This topic is follow-up to the two-part topic “Universal Christian Salvation”. As background, I suggest you read/review the Bible verses referenced in “Universal Christian Salvation” before proceeding here.
In “Universal Christian Salvation”, we examined pertinent passages in the New Testament (NT) and the Old Testament Septúagint/LXX which contain the Greek term for “all”…“pas” (Strongs g3956). This term “pas” occurs 1,240 times in the NT. In several of those verses, all/pas pertained to all of mankind.
Universalism or Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation is the belief that all or most humans will ultimately be reconciled to God, saved through Jesus. (It isn’t pluralism; since not all mans’ religions are from God.) Two disparate beliefs of Christians are…Eternal Conscious Torment in hell-fire, held by Calvinists & Arminianists…and Annihilationism extinction. see “Universal Christian Salvation (1)”.
A person may cite isolated Bible verses which seem to support any or all of the above three beliefs!
Yet God is love (1Jn.4:16). Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation does comprehensively reflect God’s love. God is also fair, impartial. Ro.2:11 “There is no partiality with God.” He’s no respecter of persons (Ac.10:34). And God is just. Ro.9:14 “There is no injustice with God.” Is.61:8 the Lord loves justice. 1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
But if all humans end up ‘saved’, how does such Universal Salvation also reflect God’s character as just & consistent, with the requirements for His forgiveness and mans’ salvation the same for every person?
Over the millennia, most of humanity died without believing in the name of Jesus, the only name by which we’re saved (Ac.4:12). Many or most never even heard His name! e.g. the multitudes of gentiles who lived in BC times, before Jesus’ incarnation. All men are sinners (Ro.3:23). Some die cursing God.
Yet Paul wrote in Php.2:10-11, “At the name of Jesus everyone [pas g3956] in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will bow the knee. And every [g3956] tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” That’s universality…even including those “under the earth” (KJV)! also cf. 1Pe.3:19. Geneva Bible Php.2:10 “All creatures will at length be subject to Christ.” Meyer NT Commentary Php.2:10 “The bowing of the knee represents adoration.” Cambridge Bible Php.2:10 “Created existence, in its heights and depths…being said to worship.” Ellicott Commentary Php.2:11 “The acknowledgement of universal Lordship and majesty.”
However, many didn’t believe and repent, two requirements for salvation (Mk.16:16; Jn.3:18, 36; Lk.13:3; Ac.2:38, 16:31). If they’re saved without belief and repenting from sin, it would seem that God has a double standard! Yet God is just and impartial. Mankind reaps what he sows (Ga.6:7). How may this be reconciled? Jesus and Paul said there were other “ages to come” (e.g. Mt.12:32, Ep.2:7).
Ge.18:20 the sin in the ancient cities of Sodom & Gomorrah was “exceedingly grave”. Consequently, the Lord destroyed their inhabitants with fire from heaven (Ge.19:24-25, Jude 1:7)! Therefore, we may think it would be intolerable for them in the judgment. Condemnation. But that’s not what Jesus said (speaking to the unrepentant who opposed Him). Mt.11:24 “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” What?! also Mt.10:15. Having destroyed those wicked cities with fire, for their judgment to be “more tolerable”…implied is a measure of future forgiveness.
The Lord asserted in Ezk.16:53-55, “I will restore the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria [Israel’s 10 tribes] and her daughters….Sodom with her daughters will return to their former state.” The Jordan River plain. Keil and Delitzsch Ezk.16:53 “What the apostle teaches [1Pe.3:19, 4:6]…is equally applicable to the Sodomites…and indeed generally to all the heathen nations who either lived before Christ or departed from this earthly life without having heard the gospel preached.” So it’s not hopeless for those ancient Sodomites! They would eventually be restored. Such tolerance could also include the children of those utterly corrupt heathen nations/Canaanites who Christ commanded Israel to exterminate in De.20:16 & Jsh.6:20-21? Those ancients may still obtain salvation!
But those individuals all died. How can they return to their former lands and hear the saving gospel? Furthermore, reanimation doesn’t apply only to those gentiles; it applies to the entire house of Israel too!
The dry bones passage of Ezk.37:1-14 reflects the whole house of Israel rebirthed to physical life! (It’s too long to quote here in full.) Their corpses (slain, v.9) had decomposed. v.4-5 NET “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, I Am about to infuse breath into you and you will live.” Barnes Notes Ezk.37:6 “In Ezk.37:5, not ‘I will cause’, but I cause or am causing.” It was about to start happening. v.6 “I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you…and you will know that I Am the Lord.” (cf. Job said in Jb.10:11, “Did you not…cloth me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews?”) These are literal breathing physical bodies with human spirits! Cambridge Bible Ezk.37:6 “Their becoming actual men of flesh & blood.” At death their human spirit had returned to God who gave it (Ec.12:7). God sends those same spirits into new flesh bodies.
