RESPONSES TO PHILISOPHICAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIVERSAL SALVATION
Good news of God’s love for all mankind - find it here at Tentmaker
tentmaker.org/FAQ/index.html
Quick Find: Links to Information on Hell and Universal Salvation
tentmaker.org/bloglinks.htm
Everyone will choose to believe whatever they are convinced is the truth about what the Bible teaches. I post on forums to give people an alternate point of view. Had I known that one existed I never would have had a horrific twelve year nervous breakdown 1966-78 over my inability to love a god who would allow anyone actually prefer to suffer forever rather than eventually reach out for the salvation that God has provided. I’m 77 years old now.
THE FOLLOWING HAS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE TRUE REGARDING THE DEBATE ABOUT ETERNAL TORMENT
The argument about “eternal hell” nearly always gets bogged down with the words, “My Greek scholars are more reliable than your Greek scholars,” and the result is nearly always a stalemate.
My Greek scholars are Louis Abbott and the many Greek scholars he quotes in chapters three and twelve of
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WORDS
tentmaker.org/books/asw/index.html
Also see
TIME AND ETERNITY A BIBLICAL STUDY – G.T. Stevenson
tentmaker.org/books/time/
Also see THE SCHOLAR’S CORNER FOR THE STUDY OF BIBLICAL UNIVERSALISM at
tentmaker.org/ScholarsCorner.html
If you think it glorifies God more to let some of His creatures suffer forever, or annihilate them, then you keep believing that.
But if you think it glorifies God more to eventually meet everyone on the level of their greatest and deepest need which is a change in their stubborn will, then know that there is plenty of evidence in the Bible that is exactly what God is like.
Universalism:
The Prevailing Doctrine Of the Christian Church During Its First Five-Hundred Years
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.html
And they were reading the Bible in its original language!
QUOTES FROM CHURCH FATHERS
tentmaker.org/Quotes/churchfathersquotes.htm
Tracing Universalist Thought Through Church History
tentmaker.org/tracts/Universalists.html
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT
tentmaker.org/books/OriginandHistory.html
ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE IN JESUS CHRIST
richardwaynegarganta.com/4Vi … vation.htm
BIBLE THREATENINGS EXPLAINED – John Wesley Hanson
tentmaker.org/books/BibleThr … ained.html
RESPONSES TO PHILISOPHICAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIVERSAL SALVATION
Good news of God’s love for all mankind - find it here at Tentmaker
tentmaker.org/FAQ/index.html
A UNIVERSAL SALVATION THESIS THAT SHOULD BE ON
THE REQUIRED READING LIST OF ALL BIBLE SCHOOLS
Click on each highlighted subtitle to read the entirety of each of the seventeen sections
HIS ACHIEVEMENT ARE WE – James Coram
concordant.org/expohtml/HisAchievement/
Click on each highlighted subtitle to read the entirety of each of the seventeen sections
LOUIS ABBOTT – UNIVERSAL SALVATION ASSURED
Interested students of the Word of God will decide if Louis Abbott knows what He is talking about.
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WORDS – LOUIS ABBOTT
In the forward to his book AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WORDS, Louis Abbott wrote, “One key area various denominations are divided over is the final destiny of the ungodly, the wicked, the unsaved, the unregenerate, or however one wishes to phrase it.
There are three views on this subject. Each position claims Scriptural support: (1) eternal torment; (2) eternal destruction; and (3) the ultimate salvation of all. It is obvious that all cannot be correct. Two of them have to be wrong.
I pray this book will be a blessing to all who are struggling with this subject.” (unquote)
Notice how Louis proves that numbers one and two are wrong according to the Bible.
This book can be read online at this link
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF WORDS
tentmaker.org/books/asw/index.html
ENJOY!
