Justin Taylor is writing many posts about UR on his blog

[Alex_Smith]

Justin Taylor is writing many posts about UR on his blog thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/

Just in about the last 24 hours:

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/03/07/the-complex-of-gods-emotions-beware-of-putting-god-in-a-box/) , Justin"]One of the mysteries of Scripture is that “God desires all people to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4), and yet all are not saved. Some think that this desire of God means that all must be saved in the end; others think that God only desires the salvation of all kinds of people, not all individuals; others believe that God cannot accomplish this desire given the nature of genuine love.

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/03/07/how-do-gods-love-and-gods-wrath-relate/) Justin"]Don Carson:

One evangelical cliché has it that God hates the sin but loves the sinner.

There is a small element of truth in these words: God has nothing but hate for the sin, but this cannot be said with respect to how God sees the sinner.

Nevertheless the cliché is false on the face of it, and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty psalms alone, the psalmists state that God hates the sinner, that His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible the wrath of God rests on both the sin (Rom. 1:18–23) and the sinner (1:24–32; 2:5; John 3:36).

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/03/07/universalism-and-the-reality-of-eternal-punishment/) , Justin"]These 1990 messages from Sinclair Ferguson are sobering and stirring, and still worth listening to:

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment: Contemporary Preaching
Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment: The Justice and Mercy of God
Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment, Panel Discussion
I also recommend Ferguson’s chapter, “Pastoral Theology: The Preacher and Hell” from Hell Under Fire, ed. Peterson and Morgan (Zondervan, 2004), 220-237.

And a few days ago:

(http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/03/03/the-meaning-of-endless-in-the-original-hebrew-and-greek/) , Justin"]Professor Moses Stuart, writing in 1830:

The result seems to be plain, and philologically and exegetically certain.

It is this;

either the declarations of the Scriptures do not establish the facts, that God and his glory and praise and happiness are endless; nor that the happiness of the righteous in a future world, is endless; or else they establish the fact, that the punishment of the wicked is endless.

The whole stand or fall together.

There can, in the very nature of antithesis, be no room for rational doubt here, in what manner we should interpret the declarations of the sacred writers.

We must either admit the endless misery of hell, or give up the endless happiness of heaven.

—Moses Stuart, Exegetical Essays on Several Words Relating to Future Punishment (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publication Committee, 1867 [reprint of 1830 edition]), 62; emphasis original.

Hard to compete with someone who I imagine is a full time, paid blogger

[SLJ]

Hard to compete with someone who I imagine is a full time, paid blogger

Never mind, Alex. Jesus never needs us to draw our swords and chop off ears in His defense. They’re grasping at straws to hold onto their cherished doctrines. Let them show their colors: God hates the sinner, endless misery is necessary for happiness, etc.

But God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be like your Father in Heaven.

Amen and Amen! Praise be to the One who loves and forgives His enemies and calls us to do the same!

Sonia

[Alex_Smith]

Thanks Sonia. God is full time too

[revdrew61]

Stay cool Alex, remember “Love Wins”, as somebody once wrote
BTW that Don Carson quote is not something he has just said or written - it comes from a paper DC wrote way back in 1999.

[Alex_Smith]

Stay cool Alex, remember “Love Wins”, as somebody once wrote
BTW that Don Carson quote is not something he has just said or written - it comes from a paper DC wrote way back in 1999.

I must be cool as my avatar has sunglasses

Yeah, I was quoting Justin’s quote of Carson, I edit it to make that clearer.

Also edited title, as it sounded more harsh than I intended

[revdrew61]

I have posted a comment on the latest post, entitled “8 Symptoms of False Doctrine”. I wonder whose false doctrine JT could be referring to and how happy Bishop Ryle would be to be hijacked for this purpose?
I’m also in the thread “The complex of God’s emotions” which is being conducted in a more or less decent manner so far.

[JasonPratt]

Hard to compete with someone who I imagine is a full time, paid blogger

Actually, I think Justin is an editor at a publishing house somewhere, or something like that. (I remember seeing it, but I don’t recall what exactly. He may or may not be a paid blogger, but that isn’t his job.)

This is strange, since I called myself checking TGC’s blog to see if there were followups. I must not have done it right.

Thanks for the updates!

[TGB]

Who listens to him who doesn’t already agree with him?

He’s not dedicating a 1/4 of the energy he invested into silencing open theism. It’ll pass.

After the ETS dedicates an annual conference or two to “deal” with UR (and THAT’S when the heat will really turn up) the way they dealt with open theism, the number of conversative universalists will skyrocket.

Tom

[revdrew61]

Hi Tom, Forgive my ignorance but what does ETS stand for? Here in Spain it is the abbreviation for sexually transmitted diseases so I’m guessing there’s a different meaning.
And what do you mean by a conversative universalist?

[JasonPratt]

I think he means the Evangelical Theological Society.

[TGB]

Talk about missing it cross culturally! Ha. Sorry.

Jason got it. It’s the Evangelical Theological Society here in America.

By “conservative universalist” I mean something like “evangelical universalist.” Piper and Taylor and Carson don’t care about theological “liberals” who teach heresy. The liberals are already written off as far as they’re concerned (when it comes to defining the ture, i.e. evangelical, faith).

I once visit Malaga. Loved it. I have friends in Barcelona too who keep inviting us to visit.

Tom

[revdrew61]

Thanks for clarification - you had a typo making it conVersative - I thought this may mean somebody capable of holding a conversation or something

If you do make it to Barcelona I’d love to meet up for a beer.

[TGB]

Isn’t that BarTHelona?

I don’t drink beer, I’m conVersative. …OK, that was dumb.

We’ll toast to Justin Taylor!

Tom

[revdrew61]

Excellent!