Will Everyone Be Saved?

In the first part of this two-part article, I re-visited the question of “Does Hell Exist?” This was done in preparation for examining the question “Will Everyone Be Saved?” The two questions are inter-connected. If Hell does not exist, then everyone will be saved. If Hell does exist, then it logically follows that we should ask whether everyone will be saved or not.

“Will everyone be saved?” Jesus Christ answers this question emphatically, “No.” Other writers in Holy Scripture similarly answer this question emphatically, “No.”

There are some who believe that ultimately everyone will be saved. This notion is known as Christian Universalism. The Christian Universalist Association states, “We believe in the full and final triumph of God’s mercy and forgiveness over the powers of sin and death through Jesus Christ. No human being will be condemned to eternal torment or separation from God.” See https://christianuniversalist.org/beliefs/ 

There are some within the Catholic Church who subscribe to this view of universal salvation. Trent Horn of Catholic Answers calls this erroneous notion “The Biggest Heresy Destroying the Church.” See his podcast https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/the-biggest-heresy-destroying-the-church 

Jesus is quite clear in the Gospels on this issue. In Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

In Chapter 25 of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the Final Judgment. The righteous will be admitted to Heaven but some others will not. “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

Saint Paul also declares that not everyone will be admitted into Heaven. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul warns “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

In his Letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul issues a similar warning: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

The Book of Revelation gives a very graphic description of the Final Judgment: “I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death.) Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire” (Revelation 20:12-15).

Notice how Revelation 20:13 says, “All the dead were judged according to their deeds” and how the book does not say that the dead were judged by faith alone (Sola Fide).

The fact that not everyone will be saved is a hard reality to face. The idea of a person suffering indescribable punishment for all eternity with no relief or end to it is far beyond the human mind’s ability to comprehend. Yet there are innumerable persons suffering that fate right now and innumerable persons living on Earth right now who will someday suffer that same fate. We cannot help those already condemned to eternal damnation but we can help those living amongst us in this world to avoid eternal damnation by our prayers, and our sacrifices. God is the Most Merciful Father and He wants everyone to be saved. Yet there are those who do not want to be saved. I implore the Holy Spirit to help change their hearts and minds so as to avoid eternal damnation.

Humanity has fallen from God’s favor as a result of Adam and Eve’s first sin. But God did not abandon humanity to its collective fate. He sent His only begotten Son into our world to make amends for what Adam and Eve, and all of us have done and failed to do as His adopted sons and daughters. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life,” Jesus says in St. John’s Gospel Chapter 3:16.

John 3:16 is one of the most famous and widely quoted verses of the Bible. It succinctly and powerfully states Jesus’s mission on Earth, ie. our salvation. Two verses later in John 3:18, Jesus adds an ominous warning: “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Faith / belief is not enough for salvation. Faith must be put into action.

Right now, persons are in one of four places. Two are transitory (Earth and Purgatory) and two are permanent / eternal (Heaven and Hell). Eventually there will only be two eternal places – Heaven and Hell. For those in Heaven, we thank our most merciful God that they are there. For those in Hell, there is no hope and we can do nothing for them. Those in Purgatory will eventually be admitted into Heaven and we can help them get there through our prayers and our sacrifices on their behalf. We can help those on Earth avoid Hell through our prayers, our witness and our personal sacrifices.

Will everyone be saved? No, not everyone will be saved but we can and ought to do our part to help as many people as possible to be saved.