Ezk.37:11-13 “These bones are the whole house of Israel. I will open your graves and bring you back to the land of Israel.” This pertains to all Israel. They’ll all return to the land of Israel. Similarly, the Lord said ancient Sodom’s inhabitants would return to their land area. Ezk.37 is a fleshly rebirth of all Israelites. v.14 “I will put My Spirit in you.” God’s Holy Spirit (HS) too is given to them. God will call them to Himself, they’ll be taught the gospel (Jn.6:44-45) and receive the HS to walk in His ways.
Paul said in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”. (also cf. Is.45:17, Zec.8:13.) Not just a remnant! Not just the 100th generation, but excluding most of the previous 99 generations (with those who went into Assyrian & Babylonian captivities) who burn forever in hell-fire! No. God puts His Spirit in the historical house of Israel! All will have the opportunity to repent & believe, and be saved through King Jesus (Ezk.37:24). God loves all who live, both BC and AD. His will is none perish forever; that all come to repentance, 2Pe.3:9.
Hosea prophesied to the northern 10 tribes of Israel around 750 BC. Ho.13:12-14 “The iniquity of Ephráim [the northern kingdom] is on record…I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death. O Hades, where is thy sting?” (Paul quotes this LXX verse in 1Co.15:55.) But when? First…Ho.13:15-16 in 722 BC Shalmanéser V will attack from the East, since the guilty northern Israel (capital at Samaria) has rebelled against God. Israel will be deported by Assyria into captivity. Those Israelites will die in the attack and in captivity. Then later…Ho.14:4-5 “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel.” v.8 “O Ephraim…it is I who answer and look after you.” The Lord will care for them.
But those had all died! Yet the Lord will bring back those apostate Israelites from Hades (the realm of the dead); the sting of death is past. MacLaren Expositions Ho.14:5 “That promise in its depth and fullness is applicable only to Christian Israel.” That deported generation of northern Israel will have opportunity for salvation. Again, “All Israel shall be saved”. Sanh 10:1 “All Israelites will have a share in the world to come.” Including the hardened, Ro.11:15, 25. But those individuals will have to live a right life…believe, and repent (of apostasy). God’s standards are consistent; He is impartial (Ep.6:9).
Later the Jews of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah were killed or sent by God into captivity to Babylon (between 606-586 BC). Lam.2:21-22 they were slaughtered! La.1:5 God’s wrath was due to the multitude of their transgressions. La.3:42-43 the Lord didn’t pardon them then. La.4:6 “The iniquity of Thy people is greater than the sin of Sodom.” Adult survivors died in captivity.
Yet Je.32:36-40, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city [Jerusalem], ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and pestilence. Behold I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My wrath, and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in peace and safety…And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” (cf. Ezk.37:13-14, 24).
But they’d died (elsewhere)! JFB Commentary Je.32:37 “The ‘all’ countries implies a future restoration more universal than that from Babylon.” Not just after the 70 years of Je.29:10. That generation was killed in the siege, and over the decades the adult survivors from 597 BC had died in captivity. Barnes Notes Je.32:39 “Under the new covenant they will walk with one consent in the one narrow path of right-doing.” Ellicott Commentary Je.32:40 “The ‘new covenant”…which shall abide forever.” Gill Exposition Je.32:40 “An everlasting covenant…which is known and made manifest at conversion.” Cambridge Bible Je.32:40 “It is the ‘new covenant’ of Jer.31:31, etc., which is meant.” Jesus said in Lk.22:20, “This is the new covenant in My blood”. Yet those Jews had perished 600 years before the inauguration of the New Covenant in the 1st century AD at Jesus’ Last Supper!
The southern kingdom of Judah, long since dead, would be restored to their land too. Paul wrote in Ro.11:15, “What will their [the Jews] acceptance be but life from the dead”. v.23 God is able to graft them in again. Ro.14:9 Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living. (cf. Ezk.37:12.) It’s not all over for those Jews who perished in the first half of the 6th century BC! They’re part of “all Israel”.
Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.116 “In view of Isa.53 and other passages…the Messiah is represented as willingly taking upon Himself all these sufferings, on condition that all Israel – the living, the dead, and those yet unborn – should be saved.”
1Sm.2:6 “The Lord kills, and makes alive; He brings down to Sheól and raises up.” also see De.32:39. God, the author of life, has the right to end a life. He may kill the wicked. The Lord sent Israel/Judah to die in captivity. Men reap what they sow (2Co.9:6). But the order in the above two verses isn’t ‘He makes alive and then kills’, later…it’s vice versa. After God kills, He then makes them alive again.
