The Evangelical Universalist Forum

SNIPPETS FROM MY HARD COPY UR LIBRARY

Evangelical Universalism Arguments for Evangelical Universalism
#1902

#44 - TIME, ETERNITY AND GOD – REDEMPTION’S GLORY – RAY PRINZING

“Modern theology has so long circumvented our thinking and teaching to the biased idea that God will save only part of His creation and so limited His redemptive powers that we have forgotten that with God all things are possible and shall be wrought out in due time. God has a definite schedule for saving His creatures, and there is nothing that can withstand His purpose.

Sin was allowed for wise ends, and only after these have been secured will sin cease to exist. It is all a part of God’s purpose of the ages and redemption’s glory will only shine out the more after the plan’s execution. God never allows sin to go beyond His transforming power. God always has everything under perfect control.”

#1903

#45 - THE MAGNITUDE OF REDEMPTION – RAY PRINZING

“ ‘And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.” 1John 4:14.
‘Who will have ALL MEN to be saved, and to come into a knowledge of the truth’ 1Tim. 2:4.

This is not a pitting of man’s will against the will of God as some try to teach, with man’s will able to resist and hold out until God cannot change him, but must throw him into some eternal cesspool to be tormented. NAY – for we read that ‘He is working out all things after the counsel of His own will,’ and man cannot disannul that which HE has willed. It is God’s will that all shall come to Christ. He is the propitiation for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD. Why then shall we be so foolish as to dispute the immutability of His truth?”

#1904

#46 - THE INTERPLAY OF GOOD AND EVIL – RAY PRINZING

“God is sovereign, and He controls all the interaction of evil and good, and causes all to redound to His own glory. It is not – what was lost by the fall was to be regained by redemption, BUT by the interaction of FALL AND REDEMPTION, God achieves greater, wiser, nobler, and higher goals for everyone than by the Adamic race remaining in its pristine state.

Evil and good are synchronized to accomplish God’s will and purpose, so that the ultimate goal shall reveal all evil transformed back into good, and all negation cancelled out by GOOD. Evil is allowed for wise ends, and when these are secured it must cease to exist, for God will restore all things into good. HE controls all the interaction between evil and good until His purpose of the ages is fulfilled. Then shall God be All in all.”

#1905

#47 - DIVINE INWORKINGS – ALL IN ALL – RAY PRINZING

“We would not minimize the judgments of God, but the more the spirit of revelation unfolds the truth, the more we see God’s judgments in proper perspective, that they are remedial, corrective in their nature and used to bring forth a state of righteousness. They shall not be executed in unholy vengeance, for MERCY shall balance the score. God’s judgments are ever tempered with mercy, and when they have fulfilled their purpose, the judgments end. Mercy will outlast all the judgments, and will rejoice in the ultimate restoration of all that was perverted, corrupt, and evil.
Mercy can operate on the basis of justice because Christ has gathered the whole into His own heart, and suffered to reconcile all to Himself.”

#1906

#48 - THE UNENDING TRIUMPH OF JESUS CHRIST – ED GREGORY

“Today every warden in the U.S. endorses the ideal of rehabilitation. Shall we say then that God is less reasonable than His creatures? No! God’s punishments exist not for vindictive suffering, but rather for remedy! Praise His Holy Name!

God works with a glorious end in view. We have viewed the judgments of God against sin and unrighteousness as the end, when in reality they are only a means to an end. The revelation of scriptural truth does not view God’s judgments in the ages to come as vindictive, as if to say that God is vengeful, implacable, and hateful against men (as all too often those who profess His Name appear to be!), This insight into God’s purposes in judgment rather declares that these judgments are remedial, that they exist to effect a positive divine end for everyone.

Christ died “to reconcile all unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” Colossians 1:20. The all saving Cross of Christ will never give up its redeeming power till sin and sinner have no more a name among the creatures of God.”

