A Ransom For ALL?

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from BibleToday.com and it read as follows:

Dear Bible Student,

We are pleased to send you a copy (attached to this email) of the slide presentation entitled "A Ransom for All" that answers the questions: Why did Jesus die for us? and How does the death of Jesus save us? We hope you enjoy it and that you will share it with others.

May our Lord continue to bless your studies.

Your friends at BibleToday.com

Okay, I was impressed at first. I mean a powerpoint presenting the gospel? What could go wrong I thought? I should have known that there was something wrong because of the title: "A Ransom for All". I have used my AuthorStream account to post the power point below. Take a look.



Uploaded on authorSTREAM by mmcelhaney


I had huge problems with this. i mean the first half of the presentation is great. It explains how messed us we are without Jesus. It used scripture very effectively to drive the gospel home. then it goes Carlton Pierson of us and turns into a failed apologetic for rejecting the reality of hell. My mouth was hanging open because it's a pretty presentation. I'm left wondering that they obviously sent this to people who read the Bible and it doesn't take much study to know the Bible teaches that some people are going to go to heaven and some are going to hell. This could turn into a Calvinist/Arminian or discussion of free will but let's save that for a different time and let's look at some of the assertions the presentation makes:

1. Did Jesus die merely to save a comparatively few Christians? And then answers no, citing 1 John 2:2 which says:

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

This verse does not say that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all, but not that everyone is saved

2. Jesus dies for all we were still in our sins. Then John 3:16, Romans 5:8, and 1 Peter 3:18 are cited.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
- John 3:16

Notice that only those believes in the son don't perish but get everlasting life.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. - Romans 5: 1-10

Look! Romans 5:8 was taken out of context. All people are ungodly until they are justified by the blood of Jesus.

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, - 1 Peter 3:18

Again, the passage is taken out of context. Peter is not talking about unbelievers and believers...he is only talking to believers.

3. The Presentation asserts that Romans 5 verses 12 and 18 show that Jesus sacrifice justifies all men, just as Adam's disobedience damned us all but I think that the verses are taken out of context, I mean why was verse 19 not included. It says:

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

I'm getting at that the passage does not teach that ever human being was made righteous just those who believe.

4. There are two resurrections: the just and unjust. The presentation really breaks here...I can't tell if it's saying that the unjust are going to "mercifully judged and punished according to their past guilt" or that they experience the second death described in Revelations 2:11. The author of the presentation did not make it clear. Fortunately, Jesus did make it clear. He said that he is the only way to God.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6

By definition a true Christian is a person who puts their trust and faith in Jesus for the justification from our sins. Bottom line. No other religion teaches this. This means that as unsavory as it sounds, everyone who does not believe will not be going to have eternal life with Jesus and there is no passdage in the bible that can be used to describe the "second" death as non-existence or oblivion. This how Jesus described it:

They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. -Matthew 13:42 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. - Matthew 13:50 "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. - Luke 13:28