WHOSOEVER WILL

For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

 Romans 10:13

The year was 1869.  Evangelist Henry Moorhouse was in Chicago and had selected John 3:16 as the passage that he would preach on repeatedly for several weeks as he sought to emphasize the truths of this verse to the crowds that gathered to hear him.  The word “whosoever” was his emphasis:  God sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for the sins of whosoever (meaning “anyone at all”) would choose to believe in Him.   Philip P. Bliss, noted soloist and hymn writer, was also there serving as song leader for the revival services.  As he sat there night after night listening to the messages he gained a clearer perspective of God’s abundant grace causing him to leave the meeting one night and compose the hymn Whosoever Will May Come. 

John 3:16 is also one of my favorite verses.  I often share it like this:  “For God (the only true One) so loved the world (all mankind, you and I) that He gave (sacrificed to death on the cross) His only begotten (unique, one and only) Son (Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless, eternal Son of God, God in human flesh and blood, who died and rose again from the dead) that whoever (anyone and everyone, even you) believes in Him (trusts in Jesus Christ alone as the only way to have forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven) shall not perish (be separated from God eternally in hell, the lake of fire) but (praise God!) have everlasting life (life here and now, and forever in heaven).”

 I trust that you, like Philip Bliss and myself, will believe and share this marvelous truth that whosoever will may come!  “Whosoever will, whosoever will!  Send the proclamation over vale and hill.

Tis a loving Father calls the wand’er home: Whosoever will may come.”

Bob Kulp