#1907

#49 - THE TRUE BASIS OF REDEMPTION – A.P. ADAMS

“God says He will reconcile all; the whole creation shall ultimately be delivered, and every created thing shall finally praise God (Revelation 5:13).

The point that I wish the reader especially to note is that the final accomplishment of this purpose of God depends on Himself, and not on man. The creature may fail, the Creator never fails; and no amount of blunders, mistakes, failures or perversions of the creature shall disarrange or thwart the plans of the Creator. This is the true basis of redemption.”

#1908

#50 - THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MANKIND - JOSEPH KIRK, WILLIAM C. REBMANN, DEAN HOUGH, AND JAMES CORAM

“To know the true and living God ‘out of Whom all is’ 1Cor. 8:6, is to recognize that His purpose for His creatures can only be loving, wise, righteous, and good.
To know Jesus Christ, ‘through Whom all is’ 1Cor. 8:8, is to know that God’s purpose cannot fail. Shall we who know Him and have had ours eyes opened to the glorious triumph of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ sit idly by and let reproach be heaped upon His Name without protesting?

Think how the teaching of endless punishment slanders God and Jesus Christ! We know Christ died for all (1Tim. 2:6). Does God lack the goodness, the power, the love, the grace to save all? God declares that judgment is eonian; man says it is everlasting. Let us believe God and not man.”
Joseph Kirk

#1909

#51 - SAVIOUR OF ALL MANKIND - JOSEPH KIRK, WILLIAM C. REBMANN, DEAN HOUGH, AND JAMES CORAM

“Regarding the argument that if the punishment of the unbelievers has an end, then the life of the believers has an end also at the end of the ages.

But life cannot end at that time because death is abolished (1Cor. 15:26). The life of the eons ends when all are vivified at the end or consummation of the eons (1Cor. 15:24).
Life itself, however, continues on interminably.”

“Regarding the argument that in 2Cor. 4:18 eonian must mean eternal because it is set in contrast with the word temporal meaning enduring for time as opposed to eternity.

But the Greek word translated temporal has no connection with the word for time; it is literally ‘toward season,’ and means temporary or for the era. In this passage eonian is used in contrast between our afflictions which last for a brief season, and our promised long enduring eonian glory, which lasts until all opens out into the glorious consummation when God become All in all.”
William C. Rebman

#1910

#52 - SAVIOUR OF ALL MANKIND - JOSEPH KIRK, WILLIAM C. REBMANN, DEAN HOUGH, AND JAMES CORAM

“What was done cannot be undone. The work of God and the obedience of Christ on Golgotha is not something conditional on whether or not we believe it or respond to it or prepare ourselves for it. It has already happened, and its effects are unstoppable. The consequence of the obedience of Christ is that every descendant of Adam will be constituted righteous. When Christ died, God was there in Him conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offences to them (2Cor. 5:19). Peace is not made by us; it is made by God in the death of His Son. And now God is entreating through us that this peace might be recognized and enjoyed (2Cor. 5:20).”
Dean Hough

#1911

#53 - SAVIOUR OF ALL MANKIND - JOSEPH KIRK, WILLIAM C. REBMANN, DEAN HOUGH, AND JAMES CORAM

“The use of ‘forever and ever’ instead of the accurate rendering ‘for the eons of the eons,’ is a gross mistranslation. Most translators simply lacked the insight to see the point of many of the passages that speak of the eons. Since they were able, however, to make sense of these passages by translating by ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal,’ they simply went ahead and did so, any resultant problems notwithstanding. Due to a lack of sensible thinking it was impossible for them to face the fact that the usual translations of this word are quite mistaken and extremely harmful!”
James Coram

#1912

#54 - UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION – A.E. KNOCH

By way of introduction Knoch wrote
“In this little handbook we tear away the false traditions of Christendom first. Then we remove the dark cover which philosophical mistranslations have laid over God’s Book. With these gone all that is necessary is to read God’s message to us more carefully, and its overwhelmingly glorious solution of this vexed problem illuminates our minds and flood our hearts with exultant joy and praise and adoration to the God of all grace and glory.”

