Return to Website

True Grace Ministries Message Board

When posting messages on this board, please keep the following in mind:

1. Respect each person's difference in religious beliefs, including the differences in doctrine, style and personality.

2. Only speak in edifying ways in regards to others.

Visit the True Grace Ministries Website

True Grace Ministries Message Board
Start a New Topic 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Author
Comment
Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#151 – In A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, John Wesley Hanson quotes Thomas Belsham (1750-1829).

“I affirm that there is not in the whole voluminous code of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of Revelation, one single passage, one solitary text, in which the doctrine of the eternity of hell-torments is taught.
We see the triumph of God’s benevolence in restoring the dead transgressor to life; in visiting him with suffering in exact proportion to the greatness of his offences; and finally, in his ultimate purification from moral stain, and his restoration to virtue, to happiness, and to God. This clears up at once all the difficulties of divine dispensations, and the belief of it fills the pious and contemplative mind with unspeakable satisfaction and delight.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#152 – In A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, John Wesley Hanson records the following words of John Prior Estlin (1747-1817).

“To a belief in the doctrine of the eternity of hell torments, I impute more absurdity, more misery, and more un-Christian conduct, than to all other false opinions put together. The effects of this doctrine, when a person applies it to himself, are gloom and despair, often terminating in mental derangement; when he applies it to others, pride, cruelty, hatred, and all the worst passions of human nature.

It certainly argues a greater degree of benevolence in the Governor of the world, after the punishment of His creatures, to restore them to His favor, than either to preserve them in misery, or to blot them out of existence.

The firm belief in the doctrine of final universal restoration, has afforded much consolation to myself during a large portion of my life; has rendered advanced years placid and serene, and enables me to contemplate death itself, notwithstanding its gloomy appearance, as one of the most essential blessings of the whole plan of Providence.

I would as a friend, advise everyone to take this subject into his most serious consideration. I would wish him to experience during the remainder of his life, all the happiness which results from the full persuasion of this delightful doctrine. I pray to God that others may experience that perpetual sunshine of the mind, that joy in the divine administration, that serenity through life, and that cheering prospect in the hour of death, which the belief in the doctrine of final universal restoration does so manifestly inspire.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#153 - In A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, John Wesley Hanson records the following words of Jung Stilling (1740-1817).

“Not a single soul will be lost. They will all – all be saved at last. The Holy Scriptures do not in one instance say the contrary. All the passages wherewith some are essaying to prove the infinity of hell torments, prove nothing further then that they shall continue an undefined time. The Hebrew word olam, and the Greek word aionios signify nowhere an infinite, but an indefinite length of time.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#154 – FOOL OF QUALITY – Henry Brooke

“And thus, on the grand and final consummation, when every will shall be subdued to the will of good to all, our Jesus will take in hand the resigned chordage of our hearts. He will tune them as so many instruments, and will touch them with the finger of His own divine feelings. Then shall the wisdom, the might, the goodness of our God, become the wisdom, might and goodness of all His intelligent creatures. The happiness of each shall multiply and overflow in the wishes and participation of the happiness of all. The universe shall begin to sound with the song of congratulation, and all voices shall break forth in an eternal hallelujah of praise transcending praise, and glory transcending glory to God and the Lamb.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#155 – OBSERVATIONS ON MAN – Dr. David Hartley

“I thank God that He has at last brought me to a lively sense of His infinite goodness and mercy to all, and that I now see it in all His works, and in every page of His Word. It has taught me to love every man and to rejoice in the happiness which our Heavenly Father intends for all; and has dispersed all the gloomy and melancholy thoughts which arise from the apprehension of eternal misery for myself or friends.

