True Grace Ministries Message Board
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1. Respect each person's difference in religious beliefs, including the differences in doctrine, style and personality.
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#101 - 100 SCRIPTURAL PROOFS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND – THOMAS WHITTEMORE
INTRODUCTION:
“The Scriptures analyzed in this book declare that much more was accomplished by Christ than traditionally taught. May your eyes be enlightened to see the joy that Jesus saw as He hung on the tree of crucifixion. May the traditions of the elders fall as scales from your eyes to see the full magnitude of the victory of Jesus Christ! When they do, your Bible will appear to be a brand new book, full of the power of God’s love to be victorious over all things.”
#102 - A TRUE REVELATION AND A SECOND WITNESS – TRAVIS OGLETREE
“ ‘For we must needs die, and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again, yet doth God devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him’ (2Sam.14:14). The entire passage from 2Sam.14:1-21 shows that no matter how far one may stray from the Lord and undergo internal banishment from a sense of acceptance, nevertheless, our merciful Lord God Himself has devised means whereby His banished ones would not be expelled forever from Him. ‘For out of Him, and through Him, and for Him are all. To Him be glory for the eons! Amen!’ (Rom. 11:36). ‘For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all.’ (Rom. 11:32 CLNT).”
#103 - THE CHRIST OF GLORY – MARVIN W. RICE
“May we get a glimpse of Christ’s wondrous Person as we peer into Sacred Writ. As we go back before the ages of time, through the eons of the Scriptures, forward to the grand finale, to the consummation of the ages, to that day when total reconciliation is completed and eternity continues.
‘every knee bowing, celestial
and terrestrial and subterranean,
and every tongue acclaiming that
Jesus Christ is Lord, for the
glory of the Father’
God would receive no glory merely to see the unbelievers agree that Jesus is Lord, but too late, thus going off to destruction. Nay! The blood of the cross will prevail in every situation, eliminating all sins. What august glory this will bring to the Father as every last one of His creatures acclaim His beloved Son as their Lord!”
#104 - JUSTIFICATION – DONALD G. HAYTER
“Although God introduced sin through the agency of His creatures, yet He did not sin in so doing. For it was no mistake, no failure of His. It was in accord with His intention, and it will be justified by the beneficial results obtained through its agency. In the brilliant glory of His ultimate the most somber and gloomy features of earth’s history are transformed into a brilliant display of His power and wisdom and love.
During the final eons every creature in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth will have learned of the sufferings of the Christ, and of the depths of the Father’s love revealed in them, and every knee will bow to Him Who died, acclaiming Him Lord, for the glory of God the Father. Thus will all ultimately be justified.”
#105 - THE “EVIL” FROM THE LORD – MICHAEL KILLIAN
“All men will be saved. But God isn’t trying to redeem everyone in this age, only that chosen generation that Paul spoke of.
Believing that the evil in this world has its purpose for good will bring much peace to your heart. And then to realize that God in someway, somehow, will eventually use evil to bring about good for everyone, will further add to your peace. As this revelation of the Prince of Peace is unfolded to your turbulent, battle-weary heart, you will start to more continuously abide in His love.
God not only ‘allows’ evil in this present world, but rather ordains it. No more, and no less evil than God Himself determines, will happen to anyone during any certain day.”
#106 - THE FEET MINISTRY – DON BRUCE
“The mission of Christ was to destroy the enemy and to set the prisoners free. Now this word ‘destroy’ does not mean to annihilate. In the Greek it means to make of no effect. When Christ took the keys from the prison keeper he, Satan, lost all power and authority. Christ made his office of no effect (Heb. 2:14&15).
While prophets of doom forecast calamity and destruction, the mind of Christ speaks and lights our world with the vision of universal restoration and reconciliation.
Paul told of a great victory where every knee would bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul did not say that only a small number will bow and confess, but he said every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess. And no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit. What a glorious day that will be when every foot steps forth in the river of life up to the ankle, and from the ankle up to the knee. Every knee shall bow!
We are not an accident! We are not a mistake! No one has been overlooked by the Creator. All of us are His jewels, the apple of His eye, His purpose, reason and will.
When we see God in all things, and realize that all things are in His hands for the eventual good of everyone, then our lives will flow as peacefully as a river.”
