Hello!

I’m curious to know if all people in time will be God’s few chosen in the ages to come. I know God will save all, but if every man will live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God does that mean that everyone will be chosen and have their blessed and first resurrection? I’m a little confused on this subject, and I would love more clarification. If there is anything on the website that talks about this just point me there. I looked but couldn’t find anything specific about everyone going through their chosen few moment.

Thanks,

T____

Hi T___,

Thank you for your question. It is a question we all have in time, and I well remember asking in my own mind, ‘How is it possible for the last to be first and the first last?’ If indeed the first are last, then how can ‘the last’ become firstfruits? And if indeed the last are the firstfruits, then how can they be ‘the last’. We must be careful never to allow our lack of understanding to devolve into an acceptance of the false ‘fulness now’ doctrine, which in effect teaches that “the resurrection is already past”.

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2Ti 2:16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Those who teach that we now possess the fullness of the resurrection, are saying that the resurrection is past already, and in doing so they certainly are not “rightly dividing the word of truth”. We all do indeed live by every word of God, but that is not to say that we all literally and outwardly take Bathsheba to ourselves, kill her husband Uriah, and then cover up our sin until it is pointed out by Nathan. We live by those words when we admit that all of that is in “the first man Adam” who is within our flesh just as much as he dwelt in King David’s flesh. Coming to this humiliating confession does not come naturally. It comes to each of us “in our own order”, in God’s time for us and on His schedule for us. We are that first man Adam, and all that is in him is also in the flesh of every man who has ever lived, or whoever will live. We are all, by nature, adulterating, fornicating murders.

Luk 11:47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

“This generation” is every generation which reads these words because:

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Now if indeed “my words shall never pass away”, then those in the second resurrection must experience, in some spiritual way, the words “the last will be first, and the first shall be last”. They must also experience, in a spiritual way, the first resurrection, even though they missed out on being in that “blessed and holy first resurrection [ on whom] the second death had no effect”. I am no fool; I understand fully just how contradictory that sounds to the natural mind. It is the equivalent of saying “He that finds his life shall lose it, and He that loses his life for My sake shall find it. The only way such apparently contradictory statements can be true is if we see Christ and His Christ as being “all in all”. What do we think “all” means when we say “all in all”? What that means is that all that the head experiences is also experienced by all the rest of the body. So even though the head, in a natural healthy birth, comes out of the womb first, the body is also part of that first born part of that body, simply by virtue of the Christ being a unified body. In Christ, the last toe of the body to come out of the mother’s womb is just as much a part of that firstfruit birth as is the Head itself. So we are told concerning even those who are in the lake of fire…:

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance [ which is] in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

“All things… under His feet” means “all things whatsoever I have commanded you”.

Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The “all things” Christ is referring to here is the same “all things” which are referred to in these verses of scripture:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Through Christ and His Christ, every person ever created by our Lord will experience all the things Christ has commanded that we all experience. “The world, life, death, things present, and things to come, all are ours” to fulfill. And through Christ and His Christ, all the words of God will be fulfilled in all.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

So Satan and all of his angels, for who the lake of fire is prepared, will, “in their own order” (1Co 15:23), “live by every word of God (Mat 4:4), and fill all in all”.

Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

There is much more to be said on this subject. I pray you will find that it is all founded on the words of our Lord, who also adds the past to the things which are ours, as well as “things present and things to come” when He tells us that ‘the blood of all the saints slain, from Abel to Zacharias, will be required of this generation’. Truly it is Christ and His words and Christ and His Christ, “which is His body”, in whom dwell all of His words, who are “the fulness of Him that fills all in all”.

Here is one last verse which tells us how even those in the lake of fire can and do “live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God”:

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

So as we experience the slaying of Abel and the slaying of all the prophets in “the first man Adam”, those who are in the lake of fire will also experience the benefits of that “blessed and holy first resurrection [ in] the last Adam”.

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we [ all] have borne the image of the earthy, we [ all] shall also bear the image of the heavenly [ and “fill all in all”].

If indeed we bear both, and if indeed “all things are ours”, then surely there is but “one event to all”, and we must all “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”.

Your brother to whom, in Him, pertains “all things”,

Mike>