How long, or how much God will punish wicked men, He has nowhere said, and therefore I cannot tell. But this I am sure of, that in judgment He will remember mercy; that He chastens only because He loves, and His tender mercies are over all His works. God will conduct the wicked through all the afflictions which He thinks fit to lay upon them for their good, with infinite

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#156 - In A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, John Wesley Hanson records the following words of Olympiodorus (A.D. 550)

“Do not suppose that the soul is punished for endless eons. The soul is not punished to gratify the revenge of the divinity, but for the sake of healing. The soul is punished for an eonian period (aionios) calling its life and its allotted period of punishment its eon.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#157 – FUTURE LIFE - William Rounseville Alger

“Even the loathsome realm of darkness and torment shall be burnished and made part of the all-inclusive Paradise. All darkness, falsehood, and suffering, shall flee utterly away, and the whole universe be filled by the illumination of good spirits, blessed with fruitions of eternal delight.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#158 – THE DOCTRINE OF THE UNIVERSALISTS - Ulriucus Zuinglius

“I cannot believe that the Lord will cast away from Him nations whose only crime it is never to have heard of the gospel. No, let us abjure the rashness of setting bounds to the divine mercy.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#159 – THE MYSTERY OF GOD – Gerard Winstanley

“Christ Jesus will deliver all mankind out of bondage. This I see to be a truth by testimony of Scripture, as God is pleased to teach me. But this mystery of God is not to be done all at once, but in several dispensations, some whereof are past, some are in being, and some are yet to come. The whole creation of mankind, which is God’s work, shall be delivered from corruption, bondage, death, and pain. Mankind shall be by Christ reconciled to his Maker and be made one in spirit with Him; i.e. the curse shall be removed, and the power of it killed and consumed.

Truly this is according to the current of the whole Scriptures, that everyone shall be made of one heart and one spirit, i.e. that all shall be brought to obey the Father, walk humbly before Him, and live in peace and love in Him. This is the doctrine of Christ and the gospel. This is glad tidings to hear of. When you are made to enjoy this doctrine as yours, then you shall know what it is to know the Son, and what it is to be set free by the Son.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#160 – GOD’S LIGHT DECLARED IN MYSTERIES – Richard Coppin

“What is hell? Tis the separation from the enjoyment that the soul is capable of.
They shall not come forth till they have paid the utmost farthing, then shall they receive mercy. For know that God is good, and He will not punish a finite being infinitely.”

Richard Coppin also wrote a work with the following long title ---
“OF THE TORMENTS OF HELL; THE FOUNDATION AND PILLARS THEREOF DISCOVERED, SEARCHED, SHAKEN AND REMOVED, WITH INFALLABLE PROOF THAT THERE IS NOT TO BE A PUNISHMENT AFTER THIS LIFE THAT SHALL NEVER END FOR ANYONE TO ENDURE”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#161 – Thomas Whittemore wrote, “Entirely upon the ground of the Scriptures, according to the views he entertained of them, Jeremy White wrote a work in defense of the doctrine of universal salvation called
THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS, OR A VINDICATION OF THE GOODNESS AND GRACE OF GOD, TO BE MANIFESTED AT LAST IN THE RECOVERY OF HIS WHOLE CREATION OUT OF THEIR FALL.”

Thomas Whittemore continues, “Jeremy White believed that all are to be restored, and that we have the assurance of this truth in the character of God Who is love, to which His very anger is subservient, and that the Scriptures assure us of His complete abounding grace over all sin and all death.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#162 – REASON AND PHILOSOPHY NO ENEMIES TO FAITH – William Whiston (translator of Josephus)

“The words used about the duration of torments in the New Testament, and all over the Septuagint, whence the language of the New Testament was taken, no where mean eternity. My reasons for that opinion I have long embraced, and intimated to the world against the eternity of hell torments.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#163 – Sir Isaac Newton, commenting on Scriptures in the book of Revelation wrote

“The degree and duration of the torments of degenerate and anti-Christian people should be no other than would be approved of by those angels who had ever labored for their salvation, and the Lamb Who has redeemed them with His most precious blood.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#164 – THE PHILOSPHICAL PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION – Andrew Michael Ramsay

“Eternal Providence desires, wills and employs continually all the means necessary to lead intelligent creatures to ultimate and supreme happiness. Almighty Power, wisdom and love cannot be eternally frustrated in His absolute and ultimate designs: therefore, God will at last pardon and re-establish in happiness all lapsed beings.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#165 – From a letter to Dr. Phillip Doddridge from Henry J. Barker:

“It is so. We read it in the book of God, that word and truth and gospel of our salvation, that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Yes Doddridge, it is so. The fruit of our Redeemer’s sufferings and victory is the entire and eternal destruction of sin and death for everyone. And is it not a glorious destruction? A most blessed ruin? No enemy so formidable, no tyranny so bitter, no fetters so heavy and galling, no prison so dark and dismal, but they are vanquished and disarmed; the unerring dart is blunted and broken, the prison pulled down and razed. Our Lord is risen as the first fruits of them that slept.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#166 – THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL – Paul Siegvolk

