Hi Mike!

I have another issue I am trying to figure out. Here is the verse in question:

Joh 17:2 As thou [ the Father] hast given him [ the Son] power over all flesh, that he [ the Son] should give eternal life to as many as thou[ the Father] hast given him[ the Son].”

So, Jesus is going to give “Eonian Life” to AS MANY as the Father has GIVEN HIM.

Now, we know that all men are NOT going to receive “Eonian Life”, correct? “Eonian Life” is the GIFT to the overcomers (the chosen few). Now, it is my understanding that the Father gave ALL MEN to Jesus. Is that correct? If this is so, then I see a bit of a problem here, since only the FEW get Eonian Life! This would mean that the Father did NOT give Jesus ALL MEN, but only a FEW.

What causes me more confusion is the fact that many “universalists” have used this verse to “prove” that Jesus will give “eternal life” to ALL MEN. He doesn’t! He SAVES all men, but He certainly doesn’t give EONIAN LIFE to all men…

Surely, I am missing something here!?

God Bless,

J____

Hi J____,

Thanks again for your question.

There are a couple of scriptures that are of utmost importance in understanding the Bible. Here is the first important verse that deals with this subject:

2Pe 1:2 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

The Greek word for ‘private,’ in this verse is ‘idios.’ This Greek word means ‘his own’ or ‘its own.’ Here are a couple of other verses where this word ‘idios’ appears.

Mat 9:1 And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.

Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

What Peter is telling us is that no scripture of prophecy is to be taken by itself to make a point or to establish a doctrine. There must always be other scriptural witnesses to any doctrine of scripture.

Deu 19:15 …At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

This Biblical principle is especially true for God’s Word. If another clear scripture cannot be found to prove that early Christians were being baptized for their dead loved ones, then we cannot use…

1Co 15:29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?

To establish a doctrine of baptizing one person for the sins and mistakes of another person? What utter nonsense!

Mat 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his [ own] works.

2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

“Baptized for the dead,” is obviously referring to the condition of the one being baptized and not someone else. Once we realize that we are in a “body of this death,” we are at that time “baptized for the dead.”

Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Now for our second important scripture in helping us to understand our Bibles:

Psa 119:160 The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.(NASB)

It takes “the sum of Your Word,” to establish Truth. As Christ put it:

Joh 10:35 … The Scripture cannot be broken.

The Bible never contradicts itself. If the scriptures tell us that a Great Reformer would come and “Change the priesthood [ and] change also the law”, then that is exactly what we should expect. If “a carnal commandment… not made for a righteous man,” was prophesied to be replaced by a far more glorious administration, that would make the first law appear to have no glory by comparison, then that too, is what we should expect to find. (Be sure to read The Law Of Moses Versus The Law Of The Spirit for an in depth study on this subject). “The scripture cannot be broken.” Look at the context of this verse:

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
Joh 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Joh 10:31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
Joh 10:32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?”
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?
Joh 10:35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 How do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

The Jews of Christ’s day, just like those who say they are spiritual Jews today, had not bothered to check out “the sum of thy word.”

Now with these two important verses firmly in mind, let’s look at what Christ said God had “given Him:”

Joh 17:9 I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the [ whole] world [ of mankind at this time], but of those whom You have given Me [ As “a kind of firstfruits” (Jas 1:18); for they are Yours [ first fruits];

The church was founded on ‘the day of Pentecost,’ known in the Old Testament as “the feast of firstfruits.”

Exo 23:14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours [ Pentecost], which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering [ Tabernacles], which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Do you see that? God has three seasons in which He gathers all mankind to Himself. The first season was when the “first of the firstfruits was brought to God. Christ is called “the first of the firstfruits,” “that in all things He might have the preeminence.”

1Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

What is the next season? Who is ‘harvested,’ to God in the next season? We have covered the scriptures:

Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours [ Pentecost], which thou hast sown in the field:

These ‘firstfruits’ are what James calls “a kind of firstfruits:”

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth [ That is Christ], that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

So the first two seasons bring an appointed fraction of all mankind to their Creator. When will the rest of mankind be brought to God?

Exo 23:16 … And the feast of ingathering [ Tabernacles], which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Notice what this third season is called. It is called “the feast of ingathering.” When does it occur? “Which is in the end of the year, when you gather in thy labors out of the field.” What is the ‘field?’ The Lord Himself tells us:

Mat 13:38 The field is the world; [ The entire world which “God so loved,” that He sent His Son to save the World]

So now it is time to bring “all in Adam,” to their Creator.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But when will all of this be accomplished?:

1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

And then what? What of “all in Adam?”

1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end [ of the year], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

How does one “destroy death.?” As long as one person who has ever lived is dead, death has not been destroyed. Christ must save all men in order to “destroy death”. Is that not exactly what He says He will do?

Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [ It does not say ‘exclusively’] of those that believe.

The salvation of all mankind is a “three seasons,” process. A ‘process,’ takes time. It may seem to us like it takes a very long time. But salvation’s ultimate victory over all who are dead is as sure as the rising of the Sun:

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And finally, to make the point crystal clear for all “given eyes to see and ears to hear”, we are left with this testimony:

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Yes, indeed, at this time, at this ‘Pentecost’ season, “many are called but few are chosen”. At this particular time…:

Mat 7:13 … Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Nevertheless, “the feast of ingathering at the end of the year,” is yet to come, And at that time the propitiation will already have been made “Not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world.”