Satan is a created being and not just the personification of evil,
then it seems even Satan shall be reconciled to God.
Note that in Genesis 3:15, the serpent’s curse partly says:
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
However, Isa.11:8 forsees a day when:
“The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.”
This is a beautiful picture of ultimate Reconciliation, harmony in all of creation!
I’ve never thought of this before, but I think it’s powerful.
I’ve never seen any appeal in a “universalism only for humans” view. Almost all of our universalist arguments lose their edge if we asterisk them with the statement, “Of course this applies only to humans. Non-human intelligences are toast.”
Amen to this. As if wishing destruction on a different type of being is somehow acceptable… That is how atrocities are committed in the first place. The first step is xenophobia and dehumanization. Once you can convince someone that another person or being is ‘less than human’ you open the doors for all terrible acts.
As if I could torture my cat merely because it is less than human. Seeing my cat tortured would invoke the same response as a person being tortured. It is just plain wrong. That said, I realize that one could carry this to the bug level… But even a bug I wouldn’t torture. Kill it? Yes, but not torture. Torture is diabolical. Wishing pain and evil on someone for all of eternity is evil. That attitude is far more terrible than a crime of passion.
George MacDonald in “It shall Not be Forgiven”
Wow, George MacDonald sure has more truth in his Unspoken Sermons than all of the contemporaries of today. The person I want to met first is Jesus, the second person on my list would be George MacDonald. Though, the reason I love MacDonald is because he is very much like Christ. So you could argue that is the reason for my admiration.
I’ve known for a while (and have pointed out occasionally) that the underlying Hebrew word for the bronze serpent (or shining thing) is the same either way, though I think it’s in a later Holy Mountain vision (the one in Isaiah 65? – can’t recall right now): there’s the serpent from the Garden, eating dust in humility on God’s Holy Mountain!
It’s hilarious watching non-universalists trying to get around that by supposing God lets a continuing rebel simply continue as a humiliated rebel on the mountain (metaphorically or otherwise) where God explicitly says no evil can come, and where other figures for enemies of God (including Satan) are at peace with their former victims…
I have no doubt that even insects, micro-organisms, and every single thing in creation will be restored and transfigured at the Second Coming of Christ. I cannot imagine that God would allow so much as a single quark of His creation to be forever lost. If He created it, He will re-create it. No exceptions.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
So Isaiah pictures a day when all of creation is reconciled to God and to one another, even snakes!
Thus the Adamic curse is completely reversed! And Jesus’ sacrifice is truly greater than Adam’s sin!
Since becoming a universalist some things which from the traditional evangelical perspective sound suspect or downright creepy have come to be a new ‘normal’ for me:
praying for the deceased to be saved, for their continued journey to bring them to reconciliation
praying for even the likes of Hitler to be reconciled
praying for even Satan to be reconciled
Sounds quite shocking when I mention this to even my wife, who is sympathetic to universalism if not quite there.
But if it is God’s will that all be reconciled, and we are to pray that His will be done, and we are to love our enemies, it begins to seem strange that we would not do these things.
