For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
lorr paaa
well i guess we are all going to hell in a handbasket then. I love jesus i know he is the way and the truth and the life, i am not sinless, i sin everyday i try and strive to be good but looks like a lot of us are not going there.
Tamara Estes
I think that there are lot of people who think they're going. They said a sinner's prayer at some point in their life, and believe in Jesus. But they do not surrender their life to Jesus or a true Christian life, they continue to live in an unmarried situation, or go out frequently to party and get drunk. They do not do anything to care for the less fortunate, not even donate money so others can. Yet if you ask them, they will say they are saved and going to Heaven. But that's not for us to judge. That's for God to decide. But I think in my opinion, that what Jesus meant when He said he would say, depart from Me, I know you not.
James Kraft
Salvation is by faith in Christ alone. But even christians can live on the broad road to destruction in this life. If they were truly saved by faith in Jesus death and resurection, and that His blood sacrifice paid our sin debt in full, they are truly saved.
That does not mean that they will automaticly live a holy life. It is far better to live in holiness of life than in the broad road to death, but it is by the grace of God that we are saved, not by works, lest anyman should boast.
When you think about it outside of an act of God, living right does lead to health, happyness, and sometimes even monitary blessings.
It is a great blessing to me to know that after 56 years of marriage to my wonderfull wife that I have never cheated on her. It is a great blessing that I have always paid my bills and tried to treat others the way I do myself. There are many great blessing even for the unsaved to follow after Gods laws.
But following Gods laws will not save a sinner because we have all fallen short of the glory of God. The reason God saves sinners is to bring glory to Himself.
But God in His mercy will not let His children live in sin without the chastening hand of God. All sin has consequences. Whether it is pride, selfrighteousness, or breaking of Gods laws written on our hearts after we are saved
Entering in at the narrow gate, is to put your faith and confidence in Jesus finished work on the cross to save us from our sins. Then God gets all the Glory.
Nils Jansma
This is a very interesting question because it goes to the very character of God Himself. We know that in Jesus’ Day, learned men who had devoted a lifetime to studying the Bible (OT) did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. However, Jesus said that the Old Testament spoke volumes about his ministry. (John 5:46; Luke 24:27) So why didn’t they believe him? Apparently they misinterpreted the Scriptures regarding the Messiah.
I only mention this because the Bible contains references to both God’s love and His judgements, which appear to contradict one another. For instance, Matthew 7:14 speaks of a “broad road” leading to destruction and by far the majority were said to be traveling that road. However, it states both in 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:3-4 that it is God’s will that everyone repent and be saved. How do we resolve these two apparent contradictions? We can do so by reinterpreting one or the other Scripture to conform to what we believe to be the overall message of the Bible. That is probably the best way to let the Bible interpret itself and many follow that method.
Nevertheless, is it possible that we could still be wrong even using that method? The wise men in Jesus day followed their interpretation of the Scriptures based upon almost 1,500 years of scholarship but yet they were wrong. For us, we need to understand that, according to the Apostle Paul, God’s judgements are “beyond tracing out.” (Romans 11:33-37) In my opinion, we will never know for sure how things will turn out until they happen.
In this answer, I am not going to give an opinion regarding the number of people that are going to heaven or hell. I just want to make an observation concerning the character of God and the objective of His creative efforts and let one draw their own conclusions.
It should be obvious that God loves His human creation. (John 3:16) He even loves His enemies and we are advised by Jesus to do the same. (Matthew 5:44-48) The account of Job makes it obvious that cursing God would have been a victory for the Devil. (Job 1:11; Job 2:4-5) Jesus said of Judas that it would have been better had he not been born because of the prophetic role he played in Jesus’ death. (Matthew 26:24) Therefore, I believe any reasonable person would agree that, like Judas, to be punished in hell forever would make one likewise wish they had “never been born.” Even Job, in effect, said the same thing when he wished for death in order to escape the ordeals of his persecution by the Devil. (Job 14:13)
Now we come to a couple of challenging issues to think about when we speculate on how many people will be in hell and the possible consequence of our answer. In my opinion, two questions need to be considered:
First, If God’s creative efforts results in more humans “wishing they had never been born” than not, will God’s purpose for creating humanity been a success? Second, if more humans end up “cursing God” than praising Him, what does that say about the Devil's challenge? Those are two very important questions one must consider when speculating on how many people will be in heaven or hell.
James Kraft
You are right to a point, because each person knows whether they have trusted Jesus to be saved, or they are trusting in their works, What they do or do not do.
In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells us that many will come before Him on that day, and tell Him about all their good works. They call Him Lord and do many wonderful works. But Jesus says, depart from me ye who work iniquity, I never knew you. Not I did know you, and now I don't, I never knew you.
In verse 21 He tells us why. He said they did not do the will of God. What is the will of God? John 6:40 And this is the will of Him who sent me, that all that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day.
Bible repentance is the word metanoia, which means to change your mind and believe the gospel. The gospel is given in First Corinthians 15:1-4 All that believe that Jesus is the only way to be saved, are saved and have eternal life because Jesus paid it all and we paid 0.
If there was any other way to be saved, than what He did for us, then Jesus died for no reason as we could be saved another way.
Once we believe the gospel, we are saved forever. If we add anything a person has to do to be saved, other than just believe, we have perverted the gospel which is all grace.
We can only tell people to believe the gospel to be saved. If we tell them they have to raise their little finger also, we have added works to grace. Salvation is all grace, what Jesus did for us,
Mark Vestal
Well stated!