It’s hard to say how many people have lived since the beginning. Population growth suggests that a large chunk of those who have ever lived are still alive now. Add to it those who died in the womb and you have a very large number. But how many will be saved in the end and how many will be damned? Speculation varies from a rather small number saved to everyone. Let’s look at the few Scriptural clues we have.
Let’s start with my least favorite verse in the Bible, Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
“Few” and “many” are relative terms. At minimum, this passage suggests that a minority find life. Is this passage about eternal life or just living properly? I think its wording suggests, at minimum, that destruction refers to entering Sheol. It probably is speaking about entering Hell, but let’s leave that open for now.
Many argue that a loving God could not possibly damn anyone. While that seems logical, two passages you must consider on the topic are Matthew 25:41 and as an explanation John 3:19-20:
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
My main point is that a verdict of damnation is spoken to a significant population of human beings. This happens despite the giving of Jesus (the light) and the promise of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Many just prefer evil and they get the consequence of unforgiven evil.
Without Jesus there is no forgiveness. Without forgiveness there is no Heaven or New Earth. If the “destruction” referred to in Matthew 7 is Hell, then those “on the left” are a majority of mankind, and there is no way to tell how large of a majority. If it refers only to “Sheol” then there is a small hope that it could be less, depending on the meaning of 1 Peter 4:6:
For this is why the Gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
This is an enigmatic passage without other Scripture to help to clarify it. It comes in the context of Peter speaking about the descent of Jesus to speak to “spirits in prison”. Does it tell of the Gospel being preached successfully in Sheol? Let’s hope so, but let’s also preach the Gospel like this is our only chance.
In the end, whether a minority or not, a large and diverse population of humanity makes it to Heaven. Revelation 7:9 describes it this way:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Jesus’ self-sacrifice, the “narrow door”, results in the salvation of a great multitude. Let’s work so as to make it greater.
afterdeathsite 