Chinese – Dutch – English – Spanish
Is there any Scriptural evidence that one has only this lifetime to come into harmony with God? Would God damn forever someone who has never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, having never been given opportunity to believe? Nowhere do the Scriptures support this doctrine. Indeed, they cry out against it.
Did not Jesus preach to the spirits in prison, who perished in Noah’s day during the Flood (1 Peter 3:18-22)?
Did He not stop Saul of Tarsus dead in his tracks to convert him? If it was so important to convert everyone now, why doesn’t Jesus stop many more? One may answer that He saw Saul’s heart. But doesn’t that attribute righteousness to man and not entirely to God, contrary to the Scriptures, which declare man has no righteousness? Why doesn’t He stop and turn everyone now?
Why would Cain receive a mark of protection in this world, only to perish at death? Does God toy with lives, as cats do with mice?
Why would Ishmael be given twelve princes and blessings for this life, only to end his somewhat favorable existence by being relegated to eternal torment immediately upon death?
Didn’t Ishmael and Isaac together bury their father, Abraham (Genesis 25:9)? If God’s eternal wrath was on Ishmael, what did he have to do with Abraham and his chosen son, Isaac?
Or is Ishmael more righteous than God, honoring his father while God plans to torment Ishmael with perpetual pain?
And what of Abraham, who cared for Ishmael (“O that Ishmael might live before You!” – Genesis 17:18)? God cares less than Abraham? We know that’s not true!
How is it Esau was also blessed? What for – a brief stint on earth? And then what?
Stop and think, people, consider and pray – not to yourselves or to your imaginary gods, even those you call “Jesus,” but to the Spirit of Truth Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is a passage of Scripture used to support this evil doctrine:
“And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And to those who look for Him He shall appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28 MKJV).
Nothing says here that judgment is eternal (or even temporary) damnation.
The word “judgment” only means a decision, for or against. Because it says men die only once in this world, can one suppose that there isn’t another world in which men may have occasion to believe, as in the case of the souls who perished in the Flood?
1 Peter 3:18-22 MKJV
(18) For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;
(19) in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
(20) to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water);
(21) which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
(22) Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, where the angels and authorities and powers are being subjected to Him.
The fact that men die once in this world doesn’t mean they have no future opportunities to be saved. Nothing in the Bible indicates this diabolical notion of hopelessness.
It has always been a marvel to me how people can profess to believe this doctrine and profess to love their neighbor and fellow mankind in general, yet they don’t do all they possibly can to save them. Indeed, they do virtually nothing; they go out on all sorts of business ventures, pursue pleasures, watch television, go to socials, and spend time on myriads of things worth far less than just one soul, which is worth more than the whole world and for which nothing can be given in exchange.
If they believe the devilish doctrine they espouse, and that it’s up to Christians to win other souls to Christ, having only this life in which to be saved, then they are guilty of the worst possible crimes imaginable. Hitler is a shining light compared to them. Either they don’t really believe this doctrine, but use and vocalize it for their own purposes, as hypocrites, or they don’t love their neighbor as themselves, contrary to their show and profession. It’s that simple. If they don’t love their neighbor, they’re damned. Would they like that damnation to be permanent?
If I believed this doctrine, I shouldn’t have a television set, a newspaper, or a single moment to spare on any kind of activity or object that isn’t of as much importance as rescuing a perishing soul. I shouldn’t marry and have children. I shouldn’t have a home, a lawn, or any time-consuming thing that wasn’t of paramount necessity.
I shouldn’t trouble myself about clothing, shaving, grooming, preparing food, brushing my teeth, or many other things we all do, except to ready myself for soul-winning. My activities and attentions apart from winning souls should be cut to the bone. But I don’t believe this doctrine.
If souls could only be saved in this life, then all those who believe this doctrine are damned. Perhaps there may be someone out there who’s trying everything he can to save as many as possible, poor wretch! But what if he had only slept 20 minutes less each night? Could he have delivered another soul from eternal torment?
What if he hadn’t had small, fruitless talk with someone, wasting precious time? One too few souls saved is more than a pure conscience could bear. “If only I had…” would be his constant torment. He would be damned in a way not commonly considered. The doctrine is ludicrous.
Now if you call me diabolical because I teach against this doctrine, not believing it, yet you don’t act according to your belief of this doctrine, then in God’s sight I’m more justified than are you who condemn me. Interesting?
No, people, this life, age, world is but a stage of many in God’s process of creating man in His image. We have a great God, much greater than we imagine in the narrow window of this world.
“So that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7 MKJV).
Read in our section The Restitution of All Things.
Consider the alternative to believing this doctrine: Believing the truth, you’ll no longer be guilty of criminal negligence of the highest order, and you won’t be impossibly burdened.