There are some Presbyterians, protestants, evangelical and Baptists groups who teaches that God has provided salvation only for those who are God’s elect. They also teach the doctrine of the so-called limited atonement, which according to this erroneous teaching, Christ died on the cross only for the sins of the elect of God and Jesus did not die for all humanity. Now. let us take a look word for word this I Timothy 4:10.

I – THE WORD “ALL MEN”

There are those who teach that God has provided salvation only for those who are His elect. They would also teach a limited atonement, that Christ died on the cross only for the sins of God's elect [only those who will believe on Christ and be saved]. Such popular and worldwide false teaching that God has provided salvation only for those who are God's elected is answered by the verse cited above I Timothy 4:10. This verse teaches that there is a sense in which God is “the Saviour of all men” and there is a special sense ("especially") in which God is “the Saviour of those who believe.” Timothy should have had no difficulty in understanding this verse because the Apostle Paul had already written in this epistle of 1^st Timothy that God is the Saviour of all and not only the Saviour of those elect who trusted the gospel. Why? It is because God desires all men to be saved not desires only some men to be saved (I Timothy 2:3-4 "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; ⁴Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”) and because Christ died for all men and not died only for those who believe in Christ (I Timothy 2:6 “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”). Paul clearly saying that there is a special sense in which God is the Saviour of those who come to God through Christ and who believe and know the truth (I Timothy 2:4 “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”; I Timothy 4:3 “them which believe and know the truth.”).

The extreme Calvinists having problem how they could interpret this verse I Timothy 4:10 “God, who is the Savior of all men” in order to justify their false theological doctrines that the God limited atonement is only available for those people who believe Christ as their Savior. If the doctrine of limited atonement were true, then we could accurately state the following: Christ died for sinners, but not all sinners. In fact, He did not die for the great majority of sinners, only for a very few (compare Matthew 7:13-14 where we learn that only few are saved). Such a message is good news only for a small minority of sinners! That’s an absurd doctrinal theology.

But the expression “all men” must be understood as referring to all humanity without exception. The phrase “all men” indicates that out of the large class of people, there is a smaller class of people, that was mentioned as “those who believe.” Therefore, the words “all men” obviously describes a group of people that includes not just those who believe or more than the elect. The verse says, God is “the Saviour of all men” means Jesus died for all sinners, Jesus died for the sins of the world, and God especially the Saviour of those believers, which means not true to those whom Christ died but do not believe in Christ as their Saviour, and only true to those who believe in Christ as their Saviour.

The expression “all men” is also found in I Timothy 2:4 “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Now, Extreme Calvinists wrongly teaches that I Timothy 2:4 “all men” refers to “all sorts of persons” which means to all men without distinction but do not refer to all men without exception. What these extreme Calvinists want to drive out is that “all men” refers not to all humanity, but according to them it refers to the “the elect” which would include elect Jews and Gentiles, elect men and women, elect slaves and freemen, etc. So, what the extreme Calvinists want to say based to their doctrinal theology, God does not desire to save all men, but God desires to save only His elect and according to them those God’s elect are those who belong to all kinds of classes of people and that is among the rich, the poor, the Jews, the Gentiles, etc. This kind of interpretation is a way of forcing all what they can just to fit the verse in their own theological view. We must let the verse says what it says, let the verse interprets what God clearly, plainly, wants us to learn. Again, the verse says, in I Timothy 2:3- 4 “God our Saviour...⁴Who will have (desires) all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Did you see that? God proved His desire for the salvation of all men by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for the redemption of all sins of all men according to I Timothy 2:6 “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

II – THE WORD “ESPECIALLY”

The extreme Calvinist theologians must find a solution to settle the clear statement of I Timothy 4:10 “…because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” Jay Adams a Calvinist reformed theologian tried by forcing to translate in his own to fit in his dangerous belief, he rendered “who is the Saviour of all sorts of men, that is, of those who believe.” If you notice the word “especially” was translated by Jay Adams “that is”, that is a very dangerous deceiving translation. Jay Adams is not hesitant in changing and abandoning the sound principles of biblical translation and has not pay attention to the obvious meaning of words, because Jay Adams is desperately trying to force the verse to adapt into his own erroneous theology. Jay Adams wants to teach that the “all men” “that is” only referring to those who believe or elect and do not refer literal to all human beings living in this earth. This twisted and erroneous, falsely dangerous doctrine deceives many church leaders on various religious groups. Sad to say, lot of praises and commendations was given by some influential theologians who were also agreed by Jay Adams extreme Calvinism unbiblical theological views. Among them are: John Fullerton MacArthur (an American Reformed Baptist pastor) has stated that through Adams' book Competent to Counsel Adams gave the Church "an indispensable corrective to several trends that are eating away at the Church's spiritual vitality" Derek Tidball argues that Adams has made an "enormous contribution to the revival of biblical pastoral theology". According to Ian F. Jones, Tim Clinton, and George Ohlschlager, "Jay Adams brought a biblical revolution to Christian and pastoral counseling in the 1970s, challenging a field that was racing toward rancor, even dissolution by its fascination with all manner of anti-Christian psycho-babble." David Powlison has said that Adams has written "abundant resources for the development of counseling" and has led to the establishment of various institutions based on his views. However, Jay Adams has erroneous, falsely dangerous doctrines which deceives many church leaders on various religious groups.

III – THE WORD “SAVIOUR”

The extreme Calvinists explain I Timothy 4:10 as they usually argue that the term “Saviour” is used in a temporal and not used in an eternal sense, and because of that they explain that God is the Preserver of all men or the Deliverer of all men especially of those who believe. Of course, it would contradict all the standard translations like NASB, NIV, RSV, ASV, NEB, NKJV, ESV, NLT, etc…) which render the word “Saviour” and not “Preserver.” By changing and translating the word “Saviour” to “preserver” this will create a problem, because the question is, does God really preserve believers in a temporal, physical way more than God does to unbelievers? In reality do we observe that God allows the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer in this earth. Actually, they who believe are likely to undergo great difficulty in this world, that is undeniable truth in this life. We can never deny the truth that the Believers must suffer through natural disasters like the floods, earthquakes, tornados, persecution, tribulation, fires, famines, typhoons, etc., the same way the unbelievers experienced sufferings. Yes, of course there is spiritual help and comfort for the believers in the midst of great trials and afflictions in this life but the question is what sense that the believers are preserved physically and temporarily in this life on earth that the unbelievers do not have experienced? Actually, the unbelievers seem well preserved in this life, whereas the believers are always defamed and made as the garbage of the world and dirt of all things (I Corinthians 4:13 “Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” So, the word “Saviour” does not mean “Preserver.”

Although sometimes the word “save” is used in different ways, that is why the word “save” does not always mean salvation from sin. For example: I Timothy 2:15 “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety” this verse speaks of the Christian woman being saved from satanic deception, which Paul instructed again in I Timothy 5:14-15 “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. ¹⁵For some are already turned aside after Satan.” Another example that the word “save” does not always mean salvation is in I Timothy 4:16 “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” likewise this verse speaks of being saved from Satanic deception that was mentioned by Paul in I Timothy 4:1 “giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” But these two verses I Timothy 2:15 and I Timothy 4:16 has nothing to do with our topic discussion about eternal salvation because Satanic deception is not the issue in our passage study of I Timothy 4:10.

IV – THE WORD “SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN”

Paul used the phrase in I Timothy 2:3 “God our Saviour”. How does Paul use that expression God our Saviour? The term “Saviour” is applied to God in various passages beside I Timothy 4:10. It occurred in several scriptures: Luke 1:47 “my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”; I Timothy 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour,” and Lord Jesus Christ.”; I Timothy 2:3 "this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;"; Titus 1:3 “his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;” Titus 2:10 “that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour” in all things.”; Titus 3:4 “the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,”; Jude 25 “To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” Now, after looking and reading all the seven texts that was given and mentioned the phrase “God our Saviour”, would the extreme Calvinists still say that the term “God our Saviour” means “God the Preserver” which referring to a temporal and not to eternal benefits? This is an erroneous false doctrinal theological interpretation of extreme Calvinists.

The last place Paul used the term “God our Saviour” that has been mentioned in I Timothy 2:3 “this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;” is very important because it has a great impact with the next verse I Timothy 2:4 “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” The point is that God is the Saviour of all men in the sense that God desires all men to be saved and Christ died for all men according to I Timothy 2:4,6 “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. ⁶Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” The verses clearly refer to eternal salvation and nothing has said about physical preservation in this life. If we look at ASV translation, it understands that I Timothy 4:10 “God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” Is referring to eternal salvation and not physical temporal preservation because of the marginal reference it gives these two verses in I Timothy 2:4 “who would have all men to be saved,” and John 4:42 "this is indeed the Saviour of the world."

