The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Restitution Of All Things

Featured Writers
#181

image

Mystery= musterion =

Not the mysterious, but that which is outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension.

Can be made known ONLY by Divine revelation & at a time appointed by God.

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace , wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ; Wherein He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself :That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will .”

#182

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Archegos & Prodromos, has a stacked deck. He not only undoes the fall of Adam, He does it with flair!

In Hebr. 9.14 His blood is polus mallon.

In Rom. 11.24 the wild & natural olive branches are in the same polus mallon dimension.

Yes, and this majestic Prince-Leader of Reconciliation not only undoes the despair of Adam, He does it polus mallon!

Mallon =

More.

To a greater degree by far.

Jesus Christ IS the Mallon Saviour of the all.

#183

The Everlasting Gospel

George Klein-Nicolai: The Everlasting Gospel (1705) | Mercy Upon All

#184

Death & destruction are not eternal.

"Jesus knew that John 3:16 was not the end of the story…that’s why He continued to John 3:17 and talked about the salvation of all mankind.

Jesus makes no attempt to use verse 16 to negate or qualify verse 17. He simply makes both statements side by side as if both are completely true. The reason He does this is that both are completely true.

We see this over and over in Scripture, especially in the writings of Paul – a statement about people who have faith now (maybe a warning or exhortation or encouragement about the benefits of taking part in the kingdom of God a.k.a. the next two ages of life on earth right next to a statement about how Christ accomplished the justification of all men. See Romans 3:23-24 and 5:18 and their contexts for example. This is no big deal; none of these statements negate, qualify (change), or contradict each other, because both concepts are 100% true. Some will be saved from death early and take part in the kingdom of God, and everyone else will be saved from death later.

To attempt to use some statements (about those who get saved early) to negate the others statements (about the eventual salvation of all) is to butcher the common sense rules of language and communication. We would never do this to each other in everyday communication; the only reason people try to do it to Jesus and Paul is because they cannot bring themselves to believe the plain statements about the eventual salvation of all mankind.

If I said to my kids, “Those of you who help me clean the yard today will get to go to a movie with me tomorrow, and next week I will take the rest of you to a movie,” I have made it very clear that all the kids will eventually go to the movies. My two statements do not contradict each other or negate each other in any way. This is the exact same thing Jesus does in John 3:16 and 17 – He makes two equally true statements. Yet “hell mindset” Christians try to make one statement negate the other in order to fit their preconceived inherited ideas." -Kenneth Larsen-

What About how the Bible says that those who do not believe will perish or be destroyed?

What Does it Mean to “Perish?”

#185

The master plan of Abba is a long range plan of bringing everything & everybody together into Him with nothing, absolutely nothing exempt from His rule.

He is supreme in the beginning, He is supreme in the end!

All broken & dislocated pieces of the universe fixed in vibrant harmony.

https://www.bible.com/bible/97/EPH.1.msg

https://www.bible.com/bible/97/COL.1.MSG

#186

The Master of the Glory does all things well. He clears the air of the human condition, the disordered mess of struggling humanity to set is right once & for all.

The band-aid of the Law has been swallowed by the Spirit of the living & breathing God.

Our Father Abba = magnificent overflow.

https://www.bible.com/bible/97/ROM.8.msg

1 Like
#187

This is from today’s Center For Action And Contemplation newsletter.

Alternative Orthodoxy

At-one-ment, Not Atonement
Wednesday, February 5, 2020

The Franciscan view of atonement theory is a prime example of our alternative orthodoxy. The Franciscan School was dissatisfied with the popular theological idea that Jesus came to Earth as a necessary sacrifice to appease an angry God. As human consciousness advances, more and more people cannot believe that God would demand Jesus’ blood as payment for our sins. It seems to be inevitable that our old logic needs to break up before we can begin to grow up.

The most common reading of the Bible is that Jesus “died for our sins”—either to pay a debt to the devil (generally believed in the first millennium) or to pay a debt to God (proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century and holding sway for most of the second millennium). But even in the 13th century, Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266–1308) agreed with neither of these understandings.

Duns Scotus was not guided by the Temple language of debt, atonement, and blood sacrifice, which was understandably used by the Gospel writers and by Paul. Instead, he was inspired by the cosmic hymns in the first chapters of Colossians and Ephesians and the Prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18). While the Church has never rejected the Franciscan position, it has remained a minority view.

The terrible and un-critiqued premise of many “substitutionary atonement theories” is that God demanded Jesus to be a blood sacrifice to “atone” for our sin-drenched humanity. As if God could need payment, and even a very violent transaction, to be able to love and accept God’s own children! These theories are based on retributive justice rather than the restorative justice that the prophets and Jesus taught.

