Are All People Savable?

DR. CRAIG: Although some theologians think that God has predestined people to hell even before they are born and independent of their choices, I don't see this teaching in the Bible. According to the Bible, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but he wants the wicked to turn from their evil ways and to be saved. And so I take very seriously those passages in the New Testament that says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. His will is that every person be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So it seems to me that God's will is truly universal salvation, but, again, that's his absolute will. His permissive will is to allow people the freedom to reject his perfect will for their lives and so to separate themselves from him forever against his will and against his every effort to save them.