Will only a few be saved?

Ninth in a series of short answers to questions about the New Testament.

Consider Matt. 7:13-14: Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

So, will only a few be saved? And if so, how few? Clearly, the Bible does not teach universal salvation. And Jesus takes great pains to inform us that many will spend eternity apart from Him. Just how many will receive eternal life and how many will perish is not for us to know. The claim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses that only 144,000 will reign with Jesus in heaven is based on a distortion of Scripture. Equally disturbing is the Mormon possibility of “exaltation,” or godhood, and the virtually assured life in some level of heaven for almost everyone else.

But there are some important things Jesus and the New Testament writers taught about salvation and want us to know, among them:

  • Salvation is an everlasting relationship provided by Holy God for sinful man through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (John 3:16-18).
  • Jesus is the only way a person may receive forgiveness of sins and find eternal life (John 14:6). He is the narrow gate — the door (John 10:9).
  • All people are sinners and invite the wrath of God (Rom. 3:23, 6:23). No one deserves heaven, nor can they earn it (Rom. 4:4-5).
  • Christ died for sinners and rose from the dead to conquer sin and death for us (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. 15:3-4).
  • Not hearing the gospel is no excuse (Rom. 1:18-23).
  • Many will be in heaven (Rev. 5:9) and many will not (Rev. 20:11-15).
  • All people will be raised from the dead and judged one day (John 5:28-29).
  • Your eternal destiny is based on how you answer the question Jesus asked in Matt. 16:15: “Whom do you say that I am?”
  • The correct answer is: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).
  • We should be less concerned with how many will be in heaven than we are with whether we are headed there.
  • Jesus came to give us life and offers it freely, if we will receive Him (John 10:10).

One comment

  1. fromthesunrising

    TRUE CHURCH
    It is true that to be called God’s people then they must enter to a true church. True church is being discussed in Ephesians 4:5 – one faith, one baptism, one God, one Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus mention also the two roads – the narrow which leads to salvation yet few walks on it and the wide road which leads to destruction and many people finds it – Matthew 7:14 … Revelation 18:4 People are warned to get out from the Great Babylon (the false religions) in order not be part of her plagues. Christian people are required to speak in unison and not in division whether its on acts or sharing words of God – 1 Corinthians 1:10 and people to be real Christian and followers of Jesus Christ need to come to accurate to knowledge of the word of God – 1 Timothy 2:4 ; 2 Timothy 2:25

    JEHOVAH AS THE ONLY TRUE GOD
    What Jehovah said in Isaiah 44:6 is that He is the only God who is above all other gods that is why he is called Almighty God. If there are no gods then he won’t be called Almighty God. For what it would stands for right? It doesn’t mean when Jehovah said he is the only true God and no gods before me means Jesus is a false god. First consider the statement of him He said the “ONLY TRUE GOD” and HE ALSO SAID “BESIDES ME THERE IS NO GOD” Would you think if you would take this literally it will coincides? Of course he won’t be saying as he is the only true God (as it would sounds there are false gods) and yet he is saying “there is no god besides me”. So what he affirm here is that he is alone the REAL GOD and the others are just lower gods and false gods. It should not mean that Jesus is not a false god then he must be the true God. In John 17:3 he said Jehovah is the only true God and he never said he is God but the Son of God. 1 Corinthians 8:5 shows gods in heaven and on earth. Would you say that those gods in heaven and some god’s people are the true Gods? Jehovah said he is the only true God but it doesn’t mean that angels, and other’s God’s people and Jesus are false gods. They are just considered as gods subordinate to the only true God.

    There is only one way of defining the “the Word was God” and it is in quality not in identity for the last phrase must coincides with the second phrase which is “The Word was with God” and the phrase in verse 2 of John 1 which states “This ONE was in [the] beginning WITH God. Therefore there are two separate persons that are together. And that makes the translators of NWT decide to put it as “a god” and not only “God”. The word “a god” means a quality of being divine or having godlike nature and a being a sort of god from among gods which is true to the identity of Jesus.