"Faithful is this saying and deserving of universal acceptance: and here is the motive of our toiling and wrestling, because we have our hopes fixed on the ever-living God, who is the Saviour of all mankind, and especially of believers. Command this and teach this."
Especially= malista
Only= monon/ monos
Malista= ???
Monon. monos= ???
“He is the Mercy-Seat for our sins, and not for our sins ONLY/ monon/ monos, but for the sins of the whole ungodly multitude.”
! Tim. 4:10=
Malista=
Most
Most of all
Above all
Superlative of mala
Mala= very much
Monon/monos=
Monos=
Alone
Solitary
Monon=
Alone
Exclusively
“He is the Mercy-Seat for our sins, and not for our sins ONLY/ monon/ monos, but for the sins of the whole ungodly multitude.”
“Malista” doesn’t mean “only” here because that would negate “all men.” Rather, it connotes “more immediately” with a few to all the rest who will yet believe. So the issue is whether all the rest will claim God as Savior in this life or the next or both. At this point, God’s desire to save everyone (2:4) becomes relevant and raises the question of why, if at all, God’s will can be thwarted by death.
Dear Berserk: The vast members of the heavens, the earth & the underworld will not claim God in this life as Saviour. That is to be fully implemented in the final chapters of the Restitution.
Today, as it has been in every day, our God gathers to Himself the “especially” who stand with Him in union & communion. Call them what you will but they are a select group of His grace chosen in Him before the foundation of the world in His election in the Beloved One.
God does not simply desire & He does, He wills all mankind to be saved, reconciled & “made righteous” in the thelo of His mighty will. Will His will prevail? Yup!
Ah, the longing for brass bands and flying confetti for everyone at the Pearly Gates. Like you, I hope for universal salvation, but when I read you sincere passionate post, I feel like whistling past the graveyard. Whatever the truth is, it is unfortunately elusive and both sides can feel vindicated by paradoxical array of biblical texts pro and con. A S9outhern Baptist theology professor might well direct his students to this site with the assignment, “Critique the biblical basis for evangelical universalism defended on this site” and feel vindicated by the shark feeding frenzy reflected in these papers. The trick, in my view, is to separate the debatable from the compelling texts and focus the debate on the latter.
I like milkshakes, especially chocolate milk shakes. That doesn’t mean that I like only chocolate milkshakes.
It means that I particularly like chocolate milkshakes.
Dear Berserk: Brass bands, confetti & whistling I have zero interest. The truth, however, is the issue we shall discuss from Canon with no tricks, just plain old Scripture.
I do not “hope” for universal salvation. The message of the prophets from the Old Covenant regarding the Restitution of the all points to a glorious day. This is no feel good dogma of whistling by the graveyard, it happens to be what St. Paul describes in Eph. 1 as the Father’s cherished plan of wrapping up the all in Jesus Christ the Lord.
“It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance–the forgiveness of our offences–so abundant was God’s grace, the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us, when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it–the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him. And you…”
Every knee bows IN/EN the Name of Jesus in all dimensions of the earth, the heavens & the underworld. Of course they are all saved, and more so, being reconciled in the mighty helkuo of the Unlimited One.
This identical polus “made sinners” in the first Adam, are the polus “made righteous” in the Last, every last broken wreck reconciled!
Are our broadest hopes broad enough? Shall there be a nook or abyss, in all the universe of God, finally unlightened by the Cross? Shall there be a sin, or sorrow, or pain unhealed? Is the very universe, is creation in all its extent, a field wide enough for the Son of God?
Never ever limit the Holy One Of Israel! If you imagine His will being multiple choice, know His will prevails, ALWAYS!
Salvation in the koine =esothen & sozomenos & sothesomai
There is a tense in koine known as the descriptive present, or the progressive present, which depicts an action in progress.
Yes, God IS the Saviour of all mankind, not some of mankind: all of mankind!