God allowed the patriarch Job to suddenly lose his wealth, children, and health in his trials. Job was suffering, thinking God was angry over his (unknown) sin. Jb.14:13 Job lamented, “If only you would hide me in Sheol until Your anger passes”. He wanted to go to the realm of the dead (temporarily). Though Job didn’t understand why this evil had come upon him, He didn’t blame God. Instead, Job said in Jb.19:26 KJV, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God”. Job didn’t doubt God existed. Cambridge Bible Jb.19:26 “Before death he shall not see Him.” Then when?
Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV LXX, “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.” What?! Job said he would later be reborn from a mother’s womb; his same spirit indwelling a human newborn! After death, the Lord would make him alive again (1Sm.2:6). cf. Is.26:19 “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust. The earth will give birth to the departed spirits.” Ellicott Commentary Is.26:19 “Like the vision of dry bones in Ezek.37:1-14.” Physical rebirth.
Job said in Jb.29:18 Tanakh, “I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix.” Barnes Notes Jb.29:18 “Herder observes that the phoenix is obviously intended here…The rabbis generally understand here the Phoenix; a fabulous bird, much celebrated in ancient times…Jannai adds that ‘This bird lives 1,000 years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up. But there remains an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life.”
Job thought he too would experience another physical life, as the ancient phoenix bird. Clément was a fellow-worker with Paul (Php.4:3). 1Clem.12:2-6 describes a 500-year life cycle of the very rare phoenix. v.6 “The Lord…even by a bird shows us the greatness of His power to fulfil His promise.” (A phoenix was exhibited in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius, 41–54 AD). Tacitus Annals 6:28 (117 AD) “There is no question that the bird is occasionally seen in Egypt.” The phoenix symbolized rebirth. We understand that Job’s physical life did end well (Jb.42:10). But that’s not the case for every human.
Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.” Interestingly, an ancient Greek & Roman belief was…the spirits of the dead dwelt in Hades for 1,000 years, and then were resurrected or reincarnated to earthly life. [Note – ref for Hades: Lk.16:23; 1Co.15:55; Re.1:18, 20:13-14. also see the topic “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (2)”.]
Re.20:8 at that time, after the 1,000 years, there are “nations in the four corners of the earth”. Physical nations! cf. Ec.6:6 “Though a man live 1,000 years twice told….” May this include the men of Sodom and ancient Israelites/Jews reborn to another physical life (Ezk.16:55; Mt.11:24, 10:15)?
The Jewish apocryphal book Wisdom of Sírach, called Ecclesiásticus, was written ca 180 BC. Its writer Yeshúa ben Síra alluded to a rebirth to physical life, for the righteous. WisSir.46:11-12 “Whoever did not turn away from the Lord – May their memory be blessed, may their bones revive from their place, and may the name of those honored live again in their sons.” This brings to mind the “dry bones” of Ezk.37. Also WisSir.49:10 “May He indeed revive the bones of the twelve prophets from their place.”
The Jewish book of 2Maccabees was written ca 125 BC. Its writer too believed in rebirth to physical life. 2Mac.12:44-46 KJV 1611 edition “If he had not hoped that the slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Whereupon he made reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.” Wikipedia: Resurrection “The concept of resurrection of the physical body is found in 2 Maccabees, according to which it will happen through re-creation of the flesh.” (also ref 2Mac.7:22-23, 28-29; Ezk.37.) It was their custom to pray for the deceased.
Paul wrote in 1Co.15:29 Good News trans, “What about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead?” In the 1st century, it seems it was a custom to not only pray for the dead but to also be baptized by proxy for the dead. Several interpretations have been offered for 1Co.15:29. Expositor’s Greek Testament 1Co.15:29 “How futile Christian devotion must be, such as is ‘in those baptized for the dead’, if death ends all.” Pulpit Commentary “Why do some of you get baptized on behalf of your dead friends?” Cambridge Bible “The natural and obvious explanation is that the apostle [Paul] was here referring to a practice, prevalent in his day, of persons permitting themselves to be baptized on behalf of their dead relatives and friends.” Perhaps prayers and vicarious baptism was efficacious for their comrades and loved ones who would later have a physical rebirth.
Where else in scripture do we read about belief in physical rebirth (besides Jb.1:21)? As well, a rebirth could be great opportunity for our ancestors, children, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved! Their ultimate fate wouldn’t be eternal conscious torment in hell-fire!
{Sidelight: For our non-religious relatives/ancestors who’d lived a peaceful quiet life to suffer hell-fire forever equally with genocidal tyrants…such injustice wouldn’t reflect just retribution! God is just. The punishment fits the crime; the lex talionis principle of equality (e.g. Le.24:17-22).}
This topic is concluded in “Rebirth to Physical Life (2)”. (The future for converted/saved Christians is addressed in the topic “Life and Death – for Saints”.)
Bible Topic Exposition 