Revelation 5:13

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.(KJV)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: "To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever." (NAB)

And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang: "Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever."(NLT)

In the past few weeks we looked through some of the lines in the letters of Paul that point to an eventual reconciliation of all men to God, seeing that how one man's sin damned us all, and one man's righteousness redeems all (Rom. 5:18), and assuming one means one and all means all, that implies all sinners, even the sinners who do not know Christ and have not accepted him.

We have looked at how in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:22-26), he states that, building on the all dying in Adam idea, and all rising in Christ fulfillment, he begins to spell out how this works, that Christ is the "firstfruits" then us, His believers and followers, but THEN He defeats death itself -- the final enemy.

We have looked at 2 Corinthians 5:16-19, where Paul writes about how we are to put off our worldly view because God has reconciled the whole world to Himself in Christ. he didn't say just the part of the world of believers, but the whole thing.

Then we looked at 1 Timothy 4: 9-10; possibly one of the most famous lines proclaiming the salvation of all where he references yet again the special slavation for those who believe but that Christ is the "savior of all men."

Once again, does ALL mean ALL? People who like to take the Bible literally seem incapable to take these words literally. They look at other parts of the Bible which seem to speak of people burning in hell forever, decide that it is THOSE words they need to take literally, and then choose to NOT take these words literally.

Thus, through a selective choice if literal interpretation, they CHOOSE to damn their fellow human beings to Hell. Over time, I'll try and go into these Hell discussions in the scripture; after all, Jesus does talk about a place called Hell and honesty requires that any developed theology deal with this.

Okay now to the verse of the Day. We have here a sign of the culmination of God's Glory; where EVERY creature in heaven, every creature on the earth, every creature under the earth, every creature in the sea -- literally ALL LIFE itself sing unto the Lamb forever and ever. So, not only are YOU going to be saved, but so is your cat, your dog, that goldfish you flushed, that squirrel you ran over with the car, and the cow that provided me with that juicy hamburger I had for lunch today -- ALL of them are reconciled in Him.

ALL means ALL, at least to me. EVERY means EVERY, at least to me. If I'm gonna be a Biblical literalist, and I am forced into finding contradictory literalisms, I'm gonna CHOOSE the one that makes God something better than me. I'm gonna choose the one whose mercy and love is infinite, who is a true Father to all.

I hope after some pondering and study you come to feel the same way. Remember this is only the beginning of this discussion. First, we spend some time putting our best foot forward. Then, I'll try and deal with the best arguments against my theology, then try and reconcile the irreconcilable, knowing all things were reconciled in Christ -- so by following Him, we should be able to deal.

In God we'll Trust.