Is Acts 26:18 A "Gotcha" Verse?

Religion has done a real bang up job at covering up the fact that the apostle Paul taught Universal Forgiveness. Not to be confused with Universal Salvation (The two are not the same.)

Do your own investigative 🔎 research and you should discover that no where in the 13 letters of Paul, does he tell us how to get our sins forgiven. Reason? They already are! That is precisely what Christ accomplished on the cross before He rose from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, & 2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

In light of His finished work, God stopped "imputing" (charging) sins to the world. Meaning that today, salvation is not getting sins forgiven, it's believing they already are! 

Which non-imputed sin can God forgive?

The Limited Forgivers bring up Acts 26:18 as if it's a gotcha verse! They have a blind spot concerning forgiveness.

18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

So what's all the fuss about?

Paul says "from darkness to light." Did the light need their belief for it to be light? (Rhetorical of course) It is light whether they believe it or not, right?

Look at the verse closely and ask yourself; Does it say that God may give them forgiveness of sins? Or they may receive forgiveness of sins?

If the blood was shed and the payment was made, then forgiveness was finished.

It happened on the cross of Christ, and the resurrection was proof! The only thing needed is for the offender to "receive" it.

The Gentiles in Acts 26 had alienated themselves in their own minds (Colossians 1:21) and needed to believe/receive what had been done in their behalf. That Christ had shed His blood - making peace between them and God. (Vs 20)

They needed to receive what had already happened!

We know that Paul was already preaching the gospel of 1 Corinthians 15 as early as Acts 13, so why is the word "receive" clear over here in Acts 26 difficult to understand? If "received" in 1 Corinthians 15:1 is not talking about making forgiveness so, why do we assume Acts 26:18 is?

Just as 1 Corinthians 15:1, - here, - to "receive" forgiveness was to believe it already existed, not that it will exist only after it is received.

By Paul telling them the gospel, his hope was to turn them "from darkness to light." Their belief could not create the light - it was already there. He just wanted them to see it.

Just as the light didn't need their belief to be light, forgiveness didn't need their belief to be forgiveness. They were forgiven whether they believed it or not. They needed to "receive" (believe) Paul's gospel to be saved, not forgiven.

Paul's gospel is that in light of Christ's death for mankind, God stopped imputing the world's sins. A declaration not limited to believers only. Paul did not preach Limited Forgiveness.

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (1 Corinthians 15:1.)

Compared to....

"that they may receive forgiveness of sins" (Acts 26:18.)

Compare "received" to "receive" and ask yourself: Would the resurrection not be true if they had not "received" it? Did it need anyone's belief for it to be so? Then neither does forgiveness.

If you say forgiveness must be believed to make it so - then by your own admission you are saying the same thing concerning the resurrection. -Allow that to marinate.

Have you believed the gospel? Or have you only believed in your belief?

Reconciliation, first, required forgiveness. The offended party (God) had to forgive the offender. (Us)

👉 This already occurred. Now then "be ye reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Note to our fellow ambassadors and co-laborers in Christ; We beseech you to be on alert and very discerning. Today we are seeing a lot of "right dividers" popping up, but very few who are equipped with the un-perverted "word of reconciliation."

As Paul so warned: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:28‭-‬30)