“As the centre of the whole Bible, whereat all its contents aim, is this, that by God in the beginning every thing was created very good; and that by Christ, the heavenly Wisdom, through Whom all things were created, all whatsoever is corrupted through sin, must at last be made good again. So may anyone whose eyes are opened to see clearly into this point, find a great many testimonies of this eternal truth, both in the books of the Old and New Testament.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#167 – THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF HAPPINESS - Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart

“God can never punish any, more than is necessary for his reformation. He cannot mistake in the choice of His means, and must always reach His end. He would appear less lovely if one creature should be forever miserable.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#168 – APOLOGY FOR SOCRATES - Johann August Eberhard

“Punishment being an evil, cannot be employed by a good being, unless for ends whose goodness is greater than the evils suffered, and which could not be obtained without inflicting them. God punishes not for the common good only, but also for the reformation of the sufferer; which being accomplished, punishment has no further use. It was designed to influence the love and practice of virtue; and when these are produced, it must give place to the happy consequences of amendment. Punishment therefore, being a benefit even to the sufferer, when properly viewed by him, must produce emotions of love and gratitude.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#169 – HISTORY OF THE CHURCH – John Le Clerc

“Christ’s judgment will be conducted so that its justice shall be seen by all. For the great diversity of crimes there will be a proportional variety of punishments, whatever they consist in. Aionios may be considered an indefinite duration to which God hath placed no limits known to us, the word sometimes signifying an AGE.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#170 - INTRODUCTION OF JOHN’S GOSPEL – Samuel Crellius

“I am persuaded that all men will be finally saved by Jesus Christ, and delivered from the torments of hell.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#171 – PHILOSOPHICAL AND CRITICAL INQUIRIES CONCERNIG CHRISTIANITY – Charles Bonnet

“It will be suitable to the spirit of the whole system of thought to set forth the pains of the wicked as aionion, or rather of an indefinite duration.

If in the Supreme Being, justice be goodness guided by wisdom; if Almighty Benevolence essentially requires the improvement of all intelligent beings; if punishments can be the means of leading to perfection; if there be more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth; if there be much love where much has been forgiven: My heart leaps for joy – I am lost in admiration – what a wonderful chain of doctrines! The compassion of the Only Good is infinite – ‘He desireth not the death of a sinner; but that he should turn from his wickedness and live.’ God DESIRETH! – and shall He desire in vain?

The celestial heralds commissioned to celebrate by their hymns the glad tidings, were to instruct these shepherds in the object and the extent of the mission of Christ – on earth peace, good will towards men – GOOD WILL – not towards one single elected nation, but towards all the nations of the world. GOOD WILL – not to one single generation; but to every generation past and to come. The Benevolence of the Best and greatest of Beings includes all mankind, BECAUSE HE IS THE FATHER OF ALL.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#172 – THE MODERN HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM – Thomas Whittimore

“In his book THOUGHTS ON DIVINE GOODNESS, Ferdinand Oliver Petitpierre taught that men are sinners, and God punishes them with severity; but this severity is dictated by goodness, and all the punishments God inflicts are declared to be for the sinner’s good.

How opposed to this is the dreadful doctrine of eternal punishment, and error which grew up under a misconception of the meaning of the word rendered everlasting. God punishes always to reform, a fact which the author establishes with the most irresistible reasoning.

‘These shall go away into eonian punishment’ in which the word rendered punishment, he maintains, quoting the authority of Wittenbach, and Grotius, signifies a remedial, corrective discipline. The infinite authority of God is entirely founded on His goodness.
‘Eternal’ punishment is real evil, an infinite evil, in which everything conspires to exclude from God’s plan of the ages.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#173 – ERSKINE’S SKETCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY records the words of John Gasper Christian Lavater.

“God is not gracious in time and cruel through eternity. Ascribe not to God, what in a human judge all would account a defect in wisdom and goodness, the punishing for the sake of punishing. It is enough my Creator, Thou art love. Love seeketh not her own; Thou seekest the happiness of all, and shouldst Thou not then find what Thou seekest? Shouldst Thou not be able to do what Thou willest?

