Does God desire the salvation of all mankind?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

NOV25

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2019
977
386
63
@Pilgrimshope I just figured out you can look at peoples profiles. You were saved in 1977? And @Nehemiah6 was saved in 1971? Both before I was born, you guys must be older than dirt 😂
 

Pilgrimshope

Well-known member
Sep 2, 2020
14,181
5,727
113
@Pilgrimshope I just figured out you can look at peoples profiles. You were saved in 1977? And @Nehemiah6 was saved in 1971? Both before I was born, you guys must be older than dirt 😂
77? No brother I didn't make my profile my nephew did

I was born late in 1952 and can't remember ever being saved
 

Pilgrimshope

Well-known member
Sep 2, 2020
14,181
5,727
113
@Pilgrimshope I just figured out you can look at peoples profiles. You were saved in 1977? And @Nehemiah6 was saved in 1971? Both before I was born, you guys must be older than dirt 😂
Haha I'm Nearly 895 years younger than Adam was when he died is how I see it still a youngin
 

Pilgrimshope

Well-known member
Sep 2, 2020
14,181
5,727
113
It was so long ago you can't remember? 😆
Exactly lol

My earliest memory is sittin in my mamas lap and daddy readin the bible in candlelight and that was my childhood evening before bed eventually of course I was not in her lap but I was always taught " this is what Gods word says " so I can't ever remember a day I became saved I can remember to about 5 years old but I think my mama and daddy just fed me gods word


Was a different world" up hill both ways" you know in" three feet of snow barefoot "
 

NOV25

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2019
977
386
63
Exactly lol

My earliest memory is sittin in my mamas lap and daddy readin the bible in candlelight and that was my childhood evening before bed eventually of course I was not in her lap but I was always taught " this is what Gods word says " so I can't ever remember a day I became saved I can remember to about 5 years old but I think my mama and daddy just fed me gods word


Was a different world
That's the most beautiful thing I ever read on the website.
 

brightfame52

Well-known member
Nov 21, 2020
6,362
563
113
When someone calls saving faith "a work" we know that they are so desperate to hang on to their false beliefs that they will call black "white" and white "black" to make their point.

BTW faith in Christ is BOTH an evidence of salvation and a condition of salvation (John 3:36). And faith is THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WORK. The Holy Spirit -- speaking through Paul -- makes this crystal clear in Romans 4:4,5: Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

When Scripture says "his faith is counted for righteousness" it takes us all the way back to Abraham, who believed God and it was IMPUTED to him for righteousness. This was long before he was actually ready to sacrifice Isaac.

Imputed righteousness is so antithetical to the human mind, that even genuine Christians can hardly believe that this is true. The Roman Catholics hate the idea of imputed righteousness and in fact declared a curse on anyone who believed this Gospel truth (in the Council of Trent). But the Calvinists hate the idea that Christ actually died for the sins of THE WHOLE WORLD. and God therefore freely offers salvation to "whosoever" will believe in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. Which means that if all would repent and believe, absolutely all would be saved. God does not elect anyone for either salvation or damnation. Election is for an entirely different purpose.
If you make faith a condition you do in order to get God to save you, its a work, but if you understand faith to be that which God gives and is an evidence that God saved you through Christ, then its by grace.
 
Mar 4, 2020
8,614
3,691
113
People are hung up on this false idea that if they do anything then it's a work. Some works are okay, like the kind that enable us to boast in God, i.e., doing what God commands such as having faith. This is all about giving God the glory and be approved by God.

God commends people for their faith.

2 Corinthians 10:17,18
17But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
 

AndrewMorgan

Active member
Jul 10, 2022
375
81
28
This question has interesting ramifications. I've come across disagreements between "Orthodox" (I use this term to mean non-Calvinists here for convenience, 'though I know Calvinists tend to consider themselves Orthodox) and Calvinist believers.
Orthodox believers believe that "God wants none to perish, but to come to repentance", which to me seems plain scripture. Calvinists think God wants only to save the "elect" and not everybody.
 
