Featured Does All Mean All...Does World mean All

what about the word "ALL" and "World"

When you want to know what the words mean then look at the context. The context can be a few verses or the whole bible. The best way to understand what they mean is to use good logic. When you see "all the world came out to see Him" that is clearly hyperbole. When you read " for God so loved the world" that clearly means that God loves everyone. That is why He wants all people to come to a saving knowledge of Him. Remember "all"does not mean elect nor does "world" mean a select few. It all depends on CONTEXT.

 

Here is your word, "world", in

1 John 2:15-17 King James Version (KJV);

15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

Salvation is preceded by CONVICTION of SIN, not expertise on who and how God saves souls.

A word, like "world" CAN NOT just be pulled out of the Bible and said to be 'everyone'.

Jesus Said, "love not the world".

...

John 3:16 King James Version (KJV)

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

In this verse the word, "world", means what it means any number of other times and Teaches the same pricipal that is also Taught many other times: God DID NOT just Love The Jewish people. Other's in the world, as they are often refered to, were included in God's Love. The Gentiles.

God so Loved the world of, not only The Jews, but The Gentiles that He Gave.......

....

"whosoever" is who the Promise is Made to.

"whosoever believeth".

"whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Not EVERYONE "BELIEVES"

... and this Promise WAS NOT MADE to them, was it?

...

"all" is a word that doesn't mean what I say it means any more than any other word.

"all" means what God Says it means.

The Teaching that the Gentiles were NOT EXCLUDED from God's Plan of Salvation is also Taught in the many scriptures where God is referring to "all kinds of men", etc., when He Says, "all".

The Bible is LITERATURE.

 

The context of John 3 would correct your misstatement of the word "all" in John 3:16.
I do agree that context gives the answer and other scripture helps interpret the scripture that seems a bit muddy.
God's clarity on election, predestination and choosing will also clarify to which "all" refers.

 

The examples you gave are a figure of speech called hyperbole, which is purposeful exaggeration to make a point. So the Pharisees, knowing that Jesus had quite a following, voiced their frustration with an obvious hyperbole (John 12:19).

Your second example is from Mark 1:37, "All men seek for thee." I think this is hyperbole also, but quite understandable. The Greek does not have the word "men," but simply "all" (pantes). It could be translated, "everyone" here. If you're at a picnic, say, and a child wanders off, and everyone goes looking for him, you could tell him when he was found, "Everyone is looking for you!" and be perfectly understandable as meaning everyone at the picnic, not everyone in the world.

About John 3:16, this is not hyperbole, but literal. God does love the whole world. Every single person in the world is made in God's image. Why would He not love them? But this certainly does not mean that God saves everyone. If you tried to help a friend who was on drugs, and he turned down your help, not being able to rescue him does not mean you didn't love him.

I hope this helps.

 

"Why would He not love them?"

Because they are sinners against His Eternal Holiness, and although Adam was made in the image of God, we and Seth, were made in the image of Adam.

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:" Genesis 5:3

God Hates sin.

 

Is it more grievous to sin against a command of God than it is to sin against His eternal holiness?

 

How would one verify that he has been saved from death, the wages of sin? Wouldn’t it be by either avoiding death or by reversing death?

The first is described in 1 Thess 4:17.

And isn’t the second what is described in Rev 20:12-13, among other places? This is implicitly described as a 2nd resurrection in Rev 20:5-6.

If all men either avoid death or are resurrected from it, doesn’t that mean Jesus saves the whole world? At least in one sense?

 

Paul said all of Israel are saved. All humanity are not. Was the question, "can be saved?" Or "are saved?"

All cannot be saved, because some choose not to be saved. Saying that all are saved is as wrong as saying not all can be saved, because God did not choose them. Sorry, but it is an individual human choice. God did choose all, but not all are as willing as God is.

If all humans are saved, this world would be a much different place. God could come to earth and start the Second Coming at any time. There would be no one to judge. All would have accepted the judgment on the Cross as God’s Atonement. Satan would be out of a job. All man kind would be praying, "Thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

 

Your god is very weak. He is incapacitated by human will. Who would worship such a wimpy god.

 

As opposed to what, a God who sends 90% of humanity to hell? God is longsuffering not weak.

BTW, God is your God as well, but you will choose hell over a longsuffering God?

 

Unfortunately the Greek does not help the argument one way or another. The context determines what a word means within a semantic range.

So if we take a simple question like, "Who ate all the pies?", whoever it was must have eaten more than two pies, because the semantic range of "all" must be more than two since the question is not, "Who ate both the pies?"

So, does "all" in our question mean "all the pies that ever existed in the history of the world"? No.
Does it mean "all the pies in the world right now"? No.
Does it mean "all the pies in America"? Hardly.
Does it mean "all the pies in Walmart"? Pretty big appetite!
Does it mean "all the pies in the town"? Most unlikely.
So what could it mean? It might mean "all the pies in the pie shop;" it might mean "all the pies in the house; " it might mean "All the pies at the picnic." It might be nothing more than an insult aimed at someone who is overweight and therefore have nothing to do with any particular pies. We need to read a little further to establish the context.

