Every Believer Is God's Child

Test the Teaching · Article 5 of 9 · 2026-11-08 · Key passages: 1 John 5:1; Galatians 3:26. Quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB); please check each one in your own Bible.

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What we confess.

To us there is “one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31), who “has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). He “died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3), was buried, and “was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:4). “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), and “This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back” (Acts 1:11).

Are all who believe in Jesus born of God — or only a small class among them? A believer may sit in a hall for years and be taught, kindly and sincerely, that he is not one of God's children: that the new birth, the adoption, and the anointing belong to a limited number chosen for heaven, and that his own hope — everlasting life on earth — belongs to a second class: God's people and his chosen ones, but not the born-again sons of God. He may be told that God loves both classes and saves both. The one name never given to him is the name itself: God's child.

This article tests the division, not the hope. The hope of life on a renewed earth is Scripture's own, and we defend it in these pages: “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). What we test is the line drawn through the middle of God's people — a line that gives the birth to some believers and withholds it from others. Where Scripture is silent, we will say so and stop.

Passages: 1 John 5:1; 3:1–2; Galatians 3:26.

Read These First

  • 1 John 5:1: whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
  • John 1:12–13: as many as received him were born of God.
  • Galatians 3:26–4:7: you are all children of God through faith; no longer a servant, but a son, and an heir.
  • Romans 8:14–17: as many as are led by the Spirit are children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
  • 1 John 2:20, 27; 3:1–2: the anointing given to John's readers; now we are children of God.
  • Revelation 7:4–9: a numbered company sealed from Israel's tribes, and a great multitude no man could count.

First: the test John himself gives for the new birth.

Everyone Who Believes Has Been Born of God

What the text says. John ends his first letter with a sentence that leaves no room for a second tier: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.” (1 John 5:1). A few verses later he states the same gift from the other side: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.” (1 John 5:4). Born of God and faith belong to the same people — the ordinary believers John addresses as little children, fathers, and young men (1 John 2:12–14). To the same readers he writes the wonder of it: “See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.” (1 John 3:1). “Beloved, now we are children of God.” (1 John 3:2). And when John divides mankind, he divides it into two families only: “In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil.” (1 John 3:10). There is no third family in the letter.

John's Gospel opens with the same open door: “But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12–13). Peter writes the same to believers scattered across five provinces: God “according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3), and they are those “having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever” (1 Peter 1:23). The holders cite the next verse of Peter's sentence for the heavenly class: the inheritance is “an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). Where the inheritance is kept is not who the heirs are: Peter's sentence gives the birth (verse 3) and the reserved inheritance (verse 4) to the same people in one breath. A kept inheritance becomes a class line only if the birth is first taken from some of the heirs — and Peter gives it to them all. Neither apostle writes to a heavenly class within the churches.

What we conclude. This is the text, and it is not hedged. Scripture's own test of the new birth is believing that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1); its own measure of the children of God is as many as received him (John 1:12). A teaching that withholds the birth from believers who pass John's test adds a condition John does not state. The birth is not earned and not chosen by ambition — it is born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13) — but God has told us to whom he gives it: to those who believe in his Son's name.

The strongest objection. Those who hold the two-class teaching answer from the Lord's own words to Nicodemus:

Jesus answered him, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must all be born anew.’ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

— John 3:3–8

As they argue it, being born again is the doorway to the Kingdom in its heavenly form, and Jesus speaks of a birth most believers will never have: the birth belongs to the limited number who will see and enter the Kingdom as its kings, while the rest of God's people enter its earthly realm without it.

Our answer. Read the whole conversation. Jesus does not restrict the birth; he universalizes its necessity: “unless one is born of water and Spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom” (John 3:5). One — anyone. And his amazement is that a teacher of Israel does not know it: “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?” (John 3:10). Verses 6–8, on which the class reading leans hardest, describe what the birth is, not how many may have it: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). The wind saying ends, “So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) — everyone born of the Spirit is like the wind in origin and freedom; the Spirit blows where he wants, and the passage gives no number for those he blows on. The saying itself is spoken in the plural: “You must all be born anew.” (John 3:7). Our conclusion is that the birth Jesus describes is the one Ezekiel promised to Israel as God's people — a new heart, and “I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27) — not a second birth for a class within them. John then does his own explaining of his Lord's words, at the head of his Gospel and the end of his letter: the ones born of God are as many as received Christ (John 1:12–13), and whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1). John 3:3 sets the necessity of the birth for entering the Kingdom; it does not set a quota on it. The quota is read into the passage, not out of it.

