Summary: Preaching that people should come to God through Jesus Christ is never wrong. But the fear that is part of the preaching is wrong. Now, salvation through the heavenly calling is only for the church. The earthly salvation for mankind will be established in Christ’s earthly kingdom. Acts 15:14, 16-17, “…God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (the church)…After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David (the nation of Israel), which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD …”
Discussion: Jesus ransomed Adam and all his race from the sentence of death. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 says “For since by a man came death, by a man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” We are told in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God’s desire is “for all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God’s love created a plan that will give a full opportunity for everlasting life to every man, woman, and child in His kingdom on earth.
In 1 Timothy 2:5 and 6 we read, “For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” The word “testified” has the idea of the giving of evidence. The full benefits of the ransom will be evident in God’s due time.
In the meantime, God is calling out of the world a people willing to suffer with Christ that they also might reign with Christ in His kingdom. 2 Timothy 2:12.
The kingdom, that Jesus taught us to pray for, when God’s will is done on earth, is truly the longing of mankind. This is expressed in Romans 8:19-22, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
The “childbirth” of this scripture is the birth of God’s kingdom on earth. We are living in the end times and soon God’s long-awaited kingdom will be born! In this kingdom, God will “swallow up death for all time and wipe tears away from all faces.” Isaiah 25:8. Then people “will not hurt nor destroy for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” Isaiah 11:9. What a wondrous time lies in store for all mankind.
