The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Restitution Of All Things

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#302

Remembering the statement of James (2:10), that whosoever shall keep the whole law, except to offend in one point, is guilty of all, and cannot claim any blessing promised by the Law Covenant, we realize that indeed “there is none righteous; no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).

And thus the Scriptures close every door of hope save one, showing that not one of the condemned is able to secure eternal life by meritorious works, and that it is equally useless to plead ignorance as a ground of salvation.

Ignorance cannot entitle anyone to the reward of faith and obedience! Salvation by ignorance! Indeed!

“For there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we M-U-S-T be saved!” (Acts 4:12).

Many Christians, unwilling to believe that so many billions of ignorant heathen will be eternally lost (which they have been taught means to be sent to a place of eternal and hopeless torment), insist, notwithstanding these Bible statements, that God will not condemn the ignorant.

I admire their liberality of heart and their appreciation of God’s goodness, but urge them not to be too hasty about discarding or ignoring the words of Scripture.

God has a blessing for all, in a better way than thru ignorance!

-J. Preston Eby-

#303

The all retrieved

Without God’s Spirit the ‘depths of God’ remain unknown. What an essential factor this is in the believer’s quest!

When God’s immense love evokes us to a higher plain, nothing will thwart our yielding to Him.

Our past illusions must fade away with all of its façade in order that a more accurate realization of God and the depths of God can be grasped in prelude to the ultimate retrieving of all to God through Christ so He truly will be All in everyone.

He shall be ‘All in all’ in the total kaleidoscope envelope of LOVE.

This is the Spirit-Reality Whom we should unabatedly proclaim to those who have ears to hear.”

The depths of God retrieves all.

-Anthony J. Borrello-

#304

God is Lord & owner of men.

All men, by right, belong to God.

“Behold, all souls are mine,” says the Lord.

“As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine.” (Ezek. 18:4).

God will not give up what belongs to him, to the dominion of sin and Satan forever.

All men are God’s by creation; he made them all.

They are his by preservation; he sustains them all.

They were his at first, and they always have remained in his care.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dell therein.” That God, who says to men, “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel,” can never abandon his own creatures.

He will ever exercise a gracious care over them. -Thomas Whittemore-

#305

The gospel is constantly moving forward, and as such, we might think of that as the administration of God in its offensive mode.

For instance, God is commanding all men everywhere to repent (Acts: 17:30).

Jonathan Mitchell’s Translation has the verse as God passing on the announcement for all men to be progressively changing their minds/taking on a new mindset.

That’s God on the offense.

There’s really no defense against the divine offensive mode. But the Lord does at times lead his people to be defensive. What comes to mind as most representative of that truth is when the angel (Greek: agent) of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to take Mary and the child, Jesus, and flee into Egypt for Herod had determined to kill the child.

Continued below

The Divine Defensive Mode

#306

All mankind is committed to Christ’s care

God has given all things to Christ, as the moral Ruler of the world.

“Ask of me, and I will give You the heathen for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession.” (Psalms 2:8)

“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” (John 3:35)

“All things,” = all intelligent beings.

God gave all beings to Christ that he might save them.

“You have given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as You hast given him.” (John 17:2)

This plainly evinces, that it was God’s design, in giving Christ dominion over all flesh, that they should all enjoy eternal life. -Thomas Whittemore-

#307

Jesus came to do the will of God.

“My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

“Lo, I come to do they will, O God.” (Heb. 10:9)

The will of God is, that all men be saved. This is his will, by way of distinction and preeminence.

Jesus came to do this will. He came as the Savior, as the Savior of all men.

He came as the good Shepherd, to seek and save that which was lost.

He came to save all men, not only those who lived on the earth while he was here, but all who lived before, and all who have since lived, and all who shall live.

Jesus gave himself a ransom for all; he tasted death for every man; and unto him, at last, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Such is the way in which Jesus does the will of God.

-Thomas Whittemore-

#308

“WHAT MAN OF YOU HAVING AN HUNDRED SHEEP * * IF HE LOSE ONE OF THEM, DOES NOT LEAVE THE NINETY AND NINE * * AND GO AFTER THAT WHICH IS LOST UNTIL HE FIND IT ?” (Luke 15:4)

Ancient commentators follow two main lines, (1.) the hundred sheep are all men; (2.) are all spiritual creatures: in the former case the wicked are the strayed sheep: in the latter mankind itself, which by the Fall has strayed from the heavenly fold.

