“The Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street…The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. Never again will anything be cursed.” (MSG)Rev.22
Healing = theurapeuo =
To cure/ to heal the sick.
Healing = therapeia =
Medical service of curing & healing.
Is the love of God temporary?
NO!
Is God’s mercy temporary?
NO!
Will God in His love & mercy save all Israel?
YES!
Will God in His love & mercy save all?
YES!
Is there an expiration date on the love & mercy of the Father?
Are you kidding! Surely you jest!
Fifteen Questions
1 If God will have all men to be saved, and if most men are lost, then how can God be supreme (1 Tim.2:3,4)?
2 If Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world, did He die in vain for the lost (1 John 2:2)?
3 If God is going to reconcile the universe through Christ, how can some be tormented forever (Col. 1:20)?
4 How can God, in Christ, gather all things together as one while billions remain eternally estranged (Eph.1:10)?
5 If all die in Adam, and a few are made alive in Christ, how can grace much more abound than sin (Rom. 5:20)?
6 If all men are condemned by Adam’s offense, why are not all justified by the one just award (Rom. 5:18)?
7 If all die in Adam, why shall not all be made alive in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22)?
8 How can every knee bow confessing Christ Lord, to God’s glory, unless reconciled (Phil. 2:10,11)?
9 If Christ only hath immortality, how can any of the dead be alive now (1 Tim. 6:14-16; 1 Cor. 15:53, 54)?
10 If the wicked go to hell as soon as they die, why are they raised and judged later (Rev. 20:11-15)?
11 Since the lake of fire is the second death, what happens to the wicked when death is destroyed (1 Cor.15:26)?
12 If “forever” means “eternity” what does “forever and ever” mean?
13 If God is Love and has all power, will He not find a way to save all (1 Tim. 4:9-11)?
14 If Christ is to reign for ever and ever, what does it mean that He will abdicate His throne (Rev. 11:15; 1 Cor. 15:24)?
15 Will God ever actually become All in all (1 Cor.15:28)?
The interplay of good & evil
“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 the fall & redemption’
God achieves greater, wiser, nobler, and higher goals 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.” -Ray Prinzing-
The Lamb of God loses nothing.
He is the One with “un” before the word limited.
The apostle John declares the Lamb takes away the sin of the world, not some of the world, the whole ungodly world.
His at-one-ment encompasses the radical all of pas.
“He is the at-one-ment for our sins”
AND
“not our sins ONLY”
BUT
“the sins of the whole world.”
Are our broadest hopes broad enough? Shall there be a nook or abyss, in all the universe of God, finally unlightened by the Cross? Shall there be a sin, or sorrow, or pain unhealed? Is the very universe, is creation in all its extent, a field wide enough for the Son of God?
Airō is the foundation for what John beheld as he beheld the Saviour of the WHOLE kosmos!
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.”
airō =
To lift up/ to draw up.
To take upon Himself & carry it away.
To remove & appropriate was is taken.
"The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I’ve been talking about, ‘the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.’ I knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God.” -MSG-
To Destroy =
“The mission of Christ was to destroy the enemy and to set the prisoners free.
Now this word ‘destroy’ does not mean to annihilate. In the Greek it means to make of no effect.
When Christ took the keys from the prison keeper he, Satan, lost all power and authority. Christ made his office of no effect (Heb. 2:14 & 15).
While prophets of doom forecast calamity and destruction, the mind of Christ speaks and lights our world with the vision of universal restoration and reconciliation.
Paul told of a great victory where every knee would bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Paul did not say that only a small number will bow and confess, but he said every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess. And no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit. What a glorious day that will be when every foot steps forth in the river of life up to the ankle, and from the ankle up to the knee.
Every knee shall bow!
We are not an accident!
We are not a mistake!
No one has been overlooked by the Creator.
All of us are His jewels, the apple of His eye, His purpose, reason and will.
When we see God in all things, and realize that all things are in His hands for the eventual good of everyone, then our lives will flow as peacefully as a river.” -Don Bruce-
The Second Death
Orthodox theology holds the second death to be a state of endless torment in which the sufferers are held forever in conscious being by a continuous act of Divine preservation, with the soul object of a punishment without end. This however would in no sense be death. The second death does not perpetuate the hopeless condition of the sinner to all eternity.
What the Holy Spirit means by ‘fire and brimstone’ is ‘divine purification,’ or a judgment fire which consumes all that is antagonistic to divine law and love.
Before the Great White Throne, that vast throng, their naked spirits conscious now of the blazing holiness of God, will be subjected to the process of the second death. What those processes are, their intensity and their duration, we are not told. They will suffice, however, not in themselves to perfect, but to bring those who suffer them to that agreement with the judgment upon sin which they effect, and through the cross finally to reconcile them to God (Col. 1:20), in a subjection where He will be ‘All in all.’ When that acquiescence in judgment upon sin is reached, and applied in soul and spirit, then will be possible the final victory over death. Hence it is written that when this subjection is reached, then and only then, ‘the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.’ -A.E. Saxby-
Seven Assumptions =
I am a convinced universalist.