For Duns Scotus, the incarnation of God and the redemption of the world could never be a mere Plan B or mop-up exercise in response to human sinfulness; Jesus’ birth, life, and death had to be Plan A, the proactive work of God from the very beginning. We were “chosen in Christ before the world was made” (Ephesians 1:4). Our sin could not possibly be the motive for the incarnation! Only perfect love and divine self-revelation could inspire God to come in human form. God never merely reacts, but supremely and freely acts —out of love.

Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God! God is not someone to be afraid of but is the Ground of Being and on our side. [1]

The Franciscan minority position, our alternative orthodoxy, is basically saying that no atonement is necessary. Some call it “at-one-ment” instead of atonement. There is no bill to be paid; there is simply a union to be named. Jesus didn’t come to solve a problem; he came to reveal the true nature of God as Love.

Gateway to Action & Contemplation:
What word or phrase resonates with or challenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to do?

Prayer for Our Community:
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen.

Listen to Fr. Richard read the prayer.

[1] This is one of the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Seven Themes of an Alternative Orthodoxy. Join the CONSPIRE 2020 webcast to learn more about this and other themes: https://cac.org/conspire-2020/.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Returning to Essentials: Teaching an Alternative Orthodoxy , disc 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), CD, MP3 download;

Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 183-188;

Richard Rohr with Tim Scorer, Embracing an Alternative Orthodoxy: Richard Rohr on the Legacy of St. Francis, session 1 (Morehouse Education Resources: 2014), Participants’ Workbook and DVD.

Image credit: St. Francis of Assisi (detail), Jusepe de Ribera, 1642, El Escorial.

2 Likes
#188

Perfect=

Brought to consummation or completeness; completed.

Not defective nor redundant.

Having all the properties or qualities requisite to its nature and kind;

Without flaw, fault, or blemish;

Without error; mature; whole; pure; sound; right; correct.

A complete and satisfactory close in harmony

A tense which expresses an act or state completed.

To make perfect; to finish or complete, so as to leave nothing wanting; to give to anything all that is requisite to its nature and kind.

This is the consummation of the Divine embrace as the Author brings everything back into Himself in perfect harmony and at-one-ment as the Finisher.

#189

1 Cor. 15:22 alternate plan b=

“For as in Adam some die , so also in Christ some shall be made alive. But each in his own order; Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished some rule and some authority and power.”

However

"There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition , he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, “He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them.” When Scripture says that “he walked all over them,” it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on. When everything and everyone is finally under God’s rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive— a perfect ending! -The Message-

#190

What is the meaning of propitiation?

What it is not = the appeasing of an angry deity.

Our word for today is hilaskomai.

The ghastly idea of propitiating an angry deity was used by the Greeks in making the gods propitious & something to be earned first. It is foreign in the N.T. & Septuagint Scriptures!

Hilaskomai actually means reconciliation, a covering as in the words kaphar & kopher, IOW our Father Abba’s Mercy Seat.

His love & grace reaching out to enfold us into Himself.

“He is the at-one-ment for our sins & NOT for our sins ONLY but for the sins of the whole world.”

Hilasmos = atonement

We have a Priest-Friend in the Presence of Abba. He has solved the sin problem for good, not only ours, but the sins of the whole/pas world.

Jesus Christ is the hilasmos of the holos!

#191
#192

The manifold wisdom of God

Manifold = polupoikilos =

Much variegation.

Marked with great variety of colours.

The manifold wisdom of God is expressed in a couple of words in koine all speaking of something more, yes much more like polupoikilos.

The radical pas gives way to polupoikilos and an expanse within Dear Abba flowing into inarticulate dimensions of His inner sanctuary of Himself.

" And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along… this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!" -MSG-

#193

What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.

It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family , saying,

I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I’ll join them in worship and praise to you. -The Message-

#194

This is from today’s Center For Action And Contemplation newsletter. Since I blend the Christian Sacramental and mystical, along with Indigenous, Zen, Yoga and spiritual light traditions - I found this interesting:

Ways of Knowing

Grandmother God
Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Since first working at Acoma Pueblo as a deacon in 1969 and making my permanent home in New Mexico in 1986, I have learned much from our Native American pueblos and tribes. I encourage you to learn about the history surrounding your home. [1] Settler colonial—and primarily Christian—countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa tried to destroy or at least seriously marginalize indigenous cultures. This now seems undeniable. Yet indigenous people and their practices persist, opening body and heart to deep wisdom. Today’s meditation introduces Steven Charleston, an elder of the Choctaw Nation and a retired Episcopal bishop. His way of knowing God and the Gospel reflect both his Christian and Choctaw heritage and his contemplative practice.

