Posted on 01/17/2016 5:29:57 PM PST by NRx
When they are in fashion, fads are never recognized as fads. Those under their influence and promoting them feel that they have come across An Important New Truth, or (if Orthodox) An Important But Neglected Part of Our Tradition. Recognizing them as fads or, (worse yet for Orthodox) as deviations from genuine Tradition, would only serve to dismiss them from serious consideration. Thus fads never ’fess up.
I suggest that the latest interest in Universalism, the belief that everyone will eventually be saved, is the latest fad (or, if preferred, that it is currently fashionable). Evidence of this may be found in the fact that the view is being promoted by a number of different people who have little contact with one another and with little else in common. Thus we find it promoted by a scholar such as David Bentley Hart in his essay God, Creation, and Evil, and also in more popular form (I am being polite), by Rob Bell in his best-seller Love Wins. (My review of the latter may be found here.)
Admittedly the conviction that everyone will eventually be saved (including Satan and the demons) has been expressed from time to time throughout Christian history (as has the unrelated conviction that Christ is not fully divine), but, like the latter Arian opinion, the majority of Christians have decided to pass on it. For people like the Orthodox who believe that God guides His Church and that therefore consensus matters, the solid fact of Christian consensus about the eternity of hell is surely significant.
Orthodox scholars rarely stand on their hind legs and boldly proclaim that everyone will be saved. Like Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, they simply ask “Dare We Hope for the Salvation of All?†(see his essay by that title in the anthology The Inner Kingdom), and then go on to answer, “Why yes, of courseâ€. Metropolitan Kallistos thus begins by declaring the question open (much like he recently declared the question of whether or not women may be ordained priests as open in the latest revision of his The Orthodox Church), and then proceeds to examine the evidence. We will do the same here, and examine the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the teaching of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Since this is a blog and not a book, the examination must of necessity be somewhat limited.
In order to be saved ,one must simply accept Jesus as the Son of God. That’s it.
If *everyone* will be saved then we must change the name to The Ten Suggestions.So “thou shalt not” becomes “maybe it would be better if you didn’t”
The Bible doesn’t teach universalism or that there is any chance at salvation except in this life. When churches start adding man made theology that isn’t in the Bible, anything goes.
Personally I am a “hopeful universalist”. Although I cannot state with certainty that all will one day be reconciled to God, I find ground to hope that this -may- happen. Because I truly do not wish any human being in hell.
In a word . . . no.
Camp Hill, Alabama is a small town, even smaller than it once was, and it has a little downtown of derelict buildings. It also has a rare and beautiful Universalist Church when one would only suspect Baptists, Methodist, and one or two other denominations in a town of that size in Alabama.
Dr. Lyman Ward came down from New York to Camp Hill to found the Southern Industrial Institute in 1898. Today it is Lyman Ward Military Academy and is something of a dinosaur: an all male military boarding school for grades six through twelve. As Dr. Ward was a Universalist minister a Universalist congregation was established in Camp Hill. The seldom used Universalist Church building still stands in this unusual Alabama town.
Given that God is just, would He condemn any of His Created Critters, at least would he condemn any of them irretrievably and forever?
Given that God is merciful, would He do that?
Given that God is Love, would He do that?
There ARE several Biblical teachings which clearly say, or at least which pretty clearly indicate, that such a strict result is part of His plan (verses to this effect or that have been cited supporting this view can be found in 2 Thessolonians, John, Luke, and etc.), we can call this the ‘narrow gate’ view (whether it is founded on a credal faith statement or a righteous lifestyle, or both). isWhat has become “othodox’ Christian teaching is pretty solidly in this camp, allowing in some instances for those people who never had the opportunity, or who never were blessed with a really good explanation, of the situation.
There ARE also several Biblical teachings which indicate that this is not the arrangement, or that He intends to (eventually, at least) take in all or most of us (Verses to this effects or that have been cited in arguments supporting this view can be found in I Corinthians, Lamentations, 1 Timothy, Collosians, Romans, 2 Peter, 1 Timothy, 1 John etc.), we can call this the more ‘universal’ view. Some of the subscribers to this side of the equation will include a ‘second chance to discover’ and/or a ‘reform and reconciliation’ stage to come..for those people who might otherwise be left outside under the ‘narrow gate’ view.
“When they are in fashion, fads are never recognized as fads.”
Really, now. Did we think at the time that mood rings and pet rocks would always be around? Sack dresses, volcano lamps, the list goes on and on.
The first letter of the Bible is bet. It is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It means house or home. It is sometimes called “the first distinction”. It identifies a separation of inside from outside. So the first “prophecy” in the Bible is that there will be a separation of those on the inside from those on the outside. So the answer is “no” not everyone will be saved.
Jesus said:
13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Jesus also said:
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus' words are pretty clear
Destruction or ETERNAL life.
He was also very clear saying:
but that the world through Him might be saved.
In order to save something, it first has to be able to be lost.
The term might be saved signifies that people are already lost, Jesus died so that SOME might be saved, knowing that ALL would not.
“In order to be saved, one must simply accept Jesus as the Son of God. That’s it.”
Satan acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God.
To be saved, one must confess their sins and repent of those sins and submit to the authority of Jesus as supreme in their life.
That is dying to one’s own sinful desires and being born again a new person under the authority of Jesus and free to live a life without the condemnation of sin.
What if they sin again?
I thought the purpose of Purgatory was to work off post-saved sins.
No, otherwise, Jesus is a liar.
God is just and sin demands payment.
God provided that in the person of Jesus Christ.
Anyone who dies and goes to hell has no one to blame but themselves.
“What if they sin again?”
“8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.” - 1 John 1
God never offered salvation to fallen angels so it doesn’t matter that Satan recognizes Jesus or whatever.
A born again believer who sins is still a born again believer who is still going to heaven.
Salvation is not on again, off again, depending on how much I sin or not sin.
Because the long and short of it is that EVERYTHING about us in the flesh is corrupted by sin and we can not not sin.
Only by the grace of God who forgives us ALL our sins, are we saved. He cancels the written record of debt that stands against us, so there is no sin left to pay for and suffering is not the way that happens anyway so no stay in purgatory is necessary or will work.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way the truth and the light. Nobody comes to the Father except by Me.”
Jesus put it quite plainly there.
What is the source of your inspiration?
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