#107 - HELL – J.W. WILLIAMS
“Who could have peace in the Christian hope while overwhelmed with the consciousness that many of those dearest to us are even right now shrieking hopelessly for watery relief from fiery torments? If any can be happy under such a burden of woe, are they hardened to insensibility; or do they really take their creed seriously?
Do believers in eternal hell torment really believe it, in their careless unconcern for the unsaved, or do they just give formal and thoughtless assent to their creeds. A sincere contemplation of such an infinite spectacle of woe as they present about hell is enough to unseat the reason of every believer of it if it weighs on his mind as it should if true. It would be appalling to know the number of all those who thought they had committed ‘the unpardonable sin,’ another erroneous tradition, and that they were hopelessly hell-bound because of it, and as a result became maniacs and suicides.
Yet in utter disregard of the frightful results of their hideous pagan ideas, the eternal hell torment evangelists would like to unchristianize those of us who dare to question their views by turning the searchlight of truth on their errors.
After hell is ended in the lake of fire, where can the previous inhabitants of hell go? Not back to hell, for it then will be no more. Not back into death, for ‘there shall be no more death.’ Only one destiny will be possible for them, and that is the one declared in Is. 26:9, and that is correction through judgment.”
#108 - LIFE FOR ALL - CHARLES W. COTTON
“The lake of fire will be abolished when it burns itself out because there is no evil left for it to feed upon, and the whole universe will throb with joy when the second death is abolished with the successful completion of the great and glorious work the Lord Jesus will bring to full fruition with the perfecting of all in the heavens and on earth.
What a prospect! God’s purpose of the ages (Eph. 3:11) fulfilled in perfect accord with His irresistible will. ‘And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, ‘Unto Him Who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for the ages of the ages (Rev. 5:13) – a grand Hallelujah Chorus echoing through the boundless universe and proclaiming that God IS Love.”
#109 - UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION – MINNIE ALBERTSON
“The original scriptures taught final universal salvation; but translators usually rejected that theme. So they added to, or dropped words, to make the text conform to their wrong thinking. They could not eradicate the original theme; but we inherited their wrong thinking in our translations, and so we have the resulting direct contradictions. Unknown time periods they made endless.
Salvation is for angels also. ‘All things were created by Him, and for Him’ (Col. 1:16).
‘For Thy pleasure they are and were created (Rev. 4:11). So He ‘reconciles all things unto Himself, whether they be on earth, or things in the heavens (Col. 1:16-21).
Even the devil is not too evil to be corrected. Note who he belongs to, as well as those he deceives. ‘The deceived and the deceiver are His’ (Job 12:16).
EDITOR’S NOTE: Greek scholar William Barclay wrote concerning kolasis aionion (age-during corrective chastisement) in Matthew 25:46
"The Greek word for punishment is kolasis. There is no instance in Greek secular literature where kolasis does not mean remedial punishment. It is a simple fact that in Greek kolasis always means remedial punishment. God's punishment is always for man's cure."
See what other Greek scholars say about it too.
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WORDS
http://www.tentmaker.org/books/asw/Chapter11.html
Fifteen literally translated (not interpretively translated) Bibles that reveal what God will do with the sinners in Matthew 25:46
Concordant Literal, Young’s literal, Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott, Rotherham’s Emphasized, Scarlett’s, J.W. Hanson’s New Covenant, Twentieth Century, Ferrar Fenton, The Western New Testament, Weymouth’s (unedited), Clementson’s, The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Anointed, The Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible, Bullinger’s Companion Bible margins, Jonathan Mitchell’s translation (2010).
#110 - 125 NUTS FOR CALVINISTS TO CRACK – C.R. BIERBOWER
“Although a Calvinist myself for more than thirty years, the scriptures declaring God’s infinite love, and the plain teachings of Jesus my Lord on the subject of love, mercy and truth, finally sank my theological ship. This left me searching for the truth as it is in Jesus. Finally I was convinced by the overwhelming number of Scriptures that our great God and Heavenly Father truly does, without partiality, love the whole world, and He will in His own time and in His own way finally reconcile all men unto Himself.
Arminianism and Calvinism both represent each other as the method for God’s work in salvation, and both vigorously reject the final reconciliation of all men. It is my purpose in this book to point out to my Calvinistic brethren the inconsistency of their interpretation of Scripture.”
#111 - ALL AND ALL IN ALL – VINCE HOLLANDER AND HENRY BULLER
“This is a power packed and mind shaking question!!
