The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The meaning of reconcile

Theology
#1

“The Bible does not say every person will be saved.”

Not simply “saved”>>>“Reconciled” >>>>>“Made righteous”.

The identical mass (the polus) “made sinners” in Adam1 are the polus “made righteous” in the Last, the Lord Jesus Christ!

“It is love alone in the holy Deity that will allow no peace to the wicked, nor ever cease its judgments till every sinner is forced to confess that it is good for him that he has been in trouble, and thankfully own that not the wrath but the love of God has plucked out that right eye, cut off that right band, which he ought to have done but would not do for himself and his own salvation.” – William Law

"It is claimed that it takes the iron out of Christianity because it removes the threat. No longer can the sinner be dangled over the pit of hell. No longer can what Burn’s called the “hangmen’s whip” of the fear of Hell be threateningly cracked over the sinner. But the kind of universalism in which I believe has not simply obliterated hell and said that everything will be all right for everyone; it has stated grimly that, if you will have it so, you can go to Heaven via Hell. – William Barclay-

“Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works”

Reconcile=

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reconcile

Reconcile= Katallasso=

1.To change /exchange

  1. To change from enmity to friendship.

Apokatallassō=

To reconcile completely

The Gospel For Today

“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:19).

Reconcile= Katallasso=

To change from enmity to friendship.

What God accomplishes through grace to former enemies.

“For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…”

Romans 5 stresses the attitude of God’s favor toward us.

He always acts according to His unchanging righteousness and lovingkindness.

Reconcile= apokatallasso=

To reconcile completely.

To change from one condition to another.

The Divine purpose=

The all (ta panta)

“Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” -Col.1:20-

#2

Colossians 1:20 (YLT) and through him to reconcile the all things to himself – having made peace through the blood of his cross – through him, whether the things upon the earth, whether the things in the heavens.

#3

Sin vs Grace

"Sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin.

If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do!

There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift.

The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!

One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.

All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end."

#4

No argument there, it’s wonderful truth.
Now we are free to reconcile ourselves to God. There are no barriers.

#5

Dear Dave: Reconciliation is indeed a glorious truth hidden from many eyes. You will notice the Source of the reconciliation, not us but Him. He has determined in His own mind and heart reconciling all unto Himself!
.
Bless you brother, His work is moving to consummation.

From Him, through Him, for Him…

#6

The radical koine pas

or

The all the more perfect Plan of Father=

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled…”

The less than perfect alternate plan b=

#7

If you must persist in a plan b for the more perfect Plan, F.L., perhaps we can consider the inferior with a capital I>>>

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were some things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: some things were created by him, and for him: And he is before some things, and by him some things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in some things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should some fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile some things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled…”

#8

Restoration= Apokatastasis=

From koine apo.

Apo = back again.

AND

Kathistemi

Kathistemi= to set in order.

"It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance–the forgiveness of our offences–so abundant was God’s grace, the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us, when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it–the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him. And you…"

#9

Christ Holds It All Together

"We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels— everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross." -The Message-

#10

The Big Gulp

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” -1 Cor. 15-

Swallow= katapino=

To swallow down death by victory.

(Of the mortal body by LIFE)

To drink down, to devour.

To swallow.

Jonathan Mitchell Translation=

“the death was drunk down and swallowed unto victory”

BBE= “death is overcome by life”

NCE= “death is destroyed forever in victory”

MSG= “death is swallowed by triumphant life”

Word for today=

enduo=

To put on immortality & incorruption

#11

Eternal Death----WHAT!!!

What a concept; Eternal death; Wow! Death that just keeps going on and on and on without end. Infinite death. Now THAT’S crediting death with a lot of power, especially considering that scripture credits Jesus with destroying him who has the power of death, and that death, the last enemy shall be destroyed. I think it was while reading a study Bible with notes by Dr. Charles Ryrie—a very respected scholar at least within the Dispensationalist wing of western Evangelicalism—when I first ran across the notion that, while all men, without Christ, are dead in trespasses and sins, that state of death becomes eternal when they die without receiving Christ as Lord and Savior. This was given as the meaning of the second death in Revelation.

Think about that: Imagine that scenario. Death existing along with life for all eternity.
Though Paul saw the Day when God will become all in all, it seems – according to the above theory – that there’s going to be another all where not only will God not be all, but His arch enemy, death, will have its own kingdom where it will reign forever. They’re not talking about death as annihilation, they’re talking about an eternal state of anti-life existence without love, without grace, without mercy, abandoned by God to eternal darkness.

Stand this nonsense up against Jesus’ claim that He is making ALL THINGS NEW.

The re-making of all things new is by His resurrection life. THAT life, not death, goes on and on and on eternally. It’s life that goes on and on, not death. To understand the operation of death, as opposed to life, our focus must be upon Jesus’ experience of death, whose death is inclusive of all death. Yes, that’s what the Bible clearly teaches. Christ died for all, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Possibly the most important verse in the Bible for explaining how Christ’s death relates to all mankind’s death, is found in 2 Cor. 5:14. Nearly every translation that I’m familiar with renders this verse with greater clarity than the KJV.

This is Paul’s explanation from the Amplified Version of how Christ’s death relates to all mankind’s death: “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died.” That’s what it means that Christ died for us all. We needed to die, finally, once for all; no more dying, so the death of all the generations past, present and future met its destiny in Christ, and death finally, fully died. You see, life is lived, and death is died. “For in that He died, he died unto sin once; but in that He lives, He lives unto God (Rom. 6:10).”