I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.
In the early days Origen was the great name connected with universalism. I would believe with Origen that universalism is no easy thing. Origen believed that after death there were many who would need prolonged instruction, the sternest discipline, even the severest punishment before they were fit for the presence of God. Origen did not eliminate hell; he believed that some people would have to go to heaven via hell.
Origen
He believed that even at the end of the day there would be some on whom the scars remained. He did not believe in eternal punishment, but he did see the possibility of eternal penalty. And so the choice is whether we accept God’s offer and invitation willingly, or take the long and terrible way round through ages of purification.
Gregory of Nyssa offered three reasons why he believed in universalism.regory of Nyssa
First, he believed in it because of the character of God. “Being good, God entertains pity for fallen man; being wise, he is not ignorant of the means for his recovery.”
Second, he believed in it because of the nature of evil. Evil must in the end be moved out of existence, “so that the absolutely non-existent should cease to be at all.” Evil is essentially negative and doomed to non-existence.
Third, he believed in it because of the purpose of punishment. The purpose of punishment is always remedial. Its aim is “to get the good separated from the evil and to attract it into the communion of blessedness.” Punishment will hurt, but it is like the fire which separates the alloy from the gold; it is like the surgery which removes the diseased thing; it is like the cautery which burns out that which cannot be removed any other way.
But I want to set down not the arguments of others but the thoughts which have persuaded me personally of universal salvation.
First, there is the fact that there are things in the New Testament which more than justify this belief. Jesus said: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). Paul writes to the Romans: “God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy on all” (Rom. 11:32).
He writes to the Corinthians: “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22); and he looks to the final total triumph when God will be everything to everyone (1 Cor. 15:28).
In the First Letter to Timothy we read of God “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and of Christ Jesus “who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:4-6). The New Testament itself is not in the least afraid of the word all.
Second, one of the key passages is Matthew 25:46 where it is said that the rejected go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life. 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. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment.
The word for eternal is aionios. It means more than everlasting, for Plato – who may have invented the word – plainly says that a thing may be everlasting and still not be aionios. The simplest way to out it is that aionios cannot be used properly of anyone but God; it is the word uniquely, as Plato saw it, of God. Eternal punishment is then literally that kind of remedial punishment which it befits God to give and which only God can give.
Third, I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe.
Fourth, I believe implicitly in the ultimate and complete , the time when all things will be subject to him, and when God will be everything to everyone (1 Cor. 15:24-28).
For me this has certain consequences.
If one man remains outside the love of God at the end of time, it means that that one man has defeated the love of God – and that is impossible.
Further, there is only one way in which we can think of the triumph of God. If God was no more than a King or Judge, then it would be possible to speak of his triumph, if his enemies were agonizing in hell or were totally and completely obliterated and wiped out.
But God is not only King and Judge, God is Father – he is indeed Father more than anything else. No father could be happy while there were members of his family for ever in agony. No father would count it a triumph to obliterate the disobedient members of his family.
The only triumph a father can know is to have all his family back home. The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God. -Dr. Wm. Barclay-
Yes, those are the correct translations of the two Greek phrases:
“αιδιος τιμωρια” and “αιωνιον κολασιν”, although the usual word for “torment” is “βασανισμος”. This word is found five times in the NT, all in the book of Revelation:
Re 9:5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man.
Re 14:11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
Re 18:7 "To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.’
Re 18:10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
Re 18:15 "The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment weeping and mourning…
However, the word “τιμωρια” occurs only once in the NT— in the book of Hebrews:
Heb 10:29 How much severer punishment (τιμωρια) do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Lexicons state that “τιμωρια” can also mean “help” or “assistance.”
Sharon Baker
Madeleine L’Engle
L’Engle was Episcopalian and believed in Christian universalism, which insisted that everyone will ultimately be saved by God. She meditated on religious issues in such books as And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings (1983). L’Engle also worked at St. John the Divine in New York City as a librarian and writer-in-residence for more than three decades.
TOP 25 QUOTES BY MADELEINE L’ENGLE (of 427) | A-Z Quotes
An interview with Ilaria Ramelli
Anne Bronte
One of the three famous Bronte sisters, Anne is remembered for being the most pious. Before she died from tuberculosis at the tender age of 29, Anne admitted to a faith in universalism, as the following poem and letter testify.
A Word to The 'Elect ’
You may rejoice to think yourselves secure;
You may be grateful for the gift divine -
That grace unsought, which made your black hearts pure,
And fits your earth-born souls in Heaven to shine.
But, is it sweet to look around, and view
Thousands excluded from that happiness
Which they deserved, at least, as much as you, -
Their faults not greater, nor their virtues less?
And, wherefore should you love your God the more,
Because to you alone his smiles are given;
Because he chose to pass the many o’er,
And only bring the favoured few to Heaven?
And, wherefore should your hearts more grateful prove,
Because for ALL the Saviour did not die?
Is yours the God of justice and of love?
And are your bosoms warm with charity?
Say, does your heart expand to all mankind?
And, would you ever to your neighbor do -
The weak, the strong, the enlightened, and the blind -
As you would have your neighbor do to you?
