The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The meaning of "salvation" and universal atonement passages

Yeah, I agree Paidion. Well put. I am still not certain how quickly God will change us post-mortem. I guess it will depend on the person and their relationship with God.

As an aside, since I see that I was invoked… :wink:

Actually I’m fine with “Gehenna” and “hades” and several other terms being translated as “hell”, although we lose some interesting nuances by doing so.

Gehenna—possibly. But Hades? It seems to me that this word means “the grave.” Right now, the grave prevails. Everyone dies. However, “the gates of the grave (or tomb)” will not prevail over Christ’s Assembly. For He will raise his disciples from death at the last day (John 6:40,44,54)

(The story of Dives and Lazarus was a parable based on the Jewish belief of the day that Hades is a dwelling place for the dead who aren’t really dead.
The purpose of the parable was to show that even if it were possible for someone to return from the dead and report his experience, the Jews to whom Jesus was speaking, would not believe.)