Pause. In 1 John 5:1, what does John say has happened to whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ — and in John 3:5, who must be born of water and Spirit to enter God's Kingdom? (See Everyone Who Believes Has Been Born of God.)

You Are All Children of God Through Faith

What the text says. Paul writes to the churches of Galatia — whole congregations, the baptized and the struggling together — and his word is all: “For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26). “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:27–28). And the sonship carries the inheritance with it: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29). The adoption is God's purpose in sending his Son: he came “that we might receive the adoption as children” (Galatians 4:5). “And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). “So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:7).

Romans says the same: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.” (Romans 8:14). The Spirit given is the Spirit of adoption: “you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16–17). Paul then shuts the door on any believer outside the gift: “if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his” (Romans 8:9).

What we conclude. Paul's division in these chapters is not between two kinds of believer. It is between those under the law's custody and those in Christ (Galatians 3:24–26), between the flesh and the Spirit (Romans 8:9), between servants and sons (Galatians 4:7). Where the class teaching needs the words some of you, Paul writes “you are all children of God” (Galatians 3:26) and “as many as are led by the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:14). Our conclusion is that sonship in Paul's letters is the common possession of the churches he addresses, and the inheritance belongs to the sons as such: if a son, then an heir (Galatians 4:7).

The strongest objection. The holders answer that these very texts are the class's charter. Their reference work lists the privileges of the sons of God — being born again, being begotten by God, being “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) — and then assigns them to the 144,000 alone:

The 144,000 are the ‘little flock’ of Jesus, and they are the ones who will live in heaven.

— Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 3

The expression ‘Christian Sons of God’ refers to those who are ‘born again’ by God’s spirit and who are the 144,000 ‘little flock’ who will live in heaven.

— Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 6

As they argue it, when Paul and John write sons of God, born again, and joint heirs, they are describing the anointed class, even when they write to whole churches.

Our answer. Notice what the assignment requires. Romans 8:17 must be lifted out of a letter whose own sentence is “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God” (Romans 8:14), and re-addressed to a smaller audience than the church Paul wrote to. Galatians 3:26 must survive with its first word removed: Paul wrote “you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26), to people whose danger was not that they claimed too much sonship but that they were going back under a tutor. The texts themselves carry their audience with them; the class reading must first take the texts away from the people they were written to, and then give the promises back to a few of them. Our conclusion is that the sonship texts mean what they say to the believers they address; a reading that must reassign every one of them has answered itself.

The Anointing Is Given to All Who Are His

What the text says. The anointing is the third gift the class teaching reserves, and it is John's own word for what his readers already have: “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.” (1 John 2:20). He repeats it as the ground of their standing: “As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you” (1 John 2:27). Paul tells the Corinthian church — a church he is correcting for disorder of every kind — that God “anointed us” (2 Corinthians 1:21) and “also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:22): us with you, the apostle and the congregation in one sentence. And to the Ephesian believers he writes of the moment of their believing: “having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14). Sealing follows believing in Paul's sentence.

What we conclude. In the apostles' letters, the anointing, the sealing, and the down payment of the Spirit are spoken to whole churches as their present possession (1 John 2:20; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Ephesians 1:13). Scripture never describes a body of believers who belong to Christ, are sealed with nothing, and are anointed with nothing. Our conclusion is that the anointing belongs to the same people the birth and the adoption belong to: all who are his (Romans 8:9).

The strongest objection. The holders' reference work defines the anointing by the sonship, and the sonship by the class: “This anointing by spirit is a guarantee or token in advance of their heavenly inheritance as ‘sons of God,’ that is, as heirs of God’s Kingdom, and it makes them ‘heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ.’” (Insight on the Scriptures: Anointed, Anointing 1). “This anointing is also described as being ‘born again.’” (Insight on the Scriptures: Anointed, Anointing 1). And the circle is closed: “for only those who have been ‘born again’ have been ‘born from an imperishable seed,’ that is, from God’s spirit, and thus they are God’s children” (Insight on the Scriptures: Anointed, Anointing 1). As they argue it, anointing, birth, and sonship are one gift with one address: the little flock.

