Answer to a Paper Sent for Criticism
1 Timothy 2:6 is quoted to show that at some future time after death, and in resurrection,, the unsaved will all receive the gospel. It is said God’s power will do it. Let us see this verse and its context. This Russelism teaches that you may sin as much as you like, you are going to be saved any way, for God is too loving to damn any of His creatures, and the writer calls this righteousness, for Christ died for all, tasted death for every man.
What horrible perversion of Scripture! How God’s grace is turned into lasciviousness, “Let us do evil that good may come, whose damnation is just.” Romans 3:8. Look then at 1 Timothy 2:3 to 7, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” This is surely in the present time.
Paul found out his sinful condition by the Lord Jesus speaking to him from the glory (Acts 9). Up to this time he thought of himself as serving God, but now he saw all his righteousness was filthy rags. (Phil. 3:4 to 6 compare with 1 Tim. 1:12 to 15). “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.” “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for to be testified in due time.”
God could say in Job’s day (33:24), when a man was convicted of his sinful condition, “Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.” Christ Jesus is that ransom, the only Mediator between God and men, and verse 7 declares that Paul was a preacher and an apostle (a sent one), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth, so that the due time had arrived for us all to hear the story.
This paper’s statements contradict all the gospel story denies that God will do as the Scripture, that is, His Word, says that He will do. There is nothing in this passage about a future day of salvation. It is what is declared now: it is the truth for the present period of God’s grace. What can God do but carry out His word with the despisers of His grace,
“Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish” (Acts 13:38 to 41).
“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy”... “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:26 to 31).
Dear reader, hearken not to men’s fables. Believe God’s Word, and be saved now!
John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” In Hebrews 9:26, we see that the work is done. “Once in the end of the world (that is, man’s trial is at an end) hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” And on account of this sacrifice, all believers are now accepted in Him, also the foundation is laid for all things in heaven and earth to be reconciled to God (see Col. 1:20, 21; also Heb. 9:22, 23), but the lake of fire and its inhabitants are not the “things in heaven and earth,” there is no reconciliation of those in the lake of fire. Sinner, do not let the servants of Satan blind your eyes to God’s salvation. It is now, now, COME NOW! Titus 2:11 is for men now, and Isaiah 61:1 to 3 tells of salvation, and also of the day of vengeance (ver. 2).
Romans 5:18. Leave out the words in italics, and we see that it is the two headships: Adam’s sin and Christ’s one righteousness. All men come under the first; grace puts the believer under the second. Verse 19 confirms this.
Leviticus 23:10, 11 is Christ’s resurrection in type. The church period is Verses 15 to 17.
Isaiah 53:4 to 6 is the language of believers. Only such can say, “Christ died for our sins.” We can say to the unconverted, “Christ died that you might be saved,” “Christ died for all,” but it is “whosoever believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:43). Such are “justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 39), and in 1 John 2:12, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins, are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” We are children, of God, and our sins all forgiven.
In Mark 9:43 to 48 three times our Lord speaks of the worm that dieth not, and of the fire that is never quenched. Gehenna outside Jerusalem is the illustration the Lord uses. That fire is quenched, and worms gone long ago, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever; and the worm that torments the unsaved, is their worm, and fire is what they are cast into. Their worm denotes that each one will be punished according to his own sins, while the fire contains all the lost. (See also Luke 12:47, 48; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6).
2 Peter 2:4, 9 tells that the wicked are reserved unto judgment, both men and angels.
Ephesians 2:1. “Dead in trespasses and sins” is the spiritual condition of us all as born in sin. In Romans we are seen living in sin till we are converted.
Ephesians 2:8 tells how we are saved. By grace and through faith, with no good works to boast of. Our old nature is not changed, and we shall not get rid of it till our earthly journey is ended, but God has given us a new life, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us to teach us, and is the power of our new life. Our old man is crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), so that we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, (verse 11), so that we are not slaves to sin any longer.
The word mortal is never applied to the soul. It is the body that is mortal. “The soul that sinneth it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20) means the person. That was judgment on the earth. It is the same in Acts 27:37. There were 276 souls or persons in the ship. There is plenty of proof in Scripture to show, if a man is willing to receive it, that the soul is immortal. Men may kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul (Luke 12:4, 5). We are to fear Him who after the body is killed, can cast the soul into hell, the place of punishment. The body is the tent or tabernacle wherein the man lives (2 Cor. 5:1, 4). If a Christian dies, he is “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” (verses 6, 7, 8).
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(To Be Continued)