It starts here -
Thanks for the link. Do I understand he has a book coming out ? Curious what arguments will be included.
Well Wendy they will be the sort of arguments rehearsed in the discussions and in his initial lecture - all transcribed with comments on these two McClymond threads. They will be more refined but basically the same arguments - it is improbable that they will be different arguments that contradict the discussions and the lecture.
Oh, yes. Very much so. Some of the Western church has begun to realize the error of her ways in this regard; in the past, missions (particularly from the U.S.) have had a very colonialist approach, and they are seeing the fallout from this and realizing that we often made things worse rather than better…
Unfortunately, the same tainted gospel is often being preached, even though many have gone a long way toward changing how the approach looks. At least, they’re trying not to damage those being evangelized in those imperialistic ways anymore.
If you think Calvinism is exempt from Boehme’s appaent influence read the following regarding the influence of the Boehmenist theosopher Franz Xaver von Baader on Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerd
arsdisputandi.org/index.html … index.html.
I also note that James D. Heiser The American evangelical Lutheran Bishop who wrote on ‘Prisci Theologi and the Hermetic Reformation in the Fifteenth Century’ and it’s pernicious influence on toleration and the democratisation of religious truth in American piety, also edited a polemical early Lutheran tract against ‘The Judaising Calvin’ fully approving of the substance of the polemic.
Curious!!!
I posted this because of a very useful enquiry that Steve made. I guess my point is that it is a bit rich of Dr McClymond to infer that GMac was somehow an heretical Boehmenist. Boehme did not believe in apocatastasis and if GMac was influenced by William Law, William Law did not get his doctrine of apocatastasis from Boheme. Also I have found out that in some of his writings Boehme advocates substitutionary atonement – so again William Law’s turn against PSA which did influence GMac is not purely a result of his Boehmenism (Law was also widely read in the Greek Fathers and not a slavish follower of Boehme anyway). And – here’s a pretty point; Abraham Kuyper - a towering figure in High Calvinism – was actually influenced by a Boehmenist in his anti-materialist views of the natural world; just as GMac was (and C.S. Lewis was – although Lewis was inspired more by the medieval Neo-Platonists who shared much in common with Boehme).
Wonderful, Dick! 
Thanks for digging that up. McClymond’s argument is getting weaker and weaker…
I wonder what McClymond’s views on John Milton are who was also strongly influenced by Boehme? I suspect Milton’s Paradise Lost figures heavily in his views. McClymond wrote a book about the theology of Jonathan Edwards (who was likely influenced by Milton) with Gerald McDermott who quotes from Paradise Lost in a footnote to this anti-universalist article.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/will_all_be_saved which has been discussed on this site before. [Article on The Gospel Coalition website discussing EU)
Oh…and I think I’ll name the next dog I get “Dooyeweerd”, or would that be cruel? 
]It would seem that McClymond has turned himself into a sort of “Witchsmeller Pursuivant”, looking for witches to burn where there are none. 
“Does anyone know what happened here?” man steps out of crowd “No, I don’t!” 
Many of our British constituents should get the reference there…
It’s a man doing a mean impersonation of a badger 
And anyway the foremost influence on MacDonald’s universalism was Thomas Erskine of Linlathen (I think this is worth remembering)
Steve I think that Dooyeweerd is a charming and affectionate name - and might well be a good name for your next puppy (as long as you give him lots of love and affection) But I have absolutely no idea regarding how it should be pronounced - I haven’t the foggiest idea
Hey I thought 'that picture looks the actor Frank Finlay Melchi - and indeed it is, and it’s from Blackadder (and I do remember the Witch Smeller episode - it was very funny ). I guess Dr McClymond is stirring a sort of witch hunt here - I don’t think we should be expecting to get burnt at the stake in the near future 
; but his attack with it’s seemingly intellectual pedigree but it’s very real emotive/fear based appeal might well inspire some to try and hunt out universalism in their congregations and dis-fellowship the suspects .
So Dr McClymond has collaborated with a Boehmenist? It does all begin to look absurd
Beware of using Milton as an ally - he might get quoted against you.
Also, one worries that if he is accusing Universalists of causing civil unrest, he might be trying something more sinister…
Hi James -
Well I think the hint linking universalism with social instability and violent revolution in his lecture - which he definitely makes - show a lack of good sense. But I don’t reckon he’s really suggesting that the authorities should crack down on universalists. He’s just being very intemperate in his polemic.
True…i doubt the authorities would listen anyway. After all, America was started by revolutionaries, and as you’ve pointed out, not all were antagonistic to Universalists, but they certainly were not Universalists as a group.
Absolutely, yes; That episode is exactly what I was referring to. Blackadder is still one of my favorite series!
Just a quickie, Gerald McDermott makes the same point as his colleague Michael McClymond about the WCC moratorium on missions in 1973
However - see
biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/c … 04_265.pdf
It seems that the 1973 five year moratorium on missions to Africa from the North by the WCC was proposed by African Christians. The point here is that it wasn’t a case of the western churches abandoning the Great Commission out of flaccid universalism. it was a case of the African Churches wanting to take responsibility for ‘saving souls’ in Africa - which is rather different.
That’s a critical point, Dick and well worth remembering as I suspect someone else will bring this up at some point in a criticism of universalism.
Thanks, for pointing that out!
Just a note to say that, for anyone who is interested, I would recommend Phillip J. Lee’s book ‘Against the Protestant Gnostics’. I liked the book. It is written by a Presbyterian minister who was Princetown educated. He employs the category of ‘Gnosticism’ to critique modern (American) Christianity but
His definition of Gnosticism and heresy is accurate and flexible IMHO. Heresy for him is a matter of overemphasising one aspect of the truth so that the whole truth is put out of balance. In the case of Gnosticism it’s a case of emphasising spirit at the expense of matter, the individual at the expense of the community, saving knowledge at the expense of saving faith etc… (and he is very clear that the Gnostics were elitist and not universalists).
He’s not witch hunting; he’s talking about ‘us’ rather than ‘them’ – he’s asking us all to reflect on how much we and our Church is more or less Gnostic; and his critique is across the board – he criticises evangelical revivalism and the religious right as much as he does Christian liberalism.
And although the transcendentalists and Paul Tillich, for example, are given incisive critiques, Jonathan Edwards and the whole revivalist tradition in America are also seen as having many troubling affinities with ancient Gnosticism.
That sounds like a good and fair work…will have to look into that when i have time for more reading!