I don't know if that's the least bit helpful, but perhaps it will stimulate some thought.

 

Sends people to hell?
Why do you think people are in hell? The Bible tells us. "The wages of sin is death." "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Hell is not the result of a just Judge being evil and mean. Hell is the result of rebels wickedly breaking God's law.
Notice that...ALL...have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That "all" is universal for every human.
Since a judge must uphold justice, this means that 100% of people are in rebellion and the result is hell for their crimes.
God, being just and being longsuffering, shows mercy to humankind by not immediately judging their rebellion. He gives humans (like flowers) a moment to live in their rebellion before his judgment falls. But, there is no doubt that God's judgment will fall upon ALL, universally.
So then, with this universally just judgment, how then is anyone saved?
Ephesians 1:4-6
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
Ephesians 2:1-5
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

So...it's not the power of the human will. It's not the "longsuffering" of God as he waits, impotently, for a human to choose him. No! It is the power of God who loves his elect and chooses them to take them out of death and make them alive with Christ. God, in his Sovereign Power, places the judgment for our sin upon Christ Jesus and Jesus gives us his holiness so that we stand before the judge as being righteous in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 2:20-21
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Your concept of God turns him into a weak servant of your manipulation. It is an unbiblical and false portrayal of the Almighty God who is Sovereign over everything in all his creation.

 

No it does not make God weak.

Your interpretation is flawed. ALL we like sheep have gone astray. So by natural choice no one can be saved. Choosing God is not manipulating God. It is manipulating who WE are!!!

 

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

Now let us look at more of its context, ". . . For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. . . ." The context is physical death and resurrection from the dead. Both the saved and the perishing are going to be resurrectected, Revelation 20:4-13.

 

You have provided a great example of a person having a pretext and then quoting a sentence from the Bible as a prooftext. What this means is that you abuse scripture and take it out of context to make an illegitimate argument.

Yes, all sheep (notice this isn't including goats, the all is only for the sheep) go astray. Jesus parable tells us that the shepherd will seek the one endangered sheep out of the 100. When Christians go astray, God seeks us out. God never says that he seeks out all humans (universal). Nor does God say that humans can choose their salvation, as you are saying.
Finally, the passages I shared with you show you your error, yet it seems you cannot accept what they tell you.

 

I understand those verses clearly. God set up His Plan and Will perfectly. God does not condemn any human. YOU ARE doing the condemnation. Jesus says leave the tares in. God does not decide who is a goat or who is a sheep. HUMANS decide, period.

If you deny that humanity makes the decision who THEY are, then yes, God damned billions to hell. A weak God.

Free will does not manipulate God. God set everything in place as the CREATOR. Letting us decide is not being weak, because our personal decision does not change God’s plan, will, or creation one tiny bit. Our decision declares who we are as individuals. We decide if we are wheat, tares, sheep, or goats. God does not by choice manipulate us, nor in turn can we ever manipulate God. God has affected the will of some, who cannot make up their own mind. Unstable people tend to prolong the inevitable. But to say that any individual does not start out life with the free ability to choose, goes entirely against the mystery of God’s plan. In fact free will is the whole mystery. Because ancient people did think "everything" was set in "stone". It was not, but humanity had to grow up and become mature after Noah's Flood.

 

I highlighted your false statement.
If you are correct, that means that humans are perfect, but we know that isn't true. In fact, we know that unregenerate humanity is condemned. How? Let's look at scripture.

Romans 7:18,23-25 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Now read the next chapter.
Romans 8:1,5-9,28-39
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God's word proves you to be utterly wrong. What you state is not from God.

 

God’s Word does not prove I am utterly wrong. What I stated is from God. The world has been condemned because it rejected God and the Atonement. BUT that was not God’s Will. Here is the Truth, John 3:17-21:

17 For God sent not his Son into the world, that he should condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth in him, is not condemned: but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of that only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that that light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than that light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every man that evil doeth, hateth the light, neither cometh to light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds might be made manifest, that they are wrought according to God.

There is nothing that states we do not have a choice, nor does it say our choice manipulates God. That is and was your argument, that you keep avoiding. It is sin to state we have no choice in the matter, because it is following Satan's plan, and rejecting God's plan. The world is condemned because they reject the light, NOT because God condemned the world. Hate and love are choices that humans make. To love sin and darkness is a choice, and light does condemn that choice, but to accept God’s love and the light is equally a choice. God does not force humans either way. God set the plan in motion as the whole of creation. Free will is that plan.

 

Two points:
1) You are arguing for universal salvation in the way you are interpreting John 3:17-21.
Universalism is from hell.
2) You are arguing "free will" in regards to salvation, which is never taught nor found in the Bible. The closest thing you get to this is the freewill offerings prescribed in the Mosaic Law, which have nothing to do with salvation.

Therefore, your entire argument is a man-made philosophy which you then attempt to legitimize by using a few prooftext sentences in the Bible, taken out of context.

What you are teaching is a false doctrine, yet it is likely you cannot accept or see the false doctrine because you are blind to it.