Regarding the great commission.

[fullarmor2]

   I thought of a good queston to ask .  Why would Jesus go away after giving the great commission,  leaving that responsibility with the church,  knowing that the church was going to fall way short of reaching all people with the gosple?  If unending torment in hellfire is a reality, then the way the Lord gave the great commission does not make sense. But it makes perfect sense from the universalists perspective. The Lord Jesus knew that ALL will be reached! Amen!!!!

[fullarmor2]

       What I meant by my statement that "the Lord knew that all will be reached"  is that a person's opportunity to accept God's grace is not limited to this life only, and the belief that God's grace is limited to this life is nowhere in the scriptures.  God did not fail the people who the church failed to reach. This reminds me of what Martin Luther said,      "God forbid that I should limit the opportunity for people to accept God's grace to this life only".

[studier]

There was no internet, newspapers or books, back in those days (I mean there were books, but they were written on parchment and very difficult and time-burdensome to recreate.), so how does news get spread? Through heralds and messengers. When a King needed news to be carried to a foriegn land, he would dispatch his messengers to the ends of the earth to find those whom the message was intended. The Son came into His Kingdom, and was sending out messengers to that affect.

[Kratos]

Remember that the Great Commission is to go into all the world and make disciples. It is not a commission to get the world saved. Only the Holy Spirit draws men to Christ and makes them believers. It is our responsibility to take the believers that we find and help them to become disciples. We help one another grow up in God. We are not the parent birthing babies, we are older brothers and sisters that assist in the rearing of the younger ones whom God has added to the family.

[meefsgirl]

Would it be fair to say the great commission was meant to bring in the first-fruits of the Kingdom, who are of course the disciples?.. which is of course the promise of the harvest to come.

[Kratos]

Aesterico and Meefsgirl,

I would so yes on both questions. People must be able to bow and confess Jesus after death because the Word says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and we know that all do not in this life.

And those who continue to transition from infants into fullgrown Sons of God through discipleship will be those who Overcome. These are the promise of the harvest to come in the Tabernacles Age.

I am not as strong on predestination as some on here so I still see us having some choices that we make that determines whether we finish our race and receive the prize or not.

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

John

[firstborn888]

So it's "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature". Great news, cool. But then: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."

What the hell kind of good news is that?

Actually, since I saw UR from the beginning, it never really bothered me much - I just figured 'yes, the carnal mind (which doesn't/cannot believe) is sentenced to die. That's a GOOD thing'.

I do remember though hearing once (eons ago) that there was some contention that the two versus "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" were invalidly added to promote an early mid-evil agenda. Anybody ever hear of that? It now seems to me a very odd thing to add to "Go tell the great news". A very VERY odd thing.

  - byron

[meefsgirl]

Aesterico and Meefsgirl,

I would so yes on both questions. People must be able to bow and confess Jesus after death because the Word says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and we know that all do not in this life.

And those who continue to transition from infants into fullgrown Sons of God through discipleship will be those who Overcome. These are the promise of the harvest to come in the Tabernacles Age.

I am not as strong on predestination as some on here so I still see us having some choices that we make that determines whether we finish our race and receive the prize or not.

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

John

Kratos,

I tend to believe the same, that as far as salvation is concerned we have no freewill, but to walking out that salvation we do... to a certain extent... I believe He's still behind our choices... sorta 

[Kratos]

Firstborn,

I have seen it in the margin that some early manuscripts do not have the phrase about being damned. I still struggle with taking things out instead of seeing all of the words of the Bible through the Spirit so the idea of the natural man or the carnal mind being the one who is damned works for me.

John

[studier]

So human analogy time:

You are poor, starving and do not have shelter. You inheritted a million dollars. It is in your bank to spend, no catches, you even have a debit card so you can take it out. You are so used to being poor, starving and not having shelter, that you have a choice when I tell you the good news, you have a million dollars!

If you believe me, you use the million dollars, you won't be poor, starving and homeless. If you don't believe me, you are still starving and homeless, even though you are not poor anymore.

So he who believes is saved, he who doesn't believe is...what?

The problem doesn't come in the words, it comes in how you percieve the words. If you think it was an ultimatum, then you have read it wrong. Whether you believe or not, does not nullify the good news. Whether you accept it and apply it in your life, is what Jesus was talking about.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (THE GOOD NEWS!). If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

The problem now comes in, if you don't believe in free-will, there is no need for a great commission. If you don't believe in a free-will, then you don't have to worry about being careful in what you build. Does that nullify that in the end all mankind is saved? No. It means that everyone who is pre-destined from the beginning to the end, but the journey is where we build and store either treasures on earth, or treasures in heaven.