RC Meredith: The Truth Almost No One Knows

Straight Path in Tobago
A slightly difficult uphill and narrow way in Tobago

Jesus taught,

…narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matt 7:14).

And while that is true in this age, many do not understand that God of love we in the Living Church of God serve does have a plan that will result in the vast majority of those that ever lived to be saved.

In the current issue of LCG’s Tomorrow’s World magazine has the following by evangelist Roderick C. Meredith:

What God Is Accomplishing NOW

The Apostle Peter was inspired to tell us: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:89).
Do you see?
In working out His supreme purpose, God is in no hurry! In His time—not our time—God wants all to come to repentance. He indicates that His plan will be accomplished over thousands of years! Again, remember that God is not trying to save the whole world now. Yet He is not condemning those who have been deceived by Satan, the god of this age whom the Creator God has allowed to influence and rule this world during this present time.
Remember how God condemned the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, turning them into ashes and making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly (2 Peter 2:6). Yet, when you understand, you quickly realize that those perverted people were blinded to the Truth and did not know the true God. So how will God eventually deal with those blinded human beings who never had a genuine opportunity for salvation?
In Matthew 11, Jesus describes how the cities of His day refused to hear the Truth: Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you (vv. 2122). Then Jesus made a remarkable statement: But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you (v. 24). So there is a day of judgment coming in which it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the cities of Jesus time. Jesus here clearly recognizes that those ancient cities were never presented with the Truth. They had no opportunity at all!
God inspired the Apostle Paul to state the following about the Gentiles in Ephesus: Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:1112). The absolute truth is that God has allowed most people to go their own way for the last 6,000 years under Satans influence. The Almighty God has not even tried to save them. Otherwise, they would be saved! But He has planned a day of judgment—not a day of condemnation—so that those billions of human beings may have a genuine opportunity for salvation and then be judged according to what they do at that time when their eyes are really opened to the Truth!
How will they be saved? The Bible is very clear in stating that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ! Jesus Himself stated: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them (John 10:1, 78). Here Jesus clearly condemns any other way to eternal life! For God alone can give us everlasting life. He sets the conditions—not misguided human beings who may have sentimental thoughts about false Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, New Age theories or any other ideas or theories of men!
The Apostle Peter was inspired to state emphatically: Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This [Christ] is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:10-12).

The White Throne Judgment

We read earlier that in the prophesied day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the Sodomites than for the men of Jesus day who rejected Him in person. The inspired gospel of Luke adds details to Matthews account. In Luke 10:1314, Jesus Christ said: Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
The plain indication is that since ancient Tyre, Sidon and Sodom were not given a genuine opportunity to learn the Truth, they will not be held responsible for being blinded. In fact, Jesus stated that He knew they would have repented (v. 13) if they had seen Jesus mighty works.
Since God is no respecter of persons, you may wonder: when and how will the people of these ancient Gentile cities, and the other billions of similarly blinded human beings, be given a genuine opportunity to understand Gods purpose in life, and to attain salvation? Does the Bible ever speak of such a time?
Yes, it does! The book of Revelation gives the time sequence of prophetic events more clearly than any other book in the Bible. Revelation 19:1121 describes Christs return in full glory as King of kings (vv. 1416). Then, after crushing the armies of the coming European dictator called the Beast, Christ casts him and the coming false religious leader into the Lake of Fire (v. 20).
Then God describes a mighty angel coming down to the earth: He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while (Revelation 20:23). Note that these verses also tell us that Satan has been deceiving the nations of this earth!
After Satan is bound, the glorious millennial rule of Christ on the earth begins. Speaking of that time, Revelation 20 shows that the true saints lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years (v. 4). Then we are told: Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (v. 6).
True Christians who have been genuinely called by God understand His purpose. They know that they are now in training to become kings and priests in the coming reign of Christ on Earth—that they will rule even over angels (1 Corinthians 6:13)! The coming millennial rule of Christ and the saints (Daniel 7:2627) will be a magnificent opportunity to help, to encourage and to teach the confused multitudes about Gods true ways.
But what happens to the untold billions of blinded people who die before the Millennium—who have never known the true God and His Plan? And realize that this includes many millions of professing Christians now living who have never been genuinely converted! It includes millions of young people who never lived long enough to understand, truly repent and grow in grace and in knowledge of Gods Truth. It includes millions of well-meaning but weak people, with all their problems, who may have called themselves Christians but who never truly understood and surrendered to God.
After describing a relatively brief time when Satan is loosed from his prison and, once again, quickly deceives a multitude of people (Revelation 20:710), Gods word begins to tell us about the Great White Throne Judgment period. But look back for a moment at verse 5. Here, inserted as a parenthetical comment after describing the thousand-year rule of the saints, Gods word says: But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.
The rest of the dead? Yes! Those billions of people from ages past who were never called to salvation and, therefore, obviously had no opportunity to be in the first resurrection.
Notice Revelation 20:11-12: Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

A Time of Genuine UNDERSTANDING

Here we find described perhaps the most awesome event in human history, a time when all people—the unknown, the famous and the infamous—will truly come to understand why they were born! These formerly dead people are seen standing before God—obviously in a resurrection. Then the books are opened. The term books here is translated from the Greek word biblion, which is the same word translated Bible—meaning the books of the Bible!

Revelation 20 then describes the opening of another book—the Book of Life. What is this books purpose? Paul explains that the saints names are written in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3). Revelation 21:27 describes the New Jerusalem as inhabited by only those who are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
The opportunity for eternal life is at last presented to these multitudes of people small and great. They are resurrected back to physical life for perhaps a period of 100 years—long enough for a thorough opportunity for them to learn, grow and be tried and tested as to their willingness to live eternal life Gods way (Isaiah 65:20). They will be called and have the opportunity to study and to understand the Bible. Then—and only then—God says that these resurrected people will be judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books (Revelation 20:12). Finally, after being given a genuine opportunity to know and to act upon the Truth, these people are judged by how they respond to and obey the teachings of the books of the Bible. As James was inspired to tell us, faith without works is dead (James 2:20).

Make no mistake; if these untold billions of formerly blinded individuals are merely judged by the works they did in their former lifetime—smany of them as thieves, prostitutes, sexual deviants, dictators and false prophets—then they will all surely perish in the Lake of Fire! For in their past lives they did not accept the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved. They did not truly repent (Acts 2:38) of their wrong ways and surrender their lives to Christ and allow Him—through the Holy Spirit—to fashion and mold them and help them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

God does not have a double standard! These countless billions of individuals deserve to have a real opportunity—and to be judged on what they do after they have known the Truth of God! Yet countless theologians and ministers—who themselves are deceived—try to imagine that God will somehow save many of our unrepentant friends and relatives, and multitudes from ages past, even though they never came to real repentance and true surrender to the living Christ. These theologians could not be more wrong!

(You can click the following link for the full article: The Truth Almost No One Knows.)

The fact is that the idea that God will in the future offer salvation to all who really did not have a chance in this age is a biblical doctrine. Did you know that There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible Supporting the Doctrine of True Apocatastasis?

Several articles of related interest may include:

Universal Offer of Salvation: There Are Hundreds of Verses in the Bible Supporting the Doctrine of True Apocatastasis Do you believe what the Bible actually teaches on this? Will all good things be restored? Does God’s plan of salvation take rebellion and spiritual blindness into account?
Hope of Salvation: How the Living Church of God differ from most Protestants How the Living Church of God differs from mainstream/traditional Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a Church of God background.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God was the Emphasis of Jesus and the Early Church Did you know that? Do you even know what the gospel of the kingdom is all about? True religion should be based upon the true gospel.