Eight interviews with Greek scholar Louis Abbott about his belief that the Bible teaches universal salvation (in eight parts)
Copy and paste the links into your browser.
youtube.com/watch?v=HJoNxjUAAi8
youtube.com/watch?v=UuoRnAsugew
youtube.com/watch?v=IAsVTXJYEHY
youtube.com/watch?v=H_sblmYiX4I
youtube.com/watch?v=Bfx6tcwq3M4
youtube.com/watch?v=iM5fSRDxVwg
tentmaker.org/video2/tag/athiest/
youtube.com/watch?v=NoWeKXdNhyg
ENJOY!
Calvinism, Arminianism, or Christian Biblical Universalism
Which view of salvation is true?
Two good expositions specifically answering that question!
ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE IN JESUS CHRIST – Charles Slagle
sigler.org/slagle/absolute.htm
THE LAW OF CIRCULARITY – J.Preston Eby
godfire.net/eby/circularity.html
OPPOSERS OF CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM REFUTED
If necessary, copy and paste the links into your browser.
COMMON ARGUMENTS ADDRESSED
Good news of God’s love for all mankind - find it here at Tentmaker
tentmaker.org/FAQ/index.html
and
Quick Find: Links to Information on Hell and Universal Salvation
tentmaker.org/bloglinks.htm
CONSEQUENCES OF ETERNAL TORMENT THEOLOGY
tentmaker.org/articles/hells_fruit.html
BIBLE THREATENINGS EXPLAINED
tentmaker.org/books/BibleThr … ained.html
THE SCHOLARS CORNER THE CENTER FOR BIBLE STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
tentmaker.org/ScholarsCorner.html
UNIVERSAL SALVATION UNIVERSITY
richardwaynegarganta.com/universalsalvation.htm
RESPONSES TO CURRENT CHAMPIONS OF ETERNAL TORMENT THEOLOGY
Don Hewey
gtft.org/Library/condon/Question … nswers.htm
saviourofall.org/opposers/HeweyOnAion.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/He … leOne.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/He … leTwo.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/He … Three.html
Eric Landstrom
saviourofall.org/opposers/Landstrom.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/Landstrom2.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/Er … fAion.html
savior-of-all.com:80/aionian.html
Matt Slick
saviourofall.org/opposers/Exposing.html
WRITINGS REFUTING MATT SLICK OWNER OF THE CARM WEBSITE
indefenceofthecross.blogspot.com … alism.html
tentmaker.org/articles/matt_ … etalk.html
scaredofhell.com/CARMmattsli … uttal.html
city-data.com/forum/christia … slick.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/Slick1Mt2546.html
saviourofall.org/opposers/SlickMark328.html
May the Lord point Matt Slick to Jesus so that he may repent and leave behind the ridiculous doctrine of eternal torment that slanders the character of God.
KNOWING THE REAL JESUS
godfire.net/eby/godislove.html
It is absurd to say that Jesus would not be doing it !!!
godfire.net/eby/circularity.html
WHAT JESUS REALLY TAUGHT ABOUT “HELL”
tentmaker.org/articles/jesus … nhell.html
tentmaker.org/forum/arguments-ag … /#msg28882
Tom Logan
saviourofall.org/opposers/To … r1528.html
Hal Lindsey
purposeoflife.org.uk/reply.htm
Dwane
saviourofall.org/opposers/EonLimitGod.html
W. E. Vine
saviourofall.org/poisonfruitofvine.html
THREE TREASURE HOUSES OF CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALIST ARTICLES
auburn.edu/~allenkc/articles2.html
tgulcm.tripod.com/cu/univart.html
theheraldofgodsgrace.org/Library.htm
answers to hundreds of questions raised by partialists about universal reconciliation:
urqa.com/
INSANITY
Does traditional Christianity cause insanity? Many seem to think so. This video is the story a pastor and his daughter of their journey from the traditional turn or burn gospel to the Victorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like it on Facebook and please send links to your family and friends.
