For everyone

We should seek to have all we do become loving service to Him. Paul had this sense of worship in mind when he wrote at the beginning of the application section of the book of Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:1-2).

Universalism in the seventeenth century should be seen partly as reaction to the particularism of high Calvinism, which with its doctrine of limited atonement excluded any kind of divine will for the salvation of all people. Revulsion against the apparent cruelty of the God who created the reprobate for no other purpose than to damn them, led firstly to Arminianism, in which the Gospel genuinely offers salvation to all people; a further step leads to the Quaker doctrine that saving grace is given to all people, but may be resisted; the extreme position is that all people will actually be saved. A further factor promoting universalism was the Platonic tradition, revived during the Renaissance, along with an interest in Origen and the early Greek Fathers, who could plausibly be thought to represent a form of Christian doctrine earlier, and therefore purer, than Augustine, to whom the Calvinists appealed.

With regard to salvation, God has always had only two categories of people those who are His people and are saved and those who are not His people and are lost.

If an isolated person responded to God’s revelation in his heart and in nature, how would he ever hear about Christ?

1. God desires that all men be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).
2. God seeks for those who acknowledge their spiritual need and seek Him (Ezekiel 34:11; Luke 19:10).
3. When people are seeking the true God two things happen:
a. God brings the message to them by prompting a Christian to go to them (Acts 16:6-10).
b. The person hearing the message will respond in faith (Acts 16:13,14).
 
An illustration: Suppose a person was lost underground in a dark cave and suddenly found a little lighted arrow pointed a certain direction. Whose fault would it be if he failed to follow it? Obviously his own. God’s “little arrows” are His revelation in man’s heart and nature. We can trust the good and loving Savior to bring the message of salvation to the one who seeks Him.

 Everyone who is saved may not have every i dotted or every t crossed on a fancy doctrinal statement, but they WILL have right beliefs about God, including comprehension of and humble acknowledgement to the belief that Jesus is the ONLY way to God, and that no-one comes to the Father but by him. (John 14:6)