To wit:
How can every creature which is in the heavens and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea and all that are in them (describing every living soul made by God) which includes everyone that has come from every dimension of life or death, or everything that came out from God … say, Blessing and honor and glory and power unto the Lamb Jesus Christ the heart of the Father, if they are not all going to be enjoying Him as we who now believe are? Does this not describe and give witness to the day of the reconciliation of all unto God where they came from?”
God will not be defeated in the slightest --- for ‘There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God Who worketh all in all (1Cor. 12:6).
#112 - THE WAY TO SALVATION IN THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL – ERNEST L. MARTIN
“The traditional interpretation of an everlasting hell fire for sinners is as wrong and as senseless as believing that a three dollar bill is legal tender.
Ultimate salvation is something that has been secured by Christ for all mankind without the works of man (either good or bad) being involved in the issue. Everyone will finally be saved and brought to a full knowledge of the truth of God. All humans will finally be forgiven for their sins and they will become reconciled to God. All things in the heavens, on earth and under the earth (the angels who are kept in chains in the bowels of the earth) will one day proclaim the Lordship of Christ to the glory of God the Father.
But it will not only be all humans who are reconciled to God (now that God has reconciled Himself to mankind). The reconciliation will reach out to embrace all the hostile powers which have been out of harmony with God over the centuries. There is prophesied, according to Paul, a full reconciliation between all the antagonistic beings throughout the universe. Even they will be reconciled amongst themselves,
Between themselves and mankind, and between themselves and God the Father (Col. 1:20). All grievances, both divine and human, are disposed of through the life and death of Christ our Saviour. Peace has been, or will be established between all hostile parties throughout the universe.
The Greek of the New Testament shows that all punishment is age-lasting, not forever as the King James Version renders it.”
#113 - THE EARLY VIEW OF THE SAVIOR – GARY AMIRAULT
“When one looks at the first 500 years of Christianity, not one creed even hinted at “Eternal Torment;” not one creed denied “Universal Restoration;” no church council condemned “Universal Restoration.”
http://hellbusters.8m.com/updcontents.html
When one looks at the lives of those church leaders who brought the doctrine of “Eternal Torment” into the church, we find a long string of envyings, power plays, persecutions, character assassinations, book burnings, murders, and tortures. They became like the god they created – tormentors and murderers! They exchanged the truth for a lie and brought darkness to the world – the Dark Ages.”
#114 - ETERNAL DEATH – ONE STEP OUT OF HELL, ONE STEP SHORT OF GLORY - GARY AMIRAULT
“When it comes to the final destination of the wicked, or unrighteous, Christians over the past two millenniums have divided themselves into three beliefs: 1. Eternal Torment, 2. Eternal Death (annihilationism), and 3. Salvation of the whole world through Jesus Christ. Each of these views can be supported with Scriptures. Having been in all three groups, I know there are sincere Bible centered believers in all of them. Obviously, all three cannot be true. Two of them have to be false.
This is a writing showing that the Doctrine of Eternal Death finds no support in the Greek or Hebrew texts. While the teaching makes the Christian God more loving and merciful than the Doctrine of Eternal Torment, there is a much more Scriptural way of proving that our Father’s mercy extends far beyond “Eternal Death,” or “Eternal Punishment.”
#115 - THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL – TONY HINKLE & GARY AMIRAULT
“Christian leaders have locked themselves into the teaching that the King James Bible is ‘the inerrant’ translation of the so-called original texts. They say the 66 books of the present King James Bible are inerrant, but they don’t tell you it lacks 14 entire books which were in the original King James of 1611. They don’t tell you the King James Bible has been changed many times in the last 350 years, and there have been thousands of corrections!
This world need to be set free of false images and concepts of our wonderful Father. Please meditate on this very thoughtfully and prayerfully. If eternal torment is the penalty for sin and the Creator did not want anyone ending up there, then it should stand to reason that He would make the warning as absolutely clear as He could make it to all mankind, past, present, and future. But the fact of the matter is that thousands upon thousands were born after Adam and they were never warned. Read the prophets and you will not find a place of eternal torment for the wicked. If the Creator loved us and created such a horrible place, He would surely have plastered the warning everywhere. The KJV has the phrase ‘everlasting punishment’ only once. Yet, when looking at these word in the Greek, even these two references turn out to be ‘age-during correction.’ Again we ask, if eternal torment be the horrible fate of most of mankind, why such a little warning?