My prayers are comprehensive. I embrace in my heart all men; present and future times, and nations, yea Satan himself. I present them all to God, with the warmest wishes that He will have mercy on them all.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#174 - WHAT IS TRUTH? ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE – Don Bast (published 2011)

“It has taken me a long time to unlearn the harmful instruction received over many years of indoctrination. It is God’s word alone that is the trustworthy source of truth. The good news of the glory of our happy God (1Tim. 1:11) will expose the error and set us free from the spiritual bondage of man’s creeds.

At the present time salvation is enjoyed only by those who believe; the balance of mankind will be saved at the consummation. A savior is one who actually saves. God is the savior of all mankind, not just the ‘potential’ savior. When the truth concerning the eons displaces the error about eternity, judgment and grace are seen to work harmoniously together till each reaches its predestined goal. All the threats of punishment to follow the judgment of the wicked can be accepted at their full, dreadful value without doing violence to our innate sense of justice, and without denying the predictions of a final victory of grace.

Someday the entire creation itself shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God, and is groaning and travailing, even now, in anticipation. We ourselves also, who have the first fruit of the spirit, we also are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the deliverance of our body. For to expectation were we saved (Rom. 8:21-24).

Whatever trials and troubles come our way we are assured that it is not a sign of God’s anger or even displeasure. The bond of love we share with God through His Son will never be broken. His desire to please us and be with us never changes. The love of God in our hearts is our steadfast anchor through all the storms of life.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#175 – MEMOIRS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF MY FATHER (James Necker) – by Baroness de Stael Holstien

“Eternal punishment! Power Almighty, can they who entertain such an idea know Thee? Eternal fire for those miserable creatures who have so many combats to sustain, and are armed with such feeble weapons! Power Almighty, Thy goodness preceded our birth, it still subsists, it will subsist after we are cut off by the hand of death.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#176 – LETTER OF RESOLUTION – clergyman George Rust

“To imagine that man, for his disposition, be kept in a never-to-be-ended doom of intolerable pain and anguish of body and mind, is to fix so harsh a note upon the mercy and equity of the Righteous Judge of all the world, that the same temper in a man we would execrate and abominate.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#177 – IN A LETTER FROM WILLIAM DUNCOMBE TO REV. SAMUEL SAY

“Vindictive justice, in the Deity, is, I own, no article in my creed. All punishment in the hands of an infinitely wise and good Being, I think, must be medicinal, and what we call chastisement.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#178 – POEM by Soame Jenyns (eighteenth century)

“Oh could mankind but make this truth their guide
And force the helm from prejudice and pride,
Were once these maxims fixed, that God’s our friend,
Virtue our good, and happiness our end.

How soon must reason o’er the world prevail,
And error, fraud and superstition fail!
None would hereafter, then, with groundless fear,
Describe the Almighty cruel and severe

Predestinating some without pretense
To Heav’n, and some to hell for no offense;
Inflicting endless pains for transient crimes,
And fav’ring sects, or nations, men or climbs.

None would fierce zeal for piety mistake,
Or malice for whatever tenets sake,
Or think salvation to a few confined
And heav’n too narrow to contain mankind!”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#179 – DYER’S LIFE OF ROBINSON (eighteenth century)
In a letter to a friend, Robert Robinson wrote

“These believers in eternal torment are never shocked; they never blush; but affirm, ‘This is wise and just, and kind; and it will be more glorious to God to save me, and **** them to endless and unavoidable woe, than it would be to share eternal life amongst us, and we few, though we hate one another here, shall be the happier for the ****ation of the rest.’

Barbarians! What arrogant madness inspires you?
Poor * honies! -- servants that know not what their Lord doth.
O my soul, to such be not thou united.
Cursed be their anger, for it is cruel.”

* (definition of “honies” – “the common man without proper revelation”)

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#180 – SERMONS by George Walker (eighteenth century)

“Some have thought that they could not clothe the future punishment of sin with sufficient terrors, and have given therefore, such exaggerated descriptions of them, both as to degree and duration, as in the opinion of many, can no way be reconciled with just sentiments of God.

