Welcome back - this has been a most interesting thread. I have nothing of value to contribute but have enjoyed the debate.
What I believe is significant about this passage is that it parallels in structure to one found is Matthew 5:13 as part of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, as an extention of the Beatitude of the previous two verses:
*Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. *
Here Jesus is addressing the multitude, along with His disciples, concerning the attitude one should have in the midst of persecution. And it speaks of reward in heaven. But the structure of the ‘salt’ phrase in verse 13 is so similiar to the one in Mark 9:50 that I think it warrants further discussion.
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. - Matthew 5:13
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
They’re so closely related that I usually quote part of Matt 5:13 when reffing Mark 9:49-50.
One thing worth noting is that in one place “salt” refers to the result of the everlasting fire of Gehenna (with which everyone shall be salted), and in the other place “salt” refers to proper disciples of Christ–and the warning about losing savor is directed against the proper disciples!
I think part of the meaning is that we should lose neither the disciplinary rejection of sin nor the ultimate love and hope of what’s happening via the Holy Spirit (the one and only pura eonian) in Gehenna. But there are several other ways that this can also be applied.
(Unfortunately, pseudo-flu is keeping me from contributing much more today… 
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Actually, what I was implying was that while most Christian believe that we are scott-free because of the Blood of Christ (which in a way we are), that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a process fo purification, starting here on earth, and continuing beyond. I think many Christians are in for a rude awakening. Never thought I’d bend toward the notion of purgatory, but I think it is the price to pay if one is going to take UR seriously.
Yep, that’s a major point of Mark 9:49-50, too; especially in the larger context of the preceding block of narrative material (found in all three Synoptics, talking about what happens on the final trip to Capernaum from the site of the Transfiguration scene). Christ flat-out tells the apostles themselves that if they don’t repent and become humble, like the child in their midst, they will absolutely not by any means be entering into the kingdom: rude awakening language if there ever was any. (I love to point out that at least 80% of what Christ has to say about wrath, hell and punishment in the Gospels, is directed toward lazy and/or uncharitable servants of His. That means us, not those-people-over-there. 
I say “at least 80%”, being conservative; I expect the percentage is more like 100%. 
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There are, of course, a number of universalists (including here on the forum) who deny any kind of purgatorial process (post-portem anyway); mainly because they (rightly) want to avoid teaching a doctrine of salvation by works, and are worried that purgatory necessarily involves such a doctrine.
In as far as justification is concerned, no. But I don’t believe ‘salvation’ ends at our confession of Christ. Rather it is a beginning process to conform us into the image of Christ. I doubt many of us will even get to that point, at least in this life. I can’t see a instant change in our behavior upon death either. Oh, yes, well be changed in a blink of an eye, putting on immortality (or does that happen at the resurrection?), but like riding a bicycle I’d think that it would take some time to adjust. I still think we will in process of conforming to His image. Just too much baggage left.
I really liked your way of putting it there.
Dondi,
The way I have come to view this statement is that it seems similar to Paul’s instructions to “judge yourselves and you will not be judged.”
To have peace one with another they would have had to judge themselves…lay down their lives…prefer one over the other, treat each other as they want to be treated…to do these things means they would have to judge/purify themselves. If God is in us then we should have this “fire/salt” in us. I believe it is possible for us to live in peace with each other as well as offer light to those in darkness when we do this.
What do you think about this?
Debbie
ps…I have embraced Christian Universalism.
Jason, just a parenthetical note on A.E. Knoch for you.
Knoch was indeed not a universalist when he began his work on the Concordant literal translation of the scripture, but became one during the course of the tranlsation work(!), when he realized the implications of our mistranslation of (particularly) aion and its derivatives from the original language.
So you were sort of right both when you said he wasn’t a universalist, then said he was… 
Which is ironic concerning Jerome (the Latin translator of the Scripture) was a Unviersalist, the said he wasn’t…
Jesus said you must be born again or born from above to see the kingdom of God or you will see the kingdom of Satan. ( Hell).
Where did Jesus say that those who aren’t born again (I assume you mean before they die) will “see the kingdom of Satan?” And where are we told that “the kingdom of Satan” is “hell?”
Aaron.
If you are not born again or born from above you will not see the kingdom of Heaven. So, if you don’t see the kingdom of Heaven there is only one other place you will see, Hell. John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son WILL NOT SEE LIFE, BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDES ON HIM.”
Aaron’s point proven.
There is NO WHERE but in the imagination of ‘Born Again’, where they will “see the kingdom of Satan” and that so-called kingdom is ‘Hell’.
Aaron: 1
Born Again: 0
Studentoftheword.
Aaron’ s point proven? The kingdom of Satan was a figure of speech of where people go if they do not get born again. If you are not born again or born from above you will not see the kingdom of Heaven. So, if you don’t see the kingdom of Heaven there is only one other place you will see, Hell. John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son WILL NOT SEE LIFE, BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDES ON HIM.”
Born Again,
I fully agree that the wrath of God abides on all who do not obey the Son, and that no one can see the kingdom of heaven until they are born again. What you need to show in order to make a case against universal salvation is that those who do not enter the kingdom of God before they die will never enter it, and that some will never obey the Son and thus see life. But this you cannot do. Scripture teaches that, at a yet future time, all sinners will be made righteous, subjected to Christ and reconciled to God (Rom 5:15-19; 8:19-21; 11:25-26-36; 1 Cor 15:20-28, 42-57; Eph 1:7-10; Phil 2:9-10; 3:21; Col 1:15-20; 1 Tim 2:1-7; 4:10; 2 Tim 1:8-10; etc.).
A couple of questions for you:
- Where in all of Scripture do you find the doctrine of endless, post-mortem suffering (“hell”) first revealed by God to man?
2)Where in all of Scripture do you find it taught that God has conditioned our endless, post-mortem destiny on something we do or don’t do before we die?
Do you think people who have not been born again before they die go to this “kingdom of Satan” after they die? If so, where is this revealed in Scripture?
Aaron.
I’m enjoying are conversations. I think you have to prove people coming to faith after they die in their sins an unbeliever. This is the doctrine you are believing and trying to defend. Nowhere in those scriptures does it teach coming to faith after you die in your sins.
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The sons of Korah were swallowed up by the earth and where do you think they went Aaron? Deuteronomy 32:2 : “For a fire is kindled in My anger, And BURNS TO THE LOWEST PART OF SHEOL, AND CONSUMES THE EARTH WITH ITS YIELD, AND SETS ON FIRE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS.”
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Hebrews 10:26 " For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." Verse 29 "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
2 Thess 1:8-9 " 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
Born Again,
Do you ever write of God’s love or are you just terrified of hell?
JeffA.
God is love. We love Him because he first loved us. But he is also Holy and Just. He gives man a choice to have a relationship with Him through his Son Jesus Christ. ( Romans 5:8) God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" Christianity is a family, not a religion. You must be born into the family ( John 3:3)…you can’t just join it like some religious social club. You enter by grace through your faith and no one else’s.( Galatians 3:26) God has done his part. Man has to do his part by exercising his faith in Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection.
BA,
In your understanding of theology, do you separate God’s love from his holiness and justice? Or to put it another way, does God exercise justice apart from his love, or does he act in love apart from his holiness, etc?
Sonia
Sonia