Answer: Verse 4 states that God “will have all men to be saved.” While this Scripture teaches a universal salvation, other Scriptures speak of the ultimate destruction of some. In seeking to harmonize these Scriptures, we note that the Scriptures speak of different salvations.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5: 12). But the Scriptures tell us that God has provided Jesus to be a life-giver to all mankind, and that He died, the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3: 18). “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15: 21). “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (John 5: 28, 29). This awakening from the dead is evidently what the Apostle had in mind when he said that God is “the Saviour of all men” (1 Timothy 4: 10).

God “will have all men to be saved” from the Adamic death sentence that the world has been under since Father Adam’s disobedience. This means that the world will be recovered out of the death state, the tomb, and come to an accurate knowledge of the truth; “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave himself a ransom [corresponding price] for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2: 5, 6). The due time for the world in general, here spoken of, will be during Messiah’s reign, at which time “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11: 9).

Every individual of Adam’s race will be placed on trial for life, and whoever chooses sin will be choosing the wages of sin – death. And whoever chooses righteousness will be choosing the reward that goes with it – everlasting life.  

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