolves.
You have to learn to trust God's judgement, He sees what you do not see. Nobody understands fully, we understand in part. But God does know and He has told us.
He must reign [your quote,] until He has put His enemies under His feet. God has enemies, He is not the enemy, they are the enemy.
They hate God.
Dear Evmur,
I have never met anyone who rightfully believes that mankind does not have a "free will" but then still believes that Christ cannot save 100% of mankind.
All mankind is spiritually the same. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve and are spiritually marred and subject to vanity. No one in their created condition can boast of being better than anyone else. You seem to believe that some people are better - that they are less evil, or smarter, or wiser than others. And for that reason, Christ has the power to save them. But those who commit the worse of evil are too far gone to be saved and are beyond His ability to help them. But I assure you by the authority of God's Word, no one is too sinful or spiritually marred for Christ's blood to be rendered ineffective. His blood can just as easily cover the darkest of sins just as it can cover the most minor of sins. And as for Christ being able to "prepare their hearts and give them the answer of their tongue", their evil nature and their "will" cannot stop Him. Mankind's "will" is "nothing" when matched up to the power of God (Dan 4:35).
However, in this age, Christ is only saving those He has chosen from the foundation of the world (the First Fruits). Don't assume those who have died in their sins are not going to be saved later. They will be, but they simply were not chosen to be a part of the early harvest of mankind. They will be harvested at the end of the growing season, the end of the final age. These TWO harvest events are "typed" by the Feast of First Fruits and the Feast of Tabernacles. Read what Christ "typed" for us when He attended the Feast of Tabernacles:
John 7:37-38 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Jesus attended the feast in "secret", meaning that this event is hidden in scripture from those who do not have "eyes that can see". But nevertheless, this event at the end of the harvest season (end of the ages) will come to pass and all mankind will then be saved.
For those chosen to be First Fruits, scripture says the "ends of the ages" when mankind is saved, that time has come (and is coming) upon them now:
1Cor 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for OUR admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
In other words, the Elect's (First Fruits) "days shall be shortened":
Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the Elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
God is not a respecter of persons because no man is any better than anyone else. He does the choosing and He did not choose any of us because He knew who would accept Him and who would not. That belief is completely without scriptural support and it negates the power and love of God to accomplish His "will" within mankind. But for the time being, God is causing evil to flourish in most of mankind so most will reject Him. Paul said this about himself:
Acts 28:17 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
In God's eyes, the worst sin a man can commit is the sin of believing that they can be acceptable by their own "works". For that reason, Paul considered himself to be "chief" of sinners. This sin that Paul was committing is the only sin that
leads to death after an unbeliever is called out from the world and has received the Early Rain of the Spirit. Salvation comes only by "faith" and not by "works". The ways of Satan (ways of this world) teach that there is something good within mankind - good enough for some to make a "free will" decision to seek out and accept Christ as their Savior. Believing this lie is how Satan "kills" the saints:
2Thes 2:11-14 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned (the sin that leads to death) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God sends the "strong delusion" by the spirit of anti-Christ (Mat 12:43-45) to those who have "pleasure in unrighteous" (all Early Rain Christians). This causes us to "fall away". The "pleasure of unrighteous" is our fifthly rags. These "rags" is our belief in "free will" which teaches us that we are worthy of salvation because we made the right "choice" to accept Christ. We believe we are somehow less evil, or smarter or wiser than those who reject Christ. With this sin, we are trying to serve to masters: Christ and Satan (faith and works, respectively). This sin will leave us desolate (the Abomination of Desolation, Mat 24:15).
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Once we receive an earnest amount of the Holy Spirt (Early Rain), we become the temple of God. But because of Satan's deceptions, we become a "Man of Sin". We have believed the "lie". For those who are chosen though, the Man of Sin whom they have become will be revealed to them. This event equates to
seeing the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place (the temple who is the believer). This event happens at the return of Christ for His bride (the Latter Rain). Those who have been "chosen" and who have been given the extra flask of Oil (Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit) will "flee into the mountains" and will not "turn back" as Lot's wife did (Luke 17:32). But for those who are not chosen and do not have the extra Oil, they will "turn back" as the Five Foolish Virgins did.
Evmur, can you now "see" the plan of salvation that Christ has for each and every person who has ever lived?
Mankind's salvation is 100% the work and responsibility of Christ. If He fails to save even one person, He will have failed to accomplish the mission the Father gave Him and this would be a sin:
1John 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
Do you have enough faith in Christ to believe that He can accomplish all the work that the Father gave Him?
Joe