Our answer. We grant the circle its center: anointing, birth, adoption, and inheritance do belong together — that is exactly what the texts say (Romans 8:14–17; Ephesians 1:13–14). John writes to the same readers he calls children of God (1 John 3:1–2) and born of God for their faith (1 John 5:1): “You have an anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). Paul writes “anointed us” (2 Corinthians 1:21) with the Corinthians included in the us. The entry's own key witness is Romans 8:14–17 — the passage that begins “as many as are led by the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:14). Our conclusion is that the gifts stand or fall together, and they stand where the apostles put them: on every believer. To reserve the anointing, the teaching must first reserve the sonship; the sonship texts have already been read, and they say all.

A Numbered Company, and a Multitude No Man Could Count

What the text says. Revelation 7 is the class teaching's foundation chapter, and it must be read whole. John first hears a number:

I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

— Revelation 7:4

He then looks, and sees a different sight:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

— Revelation 7:9

The chapter draws real differences between them — of number, of origin, and of circumstance: a numbered company sealed out of Israel's tribes before the harm (Revelation 7:3–8), and an unnumbered company out of every nation, who came out of the great suffering (Revelation 7:9, 14). When John asks who the multitude are, the elder's answer puts them through suffering and into God's presence: “These are those who came out of the great suffering. They washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.” (Revelation 7:14). “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple.” (Revelation 7:15). What the chapter never draws is a difference of birth, adoption, or sonship. Nothing in it calls the first company God's children and the second company something else; nothing gives one company a birth and denies it to the other.

What we conclude. Our conclusion: the 144,000 are sealed from Israel's tribes, as John heard. They belong to God's people, beside a great multitude which no man could count (Revelation 7:4). The division the chapter makes is real; the division the teaching builds on it — two classes of believer, two births, two sonships — is not in the chapter. Two companies described is not two classes of believer divided.

The strongest objection. The holders answer that the contrast is the point. Their page argues from the chapter itself: “In the immediate context of this verse, a second group is contrasted: ‘a great crowd, which no man was able to number.’” (Who Go to Heaven? 12). “If the number 144,000 were symbolic, referring instead to a group without number, then the contrast between the two groups would be lost.” (Who Go to Heaven? 12). And their reference work draws the class line in so many words: “A distinction, however, is made between the ‘little flock’ of 144,000 and the ‘great crowd.’ The ‘little flock’ are in heaven, and the ‘great crowd’ is not in heaven.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 4). Their reference work also places the crowd's service on earth: “the great crowd will be on earth, rendering sacred service in God’s temple on earth” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 2), and reads the multitude's stance as approval rather than location — they will be on earth, “standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 3), “in the sense that they have God’s approval” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 3). As they argue it, two groups and two numbers mean two classes with two hopes.

Our answer. We do not need the number to be symbolic, and we do not make it so. The number is John's, the sealing is from Israel's tribes, and the contrast is real — the contrast between a company that can be counted and a company that cannot. A contrast is not yet a class division of believers. For the teaching's use, the chapter must say that the multitude are believers who are not born of God — and that is the one thing it does not say. Grant their glosses in full — standing before the throne as God's approval, the temple service rendered on the earth he renews — and the phrases still do not touch the question. Approval is not the opposite of sonship, and this article defends the earthly hope rather than arguing the crowd out of it. What the chapter says of the multitude is washed robes and accepted service before God (Revelation 7:14–15); what it never says is that these people are not born of God. The class line is drawn not between the two companies' origins or circumstances, which John gives, but between their sonships, which John never mentions. Our conclusion is that Revelation 7 gives two companies of God's redeemed people; the two-class system is built beside the chapter, not from it.

A second objection. They also cite the Lamb on Mount Zion:

I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. … These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

— Revelation 14:1, 4

As they argue it, the 144,000 are “bought from among mankind as firstfruits” (Who Go to Heaven? 13) — a small, first selection, bought for heaven — while the rest of mankind follows after, on earth, of a different kind.

Our answer. The company is real, honored, and distinct — they follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and no one could learn their song (Revelation 14:3–4). We concede all of it. But firstfruits does not carry the weight put on it. James writes to the scattered tribes of the dispersion — ordinary believers — and uses both of this article's key words of them at once: “Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:18). Gave birth to us; a kind of first fruits, us. And the song of the redeemed in Revelation joins kingship and earth in one breath: the bought company is bought “out of every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9), “and made us kings and priests to our God; and we will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). The holders identify this bought company with the 144,000 themselves, and cite the verse for their rule over the earth. If the singers are the 144,000, the verse still does not divide what the class teaching needs divided: it says nothing about the sonship of anyone else, and it puts the reign on the earth — the same earth the meek inherit (Matthew 5:5). Our conclusion is that Revelation 14 honors a company; it does not unchild the rest of the redeemed. Honor is not exclusion, and a firstfruits is the pledge of a harvest of the same kind, not a different kind of believer.

