MM, from the beginning there has only been one human race. It was kidnapped and Christ came to redeem it. Please stop referring to His work as if it was not done. We have all been saved. Why do you think we are still here? It certainly is not for a lack of salvation.

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Edited to change topic name as this post has been turned into a new topic. - Daryl

Darius,

As you can see, as your post was going off-topic, I created a new topic, therefore, if anybody wishes to pursue your post, then let them do so here as a new topic.

Darius,

What do you mean by, "We have all been saved?"

The human race was imprisoned by the enemy and Christ came and rescued the human race. He did not rescue individuals; he rescued a race. Those are the facts. Salvation is God's act with entirely no input from us. In fact, we never asked to be rescued. He came to rescue what was his.

In what way did Christ rescue the human race?

The race was captive to Satan, and would have been irretrievably lost, had Christ not intervened.

There are a number of places where Ellen White writes that Christ saved the world, or something similar. For example:

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Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold severer manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying. The deceiver presented himself as an angel of light, but Christ withstood his temptations. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world. (God's Amazing Grace 42)

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Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. The greater the sinner's guilt, the more he needs the Saviour. His heart of divine love and sympathy is drawn out most of all for the one who is the most hopelessly entangled in the snares of the enemy. With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race. (MH 89, 90)

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He arose from the tomb enshrouded with a cloud of angels in wondrous power and glory--the Deity and humanity combined. He took in His grasp the world over which Satan claimed to preside as his lawful territory, and by His wonderful work in giving His life, He restored the whole race of men to favor with God. (1SM 343)

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The emancipation proclamation makes a nice analogy. The race (of slaves) were emancipated corporately by the work of the president. Invidividually they could only experience their emancipation by hearing the good news and believing it. Similarly, Christ signed the emancipation papers of the human race with His blood. Just as the slaves had nothing to do with their corporate emancipation, so we had nothing to do with ours. We are born into the world emancipated, a member of a saved race. But we must hear the good news and believe it to experience the emancipation. The truth sets us free.

This of the human race tetering on a cliff. It falls off, plumenting to certain destruction. Superman comes from nowhere and saves it. Christ was the superman who saved the human race from destruction. We all would have perished (in the sense of not being born, since had Adam and Eve perished, we would never have seen the light of day) had Christ not intervened.

Although we were saved from certain destruction, at infinite cost and risk, we may still choose individually to be lost. This involves actually resisting the Holy Spirit. If we do not resist the work of the Holy Spirit, we will experience individually the salvation which Christ achieved for us corporately.

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How, then, are we to be saved? "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," so the Son of man has been lifted up, and everyone who has been deceived and bitten by the serpent may look and live. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. The light shining from the cross reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to Himself. If we do not resist this drawing, we shall be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Saviour. Then the Spirit of God through faith produces a new life in the soul. (DA 175, 176)

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How do you get a saved world out of John 3:16? (I don't think I need to quote it here.)

Have we all been saved in the truest sense of the word, or have we been granted a stay of execution to allow time for the whosoever will to be saved?

John 3:16 is talking most specifically about being born again, not about corporate salvation. We see from John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His Son, so there is a bit of the aspect of it there, but there are other places where John addresses the idea more directly. For example, several times John refers to Christ as "the Savior of the world." In John 5 I think it is Jesus says He was giving His flesh for the life of the world. EGW takes this, and related statements, and states that "to the life of Christ, we owe even this earthly life." That is to say, had Christ not died for us, we wouldn't even be alive physically. So even our very existence we owe to Christ's death.

I think a "stay of execution" is not the best choice of words. It gives the impression that death is not the inevitable result of sin but due to some action on God's part. The action on God's part was to *save* us from the result of sin, which is death, not to cause it. Please consider the following from DA 764:

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This is not an act of arbitrary power on the part of God. The rejecters of His mercy reap that which they have sown. God is the fountain of life; and when one chooses the service of sin, he separates from God, and thus cuts himself off from life. He is "alienated from the life of God." Christ says, "All they that hate Me love death." Eph. 4:18; Prov. 8:36. God gives them existence for a time that they may develop their character and reveal their principles. This accomplished, they receive the results of their own choice. By a life of rebellion, Satan and all who unite with him place themselves so out of harmony with God that His very presence is to them a consuming fire.

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Please note that the death of the wicked is *not* a result of an arbitrary act of power from God, but rather, a result of the choice of those who reject God's mercy, who choose to separate themselves from God. In continually rejecting the mercy of God, they ruin their own characters to the extent that they place themselves so out of harmony with God that His very presence is to them a consuming fire. Does this make sense?

When you ask "saved in the truest sense of the word" the answer would have to be "yes," if one takes the dictionary meaning of the word "to be rescued from danger or harm." If you mean in the sense of individually being freed from the power of sin in one's own life, then clearly that's not something which can be done corporately. We have free will. God does not make our choice of whether we will respond to the Holy Spirit for us.

"Salvation" in the Greek means "healing." We can only be healed of our sin if we respond to the wooing of the Holy Spirit.

The main point of our being saved by Christ in the corporate sense is that it should evoke from us a great sense of gratitude. It's like we are crossing the street and someone interjects themselves between us and an oncoming vehicle to protect us and save us. Would we not be grateful to such a one? Would we not ask what we could do to repay his kindness?

Christ undertook the risk of failure and eternal loss for our salvation. We cannot overestimate the depth and greatness of His sacrifice. He was willing to lose His eternal life in order to save us. Should this not motivate us to live for Him? This was Paul's point:

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14For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)

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Daryl, John 3:16 is a statement of assurance to those who have believed. Quite apart from being saved we come to Christ so we can demonstrate His power in humans as His ambassadors.

So then, Darius, are you saying that the whole world is saved?

What is the whole world saved from?

What I am trying to establish is how you define saved.