POST # 8
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 says, “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he says, ‘I heard you in a time accepted, and in the Day of Salvation have I succoured you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the Day of Salvation‘.)” People generally believe this to mean that only those converted in this life will be saved. Personally, I believe Paul was instructing church members (and not the whole world) that they are called to salvation now. He doesn’t say when the rest of the world will be called to salvation, but Jesus said he came into the world that all might be saved.
I have trouble reconciling the traditional interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6:2 with 1 Cor.1v26, “For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble , are called (in this life): Paul finishes the long sentence with v29 “That no flesh should glory in his presence.” In other words, people cannot call themselves to salvation because then their flesh would have glory.
If God doesn’t call everyone to Jesus (open their minds to the gospel of salvation) in this life, how can he condemn them automatically in the Judgement Day? John 6v44 says, “No man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draw (call) him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Judging by their fruit, most worldly leaders in various fields, have not been called to repentance and faith as we have, otherwise our churches would be overflowing .
In John 3v5 “Jesus answered and said unto him (Nicodemas), ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’.” How can anyone be born again if God the Father did not draw them to Jesus; in other words, convict them that the gospel is not foolishness, but is the most important good news that they ever heard?
John 3v17 says, “For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world (full of physically minded people); but that the world through him might be saved.” Jesus didn’t spell out the timetable of when those not called in this life would be saved, but he obviously has a plan so that all might be saved. There are precedents for such overview statements, as in Isaiah 9v6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:” We still don’t see Jesus ruling the world, but other scriptures say he must come twice and then he will be king over the whole world for 1000 yrs.
I believe people who are called now are really blessed because they can be in the ‘early (first fruits) harvest’/resurrection, which Jesus is preparing as a kind of ‘coalition of the willing’ to govern the earth under him in his millennial kingdom. If there is an early harvest there must be a later harvest ( as in ancient Israel). I believe that the later harvest would be for the world at large.
In conclusion, in order for all the world to be saved, all the world must first be called.