And, when you, looking on your fellow-men,
Behold them doomed to endless misery,
How can you talk of joy and rapture then? -
May God withhold such cruel joy from me!
That none deserve eternal bliss I know;
Unmerited the grace in mercy given:
But, none shall sink to everlasting woe,
That have not well deserved the wrath of Heaven.
And, oh! there lives within my heart
A hope, long nursed by me;
(And, should its cheering ray depart,
How dark my soul would be!)
That as in Adam all have died,
In Christ shall all men live;
And ever round his throne abide,
Eternal praise to give.
That even the wicked shall at last
Be fitted for the skies;
And, when their dreadful doom is past,
To life and light arise.
I ask not, how remote the day,
Nor what the sinners’ woe,
Before their dross is purged away;
Enough for me, to know
That when the cup of wrath is drained,
The metal purified,
They’ll cling to what they once disdained,
And live by Him that died.
–Anne Bronte (1843)
Florence Nightingale
Theology
Nightingale was a Christian universalist.
On 7 February 1837 – not long before her 17th birthday – something happened that would change her life: “God spoke to me”, she wrote, “and called me to His service.”
Hannah W. Smith
The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It (the missing chapters)
“Nothing can separate you from His love, absolutely nothing, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature… We do not need to beg Him to bless us, He simply cannot help it. Therefore God is enough! God is enough for time, God is enough for eternity. God is enough!” -Hannah Whitall Smith-
Clara Barton (Founder Red Cross)
Although not formally a member of the Universalist Church of America in a 1905 letter to the widow of Carl Norman Thrasher, she identified herself with her parents’ church as a “Universalist”.
My dear friend and sister:
Your belief that I am a Universalist is as correct as your greater belief that you are one yourself, a belief in which all who are privileged to possess it rejoice. In my case, it was a great gift, like St. Paul, I “was born free”, and saved the pain of reaching it through years of struggle and doubt.
My father was a leader in the building of the church in which Hosea Ballow preached his first dedication sermon. Your historic records will show that the old Huguenot town of Oxford, Mass. erected one of, if not the first Universalist Church in America. In this town I was born; in this church I was reared. In all its reconstructions and remodelings I have taken a part, and I look anxiously for a time in the near future when the busy world will let me once more become a living part of its people, praising God for the advance in the liberal faith of the religions of the world today, so largely due to the teachings of this belief.
Give, I pray you, dear sister, my warmest congratulations to the members of your society. My best wishes for the success of your annual meeting, and accept my thanks most sincerely for having written me.
Fraternally yours, (Signed) Clara Barton.
God is working to meet and correct some awful fall.
This is precisely what the Restitution of our Abba is about.
The Second Death & The Restitution Of All Things.
The complete book below >>>>
https://tentmaker.org/books/Restitut…utionindex.htm
The Author & Finisher is working to meet & correct some awful fall.
There are a number of Scriptures that speak of Abba’s essence. His essence is NOT a characteristic, it is what He is!
“God IS Love”
It is NOT what He does. It is what He is in essence.
All characteristics of His great Being flow in absolute at-one-ment.
The radical all!
“Our God IS Fire.”
It is not an aspect of Abba, it is His essence from which His characteristics flow in perfect harmony.
Welcome to our God the Katesthió Pur!
The Master of reconciliation has proclaimed it is finished, that is a fact!
The reconciliation of the ta pavnte begins with His Household, those known as the elect firstfruits, the especially (malista) of the all of mankind of whom He is Saviour.
The full and complete work of “it is finished” extends ultimately not just to the firsfruits of us to them (all of mankind).
Firstfruits > > > Final harvest.
Welcome to the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Time vs Eternity
It is a great and blessed fact that God is the eternal God. Transition, adjustments, change - these words seem to be constantly with us, until we fain would grasp for something that seems to be stable, solid, enduring.
Much of the inner drive for change is simple evidence that man is not satisfied, has not found his completeness in Christ, for “beloved now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when HE shall appear, we shall (then) be like Him for we shall see Him as He is” (I John. 3:2).
Here is stability - immutability - the quality of His nature remains the same, HE is the Eternal.
And this is the nature of which we would be a partaker, the fullness of which we find in Christ, and through union with Him with which we shall be changed until we become changeless in the absoluteness of that which He is.
He who is eternal cannot be influenced, affected, moved, changed, altered, damaged or destroyed in any way. He cannot grow tired or old. The character of God is eternal, changeless, unaffected. The love, joy, peace, righteousness and power of God do not rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. Matters not what happens or what men or devils say or do, the love of God, the purpose of God, and the power of God are steadfast, unmoved, unquenched, unaffected, without fluctuation. The eternal existence of God is certain for He is the source of all life. Death cannot touch Him for He is not dependent upon the sustaining power of another,
He is Yahweh, the self- existent One. - J. Preston Eby-
Help, help, I’m drowning!
Dear drowning person, fear not. There is a potential saviour standing by. He wishes to save you if you will help assist him in the effort.
OR
God is the Saviour all mankind, He will reach you.
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