The irony is I did find what I was looking for, but not in the place I expected. In my romantic imagination, I believed I would find my answer in a religious ritual or ceremony, either Christian or Traditional. I thought the answer might come to me high on a hill doing a vision quest, in the womb-like darkness of a Sweat Lodge, or in a camp meeting out on the prairie. The vision I had from God had been a little like that; it had surprised me during my ritual of morning prayers in Cambridge. But in the end, the answer found me sitting in a chair. I had been reading the gospel according to Matthew, letting the familiar words of his story slip through my mind like a gentle stream, when suddenly the holy voice I had first heard on the rooftop returned and shook me awake in my spirit. [2]

“You have just read the first vision quest of Jesus.”

I smile now because I can remember scrambling to come awake when those words caught me off guard. I consider this voice to be from God because it appears from some place other than my own consciousness. It announces itself. It speaks in a clear, simple, uncomplicated way.

When I have attempted to explain this experience to others I have often laughed at myself because the voice I hear sounds as if it is speaking to a small child. I do not receive long and elaborate messages from God, probably because God is not sure I could understand them. Instead, I get the brief, direct words needed by a prophet with a short attention span. One of my images of God is that of Grandmother, the wise old Native woman with gray hair and eyes as ancient as the Earth. She takes my face gently in her hands and holds me in Her gaze as She tells me what She thinks I need to know, forming the words slowly so I can remember them and let them sink in.

I embrace this feminine image in the same way Hebrew tradition refers to the voice of God as the bat kol , the daughter of the voice. It is that mysterious presence that comes from some source beyond, a communication that defies our ability to categorize. Therefore, like the theologians of ancient Israel, I give the voice a female personification because I experience it in that way.

Here’s someone who had a vision quest and received the gift of healing.

#195

Our dear friends Gary & Michelle Amarault can be thanked for presenting this remarkable book for us by Thomas Allin an Anglican priest from years ago. Enjoy the witness.

http://www.mercyuponall.org/2015/10/20/robin-parry-releases-new-edition-of-thomas-allins-christ-triumphant/

The entire book below

https://www.tentmaker.org/books/ChristTriumphant.htm

#196

God is working to meet and correct some awful fall ." - Andrew Jukes-

This is precisely what the Restitution of our Abba is about.

The Second Death & The Restitution Of All Things.

The complete book below >>>>

The Second Death and the Restitution of All Things by Andrew Jukes (Index)

The Restitution of All Things, Andrew Jukes

The Author & Finisher is working to meet & correct some awful fall.

#197

" A loving and just God is going to have to deal with our contingent histories, to remove moral luck from the salvation equation. But how can he do this if death interrupts our moral development? Truly, there just isn’t enough time in this life to correct many of our contingent histories. So what does God have to do? I’ll tell you:

He has to defeat Death. He has to defeat The Scourge of Humanity.

See, Death’s Sting isn’t just about dying, although that is bad. It’s about running out of time. About death trumping God’s efforts to eradicate sin and sanctify creation. Death is a moral clock. And it’s ticking.

But here is the witness of universalism: God is governed by no clock. He doesn’t run out of time. His love never fails." - Richard Beck

#198

Well, it seems he needs to feel ‘special’ in believing that he has a gift. I suppose that as long as he isn’t doing anyone (human or animal) any harm then so be it. It helps him get through his day with a bit of self-esteem.

#199

I believe his gift is real. But then again, there are a lot of people - floating around - with “alleged” gifts like his. But the quieter folks are, about announcing any gifts publicly…And the more they give credit to God…the more powerful, the gift (s) REALLY is.

1 Like
#200

Those who tremble at the Word of the Lord, may be described in the following manner:

  • They feel the power of it in their hearts;
  • They believe every Word of God is true, and shall have its accomplishment;
  • They fear to deny with the mouth what they believe in the heart, even though the confession of the same should expose them to the scorn and derision of their acquaintance;
  • The endeavor to be conformed, both in temper and conduct, to the will of God made known to them;
  • and to obey God rather than men.

I think these are the true marks of those who tremble at the word of God. Happy are they who answer this description!

Do you know what we are commanded to teach & preach?

“God IS the Saviour of ALL mankind, especially those who trust in Him. Command this and preach this.”

God is NOT Saviour of some/tis.

God is NOT Saviour of only/monon & monos.

God is the Saviour of the pas/all & the malista/especially.