The Evangelical Universalist Forum

"Eternal Sin" and Universalism - Yikes!

Evangelical Universalism
#21

Johnny’s interpretation reminds me of one of my favorite verses: “I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest” (John 10:10). Jesus reminds us that His gift of everlasting life begins at its moment of reception.

Accepting Christ’s gift and then living only in anticipation of life after death is like marrying someone solely in hopes of gaining their life insurance after they die. How nonsensical such logic sounds, but so many Christians, it seems, follow this mindset every day.

#22

Well, that might count as affirming that Jesus meant a never-ending always-ongoing sin in GosMark, if God is willing to continue accepting feigned obedience. :unamused: That Psalm doesn’t indicate God won’t be content with deceiving obedience from His enemies, but other scriptures indicate He won’t put up with that but will insist on loyal praise and obedience – which He will eventually get.

Still, that Psalm is a curious exception to the general rule elsewhere. I’m going to look into the Hebrew term there and see if it makes more sense in a plausible different translation.

#23

It is the enemies who give feigned obedience. When they obey from the heart, it obviously is no longer feigned obedience, but then, they no longer are enemies. I read this as “Even those who hate you at least pretend to obey you, because they recognize your might.” It’s not the optimal situation, but from enemies, I’m not sure one could expect anything better. Once they become friends, the obedience becomes true.

#24

Well the point to the Psalm is that this is eventually going to happen, not that it’s already happening; and the situation is described using language similar to the total-evangelism testimonies elsewhere.

I’ve set up a new thread to discuss the Psalm over here: Psalm 66:3 -- enemies give feigned obedience?

#25

The Biblical writers either used the Septuagint when they quoted OT passages, or they translated from a form of Hebrew which the Septuagint translators also used (Not the Masoretic text).

The Septuagint translation reads in English as follows:

The idea seems to be that God’s enemies are so terrifed of His works (what He may do to them), that they shall lie to God in an attempt to escape the results of His wrath.