Sometime in the early 90's an email correspondent got me involved in a discussion of Calvinism, hyper Calvinism etc. One of the issues as I recall was the effect of Jesus work of atonement on the cross. Or in other words, did Jesus die for all mankind or not? And is Jesus work of atonement, that paid the price for our sin, sufficient for our salvation? Or is there something man must do to be saved?

If Jesus died for all, and if his death is sufficient for salvation, then all would be saved, the thinking goes. If his death is not sufficient and man is required to do something extra, then salvation is by works! Now we know that this cannot be! So we are led to believe that Jesus did not die for all, only for the Elect. Hence, 'predestinationism', the idea that only those who are predestined will be saved, and 'irresistable' grace, the idea that the predestined ones will be saved whether they want to be or not. From there it is a short hop to thinking that there are some people who just aren't meant to be saved. And then we start to close down our evangelistic efforts!

Now without really getting deep into this, let me make just a couple comments.

This is a great example of applying man's wisdom to God's word. You get led into a theological Black Hole!
There is a 'principle' of bible study called the law of paradoxical truth, and this is an example of it. Jesus died for all, yet all do not get saved.

Several years later, the Lord showed me a portion of scripture that said the same things in figurative terms.

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: Luke 17:12
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,… Luke 17:15
And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? Luke 17:17 The village represents the world; His entering into it represents His first coming, the incarnation. As leprosy is a type of sin, we see that Jesus' cleansing the lepers speaks of His dying for our sin, yet only 1 out of the 10 came to him. This is a way of saying Jesus died for all, yet only 1 out of 10 are saved.

This is God's tithe.

And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD Le 27:30.
And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. Le 27:32 In terms of prophetic typology, the tithe of the land, the tithe of the fruit, and the tithe of the flock all represent the tithe of mankind. These verses speak of holiness and separation unto the Lord. The rod is the shepherds rod showing that He judges this tithe to be acceptable in his sight.

I take this to mean that the Lord will take ten percent of human population throughout all history. That is of all the people who ever lived or are living today, ten percent will be saved.

According to Rick Joyner, speaking on the Harvest, the Lord intends to take well over 10 percent of the worlds population in this end time harvest.

According to the testimony of Howard Pittman, today's rate of salvation is two and one half percent. [Howard had a death and resurrection experience, in the 80's, in which he was shown many things in the spirit, one of these is the small number of those who get saved compared to those who die in any given time period.]

This rate of two and 1/2 percent must have been far lower in earlier periods of history. In ancient times and in the dark ages, the rate must have been far lower. This leads me to believe that most of this tithe that will be saved will be saved in these last days and the rate will approach near to 20 percent. This will make up for the many centuries when the rate was far less that 10 percent. Don't forget, the world population was also far lower then. Only in this century have we seen a vast growth in world population. Some say that there are more people alive now than have ever lived. So God is taking almost all of His tithe from the world population at the end of the 20th century.

There is no way the Church in its present condition can deal with such a harvest. But I am confident that the Lord will not leave the Church in its present condition. The Church He is looking for includes those about to be harvested and we know He intends to "present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 5:27

This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. Ps 118:23 [Previous Article] [Next Article]

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