Gospel Proclaimed to All

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

(Mark 16:15-16)

We established in the previous section that God has made provision for all people to be saved. Therefore, it would be unjust for God to make such provision and then fail to inform humanity about the salvation He has made available to them. But as I have already stated, God is not unjust.

In this section, we aim to establish from God’s Word that not only has He made provision for everyone to be saved, but He has also ensured that the message of salvation is proclaimed throughout the earth. To confirm this truth, I have quoted three witnesses who all affirm the same point—namely, that God has provided for His salvation message to be proclaimed to the entire world. The three witnesses are the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, and the apostle John.

The first witness quoted above is our Lord Jesus Christ. In the above passage of Scripture, Jesus leaves His Church with no doubt about to whom the gospel should be preached: we are to preach it to every person in the entire world. In other words, we are not to be selective in whom we share the gospel with, for doing so would be to transgress the command of God. It is clear that God wants His message of salvation proclaimed to all people.

Initially, the Lord’s disciples misunderstood His command. They preached the gospel only to the Jews, assuming that when Jesus said “all the world” and “every creature,” He meant only the Jewish people. But thankfully, the Lord corrected their understanding. They eventually realized that when Jesus said “all the world,” He meant exactly that—both Jews and Gentiles alike.

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

(Acts 17:29-31)

The second witness quoted above is the apostle Paul. The context of this passage of Scripture is that Paul was preaching the gospel in the city of Athens, at the invitation of those who wanted to hear what he had to say. This passage is particularly enlightening for us because, in it, Paul reveals that God now commands all people everywhere to repent. The gospel message is a message of repentance.

The means by which God issues this command is through the preaching of the gospel of salvation. It is therefore clear that God expects the Church to preach the gospel to all people everywhere, so that everyone may have the opportunity to repent and be saved. Once again, "all people everywhere" means exactly that.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,

(Titus 2:11-13)

As the second witness in this section, I have quoted the apostle Paul twice. In the passage of Scripture above, the Holy Spirit, through Paul, tells us plainly that in this current dispensation, the message of salvation by grace has appeared to all people—not just a select few. The Holy Spirit can make this statement through His apostle because He is the one who is instrumental in sending the Church into the entire world to preach the gospel to all people.

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people--saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

(Revelation 14:6-7)

The final witness quoted above is the apostle John. In this passage, John is shown a vision of an angel who has the everlasting gospel to preach. In the vision, the Holy Spirit reveals to John that God has ordained the gospel message to be preached to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. In other words, no one is to be excluded.

This vision clearly confirms to the Church that she is mandated by God to preach the gospel to all people everywhere. Therefore, there can be no doubt that all three witnesses quoted in this section agree on the same point: God has ordained that the salvation He has made available to all must be proclaimed to all.

There is, however, an important comment I need to make about this point: whatever God does is always perfect. But when God uses man to fulfil His purpose, His perfect will is not always fully accomplished. This is because the will of man becomes involved, and the will of man is not always aligned with the perfect will of God.

So, although it is God’s perfect will that the gospel message be proclaimed to all people, the Church is not always obedient in carrying out that mission. Consider the example of the early Church, as we discussed previously, where the believers initially preached the gospel only to the Jews. Nevertheless, from God’s perspective, He has decreed that the gospel of salvation must be proclaimed to all people everywhere.

Michael E.B. Maher

Predestined to His Purpose

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