God is right to save sinners and to satisfy his justice through the death of his Son Jesus, and he is likewise right to deny salvation to sinners. If you are a Christian today, this should cause your heart to swell with renewed gratitude.
As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
According to Arminianism, God won't save all because to do so would require that he intrude upon and override the rebellious will of many unbelievers. God so values the purported dignity of libertarian freedom that he chooses only to save those who believe, although it would be possible to save those who don't as well.
“This is what the LORD says: 'Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
The doctrine of “once saved, always saved” teaches that it is not possible for a child of God to sin in such a way that he will be lost. Many people, who undoubtedly are very sincere and possess a desire to do what is right, find tremendous comfort in this doctrine. This doctrine, however, is not taught in the Bible.
Put simply, our salvation depends solely on the person and work of Jesus Christ. As we continue to trust in him, we will experience the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives to make us more like Jesus. When we see this happening, our assurance that we truly are one of God's children grows.
The Bible does not say in any part that it is only the 144,000 that will go to heaven. The revelation to John supports Matthew 8:11, which says that many will come from every corner of the earth to sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The number 144,000 that were sealed or chosen are not pre-chosen.
Love for us kept Jesus on the cross. There very clearly is a universal love of God for all of mankind, both saved and unsaved. We are all made in His image, and He loves us because of that rather than our cherubic smiles and Father's Day gifts.
There are two things to remember here: (1) God's mercy is indeed infinite, and (2) true repentance means forsaking your sins. On the one hand, because of the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ, repentance is available to everyone, even those who have made the same mistakes many times.
While the spirit is saved by faith in Christ, the soul is being saved based upon the faithfulness of the believer. The salvation of the soul is dependent on the life that we live after our spirit is saved.
Open Your Bible to Matthew 16
In our human relationships, we can gain favor and we can lose favor pretty easily. Sometimes we don't know why or how we gain or lose favor with people, but not with God. Through the Gospel, he tells us how to gain his favor and how to keep it.
Our recognition of God's sovereign initiative and rich mercy in saving undeserved sinners brings Him glory. Also, we should see that God desires His people to be workers of righteousness. Although we aren't saved by our works, we are saved in order that we will work for God. This is the point taught in Ephesians 2:10.
In the Bible days, God Almighty made a choice among all the people He created and set them apart to execute the important purposes of His providence. That they were chosen to this high destiny was not on account of their extraordinary merits, but because God wanted to illustrate His glory to all mankind through them.
So, can God save non-Christians? Yes. This is one of several reasons that we are called to treat other faiths and people of other faiths with respect. But this doesn't lessen our call as Christians to share, with respect and love, that path that God has shown to us.
“Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:26). “Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).
In desperation the jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Never missing an opportunity to share the good news, Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And that night, as Paul and Silas shared “the word of the Lord,” salvation came to that jailer's ...
Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."
Rev. Graham: Only one sin that can't be forgiven is on God's list — and that is the sin of rejecting Him and refusing His offer of forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ. This alone is the unforgivable sin, because it means we are saying that the Holy Spirit's witness about Jesus is a lie (see Luke 12:10).
God Is No Longer Holding Men's Sins Against Them
Although unbelievers aren't saved, their sin is forgiven. It's now up to them.
Through Nehemiah, we see that God breaks our hearts so we can REBUILD our world. Sometimes, God's breakings come from a place of pain, but they can also come from a place of abundance.
Christ died for our healing, but the greatest miracle of all is our salvation from sin and separation: "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" (John 3:16).
While Jesus told Nicodemus, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5), he did not set baptism as a hindrance to salvation but just the opposite. We so often judge things by human standards, but God is not restrained by our standards.
You enter heaven by forgiveness and through the righteousness that Jesus gives you. You do not enter into heaven by the Christian life. It's always true that where faith is birthed, works will follow, but salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Christians don't believe that "going to heaven" happens automatically; it's the result of conscious decisions made during one's life. While the Bible is very specific about the requirements for human salvation, it says nothing about salvation for animals.