Gary Amirault
youtube.com/watch?v=gDnZRms3XZE
It is absurd to say that Jesus would not be doing it !!!
godfire.net/eby/circularity.html
CONSEQUENSES OF TEACHING THE DOCTRINE OF “ETERNAL HELL”
tentmaker.org/articles/hells_fruit.html
greater-emmanuel.org/Hope4You/consequences.html
Are Christians Greater Idol Worshippers Than Israel Was? I fear so. See for yourself:
Christian Molech Worship
youtube.com/watch?v=xKuhBdWbJXQ
EVER BEEN TO HELL AND BACK?
tentmaker.org/articles/ever- … -back.html
THE LAKE OF FIRE WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH
THE JUST JUDGMENT OF GOD – JAMES CORAM
“The main point which we seek to impress upon our readers is to accept God’s declaration that, for those who are judged before the great white throne, the lake of fire is the second death, not a second lifetime.
While the ‘injury’ (literal translation) sustained by those who are cast into the lake if fire (in Revelation 20:14,15) will be fatal (since to these the lake of fire is the second death), it will not be permanent. We may be certain that this is the case, for, at the consummation, death will be abolished and all will be vivified, that God may be All in all. God is the Saviour of all mankind, and this includes all who enter the second death."
EVENTUALLY EVERYONE WILL BE SAVED
Sooner or later everyone will do the will of the Father and will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Sinners whose names are not in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. But everyone who is cast into the lake of fire which is the second death will be saved out of it.
“Where is a resurrection from the lake of fire taught in the scriptures?
The lake of fire is distinctly defined as the second death (Rev.20:14; 21:8). In it is cast all that is still at enmity with God. So that, death is indeed the last enemy (1 Cor.15:26).
And we are just as decidedly told that Christ is the one who abolishes death and brings life and incorruptibility to light (2 Tim.1:10). The reading “hath abolished” is not true as to fact or as to grammar. It is in the indefinite form (commonly called the aorist tense) simply recording the fact apart from time. Death has not been abolished yet.
How and when it will be abolished is told us in the fifteenth of first Corinthians. It is to be abolished by means of universal vivification (1 Cor.15:22). This takes place at the consummation (1 Cor.15:26).
It is useless to look for plain statements on this subject in parts of the Scriptures whose scope is limited to eonian truth, such as the Revelation. It is unwise to look for it anywhere but in the special portion which deals with this topic. Death and resurrection are exhaustively treated in the fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians and there it is we should look for clear statements as to the ultimate goal. There we are distinctly told that the last enemy that shall be abolished is death (which must refer to the lake of fire which is the second death, for the first death cannot be the last enemy). And there we are told that it is to be done by a universal vivification rather than resurrection.
The term “resurrection” is applied to those who have afterward died again, such as those who suffer the second death. Hence there is not a resurrection, merely, from the lake of fire, but a vivification beyond which there can be no death.
It is also apparent from Col. 1:15-20 that the lake of fire is not the end of God’s plan for those cast into the fire. See also Ro. 5:18, 19 "
James Coram.
concordant.org/expohtml/Ques … x1.html#9a
Note God’s wording
In Christ all shall be made alive
not
All who are in Christ shall be made alive
SOONER OR LATER EVERYONE WILL GO TO HEAVEN
Up until the time of Augustine, most Christians believed in universal salvation.
Dr. Edwin Abbott, headmaster of the City of London School, wrote in his Cambridge Sermons -
QUOTE: “An argument was introduced by Augustine, and since his day incessantly repeated, that if aionios kolasis does not mean “endless punishment,” then there is no security for the believer that aionios zoe means “endless life,” and that he will enjoy the promise of endless happiness. But Matt. 25:46 shows the “eonian chastisement” and “eonian life” are of the same duration-lasting during the eons, and when the eons end, as Scripture states they will (1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 9:26), the time called “eonian” is past and the life called “eonian” is finished, but life continues beyond the eons, as Paul teaches at 1 Cor. 15:26: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (which must refer to the lake of fire, for the first death cannot be the last enemy). That is, the last, the final one in order. How will it be destroyed? First Corinthians 15:22 gives the answer: “For as IN ADAM ALL are dying, even so IN CHRIST ALL shall be made alive.” Death is destroyed when ALL have been made alive, IN CHRIST.”