One Flock, One Shepherd

What the text says. Jesus gives the flock its comfort in Luke's Gospel: “Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32). In John's Gospel he speaks of the flock's growth: “I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.” (John 10:16). John also records Caiaphas's prophecy of the same gathering: Jesus would die “not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52). The shared words are the ground of our conclusion: the scattered ones gathered into one (John 11:52) are the other sheep who become one flock (John 10:16) — and John names the gathered ones the children of God.

What we conclude. Little describes the flock's size at its beginning, as Jesus speaks to the few who followed him then; other sheep describes the flock's widening to the nations, as the same Jesus gathers them in. Our conclusion is that the two phrases name the small beginning and the gathered fullness of one flock — not a first and second class of Christian — and that the gathered ones are called, in John's own words, the children of God (John 11:52).

The strongest objection. The holders read the two phrases as the class line itself. Their page says of the 144,000: “Those ‘who are called and chosen’ to rule with Christ in the Kingdom are referred to as a ‘little flock.’” (Who Go to Heaven? 4). Their reference work teaches: “Jesus’ sheep, both the ‘little flock’ and the ‘other sheep,’ who follow his lead, are motivated by loyalty to Jehovah and love for him” (Insight on the Scriptures: Sheep 2), and identifies the second group: “The great crowd will also be known as the ‘other sheep.’” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 6). Their entry refines the identification: the two are “related but not identical” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 6) — the great crowd is the other sheep who survive the great tribulation. “The ‘other sheep’ are those who do not have the heavenly hope but instead have the earthly hope.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 6). As they argue it, Jesus himself names two groups of his sheep, and two groups of sheep are two classes of believer.

Our answer. Jesus names two groups — of that there is no dispute — and then says what he will make of them: “They will become one flock with one shepherd.” (John 10:16). Two folds are the starting point of the sentence; one flock is its end. Nor does the verse assign the two groups two births. The holders read “this fold” (John 10:16) as the little flock's fold as well as the Jewish fold (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 6); but in John's chapter the shepherd is calling his own sheep out of the fold he stands in — Israel's — and the sheep not of it are the nations not yet called (John 10:3–4, 16). Our conclusion is that the gathering of the nations is the apostles' whole movement (Romans 11:17–24; Ephesians 2:19), and it gathers into the one flock, not into a second class beneath it. The teaching reads other sheep and stops; the sentence continues to one flock. And Luke's little flock is comforted because it is little and afraid; the comfort is that the Father gives them the Kingdom — the same Kingdom the gathered nations inherit (Matthew 25:34). Our conclusion is that Luke 12:32 and John 10:16 describe one people at two moments of its gathering. Read as a class line, they must be read against their own endings.

A second objection. They also cite Jesus on John the Baptizer:

Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

— Matthew 11:11

As they argue it, John — a righteous man who died before the Kingdom came — stands outside it, while even the least inside it is greater than he: the line between those in the Kingdom and those outside it is the line between the classes, and John belongs to the earthly side.

Our answer. The verse is about John, and about the turn of the ages he stood at: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” (Matthew 11:13). Jesus' comparison is between the greatest of the old order — the prophets, born of women — and the least in the Kingdom that was even then arriving: the greatness is the Kingdom's, not a rank among believers. The verse does not divide Christians into two classes; it places John, with the prophets and the law, before the Kingdom's coming, and honors him as the greatest of that company in the same breath. And the boundary the verse draws is a boundary in time. John died before the cross, before the resurrection, before the Spirit was poured out and the adoption cried in believers' hearts (Galatians 4:6); he stands at the end of the age of the prophets, not inside the churches' life at all. Our conclusion is that a line drawn at the turn of the ages — between the prophets who went before and the Kingdom that came — cannot be carried forward as a permanent line between believers who live after it, some God's children and some not. What John's own hope was, Scripture states gladly: the righteous who died before Christ are raised on the earth God renews. Our conclusion is that Matthew 11:11 measures the greatness of the Kingdom against the age that went before it. It does not measure one believer's sonship against another's.