Both views involve universal restoration.

In the one all the wicked, in the other all humanity, are sought till they are found.

Any narrowing of the “sheep” to the elect, is quite alien from the whole spirit of this parable, which was specially addressed to the publican and the sinner.

See how broadly Christ bases His argument, “what man of you,” He asks, “would not do this ?” Observe the immense significance of Christ’s teaching. It expressly sanctions the right to argue from those feelings of humanity, shared even by the outcast and sinful, to the divine feelings.

Note, too, the ground taken - the divine loss. It is not the man who loses his soul, it is God who loses the man.

“WHAT WOMAN, HAVING TEN PIECES OF SILVER, IF SHE LOSE ONE PIECE, DOES NOT SEEK DILIGENTLY TILL SHE FINDS IT?” (Luke 15:8)

Here is precisely the same broad human basis, and the same broad hopeful teaching.

Keep steadily in view these facts taught here: (1.) - Our own feelings of love and pity are a safe guide to God’s feelings; on these very feelings Christ expressly builds, asking, “what man of you ?” (2.) - Every lost soul is God’s loss, Who, therefore, seeks its recovery; and (3.) - will seek till He find it.

The whole of the loss is repaired. If God feel the loss of man, He will always feel it.

Hence, if sin be endless, the divine Passion must surely be endless too.

#309

"BUT WHEN A STRONGER THAN HE SHALL COME UPON HIM AND OVERCOME HIM, HE TAKES FROM HIM ALL HIS ARMOR, WHEREIN HE TRUSTED AND DIVIDES HIS SPOILS." -Luke 11:22) (Matt. 12: 29)-

  1. Christ is stronger than Satan.

  2. Christ will overcome Satan.

  3. Christ will take from him all his armor.

  4. Christ will divide (take away his spoils.)

Each of these statements contradicts the creed that teaches…

  1. Evil is stronger than good.

  2. That evil overcomes good in numberless cases.

  3. That Satan’s power for evil is not taken away, but lasts for ever.

  4. That his spoils - the souls he has captured - are not divided & taken from him.

Our Lord’s victory over the powers of evil does not consist in shutting up any of their captives in hell, but in liberating all.

#310

Good Tidings To Every man

When we read, “That was the true light that lights every man that comes into the world” (John. 1:9), our observation says, Not so; every man has not been enlightened; we cannot see that our Lord has lighted more than a few of earth’s billions. Even in this comparatively enlightened day, millions of heathen give no evidence of such enlightenment; neither do many now living on our street; neither did the Sodomites, nor multitudes of others in past generations and ages.

We read that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death “for every man” (Heb. 2:9).

But if He tasted death for the one hundred and sixty billions, and from any cause that sacrifice becomes efficacious to only five billion, was not the redemption comparatively a failure?

And in that case, is not the apostle’s statement too broad? When again we read, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Lk. 2:10), and looking about us, see that it is only to a “little flock” that it has been good tidings, and not to all people, we would be compelled to wonder whether the angels had not over-stated the goodness and breadth of their message, and overrated the importance of the work to be accomplished by the Christ whom they announced. -J. Preston Eby-

#311

Romans 8 speaks of us and them, not only they, but us also.

Within that context there is the expansion to “the whole creation” made subject to vanity “not willingly”, but by reason of Him who made it so.

The outcome =

The whole of created life shall be delivered / set free.

The words for “set free” =

kathistemi eleutheroo

Kathistemi = to appoint / constitute.

Eleutheroo = to make free from sin. To deliver.

No more let sin & sorrow grow or thorns infest the ground, He comes to make His blessings flow …

FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND

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?

#312

“FOR THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST.” (Luke 19:10)

From the Master’s own parables & His essential nature, so long as anything is lost, Jesus Christ will go on seeking and saving; for He is always the same? (Heb. 13:8). “The lost” are His charge, and not some of the lost!

Or are we to read this verse ? ?

He came to save the lost but those in the fullest sense lost He will never save?

