All in the Graves Shall Hear His Voice

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… The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice (John 5:28).

Read the above words again, and then stop a minute and answer the question, “Who are in the graves?”

According to the common teaching, there are no people in the graves. They are either alive in heaven or in hell. If people are there already, what need is there for a resurrection, or a judging?

Something doesn’t fit here; and it is not God’s Word, it is man’s teaching that doesn’t fit. The problem is that people deny the fact of death. One cannot read the Hebrew Scriptures without running into verses that tell the state of the dead.

The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence (Psalm 115:17).

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing … (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

Those who have died are still in the graves. There has to be a resurrection to make them alive, and this is not immediately when one dies. Paul tells Timothy of some who,

… concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some (II Timothy 2:18).

The fact is that the resurrection has not occurred yet … Those who died are still in the graves until the Lord gives the shout for them to rise. All, yes, all who are in the graves will hear His voice. That includes even the unbeliever.

Faith Fellowship, Vol. 59 No. 1
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A Losing Savior?

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Yes, Jesus really is the Savior of all mankind, not just potential savior, but the actual savior of all mankind. I personally like [to use ] the phrase “the victorious gospel of Jesus Christ.” I like it because it is Christ-centered; it is Gospel-centered, and it is truly Good News to all people. It is focused on Jesus’ victory.

Unfortunately for most of church history, the church has focused on a Hell which makes Christ’s victory really pathetic. Would you want to follow a leader who loses most of the time? According to the traditional church, Jesus loses most of mankind. What a pathetic view of the risen Savior! NO. Many times NO. Jesus saves all.

Gary Amirault (1947-2018)
Salvation of All Mankind?
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The Need of Sin

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Love lacks a foil for its display in a perfect environment. … Above all other things there was need of sin, which would produce suffering and misery, so that there would be the need and the desire for a Savior; as well as estrangement and enmity in human hearts, so that there could be reconciliation, and humanity could be drawn closer to the heart of God than any others of His creatures. This demands an imperfect environment to produce it.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Creation and Disruption
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 48
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They Just Don’t Know

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Comfort yourself, with this thought, with this truth, that no matter how black things may look at present, however much evil and sin seem to triumph, however much sickness and disease may wreck this mortal frame, we have a Savior Who is Lord of all, One Who is fully capable of grappling with our unsolved problems, however formidable they might be, and solving them so marvelously that He will be universally acclaimed Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Let no one, therefore, deceive you into thinking that this will never come to pass, will never be true, that it is only a pipe dream, that all will not eventually be saved, that some will be (as they express it) “eternally lost.” Those who speak thus evidently don’t know the God Whom they profess to love and worship; don’t know the Scriptures they profess to believe; don’t know the Savior and the true value of His death for them, and for all. For He said,

And I, if I should be exalted out of the earth, shall be drawing all to Myself (John 12:32).

Leon Albert Bynoe (1895-1983)
The Divine Reconciliation of the Universe
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The Un-Frustrated God

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Since the evangel which we receive centers on God’s achievement, and not man’s, it leads to His glory. “The evangel of the glory of the happy God” (I Timothy 1:11) is a message that tells us that God will not be frustrated in His will to save all mankind (I Timothy 2:4). Man cannot eternally oppose his Creator’s will, especially when this will is based on the blood of the cross of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:20).

Arthur C. Lamb
The Divine Reconciliation of the Universe
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The True Meaning of Judgment

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“Punishment” is a word I have come to hate, for men have so fearfully misused it of God’s operations. Once we see that all of God’s dealings are with a view to the eventual reconciliation of all, the idea of punitive retribution, introduced by corrupt theology, will become abhorrent. We must remember that the object of all God’s operations are rooted in love and fruited in reconciliation. If God is love, He cannot be orthodox. Before there can be a universal reconciliation, each one must be set right with God, and this is accomplished at the judging. Such indeed is the true meaning of judgment.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
The Problem of Evil, pages 231-236
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None Left Out

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That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

This verse speaks of ultimate reconciliation, and it is truly universal! None will be left out. None will be left alienated or unreconciled to God. How else could it be, for, “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all” (Romans 11:36).

And when all things shall be subdued to Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him Who put all things under Him, that God may be All in all (I Corinthians 15:21-28).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
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