The Scriptures tell us the mind of man cannot conceive the height, length, depth, and width of our Father’s love for His creation. His ways are much higher than our in all areas, including His justice, love, and wisdom. He wounds, but like a doctor, to bring about healing. He says ‘Vengeance is Mine’ knowing only He can return good for evil, an innocent life for a guilty one. He overcomes His enemies with good and tells you to do the same. His love never fails. Believe it. It will never fail anyone, including you. You can now enter into your rest. ‘For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth, of things in the heavens (Col. 1:20).
#116 - THE SECOND DEATH – A.E. SAXBY
“Orthodox theology holds the second death to be a state of endless torment in which the sufferers are held forever in conscious being by a continuous act of Divine preservation, with the soul object of a punishment without end. This however would in no sense be death. The second death does not perpetuate the hopeless condition of the sinner to all eternity.
What the Holy Spirit mean by ‘fire and brimstone’ is ‘divine purification,’ or a judgment fire which consumes all that is antagonistic to divine law and love.
Before the Great White Throne, that vast throng, their naked spirits conscious now of the blazing holiness of God, will be subjected to the process of the second death. What those processes are, their intensity and their duration, we are not told. They will suffice, however, not in themselves to perfect, but to bring those who suffer them to that agreement with the judgment upon sin which they effect, and through the cross finally to reconcile them to God (Col. 1:20), in a subjection where He will be ‘All in all.’ When that acquiescence in judgment upon sin is reached, and applied in soul and spirit, then will be possible the final victory over death. Hence it is written that when this subjection is reached, then and only then, ‘the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.’ ”
#117 - OVERWHELMING GRACE – JOHN H. ESSEX
“God is a despot. Paul in Ephesians 1:11, speaks of ‘the purpose of the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will.’ Yes, God exercise a despotic sway over the whole universe, but we are thankful for this because He is Love. Though He will brook no opposition to the furtherance of His purpose, He is never a tyrant. When He inflicts evil upon any, it is always in order that good may follow. His sovereign will is the ultimate salvation and blessing of all, that He may be All in all.
For all creation in its need,
The future is engraved
In words of life, for all to read,
‘In grace shall you be saved.’
Let every mental conflict cease,
Let every barrier fall,
For grace removes each bar to peace
Till Thou art All in all.
O God, how glorious is Thy grace!
How radiantly divine!
It stretches out its wide embrace,
To make all creatures Thine.
When God is All in all, the whole creation will have become His achievement, and every member will be a beneficiary of His OVERWHELMING GRACE.”
#118 - THE GOSPEL OF GRACE – CHARLES W. WELLER
“Love conquers all, for it is the love of God that allows humanity to see its frailty that in the bitter dregs it may choose life. I thank the Lord that the plan of redemption wasn’t a stop gap measure but a well thought out plan that in the fullness of time, all will have Christ as their head. Victory in Jesus!
Before creation there was no time. Since creation there has been time. But with the consummation of things and God becoming All in all, time will end, and sin, which is limited by time shall end. Yet, God and creation shall go on.
If God cannot surmount the evil in the world and turn it all into good, then there is a power equal and opposite to Him. But sin isn’t eternal. The cross of Calvary isn’t a ‘hope so’ move by God, but rather, a well conceived thought out solution to the problem of sin. There is an end to sin and to the death it causes. All shall be swallowed up into victory. Some, God has planned to accept Him now. Others, like Pharaoh, He hardens their heart. But being a righteous Judge He will show wrath on those who need it to cleanse them of their fallen nature.
The plan of God is such that His grace, that unmerited favor, will cause man and all of creation to be restored. Great was the joy of the father for the return of his son. How much more so will God be rejoicing at the restitution of all.
A father never beats a child to death for wrong, but corrects and loves regardless. Even so is our Heavenly Father. The mercy and love of God is to be so revealed that Jesus shall be All in all.
The purpose for the present is to save some. The purpose for the future is to save all. Because men have failed to see and understand the doctrine of election, it has propagated false ideas of salvation. Even he who dies in sin shall be saved as by fire. Victorious grace covers a larger redemption than many would consider.”
#119 - JUSTIFICATION – DONALD G. HAYTER
“Although God introduced sin through the agency of His creatures, yet He did not sin in so doing. For it was no mistake, no failure of His. It was in accord with His intention, and it will be justified by the beneficial results obtained through its agency.
