Love Never Fails

Universal Salvation. ...even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. Ro 5:18
All will be saved. [God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. I Ti 2:4
The Reconciliation of all mankind. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself... Col 1:19-20
Good news to all men. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. Lu 2:10

These are still new ideas to me.  I casually live out my life, running my business, buying groceries, driving around the Southland, occasionally remembering that everyone will be won by our Lord.  I forget that the blood of Jesus now triumphs over the sin and debt of every man, woman, boy and girl.  I find myself surprised by the power of God's intervention in a person's life.  Not one will be left to wander in darkness.  God will leave the 99 to pursue the 1.  A lifetime of believing in the tradition of eternal torment for those who don't follow Christ in this life hinders my thinking.

I am not surprised that you, the reader, have a hard time taking in this "new" idea.  I can only guess at the emotions I would feel, the offense I would have taken five or ten years ago. All kinds of statements come to my mind concerning taking such a "heretical" path away from the tried and true course.  I remember many past judgments I have declared concerning the behavior and beliefs of other Christians.  I smile.  Now I am marginalized, I am the irrational thinker, I am the one reaping the scorn and derision.  And well I should be humbled, one always quick to contradict another's reason, often speaking before thinking, so full of "truth" and short on love.  I really enjoy God's humor in all this!

Inherent in all this is the love of God.  It has never changed.  I have changed and will change some more.  You have changed--your doctrine, your convictions.  We are not the idealists of yesterday nor will we remain as we are in years to come. 

When I consider how best to persuade you of the truth of God's promise of life for the world, I weigh the two extremes.  Should I show you how scripture gives consistent witness, how those proof texts for an eternal Hell are mistranslated and tradition is god for most Christians?  Or, should I show you that the character of God proves out our convictions?

Here in this blog we are trying to do both.  Scripture texts and the character of God revealed in scripture powerfully testify to God's desire to reconcile "all things (Col 1:19-20)." 

The crux of the traditional doctrine of Hell rests on God somehow taking a lobotomy at the end of this life.  His grace, love and power become harsh judgment, hate and powerlessness as he must now sentence most of his created beings to torment without end.  He is inexplicably unable to win them and save them.

I long for you to see that the God who never fails, the One with the keys of Hell and of Death, will accomplish what he has set out to do.  He will win them all!

For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14

Bumper Sticker Theology

Pain is an illusion, you are eternal!

This is the quote I read stenciled across the window of someone's car recently. 

I thought, "No, pain is real and you can't give hope to people unless you recognize this first!"

Maybe you think our disagreement with the Doctrine of Eternal Hell means we don't believe in any "sharp edges."  That we have produced some "loving God" out of touch with the truths of the Bible.  On the contrary, the accuracy of the Bible and the immutability (unchanging character) of God is crucial to our hope! 

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."
Gal 6:7

Men and Women across our nation daily reap what they have sown.  They face difficulty of all kinds.  In addition, many who we would consider upright suffer through incredible challenges, facing hardships from sickness to economical disaster.  Pain is real!  But so are the works of our creator, bringing judgment that leads us with love (Hosea 11:4), and refining trials that make us pure, (I Peter 1:6-7)...and expressing love that is stronger than death (Romans 8:35 & 36).

Into this nation, into this world of pain, we bring a God sized hope!  We point to Christ, His love and eternal purposes.  We offer this breath of life, this moment of joy to the hurting lost sheep (and the hurting "not so lost" sheep) who struggle to grasp or aggressively resist all truth.  We don't hold their lives by a thread over the fires of hell to try to scare it (that is, hell) out of them.  I suspect that many of them are already experiencing these fires right here!

Pain is real.  The blessed hope is real.

In some limited measure, we offer "heaven" right now, right here.  Correction: Jesus offers heaven.  The gift of God (Jesus!) is for all men, women and children right here, right now. 

Come to Jesus, He has a great healing ointment for that cut or bruise you've taken. 

Oh, Come on! How could the whole evangelical movement be wrong?

What? No eternal Hell?
Sounds ridiculous! Every christian knows there is an eternal Hell. What else are we saved from? We are the proclaimers of truth! We are the ones who know. We are the light of the world! This is just too fundamental, it's just too basic! How could all the seminarians miss this? If we could be wrong on this... what else could we have wrong? I don't want to try to rethink all the issues. I am sure that we all can't be wrong on this one. Besides I already know a couple of people who I think need to go to Hell forever. Maybe I just wouldn't want to share eternity with them. (Oh, that doesn't work too well with verses about christians being known by their love, and love your enemies, and if you don't forgive men then neither will I forgive you...)

If I started entertaining the belief that everyone will someday be saved, my christian friends would think I was heretical, and I would lose my close friendships... surely God wouldn't want that! Even my family members would reject me to a degree, maybe even cut off fellowship.

Do these thoughts ring true with you? They are sadly accurate, only I didn't realize this before I began sharing openly that I believed the huge conspiracy that began around the time of Augustine, causing the translations from Greek to Latin to English to become corrupted with the false doctrine which presents a false concept and image of our loving benevolent Father and His beautiful selfless Son.

Pr 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

Isa 29:14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Mt 11:25 ¶ At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Lu 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

1Jo 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Ro 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.


All that said, the severity of the changed relationships that I have experienced as a result of openly and honestly sharing what I believe to be "Good News" (gospel), has been intense, to say the least. I am not bitter, but I have felt and continue to feel the pain of lost fellowship, mainly with those who are scared by the doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all. I miss the respect I once had of those who can't see what I think I see so clearly, especially those in my own family, but I have confidence that this is part of God's good design and plan, and I appreciate the reality that pride is lessened and humility is increased. As a result of this experience, these two portions of Scripture have come alive with feeling and meaning for me:

Just after Jesus opened up and revealed essential truth for "eternal life" many couldn't understand or believe what He said, and this was the result: Joh 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? I believe this was a painful experience that our Lord endured. I never noticed it, or felt the emotion of it until I had experienced brothers and sisters in our fellowship who walked away because the teaching I was sharing was too hard to receive.

The second passage is: Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

I prayed this prayer for years, now and then, but it wasn't until so many in our fellowship walked away, that I began to experience fellowship with my Lord's sufferings in the moment when His disciples walked away.

When Jesus saw them walk away He said, "Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." So Jesus rested in the sovereign will of His Father, and so I rest in the same. (When I'm thinking right.)

That I may know Him... knowing Jesus is life in this age and in the age to come. (aionios life).
And the power of His resurrection... not just powerful enough to raise a few, but powerful enough to raise EVERYONE!
And the fellowship of His sufferings... to experience the same sufferings for the same cause is possibly the deepest form of fellowship!
I still don't think I understand the last phrase...being made conformable unto his death, but I'm sure it will be good thing when it occurs.