– Dr. Edwin Abbott
Note God’s wording
In Christ all shall be made alive
not
All who are in Christ shall be made alive
GOD’S PLAN FOR THE AGES OF TIME
“During the present wicked eon (Gal.1:4), Sin reigns, Satan who is said to be “the god of this eon” (2 Cor.4:4) blinds and deceives mankind, and death swallows up the race (1 Cor.15:22). But notwithstanding, God is over all and is in supreme control. He is the eonian God. In due time He will deliver the entire creation and bring good out of all the suffering mankind is called upon to endure (Rom.8;18-23).”
GOD’S PLAN FOR THE AGES OF TIME
THE EONS OF THE BIBLE WITH CONCORDANCE
saviourofall.org/Tracts/Eons2.html
Universalism:
The Prevailing Doctrine Of the Christian Church During Its First Five-Hundred Years
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.html
And they were reading the Bible in its original language!
LAST CHAPTER
RESTORATION: THROUGH THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES – CHARLES WELLER
“The feast of tabernacles means the feast of ingathering. It takes an eight day period to bring in the fullness of the ingathering. Eight is the number of new beginnings in scripture or FULL RESTORATION.
1Corinthians 15 is the last chapter in the Bible. The fifteenth chapter clearly shows how great the totality of the feast of tabernacles will be. ‘As in Adam all die (every preacher will agree that all people are in Adam but few believe that the word all mean all in the second part of the verse) so in Christ all shall be made alive.’ Jesus is going to gather all together in Himself. He will have everyone in His nature.
Everything that occurs, occurs in the plan and order of God. In 1Corinthians 15 God shows that there are different orders. The highest order is Jesus Christ. Everything will, in time, be brought into Jesus Christ. All shall be gathered into Him. When this is done then Jesus, the Son, will turn all over to the Father. It is then we find that time ends, for God becomes All in all (verse 28).
AT THE END OF THE AGES THE ABOLITION OF HELL – BOB EVELY
“The culmination of God’s Word is found in 1Corinthian 15 when God become All in all.
The book of Revelation does not take us quite this far. Corruption is eliminated and our bodies are now incorruptible. The worst enemy of all, death, has been abolished.
The salvation of all has not meant the ignoring of sin. The lake of fire, the second death has accomplished its work. All men now recognize the wondrous ways of God and His grace as expressed through the work of Christ. The salvation of all does not negate or minimize the work of the cross. The work of Christ upon the cross and the power of God as displayed through the resurrection, were both very necessary.
But now at the end of the ages we see the true scope of God’s work. Despite the sin and rebellion of humanity, God has found a way to bring every soul to the point of acceptance. The ages have ended. The purpose of the eons has now been fulfilled; to reconcile all to God. Wickedness and evil are gone. Death is no more. God is love, and He is All in all. Eternal life in perfection has begun.”
IMO A UNIVERSAL SALVATION THESIS THAT SHOULD BE ON
THE REQUIRED READING LIST OF ALL BIBLE SCHOOLS
Click on each highlighted subtitle to read the entirety of each of the seventeen sections
HIS ACHIEVEMENT ARE WE – James Coram
concordant.org/expohtml/HisAchievement/
A snippet from 125 NUTS FOR CALVINISTS TO CRACK – C.R. Bierbower
(another book in my hard copy UR library)
“Although a Calvinist myself for more than thirty years, the scriptures declaring God’s infinite love, and the plain teachings of Jesus my Lord on the subject of love, mercy and truth, finally sank my theological ship. This left me searching for the truth as it is in Jesus. Finally I was convinced by the overwhelming number of Scriptures that our great God and Heavenly Father truly does, without partiality, love the whole world, and He will in His own time and in His own way finally reconcile all men unto Himself.
