I honor the Bible as true. It is the only source I can completely trust when it comes to information about God, life after death, and how human beings can have life after death with God. That said, there are two passages in the Bible that I don’t like. I wish they were wrong. I hope they are wrong. But I feel no authority to change or to ignore what they say. The first is this:
13 “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)
Jesus said this, so I believe He would know. I can easily accept that God judges sin and there will be many who suffer that fate. It’s the word “few” at the end that gets me. The same word comes out of someone else’s mouth and Jesus confirms it in Luke:
23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
Luke 13:23-27 (ESV)
Jesus is not trying to be exclusive. Paul affirms that God wants everyone to be saved. How can this be true, if the end result is “few”?
Let’s start with the “narrow door”. This is a reference to Jesus himself. There are not multiple ways to be reconciled with God as a sinful human being. There is only one. Jesus has to keep the Law and pay the price of your sinfulness for you. You cannot fix it yourself. Jesus is clear about this:
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)
This one fact may be enough to narrow down the number saved to “few”.
I doubt that God allows ignorance of Jesus to damn a person. He has deep foreknowledge of a person and knows who can be reached by the Holy Spirit and receive faith. While God prefers to have the Holy Spirit work through people, and to reach out to people while they are alive; I believe there is biblical evidence surrounding Jesus’ “descent into Hell” to suggest He can work after death. To learn more see this: https://afterdeathsite.com/2023/11/14/how-is-sheol-different-than-hell/
Even if everybody hears of Jesus, it is clear that many, maybe even most, do not believe that Jesus is the way to eternal life, or prefer to rationalize their sins rather than seek forgiveness. Few could be as many as 49.9% of humanity by my understanding. With the narrow door of Jesus alone it could be significantly less than that.
Add on to the number the reality of people who are merely cultural Christians. Googling some numbers, I find that the current world population is approximately 8.1 billion with 31.2% being Christian. Add some for Jesus’ work after death. Remove some who are Christian in name only. In the Luke passage above, some people come knocking on the door only to be told “I never knew you.” Who is this? I think it is those who count themselves as Christians but for various reasons don’t believe and are not connected to Christ. We are not saved by association with the Church. We are saved by a profound connection to Christ. This connection is forged by God through the work of the Holy Spirit using God’s Word and baptism.
Some nominal Christians may have had an actual saving connection in the past. There is a big debate about whether it is “once saved, always saved” or you can fall away. More on that topic here: https://givingchrist.com/2019/11/05/can-a-person-lose-salvation/ I believe the Bible supports the later. If a person does not overcome the challenges to retaining their God-given faith and remain with Jesus to the end of their life, then they too become a part of the many.
Understanding the reason why Jesus says “few” starts to become regrettably easy. The good news is that “few” is relative to a number that is probably greater than 10 billion. The number saved is still a huge number:
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
Revelation 7:9 (ESV)
I expect hundreds of millions to be saved by Christ in the end. If God can find a way to make “few” relative to the number that could have been saved, which is everybody, I would not complain. I realize the alternative to being saved. It is not good. The more who receive eternal life through Jesus the better.
Giving Christ 