I trust the Bible. That is different than saying that I like or want everything that it tells me. Life is predictably like that. It is often not the way I want. Specifically, the Bible shares that the proportion of humanity that will be saved will be small. This is especially tragic and confusing when you consider that the sacrifice that Jesus made for us is big enough to forgive any sin but one–blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
When some people hear of this, they reject the idea, the Bible, and even God. “I am not going to believe in a god who would send people to Hell.” They act as if their rejection of a painful fact will make it go away. It won’t. Denial is not a good coping skill in this case (or in most cases).
What does the Bible say on this? This verse was just in our Sunday morning readings:
3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
Jeremiah 23:3 (ESV)
The word “remnant” is not encouraging. It is better than nothing, but it suggests a small portion of the whole. Here it applies to the Jewish nation, but the idea of only a small fraction being saved spreads across all of humanity. My least favorite verse in the Bible is this:
“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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
That is Jesus speaking, too. How can this be right? God is love. God is all powerful. God wants all people to be saved. All of this is true. But the poison of sin is in every human being from conception (Psalm 51:5). The solution to sin is a “narrow” list of one choice: Jesus.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 (ESV)
The Bible tells us that people will not naturally accept the story or promise of Jesus without help from the Holy Spirit.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
Why can’t the Spirit get through to everyone? I don’t know. It doesn’t really say. I would guess that to do so would require the Spirit to violate the integrity of what makes us a human. It would just make us a robot. Maybe.
People who do believe and are saved have the burden to at least get the word of God’s plan and offer out there to everyone. I don’t think our failure to reach some people groups throughout history will necessarily preclude them. I base this hope on 1 Peter 4:6
For this is why the Gospel is preached 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.
1 Peter 4:6(ESV)
But it not hard to see how the list of potential people inheriting eternal life gets whittled down very fast. All are sinful and damned, many reject Jesus as their Savior from the get-go, others fall away for multiple reasons. Soon you have a remnant or few.
How few is “few”? Percentage wise it is hard to guess. I would love for the answer to be 99% is few compared to the potential of 100%. I would even rejoice in 49.9% is few compared to 50.1%. I fear and even expect that it is less. Still the “few” are a great number of people.
9 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, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV)
Not believing the Bible on this topic or any other should not be on the basis of not liking its contents or on feelings. It should be on the merits of how the text was preserved down through history, the reliability of the eyewitnesses of Jesus, and of Jesus himself. There is plenty of reason to believe it.
Here is a starting point to investigate the integrity of the Bible from my other blog Givingchrist.com.https://givingchrist.com/2022/02/01/can-you-trust-the-accuracy-of-the-bible/ After reading this you can find more by scrolling to the bottom and searching “Bible” or other key words.
You can use the search function here to find other related topics. It is a big deal. I hope that you are one of the “few”.
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