The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Ecc. 3:14

So I wake up in the morning, check facebook (Gene didn’t see this! :laughing:) and the first thing I see is this verse from my former youth pastor, “I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.” Ecc. 3:14 I’ve got a good feeling he’s insinuating here that hell is endless and forever so we should fear. I’m pretty sure he’s assuming false things here. How would you guys respond to such an emphasis?

I would just quote more scripture… just expand the same quote he started with in a different translation.

Ecc. 3:14-22
(I like the YLT because it is unbaiased concerning “olam” and “aion” - the YLT renders these words as “age” everywhere.

Ecclesiastes is poetry - and it is full of rhetorical questions and observations. Out of all scripture, it’s hardest to take a line out of the poetic sections and have any clue what the intent of the author was. Look at the whole passage - what’s the point the author is making?

There is as much here in opposition to ideas of everlasting reward/punishment as there is in support of it. That’s not the point of this passage… at least I don’t think so :stuck_out_tongue:

I would probably just say.

Amen! And I am so very thankful that God has set His love on us all, and redeemed and delivered us all. I’m so very glad that Jesus redeemed us all from the power of sin and the bondage of evil, and that in Christ we shall all have life because He chose to love us and reveal His love to us while we were still enemies. And I thank God that He loves us all. And I trust Jesus to fulfill all that He has promised to do. And I’m so very thankful that Jesus did not come to condemn us all, but to save us all. Hallelujah! Love never fails!

As you can see, I wouldn’t disagree with Him or imply that He believed anything other than what the passage actually says.

This is a wonderful scripture from the book of Ecc. Here’s what I think is the point of the passage and the book as a whole:

God is all there ever was, is, or will be.

God as a whole is neither created nor destroyed.

All things consist of, exist, and have their being in God.

Universes may come and go while God in some way remains unchanged and unaffected.

I am the breath of God. God breathed out and I breathed in and became a living being.

All is vanity under the sun.

My time on earth is my time of selfish vanity.

On earth I have a false sense of who I really am and that false sense is my vain selfish ego.

My vain ego self is my own temporary illusion.

My vain ego selfish illusion will one day be reveled in the refining hot white light of truth.

Everyone at some point will suffer the loss of their own vain selfish illusion.

At some point I will finally breathe out and God will breathe in.

The silver cord will be severed and my spirit will return to the Spirit from which it came.

To be saved is to come to the knowledge that my life is not my temporary ego selfish illusion.

The fear of God is the realization of my need to be saved – delivered from my illusion.

True life, abundant life is found when the fear of God leads me to turn away from my illusion and embrace the truth of my existence in God.

I’m convinced that most of our spiritual activity is really ego based. The fear of God leads to the rejoicing realization that in agreement with the scripture above, “it is God that does it”, both my arrival in this earthy plane and my eventual return home to be welcomed as the father welcomes the prodigal.

To God be the glory!

I just found a cool new tool biblelexicon.org/ecclesiastes/3-14.htm :sunglasses:

Thanks for sharing your insights everyone! I enjoyed reading them!

After some thought I had these reflections…God cares about our outcome, is not content to leave us in ignorance, his purpose in hardening/ mercy is to do a work…so, if we are thinking there is no sovereign God, there are no consequences for unbelief - not living in love, then we should fear and have another thing coming. There is no escaping God and what he intends to do. The result of his effort, work will last forever. God is in control and what he purposes, our good, no one can mess with! All of God’s efforts are so that we will come humbly and admit our need for him.