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by William Holland

We mentioned last week about how the way to heaven is conditional upon being born again and doing the will of
the Father. It’s true the blood of Jesus forgives our sins when we confess and repent, as holiness is not automatic
but rather is accomplished through our determination to demonstrate a life of sanctification. We comprehend that
salvation is intertwined with the covenant that Christ established on the cross and through His resurrection. He
gave His life for us, and as we take up our cross and obey, we pledge to give all of our mind and heart to Him.
Grace is not a license to sin, but an invitation to accept His glorious plan to deliver and transform our spiritual
identity from death to life.
This opportunity to become a child of God is the greatest act of love and mercy, and we are overwhelmed with
the reality that God reached down and pulled us from the darkness and doom of a hopeless future. Praise Him
forever! We have touched on the subject of who will be in heaven, and many disagree that it is not only limited
to the Christian faith, and that all belief systems that live in love and are morally good will be granted
acceptance. This all roads lead to heaven philosophy is popular around the world and are appalled that any
particular religious group would claim to have exclusive rights to eternal salvation. However, Jesus made this
quite clear, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” How can
anyone disregard this specific truth and say this means any god, faith, or philosophy? And, does this mean the
billions of people who have heard the gospel but refuse Christ as their Lord are lost? We must reject
compromising and sugar coating spiritual truth with human opinions. According to the Bible, yes.
A feature of the new heaven and earth will be the 2 million square mile glorious city of new Jerusalem where the
saints will live with God forever. So, how many people will be there? First we need to use a calculation system
to determine how many people have lived in the last 6000 years since Adam. We will use the young earth as a
base for our estimate. If the population doubles every 100 to 150 years and then also take note the world started
over after the first 1500 years with the flood, we have a general figure of around 140-160 billion humans.
However, this does not include the unborn that have died through stillbirths, miscarriages, and abortions which is
a considerable number. If we research infant mortality rates among children under the age of 10, and we add
another group with intellectual disabilities, we see this group of innocents are could reach into the billions alone.
Using the narrow and broad path analogy from Jesus Himself, let’s use a 10 percent calculation for the true
followers of God throughout time that are over the age of 10 which is a generally accepted turning point for the
age of accountability, and this adds up to roughly another 16 billion. There is no doubt, we will have plenty of
brothers and sisters to meet in the next life.
Another doctrine that is difficult to comprehend is our free will choice verses God’s divine election or
predestination. I’ve come to the conclusion that we are given free will since the Bible emphasizes our ability to
choose with passages such as John 7:17, 3:16, Revelation 22:17, Romans 6:15-23, Galatians 5:11, Joshua 24:15
and many others, yet we must also embrace the scriptures that explain His sovereign choices like Jeremiah 1:4-5,
Romans 8:29, Matthew 22:14, Acts 13:48, Ephesians 1:11, and Ephesians 1:4-5, “According as he hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will.” Nothing happens without God allowing or preventing. Do you believe His power to draw us to Him
is based on His foreknowledge of who He knows will serve Him, or is His selection an intentional act of His
sovereignty? Were individuals such as Jesus, Mary, the disciples, John the Baptist, Moses and Abraham
predestined? Can the doctrine of Calvinism and Arminianism work together? I believe they are both a part of
God’s plan.
Dr. Holland is an ordained minister, chaplain, and author.