The future punishment of the wicked does, in God’s nature, suppose a capacity to be relieved of it, of gradually acquiring that better state of mind, and returning inclination towards virtue, which is the first and most desirable end of all punishment.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#181 – From a letter by John Henderson to Dr. Joseph Priestly (eighteenth century)

“God hath declared that His will is that all should be saved; therefore, the doctrine which forges a contrary will, falsifies supreme unchangeable truth.

Unceasing torments can answer no possible good to anyone in the universe. I conclude them to be neither the will or work of God. Could I suppose them, I must believe them to be inflicted by a wantonness or cruelty which words cannot express, nor heart conceive.
But let this be the comfort of every humble soul, that it hath pleased God to reconcile all things to Himself.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#182 – LITERARY HOURS – Dr. Nathan Drake

“That sin and torture should be eternal can neither accord with the justice nor the goodness of Deity, and would appear to many devout Christians to convert the God they should adore and love, into a perfect demon. Fortunately, however, an opinion so repulsive is neither accordant with reason, nor the Scriptures.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#183 – MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS AND THOUGHTS – William Matthews

“In my childhood I found it impossible to fix my belief in the common notion of endless torments. I discovered there are plain arguments from reason and Scripture against that presumptuous doctrine of endless punishment, and I am now cheered with the rational, Scriptural, and as I think, glorious doctrine of the punishment of Divine justice being eventually subservient to a universal purification and fitness for heavenly habitations.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#184 – CHRIST GLORIFIED IN THE SALVATION AND RESTORATION OF ALL MANKIND – Francis Leicester

“But the Scripture which crowns all, and the last which I shall bring into proof, is Revelation 5:13. Here all creation is at Christ’s feet, and that not with tears in their eyes, or petitions in their hands, not with crying or supplications or weeping because things were hidden and kept secret; but with joy in their hearts, and praises in their mouths; with melody on their lips, and hallelujahs on their tongues; with looks and countenances full of satisfaction and delight; and their faces, instead of gathering blackness, turning into paleness, or being covered with shame and confusion (as once was the case with some of them) they all now shine as the sun, replete with light, life and love, full of ecstasy and rapture. And that because the book written within and on the backside, and sealed with seven seals, is now opened and unsealed, and all things revealed and explained: their own cases particularly unfolded to their view, with all the ways and means their loving Saviour took to bring them to the situation they are now in, with other miracles of grace and love.

Where then there is universal praise and thanksgiving, universal harmony and love, and both heaven and earth sounding and resounding acclamations of joy and peace, there must be universal salvation.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#185 – Anna Letitia Barbuald, widow of Rev. Rochemont Barbuald wrote

“Rochemont’s favorite doctrine was the final salvation of all the human race. He preached many sermons on this doctrine, which he defended both in the pulpit and in conversation with zeal and enthusiasm, which his congregation and his friends cannot but well remember.”

Anna further commented, “I think it would be desirable to separate from religion that idea of gloom, which in this country (England) has but too generally accompanied it.
No one who embraces the common idea of future endless torments, that sins committed against an infinite Being do therefore deserve infinite punishment, no one, I will venture to assert, can believe such tenants, and have them often in his thoughts, and yet be cheerful.

Surely this age (the eighteenth century) which has demolished dungeons, rejected torture, and given so fair a prospect of abolishing the iniquity of the slave trade, cannot long retain among its articles of belief, the gloomy perplexities of Calvinism, and the heart-withering perspective of cruel and never-ending punishments.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#186 – AN ESSAY ON UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION; TENDING TO PROVE THAT THE GENERAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE FAVORS THE OPINION OF THE FINAL SALVATION OF ALL MANKIND. – Rev. John Brown (eighteenth century)

In UNIVERSALIST MISCELLANY, commenting on that work, William Vidler wrote,
“He considers the genuine import of the words and phrases which are thought to prove the endless duration of punishment, which he contends do not necessarily bear that sense, and he touches upon the usual topics of argument by which universalism has been defended.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#187 – CONVERSATIONS ON THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT – Theophilus Lindsey

“The doctrine of eternal torments is a millstone that Christians hang around the neck of the Gospel. The words translated ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting,’ ‘forever,’ and the like, generally signify limited periods of duration.

