When Salvation Is Offered to Everyone

The universal offer of salvation to all humanity from a loving God

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This sermon will show that the Bible teaches the universal offer of salvation to all humanity in the second or general resurrection period. I will touch on the Revelation 20 and Ezekiel 37, but my main focus will be on such passages as Ezekiel 16 and Matthew 11-12 about ancient condemned pagans of Sodom and Tyre being returned to their former state--and how they would have repented if they'd known the truth (and so in fairness they will be given that opportunity). I will also focus on promises of Israel's future glory, asking why this would be good news for Israelites who died unsaved--if there is no promise of a second resurrection. 

I'll include some reasoning other churches use to explain how uninformed pagans might yet be saved without a new physical life--and why that's unbiblical and illogical. And I'll further note some patristic writings that some claim support universal salvation but more support the universal offer of salvation, as we teach. Salvation will not be universal, as some will ultimately reject it. I'll end with a brief look ahead to the new heavens and new earth with God--encouraging everyone to stick around for the final act, which is really a new beginning.

Branson
FOT
Tom Robinson

Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri as managing editor and senior writer for Beyond Today magazine, church study guides and the UCG Bible Commentary. He is a visiting instructor at Ambassador Bible College. And he serves as chairman of the church's Prophecy Advisory Committee and a member of the Fundamental Beliefs Amendment Committee.

Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through regular preaching of sermons.

Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends the Columbia-Fulton, Missouri congregation with his wife Donna and their two teen children.