God is justified in all He does, for His final intention to glorify Himself and bless all of His creatures is the dominating purpose which adds luster to all His eonian operations.
In the brilliant glory of His ultimate, the most somber and gloomy features of earth’s history are transformed into a brilliant display of His power, wisdom, and love.
During the final eons, every creature in the heavens, and on earth, and under the earth, will have learned of the sufferings of the Christ, and of the depths of the Father’s love revealed in them. And every knee will bow to Him Who died, acclaiming Him Lord, for the glory of God the Father. Very feebly we can enter into the joy, the satisfaction, the thankfulness that will be His as He views the vast potentials of love and adoration that will be pulsing within the heart of everyone.
Thus will all ultimately be justified. God’s matchless wisdom, serving in the cause of His love, has produced a method of salvation that calls forth the adoring wonder of our hearts. What a God we have!”
#120 - THE OUTCOME OF INFINITE GRACE – DR. LOYAL F. HURLEY
“Heb. 11:3 should read, ‘Through faith we understand that the ages were planned by the Word of God.’ The ages will collectively end. A literal translation of Heb. 9:16 is, ‘But now, once for all, with a view to the end of the ages, hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.’ (Alexander Thompson’s translation)
Throughout the eons there is sin and evil, condemnation and death. At the end of the eons, all will be reconciled through Christ’s blood (Col. 1:20). Only as one sees the plan of the ages does he see the beauty of God’s Program for the redemption of the race. When you perceive the truth concerning the ages your Bible will become a new and more wonderful Book than you knew you had.”
#121 - THE GOSPEL – BERT BAUMAN
“Our popular English Bible carries the name of an earthly monarch and so bears mute testimony to the influence the English King had over the translators. His directive to ‘do nothing that will disturb the tranquility of the church’, appears to have been taken very seriously by the translators since they often chose to interpret certain Greek words to support then current church doctrine, rather than render a faithful and consistent translation of the original.
I must confess to the admiration I feel for the absolute brilliance of Satan’s cunning and strategy. He has effectively polluted the entire fountain of truth from which Christians drink by causing confusion in the meaning of the single word aion, and its adjective aionios. It does not seem that this single word could be so important as to produce calamitous results, but it is just here that we see the utter genius of our adversary. Perhaps no other word, erroneously translated, could cause such widespread confusion and distortion of the truth. Practically all Christian doctrine is affected: the purposes of God, the nature of God, judgment, man’s destiny, and salvation – to say nothing of its effect upon our concept of the very God we worship and the way we treat one another as Christians, and the world at large.”
EDITOR’S ADDITION
AIÓN -- AIÓNIOS
http://www.tentmaker.org/books/Aion_lim.html
BERT BAUMAN continues, “The doctrine of eternal torment is not found in the Scripture but the teaching of judgment certainly is. But why judgment? Is it a matter of God’s vengeance only? The scriptures suggest that God’s judgments are desirable but not necessarily enjoyable. It is never pleasant to be judged, but the fruit of judgment is desirable. Correction produces righteousness which yields the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, while the chastening is unpleasant, the results are a blessing. Out of love for His creatures, God chastens, and corrects. He judges His creatures for their own good.
Did not Jesus teach us to love and do good even to our enemies? And while He admonishes us to be perfect even as our heavenly Father, would our Father be less than we are expected to be? Can love pour out vengeance for its own gratification, or judge to satisfy its own sense of justice? The result of God’s judgments must ultimately be profitable and beneficial to the one being punished, ‘for the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’ (Luke 9:56).”
#122 - WHAT GOD SAYS CONCERNING HELL – J.F. RODGERS
“May some poor soul whose loved one has died without receiving Christ as their Saviour, find a measure of relief in the assurance that they are neither now, nor ever shall be, tortured endlessly and consciously in an inferno of fire wrongly described as the eternal abode of the dammed. Instead, they will be deprived of life until the lake of fire which is the second death no longer exists.”
#123 - MAN’S FAILURE OR GOD’S SUCCESS – WHICH WILL STAND? – LEE SALISBURY
“The teaching of the ultimate exaltation of Jesus Christ and the ultimate reconciliation of all men unto Him, make God’s judgments consistent with His plan of creation. God’s judgments become understandable, purposeful, and constructive without violating any aspect of justice, truth, or mercy. If just one person were condemned to eternal torment, then God’s purpose in creation would have been defeated. God’s judgments are redemptive.