Everything is from God, and for the good of all. All things, good as well as what we call evil, are appointed by Infinite Wisdom and Benevolence, for the wisest and most gracious purposes for everyone.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#188 – About Dr. Joseph Priestly, Thomas Whittimore writes in THE MODERN HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM

“He believed that God’s punishment will not be administered with the slightest tincture of revenge, but as a necessary means of qualifying the sinner for a better state of existence, which his present propensities disqualify him from enjoying. It is not the effect of anger in an irritated and avenging tyrant as the abominable tenets of orthodoxy would induce us to think of the Deity, but it is the medicine administered for our good by the Physician of our souls. Nor have we any reason to believe that it is greater in degree, or longer in duration than is necessary to produce the beneficial effect for which it is inflicted.

It was a constant source of great consolation to him that all things exist and move on harmoniously to produce universal good by Divine appointment and direction.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#189 – In an introduction to his translation of the New Testament, Nathaniel Scarlett wrote

“It has been a means of propagating the doctrine of endless ****ation, which states that God will kindle a fire, and so constantly supply it with combustible matter, brimstone, by His all creating power, as to endure as long as He Himself shall exist; and that the subjects of future punishment, being raised incorruptible and indissoluble, shall for the same period endure burning in the lake of fire, God having no end in view but the endless misery of His creatures.

The editor hopes the translation he has given will help to remove so degrading an idea of God, Who is love; and although He will afflict the wicked in the lake of fire and brimstone; yet He has a great and grand design in so doing – punishment being a means to accomplish an end, and not the end itself.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Fourteen other literally (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).

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#190 – In a letter to a friend, James Edmands (nineteenth century) wrote

“The death of Christ ensured the restoration of all as a result. Men are now in the hands of a Mediator, Who deals with them as rational and accountable beings, and afflicts, whether here or hereafter, only in order to bring them to a deep sense of their own folly, and then restores them to His favor. Those who love and believe in Him in this life, are the first fruits, and those who do not will be the harvest or ingathering.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#191 – Clement of Alexandria (150-215 A.D.)

“God’s justice is, of itself, nothing but goodness; for it rewards the virtuous with blessings, and conduces to the improvement of the sinful. God’s punishment is, in its operation, like medicine: it dissolves the hard heart, purges away the filth of uncleanness, and reduces the swellings of pride and haughtiness; thus restoring its subject to a sound and healthful state.

The necessary chastisements of the Great Judge, Who regards all with benignity, will make mankind grieve for their sins and imperfections, and advance them through the various states of discipline to perfection. Even God’s wrath is full of benevolence towards the human race; for whose sake the Word of God was made man. The chastisements of God are always salutary and instructive, leading to amendment.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#192 – Origen Adamantius (185- 254 A.D.)

“The end and consummation of the world will take place when all the wicked shall be subjected to punishments. How long each one shall suffer God only knows. The great variety of characters and different orders of beings which now exist, will, through the goodness of God, their subjection to Jesus Christ, and the unity of the Holy Spirit, be finally restored. As the sick must be cured by harsh medicines, so God administers for the purpose of amendatation.

Our God is a consuming fire. He shall come as a refiner’s fire, to purify rational nature from the alloy of wickedness. Rivers of fire are said to go forth before the face of God for the purpose of consuming whatever of evil is admixed with the soul. (Dan. 7:10).

We assert that the Word, Who is the Wisdom of God, shall bring together all intelligent creatures, and convert them to His own perfection. We deny that of all the vices of the soul, there is any which the supreme Word cannot cure. For the Word is more powerful than all the diseases of the soul; and He applies His remedies to each one, according to the pleasure of God. And the consummation of all things will be the extinction of sin.
This may not, indeed, take place with mankind in the present life, but be accomplished after they shall have been liberated from the body.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#193 – AGAINST THE MANICHEANS - Titus of Bostra (written 364 A.D)

“The abyss of hell is indeed the place of torment; but it is not eternal. The punishments are holy, as they are remedial and salutary in their effect upon transgressors; for they are inflicted, not to preserve them in their wickedness, but to make them cease from their wickedness.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#194 – Gregory of Nyssa (335-390)

What is the scope of St. Paul’s dissertations? That the nature of evil shall, at length, be wholly exterminated, and divine immortal goodness embrace within itself every rational creature; so that of all who were made by God, not one shall be excluded from His kingdom. All the viciousness that like a corrupt matter is mingled in things shall be dissolved and consumed in fire; and everything shall be restored to its pristine state of purity.