Arminianism and Calvinism both represent each other as the method for God’s work in salvation, and both vigorously reject the final reconciliation of all men. It is my purpose in this book to point out to my Calvinistic brethren the inconsistency of their interpretation of Scripture.”
A.E. KNOCH
One of the great Christian Biblical Universal Salvationists of the last century was A.E. Knoch, author of the book ALL IN ALL.
My attitude towards the frequent warnings by believers in eternal torment or annihilation is summed up beautifully by his response.
A critic who believed in eternal torment said, “Knoch and his colleagues will yet have to answer to God for so defiantly opposing the plain teachings of God’s holy word."
In reply A.E. Knoch wrote:
"Let me assure our brother, beloved by the Lord, that we fully expect to answer to God for all our acts, and will rejoice to see all that is not of God destroyed by the fiery test of that day. But such threats do not alarm us in the least. We know a God of transcendent grace.
The character of the God you worship will determine your ways and your words. We trust it will be so with us also, for we would delight to be like Him. Hence, we do not threaten you with His wrath, but commend you to His grace.
Perhaps no sin can be so great as to distort His words and defame His character. But His grace is superbly sufficient, His love is lavish in its long-suffering. It never lapses, but looks longingly for the reconciliation which is the justification and crown of all His ways with His creatures.
So, as we close with the absolute certainty of a reconciliation between us, we anticipate it on our part and throw all enmity aside. We are conciliated no matter what you do. While your words and ways have seemed to us to be offensively unlike His, this only gives greater ground for grace. This of itself justifies them, for grace must have a foil.
We close, then, with a prayer for such an outpouring of His grace on your own head as will force you to feel the affection which is found in Him for all the creatures of His hand and heart." (End quote) A.E. Knoch
SOONER OR LATER GOD ALL IN ALL - Anthony J. Borrello
“As hostile and objectionable our dear brethren may be, there are answers and explanations for every argument and/or insinuation presented against the undeniable fact, That God indeed is a God ‘Who will have all men to be saved, and come into a knowledge of the truth (1Tim. 2:4). As greatly as man and their religious attempt to fight this utterly dynamic evangel (good news), God shall eventually be All in all (1Cor. 15:28)."
“But God is in no hurry. He has specific eons, and administrations within the eons, to fulfill His universal purpose and intention of universal reconciliation. All came out of Christ, including Adam. Consequently all shall be restored by and through Christ, ‘yet each in his own class’ (1Cor. 15:23).”
When clouds of confusion gather regarding God’s plan for mankind, and despair come showering down upon our studies, turn to God’s word originally rendered, then, like a searchlight in the darkness of night, His love, and His light of understanding will surely beam forth. God will not allow any to be eternally lost. He is a loving Creator, working out His purpose for the universe, Who will get love from all in return, so that He can and will be ‘ALL in all,’ to all, ‘later.’”
GOD’S PLAN FOR THE AGES OF TIME
THE EONS OF THE BIBLE WITH CONCORDANCE
saviourofall.org/Tracts/Eons2.html
ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTE
Quoted from A SOUTHERN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH HISTORY
Be sure to click on “See More” and read the whole quote. …
“I used to think that it took the smartest kind of man to preach and defend Universalism; I now think entirely differently. It is the easiest faith to preach that I have ever heard. There is more proof in its favor than in any other doctrine I have ever heard. I have a suit in court here tomorrow and if I had as much proof in its favor as there is in Universalism, I would go home, and leave my student to take charge of it, and I should feel perfectly certain that he would gain it.” Abraham Lincoln
According to Google quotes Abraham Lincoln also said, “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make them your friend.”
God always does things “the best way.”
ANOTHER QUOTE FOR THOSE WHO DON’T THINK LINCOLN’S ARGUMENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN BASED ON THE BIBLE: Mr. Lincoln’s deep knowledge of the scriptures could not have come without regularly reading them. As Lincoln scholar Paul Angle noted: “There was one book which left its mark on much of what he wrote. That was the Bible. Upon a familiarity which extended back to his youth he could always depend.” Historian Michael Nelson wrote: “Lincoln was consumed by religion as a subject, as well as by the Bible, a book that all of his biographers agree he had read and studied assiduously since his youth.