Mar 4, 2020
8,614
3,691
113
God commends people for their Saving Faith in His Son who He sent to bridge the gap between God and humankind -----

It's a bit more nuanced that that, but yes.

John 12
44Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Romans 10
9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
 

studentoftheword

Well-known member
Nov 12, 2021
1,722
596
113
Calvinists think God wants only to save the "elect" and not everybody.
Calvinists believe that People are save by Grace ----this Grace is irresistible and that God chooses who He wants to save by choosing who He wants to show His unmerited favour to -----they do not believe you need faith in Jesus to be saved ====that is how I understand it and of course it is very False Doctrine and anyone preaching this to others is sending themselves and the others to their Doom and should be ashamed of themselves -----

Calvinist are not saved people and therefore they have no truth in them of what the scriptures are really saying ------the Bible is a Spiritual Book -----for Spiritual People ----the natural man cannot grasp the Spiritual meaning or understanding of the scriptures as they have not God in them -------

We need to get the Spiritual meaning and understanding of what the Scriptures are communicating to us and we can only get that by Having God in us -------

Many Calvinists use ----Jacob and Esau as their example --God choosing the one He wanted and hating the other =====this needs Spiritual understanding and the Natural man cannot fathom the proper Spiritual understanding as they have not the Spiritual knowledge to do so ------

So all of us need to be weary of False Doctrine and Run Forest Run when it doesn't line up with Scripture ------Knowing the scriptures becomes very important in detecting Deception -----
 
Nov 26, 2021
1,125
545
113
India
Is there a prerequisite to regeneration or does the Holy Spirit enter at His own will?

If possible, please keep your answer simple. Thanks.
1. The Holy Spirit gives His Call and His Grace freely to those who do not deserve it. If God did not turn us to Him, we would not turn to Him ourselves. But, neither before justification, nor after it, is it true that our free will does nothing at all.

2. God's Deliverance is like pulling us out a pit, a pit out of which we did not even want to be pulled. First, God enlightens our mind to desire deliverance or salvation, being pulled out of the pit. Then, He stretches down His hand to pull us out. If we freely respond, by believing in Him as Lord and Savior, and repenting of our sins, we are washed, and the Holy Spirit comes to live within us.

3. God's Election is not about we were before we came to Him: "7“The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the LORD rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

God chooses even the weak, to confound the strong: "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." (1 Cor 1:26)

There is no predestination to hell in the Bible. There is only predestination to Heaven. If you disagree, please show me a verse that says there is such a thing as predestination to hell, as if God were the Author or Cause of Damnation or Evil.

God Bless.
 

notmyown

Senior Member
May 26, 2016
4,927
1,272
113
Calvinists believe that People are save by Grace ----this Grace is irresistible and that God chooses who He wants to save by choosing who He wants to show His unmerited favour to -----they do not believe you need faith in Jesus to be saved ====that is how I understand it and of course it is very False Doctrine and anyone preaching this to others is sending themselves and the others to their Doom and should be ashamed of themselves -----

Calvinist are not saved people and therefore they have no truth in them of what the scriptures are really saying ------the Bible is a Spiritual Book -----for Spiritual People ----the natural man cannot grasp the Spiritual meaning or understanding of the scriptures as they have not God in them -------

We need to get the Spiritual meaning and understanding of what the Scriptures are communicating to us and we can only get that by Having God in us -------

Many Calvinists use ----Jacob and Esau as their example --God choosing the one He wanted and hating the other =====this needs Spiritual understanding and the Natural man cannot fathom the proper Spiritual understanding as they have not the Spiritual knowledge to do so ------

So all of us need to be weary of False Doctrine and Run Forest Run when it doesn't line up with Scripture ------Knowing the scriptures becomes very important in detecting Deception -----
grace to you, and peace

Calvinists in no way believe one has no need of faith in Jesus to be saved. so you see, you really don't understand Calvinists. a good way to rectify this would be to go to the Reformed to be told what it is they believe, don't you think?

will you be so kind as to explain what you mean when you say none of them are saved?
thank you