Coming to the Knowledge of the Truth

That Everyone Will be Saved

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

1 Timothy 2:4-6 KJV

God has the power and authority to accomplish His will of universal salvation through the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ the Messiah, who gave Himself a ransom for everyone. This is the truth that God wants all of humanity to know – it is the truth, the knowledge of which, will set us free from the darkness of unbelief that binds us in our sins. (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9)

To sidestep the most obvious interpretation of this passage (that God will have everyone saved) an argument would have to be made that (1) “everyone” somehow doesn’t mean everyone and (2) that God’s will somehow isn’t God’s will. This is exactly what Barnes’ Notes on the Bible attempts to do on the Bible Hub website’s treatment of 1 Timothy 2:4.

It seems clear to me that God’s will is that everyone be saved. To address this, Barnes has argued that this passage is saying that God wills that all kinds of people should be saved, or that some sinners of every rank and class may be saved and that is what is meant by, “Who will have all men to be saved”.   In other words, “everyone” doesn’t mean everyone.

A review of the language of 1 Timothy 2:1-6 and its message defeats this argument soundly:

(1) the obvious and unstretched interpretation of the language expresses the fact that God will have all of humanity saved

(2) prayer and thanksgiving are directed to be offered for all mankind, without exception

(3) there is one God over us all

(4) one mediator between God and all the people

(5) God is the Father of us all, with the same interest in all of us

(6) Christ gave himself a ransom for all – showing that God is saving everyone

Next, to answer this inconvenient passage of scripture, mention is made of God’s decretive will as being different from His complacential will. Isaiah is quoted, “My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure” (46:10), as being an example of the former and Ezekiel is cited, “I will not the death of a sinner, but that he should turn and live” (33:11), as being an instance of the latter. It is argued that God’s will by decree is always fulfilled, but His complacential will (one that He is complacent about), may not be.

This second kind of will is not really a type of will at all but is more of a preference and the passage in Ezekiel can bear that out. I looked at nearly 70 English versions of the Old Testament and couldn’t find the version cited in this commentary. Nearly all of them use the language, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” or something close to it. Young’s Literal Translation renders it as such, “I delight not in the death of the wicked”.

So, this begs the question, why did the commentator, in attempting to prove that 1 Timothy 2:4 doesn’t mean everyone will be saved, cite a version of Ezekiel 33:11 that I couldn’t even find while any one of nearly 70 English versions use the language, “I take no pleasure in…”? Was he being disingenuous? I’ll leave that to you.

To answer this rebuttal, I would say that there is nothing complacent in the attitude of God toward His will that everyone be saved. (See the post An Unstoppable Force in the blog roll of this site) He said that He has purposed it from before the universe was created, that the Word has gone out of His mouth and will not return unfulfilled and that every knee would bow, and every tongue would swear allegiance to Him. (Isaiah 46:10-11, 11b; 55:11; 45:23 AMP)

This is Universal Reconciliation, and it is genuinely Apostolic.