All Means All

“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

In Revelation 15, the Apostle John witnesses the seven angels who have the seven last plagues which will be unleashed on the ungodly living at the time just before Christ returns.  John’s attention is then turned to the saints who are singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.  In their song they ask, “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?”  They ask this question as if it was impossible for any to reject a holy and righteous God, but we know that many have, many are, and many will as time as we know it is allowed to continue.  None of us have the right nor the ability to judge where another stands in relation to the Lord, but scripture says that we can know a person “by their fruits”, that is, by what kind of life they live, the words they say, and the actions they take.  For example, a person who curses all the time, is wrapped up in himself or herself, never darkens the door of the church, nor has any use for the Bible, tends to indicate that he or she likely doesn’t know Christ as Lord and Savior.

As Paul writes, everyone, and that means everyone who has ever lived, is living now, or will live in the future, will eventually fall to their knees and acknowledge Christ as Lord and bow before Him.  All of those who rejected Christ will have to acknowledge that He is the righteous and just God.  They will call Him Lord, but they won’t be able to call Him their Savior.  They will spend all eternity in hell knowing that they had a choice to believe on the One whom they will then realize was sent to save them.  Have you ever regretted a decision that you made?  You likely wish that you could go back and have a redo.  Sometimes we can remedy a bad decision that we made, but most of the time we have to live with it.  There is no redo in making the decision to reject Christ after a person passes away.

God doesn’t send people to hell.  Each person who spends eternity in hell goes there by his or her own will.  God desires for “all men (and women) to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4).  However, many in their pride, refuse to let go of their sin and trust Christ, a momentary decision with a profound effect for all eternity.  I know that this is not a pleasant subject to write about, and we don’t hear as much about hell from the pulpits as we used to.  I suppose prosperity has caused a lot of folks to not consider eternity or perhaps sin has become so acceptable in society that folks just don’t see the need to repent.  But God’s word has not changed, and He will hold all people accountable.  Eternity is way too long to be wrong.