The Evangelical Universalist Forum

prepared for the devil and his angels

Theology General Theology
#1

Hi friends

When I believed in ECT I of course interpreted the phrase “prepared for the devil and his angels” by telling others that God never intended for humans to go to hell; after all, it was designed for the devil and his angels. God “sadly” let them choose to go. I guess it was a pretty mixed up combination of arminian and calvinism (I was a staunch 5 pointer) there!

I was reflecting on this phrase, and passage, and had a thought; When Jesus said “prepared”, what did he mean? Prepared why? Perhaps when he says

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire **prepared **for the devil and his angels.”

he means that the fire was prepared by God for the devil’s reconciliation. Prepared in order to destroy the sin of the devil and his angels. In other words, God always planned to deal with the sin problem in them as well as humans. This would certainly seem to bolster Paul in Col 1 talking about the reconciliation of all things. To think that God loved even the devil and his angels too much to leave them the way they are! What a staggering amazing God we serve!

[end preach-mode]

Anyway, with my belief in UR now, it fits wonderfully with God’s purpose and love. It would also fit very well with Lefein’s recent post on the John the Baptist’s prophecy about the baptism in the lake of fire.

Any thoughts?

#2

I agree with you :slight_smile:

#3

Good point!

#4

Thinking about it from another perspective, in speaking of the destruction that was due some deceptive teachers, Peter says “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment”. So I ask, where are these “sinning angels” now? If they are now the demons that oppress humanity, the principalities, powers, and rulers of this world, this present evil age, the “kingdom” of darkness, then this is “Tartarus/Hell” for them. And, you know, if they know the realities of the presence of God, His glory and power, to be limited to tormenting humans and the futility of trying to fight against God even in this present evil age, then this would be Hell for them. And even in this present evil age, where they are in “control”, the kingdom of God advances, and some of the people born in slavery in his kingdom are set free through the power of love and even begin freeing others in spite of his best efforts. Talk about the proverbial Sisyphus from Greek mythology! Satan and his angels are trying to build a kingdom that is rolling over them. Everything they try to do backfires on them. Every act of evil is turned for good. Every slave is ultimately set free. Love is proven on a daily basis to be more powerful than hate, faith more powerful than fear, and good more powerful than evil!

#5

Ditto! :slight_smile:

#6

Awesome, Sherman! I’ve never thought about that before, but it makes sense! Great! :mrgreen:

#7

very interesting, i just did a search for satan, hoping to find some thoughts on
a) does the devil exist literally as a person?
b) if he does, what happens to him in light of UR?

so i’d say that’s a successful search. very good thoughts! i’d be keen to see what other people think, too, both those that do and don’t believe in a literal devil, those who do and don’t believe in demonic spirits, etc etc.

i see it as a key question IF THE DEVIL EXISTS, because obviously if he doesn’t (per se), then it doesn’t matter…
which makes the key question “does the devil exist” i guess :smiling_imp:

#8

Apparently, the eternal fire is for those who are cursed. Ergo, the devil and his angels are cursed. And those to whom are on the Lord’s left (the goats) in the parable are cursed. Yea, even departed from Jesus. Who, BTW, is also cursed, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatian 3:13).

“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” Did Jesus feel the heat of the Eternal Fire when He was cursed?

My question is when was this place of eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels?

#9

My quick response would be that just as God prepared it at the same time as he prepared everything to do with our salvation, so from the foundation of the world. That would fit in with God being a responsible God, who had planned beforehand how to “bring all things to unity in Christ”.

#10

But did He prepare it before or after the angels rebelled? Or was it there all along?

#11

I think the identity of the devil and his angels is a scriptural mystery. It’s quite a puzzle to try to put together the pieces of Scripture possibly speaking of such a character. The most obvious thing to me is that the Gospel records plainly teach the existence of demons. In any case they are just entities acting evil just like men can act evil. That’s all the devil you “need”.