#313

There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all" (I Tim. 2:5-6).

A ransom for ALL?

Then why should not all involved have some benefit, from Christ’s death?

Why should not ALL come to a knowledge of the truth that they may believe?

Without the KEY, how dark, how inconsistent these statements appear; but when we find the KEY to God’s plan, these texts all declare with one voice,

“God is love.”

This key is found in the latter part of the text last quoted - "Who gave Himself a ransom for all, “to be testified in due time.”

Ah, God has a “due time” for everything! He could have testified it to these in their past lifetime; but since He did not, it proves that their “due time” must be the future.

For those who will be of the Church, the body of Christ, the firstfruits of His redemption, the present is the “due time” to hear and receive; and whosoever now has an ear to hear, let him hear and heed, and he will be blessed accordingly.

Though Jesus paid our ransom before we were born, it was not our “due time” to hear of it for long years afterward, and only the appreciation of it, quickened by the Holy Spirit, brought responsibility; and this, only to the extent of our ability and appreciation.

The same principle applies to all: in God’s due time it will be testified to all, and all will then have the glorious opportunity to believe and be blessed by it.

The prevailing opinion is that death ends all opportunity; but there is no Scripture which so teaches; and all the above, and many more Scriptures, would be meaningless, or worse, if death ends all hope for the ignorant masses of the world. -J. Preston Eby-

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#314

“THE CHRIST, THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.” (John 4:42)

Christ is the Savior of the world. The larger hope simply asserts, Christ will, in fact, save the world.

“(HE) WHICH GIVES LIFE UNTO THE WORLD” (John 6:33)

The world (cosmos) is in Scripture the ungodly mass.

It is contrasted with the inner circle of the faithful, the elect.

This world is over and over again claimed by Christ. He gives life to it, and His gifts are “without repentance.”

#315

Nothing is more evident in the Word of God than the fact that man had his beginning IN GOD.

Every son of Adam, born as he is in trespasses and sins, enters into this world shrouded by the darkness of the carnal mind and imprisoned by the power of the carnal nature.

But it was not always so! Everything everywhere outside of Christ belongs to the realm of death, and because it belongs to the realm of death, it likewise belongs to the realm of darkness.

Before ever man touched this dreadful realm the record states: “In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life; and the life waso the light of men.” (John 1:1,4).

It is a wonderful fact that in Him IS life, and His life IS the light of every man who believes, but, wonder of wonders, in that long ago beginning Christ was then the the life & His life was the life of men.

It was into this realm outside of Christ, the realm of outer darkness , that Adam was banished when he partook of that strange tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There he died, as God had warned, and we all died in him.

Thus death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Has mankind not fully proved throughout the centuries that he is in truth the son of Adam? Which of all God’s commandments have we not broken, justifying ourselves in having done so even as Adam seemed to do. -J. Preston Eby-

#316

"FOR I CAME NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD, BUT TO SAVE THE WORLD." (John 12: 47)

This is as distinct a statement of Christ’s purpose as is possible.

The force of His statement can only be evaded by asserting that Christ would fail to accomplish that very thing which He came to do.

This assertion must be made in union with those explicit passages which declare the completeness of His triumph.

“Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The language in the koine is stronger than “at”. For any individual who grasps what it means to be in the Lord Jesus Christ, there should come an idea of what Phil. 2 means.

That IN/en the Name of Jesus EVERY knee bows, every tongue confesses, You are Lord.

Yes indeed, the confession of every dimension of heavens, earth & underworld is NOT by perfunctory genuflections but in union with the Name of all names.

The radical ALL

#317

“…‘Every knee shall bow’. The universal scope of the adoration offered to Jesus as Lord is described by the words ‘every knee shall bow’ and ‘every tongue confess’. (v.11)…The bending of the knee was an expression denoting great reverence and submission in the OT, especially marking the humble approach of the worshipper who felt his need so keenly that he could not stand upright before God. While the usual position in prayer was that of standing (e.g., Je. 18:20; 1 Ki. 18:15; 17:1, etc), in times of special need or extremity the worshipper fell on his knees (so Ez. 9:5, 15). Likewise in the Gospels people stand to pray (Lk.18:11, 13) and Jesus assumes His disciples will stand (cf. Mt.6:5); but when there is an acute sense of need or urgent entreaty, the supplicant falls down before God. So Jesus in Gethsemane bows down in lowly submission and distress (Mt.26:9; Mk.14:35; Lk.22:41). The bowing of the knee here at Phil. 2:10, as Martin puts it, is ‘a mark of extreme abasement and submission (as in Eph. iii.14) and denotes that the universal homage marks the subjection of those who kneel to the lordship of Christ’.” -Thank you ClementofA-