The end result of God’s judgments is, ‘That in the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, celestial, terrestrial, and subterranean, and every tongue will acclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10,11). God planned for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, both in the heavens, and on earth (Eph. 1:10). Amplified Bible
#124 - ETERNITY EXPLAINED – LEE SALISBURY
“Eternity and its synonyms are grievous mistranslations of Hebrew and Greek words. Both the Old and the New Testament misuses indicate a biased mind-set which hides God’s true nature and purpose. Based upon decisions made in this life on earth, it is supposed that the vast multitudes that miss heaven enter an eternal hell of burning torment and anguish.
The uniform translation of aion and its adjective form aionios solves many inconsistencies in Scripture study. Jesus came to give life eonian, a quality of relationship with the Father through Himself, a life that is only the earnest of much more to come.
The most shameful consequences of this error are the grotesque images which Christianity projects of God, Who is really so loving, wise, and powerful. God’s love nature corresponds with His purpose. His wisdom and majesty dominate the ages through which all mankind will be drawn to God’s goal of creating man in His own image, ‘that God may be All in all’ (1Cor. 15:28).
#125 - JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN? (SERIES OF16 CHAPTERS) J. PRESTON EBY
A great sixteen chapter introductory series to ultimate reconciliation.
J. Preston Eby does a thorough job covering many aspects of the topic.
Fundamental reading for any person interested in studying universalism from a solid Biblical perspective.
Highly Recommended!
Internet version
http://www.godfire.net/eby/saviour_of_the_world.html
Also watch the testimony video of J. Preston Eby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEwcWR8kxUs&feature=sub
#126 – FUNDAMENTALS OR BASIS OF BELIEF – Thomas Griffith
“We will get good out of evil. Our gracious Educator does evolve for us out of corruption, temptation and sin, new purposes, new skill, new triumphs.
Beyond the overruling of intermediate evil into subserviency to a higher good, what has been superinduced as a transition state of things is therefore seen to be necessary only for a time. It will pass away with the functions which it is made to fulfill. It will at last be superseded by the highest good for everyone.”
#127 – DOOMED TO BE SAVED – Frances Power Cobbe
“I think if we were not caught in the meshes of that wretched Augustinian scheme of theology which postulates eternal hell to compel us to accept it, -- I think, I say, if it were not for this theology, all Christendom must have long ago come to see, that, at the very least, God feels towards a sinner as a saint would do, and not as a man less good, or wise, or merciful.
We do not think man’s evil can, in the long run of the ages, finally outspeed God’s ever-pursuing mercy. He must overtake us sooner or later. We may temporarily choose evil rather than good, and vileness instead of nobleness, and be ungrateful and sinful. But God will get the better of us at last.”
#128 - This is a thrilling poem by Matthew Arnold, keeping in mind the following fact.
Universalism was The Prevailing Doctrine Of The Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years
http://hellbusters.8m.com/updcontents.html
As students of the history of Christian doctrine know, among believers in eternal torment, Tertullian was one of the most extreme. That is why I think this poem is so powerful. It sent a thrill up and down my spine.
“He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save!”
So rang Tertullian’s sentence, on the side
Of that unpitying Phrygian sect which cried, --
“Him can no fount of fresh forgiveness lave
Who sins, once washed by the baptismal wave!”
So spake the fierce Tertullian. But she sighed,
The infant church, of love she felt the tide
Stream on her from her Lord’s yet recent grave,
And then she smiled, and in the Catacombs,
With eye suffused, but heart inspired true,
On those walls subterranean, where she hid
Her head in ignominy, death and tombs,
She her Good Shepherd’s hasty image drew,
And on His shoulders, not a lamb, a kid.
#129 – A POEM BY A.G. CAMPBELL
I deem they greatly err, who hold
That He Who made the human soul,
Will not its destinies control
For final good – but, wrathful, fold
It in the shrouds of hopeless woe,
Of deathless gloom, of quenchless fire,
The creatures of His vengeful ire,
Whence it can never ransom know.
So, in the world to come, His love
Shall freely unto all abound;
Even prisoners in the depths profound
Shall see His kind face beam above
Their dreary cells, and hear His voice,
Unheeded once, in mercy call, --
“Turn, turn to Me and live!” and all
Shall hear the summons and rejoice.