The Earthly Hope Is Not a Lesser Hope

What the text says. The promise the holders cite is a promise we keep: “The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.” (Psalm 37:29). “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). Paul joins the earth's future to the children's revealing, in one hope: “For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19). The deliverance he promises it is “that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And the book ends with heaven and earth gathered, not sorted: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3).

What we conclude. Our conclusion: God will set this creation free and renew it through judgment, as the old world perished in the flood and yet remained (Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:6–7). The earthly hope is not the portion of a lesser class; the meek who inherit the earth are the same people the apostles call God's children. What we refuse is only the division: one people, one birth, one Father, and an earth renewed for his children.

The Teaching We Differ From

The teaching this article tests holds that God deals with his people in two classes with two hopes. Jehovah's Witnesses hold this teaching, and we state it in their own words. Their page teaches: “God selects a limited number of faithful Christians who, after their death, will be resurrected to life in heaven.” (Who Go to Heaven? 1). The number is fixed: “The Bible indicates that 144,000 people will be resurrected to heavenly life.” (Who Go to Heaven? 3). For the rest: “God promises everlasting life on earth for most good people.” (Who Go to Heaven? 5). And the assignment is not the believer's to make: “God determines which faithful Christians receive ‘the prize of the upward call,’ that is, the hope of heavenly life.” (Who Go to Heaven? 9). “Personal desire or ambition has no bearing on a person’s being chosen.” (Who Go to Heaven? 9).

The class line runs through the gifts themselves. The reference work teaches that the sons of God are the born-again class:

Those who are ‘born again’ are the ‘sons of God.’

— Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 2

The expression ‘Christian Sons of God’ refers to those who are ‘born again’ by God’s spirit and who are the 144,000 ‘little flock’ who will live in heaven.

— Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 6

The anointing follows the same line: “This anointing makes Christians children of God and heirs of the heavenly Kingdom.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Anointed, Anointing 1). And the great multitude is placed outside the anointed company, on the earth: “The ‘great crowd’ is the ones who are chosen to live on earth forever.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 4). They will render God service there, “standing before the throne” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 3) in the sense “that they have God’s approval” (Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 3).

We say plainly what the teaching does not deny. It does not deny the second class salvation: those of the great crowd “also receive salvation from God” (Who Go to Heaven? 12). It does not call the earthly hope inferior in God's sight: the same page insists that those who receive it are called God's people and his chosen ones (Who Go to Heaven? 10). We share more with its holders than this paragraph divides. We share the earthly hope itself (Psalm 37:29; Matthew 5:5). We share that no one chooses his own calling by ambition — the birth is “not of blood, … nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). We share that the righteous who died before Christ — Abraham, Moses, Job, and David — await the resurrection on the earth (Who Go to Heaven? 6; Job 14:13–15).

One argument on their page is the hinge of the system, and it must be answered directly: God alone determines who receives the heavenly hope (Who Go to Heaven? 9), so the sonship texts cannot settle the matter, since the choosing is his and no desire or ambition bears on it. We agree that the choosing is his; the question is what he has told us about it. The God who determines has also spoken, and his stated test is one anyone can read: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” (1 John 5:1). Our conclusion is that his determination is not a second, secret criterion behind the text; it is the criterion in the text — faith in his Son. The same page builds the ruling class from the resurrection's order: those raised to heaven “will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years” (Revelation 20:6), and the heavenly resurrection is called “the first resurrection” (Who Go to Heaven? 7), implying a second, earthly one. We take the order as John gives it. But an order of resurrection is not a division of sonship: Revelation 20 does not call the later-raised not God's children, and the sonship texts were written to living believers before either resurrection — “Beloved, now we are children of God.” (1 John 3:2). First and second describe when God's people are raised, not whether they are his children.

What we cannot share is the line. The teaching's own reference work builds the class out of the sonship texts — John 1:12, 13; Romans 8:14, 19; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1, 2, are its cited witnesses for the sons of God (Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 1) — and those texts, read where they stand, give the sonship to all who believe. The verses read above answer in their order: the birth is tested by faith (1 John 5:1); the sonship is spoken to whole churches as all (Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:14); the anointing rests on the same readers (1 John 2:20, 27); Revelation 7 divides no sonship; the flock becomes one (John 10:16; 11:52). Our conclusion is that the two-class teaching fails at its center: it must reassign the New Testament's family words to a few of the people they were written to, and Scripture nowhere does that reassigning itself.