Dr. Marvin Vincent

At the name of Jesus ( ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι )

Rev., better, in the name. The name means here the personal name; but as including all that is involved in the name. See on Matthew 28:19. Hence the salutation is not at the name of Jesus, as by bowing when the name is uttered, but, as Ellicott rightly says: “the spiritual sphere, the holy element as it were, in which every prayer is to be offered and every knee to bow.” Compare Ephesians 5:20.

Things in heaven, etc.

Compare Revelation 5:13; Ephesians 1:20, Ephesians 1:22. The words may apply either to all intelligent beings or to all things. The latter is in accord with Paul’s treatment of the creation collectively in Romans 8:19-22, and with the Old-Testament passages, in which all nature is represented as praising God, as Psalm 148:1-14; Psalm 65:13.

Verse 11

Confess ( ἐξομολογήσεται )

See on Matthew 3:6; see on thank , Matthew 11:25; see on Romans 14:11. The verb may also be rendered thank , as Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21, that meaning growing out of the sense of open , joyful acknowledgment. The sense here is that of frank, open confession.

#318

“FEAR NOT * * I HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL AND DEATH.” (Rev. 1:18)

Powerful words, especially significant when we remember that Christ had just used these keys to open the prison doors, in His Descent into Hades.

How, if so, can death (the second, or any death) sever from Jesus Christ (Who holds the keys) - from His power to save?

AND EVERY CREATURE WHICH IS IN HEAVEN, AND ON THE EARTH, AND UNDER THE EARTH, * * HEARD I SAYING UNTO HIM THAT SITS ON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB, BLESSINGS (Rev. 5:13)

These words embrace every created thing - on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea. All are represented as swelling the chorus of praise to God, and to the Lamb.

Yes, to such an end we trust and hope that all Creation is indeed coming, because we believe God’s distinct promise, that all things shall be made new.

How else could all things join in this glorious chorus?

#319

*“My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”

Whatever the Lord pleased, that did He, in heaven and on earth."* - (Ps. 135:6)

“He does according to His will, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth.”

Scripture goes farther still.

It tells us plainly that the creature (creation) has been made “subject to vanity (sin and imperfection), not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope.” (Romans 8:20)

"God has shut up all unto disobedience that He might have mercy upon all " ( Rom. 11:32)

We are plainly told that it is “not of him who wills, but of God who shows mercy.”

#320

"THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY THE DEVIL" (Hebr. 2:14)

The destruction of the devil who is holding the power of death, is quite inconsistent with the continuance of death and evil for the endless ages.

THE IMMUTABILITY OP HIS COUNSEL." (Heb. 6:17)

No real failure is possible.

What God’s immutable counsel is, (the original word translated “willing” is the same as “counsel”) here.

#321

God inspires the hearts of the good to pray for the salvation of all men, and say, as Jesus said, “Thy will be done.” (Matt. 6:10).

Adam Clarke says, “Because he wills the salvation of all men, therefore he wills that all men should be prayed for; as in (1 Tim. 2:1).

“I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.” Would God inspire the hearts of his saints to pray for the salvation of all mankind, if he knew they would not all be saved? -Thomas Whittemore-

Jesus came to do the will of God.

“My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

“Lo, I come to do they will, O God.” (Heb. 10:9)

The will of God is, that all men be saved.

This is his will, by way of distinction and preeminence. Jesus came to do this will.

He came as the Savior, as the Savior of all men. He came as the good Shepherd, to seek and save that which was lost.

He came to save all men, not only those who lived on the earth while he was here, but all who lived before, and all who have since lived, and all who shall live.

Jesus gave himself a ransom for all; he tasted death for every man; and unto him, at last, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Thomas Whittemore-

Such is the way in which Jesus does the will of God.