The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Should the Gospel be couched in "IN vs. OUT" terminology?

Evangelical Universalism
#1

Should the Gospel be couched in terms of “in vs. out”?

I believe it should, but it’s not “IN vs. OUT” SOMEDAY, eventually; but “IN vs. Out” TODAY!

The message that Jesus preached was “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, within reach!” We can be citizens in the Kingdom of God if we bow our knee in worship and confess with our mouths allegiance to the King! We can be translated FROM the kingdom of darkness, this present evil age where we are in slaves to sin, oppressed by evil from within and without, translated INTO the Kingdom of Light, the present reality of the love of God where we become bondservants of righteousness, peace, and joy in the glorious Kingdom of Light, freed from the slavery of sin, freed to love God and love one another, true and lasting Freedom! We start on the journey INTO the Kingdom of Light by taking the first step, putting our faith in Christ and turning in that direction, turning from sin, death, and destruction, and turning towards towards God! Are you on the journey INTO the Kingdom of Light? If not, man repent! The other direction only gets worse and worse, believe you me! But as we seek the kingdom of God, we journey from faith to faith, lesson to lesson, experience to experience, ever changing into the likeness of Jesus!

If one is hell-bent on destruction, that’s what will happen, until you repent. It’s called reality discipline! Some must delve deep into the destructiveness of evil before they will see the deception of evil. And I believe that the Lord, in His love and respect for us, will allow us to go as deeply in evil as is needed for us to “come to ourselves” like the prodigal son, and turn towards home!

We were all created in the image of God, created for relationship with Him and nothing else will do. And I believe that ultimately all eventually do come to their senses and are freed from the deception of evil, and freed into the glorious light and love of the Kingdom of God!

Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is Within Reach; we can participate in it Today!

This is also being discussed on the Jesus Creed, patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/2011/04/06/exploring-love-wins-2/#comments

#2

I’m good with preaching it both ways, without neglecting either.

#3

I beleve that that Some Day it’s no longer “In vs. Out”, but ultimately that all are “IN”.

#4

Exactly. So your approach/explanation in your first post makes perfect sense, and it goes along with how Jesus explained it. Today is the day of salvation! Make a change NOW and begin to experience the Kingdom-life!

#5

Your thread title brought to mind another issue, Sherman. Here’s a video explaining “Bounded vs Centered set thinking”:
youtube.com/watch?v=XWqk1o6bDxA

Sometimes, it may not be helpful to think in “In vs Out” terms (the conversation of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, John 4, comes to mind), so a paradigm closer to “centered set” may be more helpful. In other words, in some situations one might want to think about the gospel in terms of, say spiritual maturity and growing into Christlikeness. Or, another instance is the process of God becoming “all-in-all” (as described in 1 Cor 15:20-28).

Apologies if this is getting off what you had in mind, Sherman–I only skimmed the Jesus Creed post…

#6

Sherman,

Long threads there and short on time so I searched down the page (Ctrl F “Sherman”) on the three “Love Wins” posts to read your comments and you did a great job explaining!
Enlightening and gentle! Thanks!

Oh, and I just got my books in the mail today: “Love Wins” and “Evangelical Universalism”. Hope I have some time to read soon. :slight_smile: