To deny that the bible teaches that at one point EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord, denies a very clear and basic teaching of scripture. It is not the evil “Universalism” in that all are “saved”, but the acknowledgment that all will stand in judgement in Heaven before God at the Resurrection. (Isaiah 45: 23-25; Romans 14:11)
All will “universally” be raised and judged, Muslim or Christian, male and female, slave and free… for there are none of these in “heaven” as all mankind has been found unrighteous… we are all wrong and only Jesus is right and our identity, be it male/female/slave/free/christian/Muslim/Hindi/Fundy/conservative/emergent/ODM or whatever matters nothing when we stand before Jesus. All that matters is what He did in and through us and we receive the reward of eternal life because He knew us. Otherwise we stand before Him with nothing but our own words to condemn us and we will be tossed into the eternal Lake of Fire and experience the second death. (Revelation 20)
The ones that have already been raised to Life in the “first resurrection” are those who were martyred. They received the “better resurrection” as stated in Hebrews 11. (Revelation 20 and Hebrew 11:35)
God will judge all of mankind equally regardless to our own view of our self. And at that time if a Muslim speaks “Christ” then his name is in the book of Life, if they do not speak “Christ” then they are tossed into Lake of Fire.
If a Christian speaks “Christ” then he will receive eternal life in the New Creation, if the Christian speaks of his own righteousness, it is the Lake of Fire.
I see this as pretty simple… I do not see why it is so complicated.
There is one caveat; I am not saying that all that bow and confess are saved, it is in the confess of where one's righteousness comes is where our salvation comes.
Blessings,
iggy
