The Weekly Perspective
by Burke Shade, Associate Pastor
Reading the context around a particular verse makes all the difference in its interpretation, and will keep you from being misled by popular false opinions..
For instance, I Timothy 2.1-7 includes the phrases “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” and “…Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…” Most evangelicals think this a great foundation for believing in universal salvation: “God desires all people to be saved! God is loving and caring! What God desires, He gets,” so they say. And, Jesus died for everyone!
But not all are saved, such as Lamech who boasted taking ten-fold revenge over God, King Saul, and Judas. A real dilemma appears: God is not able to save everyone, being weak, and the blood of Jesus is not strong enough to save everyone. But maybe the passage isn’t about universal salvation in the first place!
In fact the passage isn’t speaking about the salvation of all people who have ever lived. We know this by looking at the context. First of all, verse 6 mentions that Jesus was “the testimony given at the proper time.” Secondly, Paul goes on to mention that he was “appointed a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Paul was brought on the scene at the appropriate time in biblical history to bring the Gentiles into the kingdom (cf. Ephesians 2). So the passage is not talking about universal salvation, but about God extending the Good News of the gospel to the whole world in Paul’s day, and not just to the Jews! So “all people” means not just Jews, but also Gentiles, which is everyone at that time. God desires people saved of all the nations, both of Jews and Gentiles; it doesn’t mean every soul who ever lived. Hey, that’s in line with the Great Commission!