What passages from Paul’s writings have you seen used in an attempt to dismiss/refute UR, for example 2 Thes. 1:6-9?
That’s pretty much the only one although Romans 1.18-32 is sometimes thrown on the table. Also in feedback from my recent EU seminar at the ICS conference, one of the participants cited 2 Corinthians 5.20-6.2 as one of the passages he feels makes the universalist view unsustainable.
Thanks Drew,
It is really amazing to me that Paul did not once affirm belief in Hell or ECT. He does say that Jesus saves us from something, but it is not Hell; Jesus saves us not from ECT but from PEC (this Present Evil Age)!
That’s right Sherman. I think it is even more telling that there are no hell warnings in any of the apostles’ preaching recorded in Acts. Surely the warnings would be there if ECT were true.
The more I study the more I realize that the New Testament writers, Jesus, and the Apostles were talking about release from the Old World system of morals, ethics and commitments which no longer applicable. So I read anywhere they spoke of judgment or the end, it was not talking about those outside the Law but talking to those who still believe or as bondservants, submit themselves to the Law.
The more and more I read and study the more I realize Jesus came to release Hebrews from the Law that kept them blinded, and the apostles warned seriously against any Gentile being put under the Law of the Hebrews or similar archaic laws that they submitted themselves to. The warning was the Law and it’s covenants were no longer applicable and would only lead to hardship and destruction for those who continue to abide by it.
So now, look back in history and judge for yourself, was Jesus and the apostles correct? Are we not going NOW into the civilization that Jesus preached and the apostles looked forward too? One of freedom, tolerance, and self-regulation through godly instruction (love one another, etc.).
So EVERYTHING Christianity teaches in the ECT world is not real in the first place because they are still blinded by the Law and continue to submit themselves to it and therefore they see everything through a wrong perception.
So, any other examples? Or is Paul really that quiet concerning possible ECT?
I don’t see 2thes 1:6-9 as anti UR. There is responsibility for sin. If the soul’s stain (which I argue is the cause of sin, and which needs to be removed in ‘spiritual surgery’) undergoes eternal destuction, it is being healed by God’s grace so the offending individual will not offend thus again. Eternality applies to the extent and degree to which this stain is removed, not to a length of punishment, which is illogical.
In my debate with TFan last year, he appealed to Rom 9. (Actually we both did. 
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Usually it’s the Calvinists who go this route, and TFan is definitely Calv, but he presented it (and other verses) in a way that Arm or Calv could accept without getting into Arm/Calv distinctions there.