Then, by way of conclusion at the end of His book Knoch wrote
“We have considered the traditions of Christendom which darken this subject and found them unscriptural. My love to God and my admiration have increased unutterably since I have seen that He is not the defeated fiend of Christendom, but is fully able to cope with evil and sin, and bind them all to the chariot wheels of love. All His attributes, including holiness, and righteousness, serve in the livery of love. Adored be His Name!”

#1913

#55 - CREATION, REDMPTION AND THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS – GEORGE R. HAWTIN

“Before the last age is over, every knee in heaven and in earth and under the earth will have bowed to Christ, and every tongue will have confessed to God that He is Lord to the glory of God (Phil. 2:10). ‘In the name of Jesus’ (literal translation) signifies much more than is implied by the simple use of the Name in speech. According to the idiom it signifies ‘in the very nature of Jesus,’ and as no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 12:3), we know that there will be no hypocritical confession, nor will there be any confession by compulsion, but a true confession of Christ by every creature in the universe, and that to the glory of God the Father.”

#1914

#56 - EONIAN - EVERLASTING OR AGE-LASTING – GRACE H. TODD

“That the expression ‘the eons of the eons’ (forever and ever, KJV) cannot mean an endless successions of eons is clearly revealed by comparing Rev. 11:15 with 1Cor. 15:24-28. In Rev. 11:15 our Lord is said to reign ‘for the eons of the eons’ but in 1Cor. 15 His reign is said to end. He does not reign ‘for ever and ever’ though He does reign for the eons of the eons.”

#1915

#57 - THE PROBLEM OF EVIL – JOHN H. ESSEX

“All creation remains within the care and keeping of its Creator. The vessels which become marred never leave the hand of the Potter; they are marred while still in His hand. The lesson that was taught Jeremiah (Jer. 18:4), though to be interpreted as relating to Israel, nevertheless embodies a principle which is sustained throughout the whole outworking of God’s purpose. He holds all in the hollow of His hand, and though He may allow, and even cause, some of His creatures to temporarily turn away from Him, He never lets them go. That is why Paul can write in Romans 8:20, ‘For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

#1916

#58 - THE PURPOSE OF GOD – JOHN H. ESSEX

“To those who would challenge the truth of the reconciliation of all, I would reply, ‘It is God’s choice, and praise be to Him that He has chosen it to be so. Let no one deny God the right to choose as He wills.’ ”

“When God’s conciliatory hand of friendship has been grasped by all in complete reconciliation, and when the wisdom of His choosings and His appointments, that is His sovereignty has been universally accepted beyond question – in short, when God is All in all, then every one of His creatures will rejoice in being one of HIS achievements, and all in the heavens and on earth will be both prepared and glad to acknowledge that of themselves they have contributed nothing, but that ALL HAS BEEN OF HIM.”

#1917

#59 - THE GREATNESS OF SALVATION – WILLIAM MEALAND
(possibly the most eloquent of all the UR writers)

“A time is coming when Christ, the Beloved Himself, stands before His Father Who is Love, with the entire universe in train. What a thrilling reception, what a glorious presentation that will be! The great end for which the God of expectation waited, in perfect assurance, and for which Christ gave Himself. How fully will such a conclusion accord with the delight of His will!

There was a time when such greatness of salvation was more widely believed.
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.html
But the imposed beliefs of the dark ages spoiled all this. Christendom was held as with iron bands in the grip of priest-ridden assent. And although their teaching is kept in the background, it is still there, giving that fatal bias which so clouds the perception of grace. Thus, we find resort to the limiting of Scripture by Scripture, to the seeing of finality when God’s purpose is in continuance, and the ignoring of those passages which so blessedly bring out the fullness and triumph of saving grace. But how happy should they be who, brought to a present belief, enjoy to the full the prospect of future salvation for all, even the reconciliation of the universe.