”Quoted from William J. Wolf, A Study of the Religion of Abraham Lincoln
AGNOSTIC
I would rather live out my life as an agnostic, trying to treat other people the same way that I would like to treated by them and hope for the best after I die, than to put my trust in a book that teaches that God will allow anyone to choose themselves into an inescapable state of everlasting suffering. Rodger Tutt
godfire.net/eby/circularity.html
Writer Somerset Maugham, after his parents’ deaths, spent a few stultifying years in his uncle’s vicarage. Later, in his teens at a boarding-school, having lost his belief in the existence of God said: “The whole horrible structure, based not on the love of God, but on the fear of eternal hell, tumbled down like a house of cards.” Quote source: The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings
We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them. Goethe
There is a germ of religion in human nature so strong that whenever an order of men can persuade the people by flattery or terror that they have salvation at their disposal, there can be no end to fraud, violence or usurpation. John Adams
AIONIOS
Although there are at least fifteen translations that translate aion/aionios literally instead of interpretively, the most popular versions are translated interpretively.
Why did God allow the most popular versions of His written word to be interpretively translated instead of literally translated?
In my opinion the reason is the same reason why God allows all other evils to temporarily prevail, and that is because He is eventually going to make it better for everyone that He did so.
Probably, God could not have allowed a better foil of contrast of evil versus good than to let His written word be mistranslated. Against the black background of the theological false doctrines of never ending suffering or annihilation God will paint His glorious masterpiece of universal transformation using the paint brushes of His love that can never fail, and His grace that cannot be defeated.
WHAT MOST OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS BELIEVED
And they were reading the Bible in its original language!
Universalism:
The Prevailing Doctrine Of the Christian Church During Its First Five-Hundred Years
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.html
And they were reading the Bible in its original language!
Greek scholar William Barclay wrote concerning kolasis aionion (age-during corrective chastisement) in Matthew 25:46
“The Greek word for punishment is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. There is no instance in Greek secular literature where kolasis does not mean remedial punishment. It is a simple fact that in Greek kolasis always means remedial punishment. God’s punishment is always for man’s cure.”
Also see what other Greek scholars say about it
An Analytical Study of Words
tentmaker.org/books/asw/Chapter11.html
Fifteen literally translated (not interpretively translated) Bibles that reveal what God will do with the sinners in Matthew 25:46
Concordant Literal, Young’s literal, Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott, Rotherham’s Emphasized, Scarlett’s, J.W. Hanson’s New Covenant, Twentieth Century, Ferrar Fenton, The Western New Testament, Weymouth’s (unedited), Clementson’s, The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Anointed, The Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible, Bullinger’s Companion Bible margins, Jonathan Mitchell’s translation (2010).
Regarding the meaning of aionios, Dean Hough, director of THE SAVIOUR OF ALL FELLOWSHIP wrote
“In THE VOCABULARY OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT (edited by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan) Concerning aionios we read, “In general, the word depicts that of which the horizon is not in view . . .” (p.16). If the horizon of the extermination spoken of by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 is simply not in view, then we can see that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:22 can truly occur. The same all who are dying in Adam, which includes some who incur eonian extermination, can indeed eventually be vivified in Christ.
The Bible, in fact, does not speak of judgment and condemnation, death and destruction, hades and Gehenna, or any of these serious consequences of sin, as unending. It may refer to them as not having the end in view, but none of these fearful works of God can keep Him from achieving His will (1Tim.2:4); reconciling all through the blood of Christ’s cross (Col.1:20, and becoming All in all (1 Cor.15:28).”.
Dean Hough
WHAT MOST OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS BELIEVED
Universalism:
The Prevailing Doctrine Of the Christian Church During Its First Five-Hundred Years
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.html
And they were reading the Bible in its original language!