Why the extreme Calvinists keep on insisting and forcing their reformed theology that Christ died only for the elect and did not die for all men? Is there any problem in saying that God is the Saviour of all men? The extreme Calvinists are the only one saying that the Saviour’s redemptive finished work on the cross had nothing to do with those who are not elect. The Bible teaches about God being “the Saviour of the world” in John 4:42 “this is indeed the Saviour of the world.” And I John 4:14 “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” But in spite of that the world will not all be saved. However, it sad to say that the vast majority of those people in the world will perish because of their free choice of unbelief and rejection of God’s Saviour according to John 3:16-18, 36 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. ¹⁸He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ³⁶He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” We want all the extreme Calvinists to answer these challenging questions. If Jesus in some sense is not the Saviour of the whole world, then how can the world reject Jesus as Saviour? If the gift has not been purchased for them, how can we offer them a free gift of eternal life? If God provided not for their salvation, how can we tell them to be saved? If Christ did not die for a certain person who was not elect, then how can that person reject the gospel? (Read I Corinthians 15:1-4). What is the good news or the gospel that person is rejecting? The truth is that the extreme Calvinist has no good news for anyone in the world but only for the elect. Logically and practically, a person cannot reject something that is not genuinely offered to that person. If there is no gospel offered to those people who are not elect, so how can they reject the gospel that is not offered them?

V – THE WORD “THOSE THAT BELIEVE”

Why was the Apostle Paul willing to suffer reproach as he labored in the gospel and strive diligently? Paul knew he brings a message of salvation for all men, that is the message of hope for those who are in despair, a message of good news for those who are in bondage of sin, a message of reconciliation for those who are enemies of God or spiritually dead. Paul was motivated and eager to spread out the good news because he assured that once this message was heard, some would gladly receive and become believers and actually saved.

Listen to the same motivation that Paul said he was willing to patiently endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that the elect may obtain the salvation that is found in Christ and that means not just those elects might have temporal and physical deliverance but eternal salvation. II Timothy 2:10 “Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Paul was aware that God the Saviour was using his gospel preaching as he proclaimed the good news of Christ and His death, burial and resurrection to all men as a way by which God would bring the elect to faith in Christ. How can they believe if they have not heard and how can they hear without the preaching? Without preaching there can be no faith (Romans 10:14-17). For the sake of the salvation of all men without exception, Paul was willing to suffer reproach, and labour and prayer for all men.

Here are some statements from some commentaries of some men:

Alford says: “His will is that all men should be saved, and He has made full and sufficient provision for the salvation of all, so that, as far as salvation stands in Him, He is the Saviour of all men...if God be thus willing for all to be saved, how much more shall He save them that put their trust in Him"

A.T. Robertson says: “While God is potentially Saviour of all, He is actually Saviour of the believers. So Jesus is termed `Saviour of the World' (John 4:42)"

Matthew Henry says: “He has a general good-will to the eternal salvation of all men thus far that He is not willing that any should perish...He desires not the death of sinners; He is thus the Saviour of all men"

VI – THE WORD “THEREFORE WE BOTH LABOUR AND SUFFER REPROACH”

Anyone who teach this verse in I Timothy 4:10 “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe” cannot be in danger of teaching universalism. If God were to actually save all men, then the question is how the believers be saved in a special sense? Since this verse says “specially of those that believe” it means there is a special sense in which believers are saved implies that there is a sense in which unbelievers are not saved. The right interpretation of this verse is that unbelievers are not actually saved, even though God the Saviour has desired their salvation and provided the hope for them to be saved in the death of His Son Jesus Christ. Now that we know that God desires all men to be saved and sent His Son to die for the sins of all men, so may we have the joy to tell all men about the love of God and the power of the gospel of Christ, and tell them there is a Saviour who died for them and gave His life that they might have life eternal. May we urge anyone, everybody, all men to receive Christ who came to be their Saviour. May we always be reminded of the message of an angel in Luke 2:10-12 “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”