Lost men, lost angels, shall return, --
Satan himself be purified;
Death shall be conquered in his pride,
And hell’s fierce fires shall cease to burn.
Then shall our God be All in all –
His love bear universal sway;
His love preserves all souls for aye,
Nor shall the weakest fear a fall.
#130 – FROM A SERMON ON UNIVERSALISM – Stopford A. Brooke
“That Christ should have descended to assume the nature of all men, only to cast them away as refuse to be burned, does so contradict His revelation that it is no wonder that the idea of everlasting ****ation should have destroyed men’s belief.
No, the earthly dead will move on, a mighty stream to mingle in the ocean of the righteousness of God, on that far off but certain day when God will be All in all.”
#131 – ENIGMAS OF LIFE, POSTSCRIPTUM – W.R. GREG
“Given a hell of torment and despair for millions of our friends and fellow men, can the good enjoy heaven except by becoming bad, -- miraculously changed and changed deplorably for the worst. In a word, putting on, along with the white garments of the redeemed, a coldness and hardness of heart? Does not this simple reflection suffice to disperse into thin air the current notions of a world of everlasting pain?”
#132 – THE SHAKING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH – Charles Kingsley
“We do not deny that the wages of sin is death. We do not deny the necessity and certainty of punishment. Only tell us not that it must be endless, and thereby destroy its whole purpose. We too believe in an eternal fire, but we believe its existence to be not a curse but a blessing. That fire is God Himself Who taketh away the sins of the world, and of Whom it is therefore written, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.”
#133 – POEM BY HELEN BRONTE
There lives within my heart,
A hope long nursed by me;
And should its cheering ray depart,
How dark my soul would be.
That as in Adam all have died,
In Christ shall all men live;
And ever round His throne abide
Eternal praise to give.
That even the wicked shall at last
Be fitted for the skies;
And when their dreadful doom is past
To light and life arise.
I ask not how remote the day,
Nor what the sinner’s woe,
Before their dross is purged away;
Enough for me to know,
That when the cup of wrath is drained,
The metal purified,
They’ll cling to what they once disdained
And live by Him Who died.
#134 – DISPUTED POINTS – George Dawson
“Take the doctrine in which most of you were brought up – that every man who is not saved will go to hell, and that hell is a constant fire whereunto a man must be condemned forever.
I am told this is in the Scriptures. I can’t find it; but if it were there I would not believe it. I was told that it was so, and I have no doubt I said it was so. But now I disbelieve it. If this is backsliding, I will backslide.
Well, how came we ever to doubt this horrific doctrine? Not that any commentator with marvelous exegesis showed us that the text did not mean that; -- for I am but little interested in the quibble that the fire burns forever, but that the thing put into the fire burn only so long as it is capable of burning.
What has put hell fire out is a better understanding of God, and a fuller comprehension of the quality of God’s love. The love of God conquers the assertion of orthodoxy.”
#135 – YUSEF – J. Ross Browne
“Oh, ye who are wrapped in the selfishness of a single idea! – ye who bode eternal destruction to others! Look out upon the world and learn that there are millions of human hearts as sincere and devoted as yours, who perceive a divine power great and good and merciful enough to save all, even to the weakest and most benighted.”
#137 – CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE – J.S. Taylor
I cannot believe that any being will exist in any part of the universe, so steeped in guilt and anguish (no, not Satan himself), as to be beyond the redeeming love and healing power of the Creator.
Oh, no; on the contrary, I believe that in this mysterious, but divinely ordained conflict of good and evil, the powers of light are everywhere slowly but surely gaining the ascendancy over the powers of darkness, and that it will continue to be so, even unto the perfect day; yes, that perfect day, wherein all these blessed victories over sin and ignorance shall have been consummated, these transformations completed, and no solitary stain of folly, guilt, or grief, be left to mar the luster of the universe.”
#138 – CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD – Edward Clodd
“You would think your father very hard and cruel if he loaded you with good things, and sent your brothers and sisters to some homeless spot to live uncared for and unloved. And yet that is exactly what some people say that God does. They have spoken of Him Who has given life to every man, woman and child as staying near only a few of His creatures, and leaving the rest to care for themselves.
Believe that He who is called our Father is better, more just, more loving, than the best fathers can be.”
#139 – BIBLE DICTIONARY – John R. Beard
“The word translated ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal’ expresses time, and not eternity.
