Praying for Universal Salvation

Christians have an obligation to pray for the salvation of all people. Why do I say that? Listen to these words:

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³ This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. (1 Tim 2:1-6)

Do you see the connection?

• We should pray for all people.
• Praying for all people is good and pleases God our Savior.
• God wants all people to be saved.
• Christ gave himself as a ransom for all people.

We should pray for all people because God wants all to be saved. Peter also says affirms God’s universal desire but in a different way:

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Pet 3:9)

Granted 1 Timothy 2:1-6 explicitly states the scope of our prayers but not the content. When we pray for all people what exactly should we request? Since the passage proceeds by highlighting God’s desire to save all and Christ’s sacrifice for all, we can safely assume that “petitions, prayers, and intercession” must include requests for salvation.

Let this truth sink deep within: God wants all to be saved. Every person you talk to. Every person you meet. Every person you see. God is not against them. God is for them. He wants them to enter his eternal kingdom of light and love. Hence, it is right to pray for their salvation. Even more, it is good and pleasing to God.

In addition to God’s desire and the command to pray, we are given glimpses of universal surrender to Christ:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11)

Notice that all bow to Jesus and all acknowledge or confess that Jesus is Lord. Why is that significant? Because Paul teaches that

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)

All will make the confession. Will all be saved?

Some think the confession in Philippians 2 is a forced confession on the part of some. However, in its other uses in the Greek New Testament the same word is used for willing and voluntary confession or praise. The concept of an unwilling surrender and a forced confession is not inherent in the text. It must be forced into it.

Additionally, we have Paul’s teaching in Colossians 1:

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

We now have universal surrender to Jesus, universal confession that Jesus is Lord, and universal reconciliation to God through Christ. And more verses could be added.

Are there verses that indicate a separation with one group going to one place and another group going to a different place? Yes. Jesus spoke these words on his way to Jerusalem:

²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Lk 13:24-30)

We also have the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 and many others. The weeping and loss for some will be real and intense.

But Luke 13 and similar texts do not override God’s desire to save all or our obligation to pray for the salvation of all. The teaching that God wants all to be saved stands. Our obligation to pray for the salvation of all stands. And if we are praying for the salvation of all, aren’t we also hoping for the salvation of all?

If you would like to understand how the texts of universal salvation can fit together with the texts of separation, see my book, where I give various possibilities, along with a tour through the past 2,000 years of thinking on this topic.