A verse that rules out a teaching does not say that those who hold it are lost, and we do not say it either. Many who hold this teaching love the Scriptures, honor the earthly hope God truly gave, and serve him as they have been taught to see him. Some of us were taught it in our own homes of worship, and one of us was taught it for fifteen years. We ask every reader to do with us what we ask throughout this series: open the text, and read it in context. Keep what is true.

Questions Answered

These questions touch this article. Each is answered from Scripture and labeled. The Statement of Faith, section 15, gives the same answers.

What the Kingdom is now. Our conclusion: God’s Kingdom is present now in its King and his power, and believers are brought into it. It comes in full on earth when Jesus returns (Luke 11:20). Read the other way: Luke 17:21; 1 Corinthians 15:50. Confidence: Solid. Both halves are stated in plain words: the Kingdom “has come to you” (Luke 11:20) in the King’s works, and believers are already “translated… into the Kingdom of the Son” (Colossians 1:13); yet it is still to be prayed for and inherited (Matthew 6:10; 25:34; Acts 14:22). Luke 17:21 is spoken to Pharisees, in a discourse that next promises the Son of Man’s day, visible as lightning (Luke 17:20, 23–24). First Corinthians 15:50 belongs to the resurrection change: “we will all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53). Joining the two halves is our step.

Whether the new earth is this earth renewed. Our conclusion: God will set this creation free and renew it through judgment, as the old world perished in the flood and yet remained (Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:6–7). Read the other way: 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1. Confidence: Solid. Romans 8:21 says the creation itself will be delivered from decay, and Peter speaks of “the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). Second Peter 3:10 is answered by its own chapter: the world that “perished” (2 Peter 3:6) in the flood remained, and the fire is reserved for “the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7), after which we “look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). In Revelation 21 the things that pass away are named — death, mourning, crying and pain (Revelation 21:4) — and the word from the throne is, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5).

The 144,000. Our conclusion: the 144,000 are sealed from Israel’s tribes, as John heard. They belong to God’s people, beside a great multitude which no man could count (Revelation 7:4). Read the other way: Revelation 7:9 with 5:5–6, read as one group first heard and then seen; and readings that limit heaven to the 144,000. Confidence: Solid. In Revelation 5 the Lamb is identified with the Lion by what he does — he opens the book (Revelation 5:5–7). Revelation 7 gives its two companies different descriptions: a numbered company sealed out of Israel’s tribes before the harm (Revelation 7:3–4), and a multitude no man could count, out of every nation, who “came out of the great suffering” (Revelation 7:9, 14); and Jesus makes his sheep “one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16). Our step is to take the chapter’s descriptions as they stand.

Whether salvation depends on these questions. Our conclusion: salvation depends on believing the good news about Jesus and remaining in his teaching. It does not depend on settling every question in this document (John 8:24). Read the other way: John 8:24; 1 John 2:23; Galatians 1:9. Confidence: Solid. John names the belief he requires: “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). John’s denial is denying that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22), and his test of teaching is the confession that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (2 John 7, 9). Galatians 1:9 curses a rival good news, not an unsettled question; Romans 14:1 shows that not every question divides.

What Scripture does not say. Scripture does not say that only some believers are born of God, or that the new birth, the adoption, and the anointing are given to one class within God's people and withheld from another. It does not divide believers into the born again and a second class who are not, giving the family name to a few. It does not say that the great multitude of Revelation 7 are believers who are not born of God, or fix a number to the children of God. It does not say that the earthly hope belongs to any but his children. Where Scripture is silent, we do not build.

“The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Where We Stand

Scripture says

  • Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God (1 John 5:1).
  • “Beloved, now we are children of God.” (1 John 3:2)
  • As many as received him were given the right to become God's children, born not of the will of man but of God (John 1:12–13).
  • You are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26).
  • There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
  • If a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:7).
  • As many as are led by the Spirit of God are children of God — heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14, 17).
  • Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not his (Romans 8:9).
  • The anointing the believers received from him remains in them (1 John 2:27).
  • The children of God and the children of the devil are the two families Scripture names (1 John 3:10).
  • The 144,000 are sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel, and a great multitude which no man could count stands before the throne (Revelation 7:4, 9).
  • Jesus has other sheep who will hear his voice and become one flock with one shepherd; he died to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (John 10:16; 11:52).
  • The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever (Psalm 37:29).
  • The creation will be delivered into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

We conclude

  • Our conclusion: the new birth, the adoption, and the anointing belong to every believer as such; the test of the birth is believing that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1; Galatians 3:26).
  • Our conclusion: Revelation 7 describes two companies — a numbered company sealed from Israel's tribes and an unnumbered multitude from every nation — not two classes of believer with two sonships (Revelation 7:4, 9).
  • Our conclusion: little flock names the flock's small beginning and other sheep its gathered nations; the flock becomes one, and its gathered ones are children of God (Luke 12:32; John 10:16; 11:52).
  • Our conclusion: the earthly hope is the inheritance of God's children, not the portion of a lesser class; the meek inherit the earth, and the creation is set free into the children's liberty (Matthew 5:5; Romans 8:21).

