Colin that guarantee is a conditional guarantee. It is conditional on us following Jesus. I really fail to see how the words "His people" makes any difference. He will save His people (just His followers) or He will save His people (the entire human race) if certain conditions are met, the end is the same. Again the guarantee is, as the rest of the Bible shows, conditional on us accepting the offer of Salvation by surrendering to His will and having a relationship with the Creator. Of course I've already answered this several times....

Redfog

Steph, only you know why you are so defensive and I will leave you to deal with it. What I believe has nothing to do with what the text says. I could believe that God is a monkey; that would not change what the text says. All it would do is make a statement about my relationship to the text. Asking me what I believe is not a contribution to this discussion. Rather, it is a smokescreen being sent up to avoid dealing with the text. Why is there such fear?

I will tell you this, though. Beliefs are temporary things; hypotheses to be tested. The Shut Door used to be an Adventist belief/hypothesis until the data proved it to be more false than true. At that point it was discarded. This is why the evidence is more important than any belief.

First God chose Abraham, then Abraham proved worthy of Gods choise. What does this tell us about God?

/Thomas

We should first state what God chose Abraham for. I am a citizen of the United States but I have not been chosen to be an official ambassador of the United States. However, ambassadors have no more rights as citizens than I do. Abraham was not chosen to be one of God's people. He always was. He was chosen as an ambassador; an appointment of grace.

Hi Guys, I have been following this thread since yesterday! I think though that maybe we have all missed the point of this text very slightly. For me the point of this text comes down to what happened at the crucifixion. When Jesus died was it for the whole world as Paul would have us believe in 1 Tim 4:10 or did he just die for those who would ultimately accept him? If the latter be true then how can the 'heathen who by nature do the things of God' be saved? - for without the gift of Grace (see below my point about the cross) then how can God be a fair God?

My understanding of the text in question combined with the cross of Christ is that at Christ's death the whole world was covered by the grace of God, thereby saving the whole world, in Him. When we come into contact with the gospel, and thereby Christ Himself, we can take one of two ways the one way is to accept him whereby we receive Justification by faith, and also Sanctification .
The other option is to remove ourselves completely from the free gift and 'shove it back in His face', thereby changing our destiny back to that of going to hell .

Darius, your view of salvation contradicts the SOP quotes I posted above. As such, your view violates forum rules. The idea that Jesus has saved everyone is unbiblical. The only people who will be saved are those who accept Jesus as their personal Saviour AND who obey His law.

Colin and Debbie, if Jesus saved everyone on the cross, from the foundation of the world, how, then, can anyone be lost?

To be lost one must reject what God has done in Christ, after - ideally - one has heard the true gospel message... there are fakes out there...

I think MM does not understand what it means to be lost and what it means to be saved. There will always be confusion (Babylon) where there is a lack of understanding.