Stage upon stage, the Victor of Golgotha will move on His momentous and victorious way. Then will He show that ‘the Father has delivered all into His hands’ John 13:3. And in those capable hands, the world, even though it be by tumult, will be led to peace. What a perfect expression God’s grace finds in such a scene! What a realization of the truth attendant on so great a salvation! How rapturous a vision, too, of the One Who carried it to such a conclusion, Who sought until He found, Who loved until He won!”

#1918

#60 - GOD JUSTIFIES, VIVIFIES, SAVES AND RECONCILES ALL – E.G. JONES

“In 1Tim. 4:9-11 we are told that the living God ‘is the Saviour of all mankind, especially of those who believe,’ and with this 1Tim. 2: 4-6 concurs. Many seek to limit it to believers, but they overlook the significance of the double statement. That there is a special salvation for believers is plainly stated, but this does not limit the other part of the statement, rather does it emphasize it. The salvation of believers is a special work; they are a special class in the ‘all mankind.’ God’s will for mankind is salvation, not as an experimental salvation toying with the will and choice of men, but as their Disposer – God.

My dear brethren, let us embrace this glorious truth which God has revealed for us. Let it so become a part of us that our lives will be reflecting it. Let it fill our hearts with the love of God and His glorious Son. Let us be rendering praise to the living God, the universal Creator and Reconciler, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
‘To Him be glory for the eons! Amen!’ ”

#1919

#61 - TWO STUDIES ON HEAVEN AND HELL – A.E. KNOCH

“Love is the great thing. God loves me. Christ died for me to display God’s affection. It has filled my heart to overflowing. I have tried to share it with my fellows, but O, so feebly and faithlessly. Yet I have known no joy so pure and permanent, no bliss so ecstatic as comes to me when some straying sinner or seeking saint enjoys God’s love through some word of mine. What will it be to be perfectly equipped with inexhaustible supplies of power and grace and fare forth into the celestial realms as an ambassador of peace to proclaim the evangel of God’s limitless love to the celestials of the starry spheres? This — this will be happiness — and heaven.

Not only does Paul see the entire earth blessed and saved, but all reconciled whom God created – even the principalities and powers of the heavens (Col. 1:20). So great is the power of the cross!”

#1920

#62 - A RANSOM FOR ALL – E.T. SPRINGETT MOXHAM

“We scan the dark ages of man and note how in the most pitiful ignorance, men, women, and children have died without the light of love – bitter, belaboured and bereft of hope. All this and worse if the theories of men who limit the Gospel of Christ are right!

But why limit God? Why limit His power? Why indeed limit His plan and purposes for the ages of time? Why take part of His plan and label it as the whole? Why limit the great God of love at all, He Who is infinite love? Why indeed limit the compassion and overflowing love of Jesus ‘who gave Himself a ransom for all’? (1Tim. 2:5,6). Are not the arms of Jesus long enough or strong enough to reach out and snatch the sinner from the jaws of suffering and death, if not in this dispensation, then in the ages to come? God ‘will have all men to be saved and come into a knowledge of the truth’ (Rom. 5:18). Never let it be said that any one of us limited God in any way.”

#1921

#63 - THE AGES IN THE SCRIPTURES – VLADIMIR GELESNOFF

“Words are inadequate to describe the harm which has resulted from confounding the ages with eternity.

The Greek and Hebrew terms rendered ‘forever and ever,’ ‘eternal,’ ‘everlasting’ never refer to endlessness; but to a series of terminable periods know as age-times. These ages are periods in which God carries on remedial work, but they have a conclusion and pass away when the purpose to be accomplished in them has been realized. The ages are never synonymous with endlessness but always distinct therefrom.

That the words translated ‘forever and ever’ are associated with the hereafter of both believer and unbeliever is true; but in the case of both it is limited to the span of the ages, and has not the remotest reference to the final state of either. Therefore the dogmas of endless agony and endless sin rest on purely imaginary premises and are without the slightest shred of biblical support.”