Hello Whdevo (William),
(I do not mean to moan, but, often, when I have posed what I consider to be “legitimate” premises
-again, looking only for understanding- these have been met with anything but “charitable response”, and often with responses which are “flippantly defensive” … .).
I apologize to you if you are referring to my posts. I was not aware of doing this and if you were referring to me, I will be more careful in future. (I will be more careful anyway because “charity towards others” is one of my most important life-long goals.)
With most of the body of your post, I agree, but I must disagree in your assertion that “for many” and “for all” are used “interchangeably” in the Bible …
I would, again, refer to the words of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper … (there are many reasons for my believing that it is actively “dangerous” for any Roman Catholic to accept “for all men” in this context, and these are referred to throughout the Scriptures, particularly in the New Testament and Revelation …) …
Jesus Christ unequivocally says “… for many”, and, I believe, the rest of the Scriptures (particularly the words of Jesus Christ Himself), equally unequivocally, validate the premise of “for many” and not “for all”.
I’m sorry; I should have given definite Scripture verses/passages to show what I meant. Here they are:
a. Matthew 26:28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
b. 1 Timothy 2:3-7 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for
all men—the testimony given in its proper time. 7And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.”
Both of these passages which state “for many” and “for all” are referring to the
same thing—Christ’s redemptive sacrificial blood
shed on the Cross—and that is why I stated that both “for many” and “for all” can be used interchangeably in this case. Jesus died as a
ransom for all men and He desires all men to be saved.
Since God desires all men to be saved, and Jesus died as a ransom for all men, then Jesus had to make it possible for all men to actually be saved. He, Himself, cannot prevent His own desire from being fulfilled because it would be contrary to His Divine Nature to thwart His own desire. So, this is why I stated that Jesus meant “for all” also besides “for many” in Matthew 26:28 because He died as a “ransom for
all men.”
We, however, can prevent His “desire for all men to be saved” from being fulfilled by using our own free wills (which God gave us). When we participate in sinful behavior, we cut ourselves off from God’s grace. We cannot inherit eternal life if we cut ourselves off from God’s grace, unless we repent before death Romans 11:23.
Another example of this usage is:
Mark 1:5 “Then
all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were
all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”
I think that we can correctly assume, that not “
all (meaning every single man)
men" actually were baptized. According to human nature, there were most likely some hold-outs in this huge group who did not believe and so were not baptized.
Romans 3:23 "
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
We know for certain that Jesus and Mary never ever sinned. This is why I state that sometimes “all” and “many” are used interchangeably so it cannot literally mean “all” in this case unless it is referring to only those who inherited original sin (Adam’s sin) and it only applies to original sin and not to each person’s personal sins.
To be continued…