In 1Cor. 15:22-28, the apostle Paul declares the extinction of all sin, saying that God will be All in all. For God will be truly All in all only when no evil shall remain in the nature of things. All evil must at length, be entirely removed from everything, so that it shall no more exist. For such being the nature of sin, that it cannot exist without a corrupt motive, it must, of course, be perfectly dissolved and wholly destroyed, so that nothing can remain a receptacle of it, when all motive and influences shall spring from God alone.

As the devil assumed a fleshly shape in order to ruin human nature, so the Lord took flesh for the salvation of man; and thus He blesses not only him who was ruined, but him also who led him into perdition; so that He both delivers man from sin, and heals the author of sin himself.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#195 – Didymus, the blind, of Alexandria (313-398 A.D.)

“As mankind, by being reclaimed from their sins, are to be subjected to Christ in the fullness of the dispensation instituted for the salvation of all, and the superior rational intelligences, the angels, will be restored to obedience by correction.

The blasphemy which shall not be forgiven in this age, nor in the age to come, may have been the blinded Jews; and their punishment, that which came upon them when they were delivered up to the Romans, and scattered over the whole earth. They will be pursued with vengeance from the Lord, not for a short period only, but for the whole future age, so that they shall be captives and fugitives, wandering among all nations, and possessing neither city nor country. Nevertheless, as God Who overthrew them is naturally kind and compassionate, He hath still reserved for them a space for repentance.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#196 – COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT – Jerome (347-420 A.D.)

“In the end or consummation of things, all shall be restored to their original state, and be again united in one body. We cannot be ignorant that Christ’s blood benefited the angels and those who are in hell; though we know not the manner in which it produced such effects. The apostate angels shall become such as they were created; and man, who has been cast out of paradise, shall be restored thither again. And this shall be accomplished in such a way, that all shall be united together by mutual charity, so that the members will delight in each other, and rejoice in each other’s promotion.

The apostate angels, and the prince of this world, though now ungovernable, plunging themselves into the depths of sin, shall, in the end, embrace the happy dominion of Christ and His saints.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#197 – AVITUS and BASIL, A GRECIAN (approx. 410 A.D.) together taught

“Future torments are not endless; for although they are called everlasting, yet that word in the original Greek, does not, according to its etymology, and its frequent use, signify endless, but answers only to the duration of an age; so that every sinner, after the purification of his conscience, shall return into the unity of the body of Christ.
The devil himself will at length be saved, when all his wickedness shall have been subdued.

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#198 – Theodorus of Mopsuestia (350-428 A.D.)

“All sins will be wiped away, because a true remission consists in the remission not of some sins but of all of them, as the blessed John said: "Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." This, however, will take place fully in the next world when after the resurrection we shall be immortal and when all the impulses of sins will cease. This is the reason why the blessed Paul also said: "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain and ye are yet in your sins." He shows in this that in the future resurrection from the dead we are expecting complete abolition of sin.

"When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of the sin is the law." Then will truly take place the abolition of all these: of death, sin and corruption.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#199 - John Scottus Eriugena (810-877 A.D)
“There will be a conscious return (reditus) and merging of all beings into God. No souls (including the souls of animals) will be left out of this grand return. No one will be ****ed to suffer forever in hell or wither away into oblivion. There can only be a single destination for all: eternal salvation in God, the whole of humanity as in the image of God eventually to be restored to its divine exemplar.

The object of punishment is not the will of the individual himself, but the misdirection of the will, so the result of punishment is the final purification and redemption of all. Even the devils shall be saved. The ultimate goal is deification, theosis or resumption into the divine being, when the individual soul is raised to a full knowledge of God, and where knowing and being are one.”

Re: SNIPPETS FROM THE HARD COPY UR LIBRARY OF RODGER TUTT

#200 – THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS – Jeremiah White (1613-72 A.D)

“God’s love demands that all punishment be reformative, Divine punishment is both good in itself, because everything that God does is good, and good for those being punished, because God loves His creation”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8