Punishment that does not end in reformation is vindictiveness, which cannot be ascribed to our Merciful Father.
How then has it come to pass that belief in eternal punishment took root in the Christian church?
Ancient doctors of the church, mislead by theoretical conclusions, declared that sin was an infinite transgression, to be atoned for only by an infinite expiation. The doctrine is the child of human reasoning.”
#140 – IN MEMORIUM – Alfred Tennyson
“Oh, yes, we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood.
That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete:
Behold! We know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last – far off – at last to all,
And every Winter change to Spring.”
#141 – ONE RELIGION; MANY CREEDS – Ross Winans
“Our belief is that man, being governed and trained through time, a good and happy result must ensue to each individual. The idea of hell fire and eternal torment, when properly considered, is an idea that is alike blasphemous and illogical.
God has ordained that every man shall sooner or later, recognize and appreciate His blessings. Nothing else is consistent with His determinate will. God is a God of infinite goodness, not of vengeance; to be loved; to be worshiped for love’s sake, not through fear of everlasting punishment. We believe that every man will eventually love Him, and strive more and more to serve Him.”
#142 – THE STRANGER IN LOWELL – John Greenleaf Whittier
“Through discords of sin and sorrow, pain and wrong, truth rises, a deathless melody whose notes of wailing are hereafter to be changed to those of triumph as they blend with the great harmony of a reconciled universe.”
#143 – THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT – John A.D. Mauricq
“In Romans 5, the justification is co-extensive with the condemnation. Since all share in one, all share in the other. If only a certain portion of the human race had partaken of the sin of Adam, only a certain portion would partake of the justification of Christ. But St. Paul affirms all to have been involved in one, and all to be included in the other.”
#144 – DISSERTATIONS ON THE FINAL STATE OF MANKIND – Thomas Newton
“Nothing can be more contrary to the divine nature and attributes, than for a God all wise, all-good, all-powerful, and all-perfect, to bestow existence on any being Who He foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery without respite of end. His goodness could never give birth to any one being, and much less to numberless beings whose end He foresaw would be irretrievable misery; nor could even His justice inflict everlasting punishment.
God made all His creatures finally to be happy; He could never make any whose end He foreknew would be misery everlasting. God is love; infinite benevolence alone prompted Him to action, and infinite benevolence combined with unerring wisdom, and supported by irresistible power, will infallibly accomplish its purpose in the best possible manner.”
#146 – LIFE – Thomas Guthrie
“St. John uses a very broad expression. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he says, ‘is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ ‘The whole world. Ah,’ some would say, ‘that is dangerous language.’ It is God’s language – John speaking as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. It throws a zone of mercy around the world. Perish the thought that would narrow it by a hand’s breadth.”
#147 – AUTOBIOGRAPHY – LEIGH HUNT
“Are God and His ways to be represented as something so different from the best attributes of humanity? If an angel were to tell me to believe in eternal punishment I would not do it; for it would better become me to believe the angel a delusion, than God monstrous; and we make Him monstrous when we make Him the author of eternal punishment, though we may not have the courage to think so. For God’s sake, let us have piety enough to believe Him better.”
#148 – THE PEOPLE’S OWN BOOK – F. De La Mennais (1782-1854)
“If suffering was eternal, we should be compelled to conceive of it as independent, as subsisting by itself, or to admit something still more monstrous, for if it was not self-existent, if it was dependant on the divine will, God would be the direct author of eternal suffering.
But what Christ said is now and ever will be true:- ‘Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And one day all will come unto Him. The world, deluged with light, and feeling within itself, with the revival of hope, the revival also of faith and love, shall salute that day with songs of joy.”
#149 – THE EPICURIAN – Thomas Moore
“The God of benevolence, in Whose hands sin and death are but instruments of everlasting good, and Who, bringing all things ‘out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ proceeds watchfully, and unchangingly to the great, final object of His providence, the restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”
#150 – POEM BY HOSEA BALLOU (1771-1852)
“In God’s eternity
There shall a day arise,
When all the race of man shall be
With Jesus in the skies.
As night before the rays
Of morning flees away,
Sin shall retire before the blaze
Of God’s eternal day.
As music fills the grove
When stormy clouds are past,
Sweet anthems of redeeming love
Shall all employ at last.
Redeemed from death and sin
Shall Adam’s numerous race,
A ceaseless song of praise begin,
And shout redeeming grace.”