The destiny of death is not to go on and on eternally.

The destiny of death is to die, finally. God’s warning to Adam and Eve, in the original Hebrew was, “…dying, thou shalt surely die.” Get that. Not dying, thou shalt continue to die without end; “dying, thou shalt surely DIE.” Death doesn’t terminate life. Life terminates death. “Death is swallowed up of life,” through Christ’s resurrection. The Source of death’s finality is the same as the Source of life’s continuance: Jesus Christ our Lord, crucified, buried and risen.

As I recall–not having it with me at the time of this writing—the NAS translation of Rom. 6:10, makes very clear how death and life work, and Jonathan Mitchell includes it as an alternate rendering. From the NAS: “For the death He died, He died to sin once; but the life He lives, He lives unto God.” Ah! There it is. …“the death He died, He died…but life He lives, He lives…” Death is died; life is lived. Jesus gathered together all death into His death, and now lives, and " It’s not that He merely lived; HE LIVES, and we live in and with Him. As the lyrics go to that beautiful gospel hymn, Because He Lives: “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.”

As death came through one man, spreading to all men, so death has come to its end in One Man.

According to Paul in Colossians, all mankind shall be gathered together in Christ, for He sums up in Himself all humanity, as He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. To extol the power of death, as does much of pseudo-orthodox Christianity, is an affront to the power of Christ’s resurrection. The effect is the same as saying to our Lord, “yes, You live forever, but death is your equal match. It has the same power as your life.” -John Gavazzoni-

#12

Let me quote - from today’s CAC newsletter:

Unity and Diversity

One in Love
Sunday, June 2, 2019

The primary problem is that our identities are too small. We tend to rely most on our smaller, cultural identities and ignore our larger, common identity as members of the body of Christ. . . . Indeed, adopting a common identity is the key to tearing down cultural divisions and working toward reconciliation. —Christena Cleveland [1]

God’s major problem in liberating humanity has become apparent to me as I consider the undying recurrence of hatred of the other, century after century, in culture after culture and religion after religion.

The dualistic mind, upon which most of us were taught to rely, is simply incapable of the task of creating unity. It automatically divides reality into binary opposites and does most of its thinking inside this limited frame. It dares to call this choosing of sides “thinking” because that is all it knows how to do. “Really good” thinking then becomes devising a strong argument for our side’s superiority versus another country, race, group, political party, or religion.

It seems we must have our other ! We struggle to know who we are except by opposition and exclusion. Eucharist was supposed to tell Christians who we are in a positive and inclusionary way. But many Catholics, particularly clergy, have made the Holy Meal into a “prize for the perfect” and a “reward for good behavior” instead of medicine for sickness—which we all equally need. Now I see what our real sickness is. Our sickness or “sin” is the illusion of separateness, a completely mistaken identity which is far too small and too boundaried. The Eucharist is made to order to remind us that we are all one body of Christ. Even those in “other flocks” (see John 10:16)—other religions or no religion at all—are still part of the one body of God, which is, first of all, creation itself.

Christianity’s long history of anti-Semitism is one example of this. Throughout Europe, leaders at the highest levels of church and culture, and even canonized saints, thought Jews were a problem—while their own leader Jesus, his mother Mary, and all the apostles were fully Jewish! Figure that one out. Anti-Semitism only lessened for a time during the Crusades when Christians directed their negative energy toward Muslims. Later, when there were no obvious “others” around, we Christians divided into warring denominations and did our fighting there.

Humans are wired to scapegoat and project our shadow elsewhere. Being able to recognize our own negativity takes foundational conversion and transformation of the egoic self. Unitive consciousness—the awareness that we are all one in Love—lays a solid foundation for social critique and acts of justice. I hope we will let God show us how to think and live in new ways, ways that meet the very real needs of our time on this suffering planet.

#13

That prospect is bad enough, but there is worse, far worse. As Article 37 of the Belgic Confession puts it:

The evil ones will be convicted
by the witness of their own consciences,
and shall be made immortal—
but only to be tormented
in “the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels”.

It’s no wonder to me that the highly-respected John Stott found he could no longer believe that.

1 Like
#14

“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.” -A.P. Adams-

The True Basis Of Redemption

https://kingdom-resources.com/2017/05/24/the-true-basis-of-redemption-by-a-p-adams/

Robertson’s Word Pictures

Every created thing (παν κτισμα — pān ktisma). Every creature in a still wider antiphonal circle beyond the circle of angels (from κτιζω — ktizō for which see 1 Timothy 4:4; James 1:18), from all the four great fields of life (in heaven, upon the earth, under the earth as in Revelation 5:3, with on the sea επι της ταλασσης — epi tēs thalassēs added). No created thing is left out. This universal chorus of praise to Christ from all created life reminds one of the profound mystical passage in Romans 8:20-22 concerning the sympathetic agony of creation (κτισις — ktisis) in hope of freedom from the bondage of corruption. If the trail of the serpent is on all creation, it will be ultimately thrown off.

#15

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found. -Isaac Watts-

Curse= katanathema=

By metonymy: An accursed thing put to the thing announced.

“The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service—worshiping, they’ll look on his face, their foreheads mirroring God. Never again will there be any night. No one will need lamplight or sunlight. The shining of God, the Master, is all the light anyone needs. And they will rule with him age after age after age.” -The Message-