Hope

The Father has not hidden what his children are. “See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). And he has not finished: “It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is.” (1 John 3:2). The creation “waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19), and the King will say to those on his right hand: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). And the last sight of the book is not a family divided between two addresses, but God's dwelling made with people, and he himself their God (Revelation 21:3). If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the apostle's sentence is about you: you have been born of God (1 John 5:1). Take the name your Father gives you — his child — and all the hope that goes with it.

Open the text. Read it in context. Keep what's true.

Living It Out

These are applications, offered as invitations.

  • If you have been taught that you belong to God but are not his child, read 1 John 5:1 aloud this week, and let John's sentence stand where he put it: the test of the birth is believing that Jesus is the Christ.
  • Read John 10 together with John 11:51–52, and mark what the gathered sheep are called, and what the flock becomes.
  • Thank God for the earthly hope without accepting a lesser sonship with it: the meek inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), and the creation waits for the children of God (Romans 8:19).
  • When a teaching sets a limit on God's gifts that you cannot find in the text, ask the quiet question of this series: where is that written?
  • Pray for those who taught you the class line, and for those still taught by it — many taught in sincerity what they themselves were taught, and the door of the text stands open to them as it does to us.

Questions for Reflection

  1. What test does John give for having been born of God, and to whom is his letter written? (See Everyone Who Believes Has Been Born of God.)
  2. Why does Jesus' amazement at Nicodemus matter for the claim that the new birth belongs to a few? (See The strongest objection under Everyone Who Believes Has Been Born of God.)
  3. Which word in Galatians 3:26 does the class teaching have to remove, and why? (See You Are All Children of God Through Faith.)
  4. To whom does John say “You have an anointing” (1 John 2:20), and what does Paul say of anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ? (See The Anointing Is Given to All Who Are His.)
  5. What difference does Revelation 7 itself draw between its two companies — and what difference does it never draw? (See A Numbered Company, and a Multitude No Man Could Count.)
  6. What does it change for you that the scattered ones gathered into the one flock are called, by John himself, the children of God? (See One Flock, One Shepherd.)

Check It Yourself

  • Opening: 1 John 5:1; Galatians 3:26.
  • Born of God: John 1:12–13; 1 John 3:1–2, 9–10; 5:1, 4; 1 Peter 1:3, 23.
  • Born anew: John 3:3–8, 10; Ezekiel 36:25–27.
  • All children through faith: Galatians 3:26–29; 4:5–7; Romans 8:9, 14–17; Ephesians 2:19.
  • The anointing: 1 John 2:20, 27; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Ephesians 1:13–14.
  • The two companies: Revelation 7:4–9, 14–15; 14:1–4; 5:9–10; James 1:18.
  • Flock and sheep: Luke 12:32; John 10:14–16; 11:51–52; Matthew 11:11–13.
  • The earthly hope: Psalm 37:11, 29; Matthew 5:5; Romans 8:19–23; Revelation 21:1–4.
  • The teaching tested: Who Go to Heaven? 1, 3, 5, 9, 12; Insight on the Scriptures: Great Crowd 3, 4, 6; Insight on the Scriptures: Sheep 2; Insight on the Scriptures: Son(s) of God 1, 2, 6, 7; Insight on the Scriptures: Anointed, Anointing 1.
  • Answered: Statement of Faith, section 15.
  • Hope: 1 John 3:1–2; Romans 8:19; Matthew 25:34; Revelation 21:3.

Next

Next in Test the Teaching: Not by Keeping the Law. If no one is justified by the works of the law, what is the law's place — and what binds the believer now?

Previous article: God's Word, Not Human Tradition
Next article: Not by Keeping the Law
Study guide: Study Guide: Every Believer Is God's Child
Series: All 9 articles in Test the Teaching

© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/test-the-teaching/05-every-believer-is-gods-child/
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