When God created Adam in the Garden of Eden, He gave Adam a simple test: obey and live, or disobey and die. God knew that Adam would fail this test, simply because he had no previous experience with disobedience and its consequences. This may not sound reasonable on God’s part. But in reality it was an act of love, an act that would be for man’s ultimate blessing. God determined that for man’s highest eternal welfare mankind must learn the value of right over wrong. The best way for man to thoroughly learn this was to experience the end result of sin. Because of Adam’s original sin, all of his posterity has likewise experienced the consequences of sin. We have now tasted its bitter results — sickness, pain, suffering, sorrow and death.

But now consider why God’s Wisdom and Love permitted this to happen. The Scriptures promise every single person who has ever lived will be raised from the sleep of death in God’s promised Kingdom. (John 5:28, 29) This awakening will be spread out over time. Gradually the whole race of mankind will come back to life. As we read in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive.” Notice, all will be made alive. This includes every man, woman and child that has ever lived! There is no qualification in the Apostle’s words. He says that all will be made alive, whether Christian or Atheist, Jew or Arab, Hindu or Buddhist, good or bad, all are promised to be raised from the dead in God’s Kingdom.

Because the one perfect man Adam sinned, justice required the death penalty to come upon him and all his posterity. However, God’s love provided for another perfect man, Christ Jesus, to give his life as a “Ransom” to redeem father Adam. (Ransom in Greek is Anti-lutron meaning a corresponding price. That is a perfect life for a perfect life.) As a result, the merit of Jesus’ Ransom sacrifice provides the legal basis for God’s justice to be satisfied. The payment of this ransom price will allow everyone who has ever lived to be released from condemnation and be raised from the dead.

1 Timothy 2:4 confirms that Jesus’ ransom covers all, and that all will live again. It says that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Notice the scripture states that first of all God “will have all men to be saved.” This does not mean that all will be eternally saved. Eternal salvation will depend upon their progress during the Kingdom. Their initial salvation will consist of being raised from the dead.

Secondly, after coming to life again, they will “come unto the knowledge of the truth” of God’s Plan. This knowledge will include the opportunity and requirements to obtain eternal salvation. It will be dependent upon obeying Kingdom guidelines and gradu- ally developing their characters until they attain to perfect love.