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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 5, 2012 3:40:33 GMT -8
#122 - WHAT GOD SAYS CONCERNING HELL – J.F. RODGERS
“May some poor soul whose loved one has died without receiving Christ as their Saviour, find a measure of relief in the assurance that they are neither now, nor ever shall be, tortured endlessly and consciously in an inferno of fire wrongly described as the eternal abode of the dammed. Instead, they will be deprived of life until the lake of fire which is the second death no longer exists.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 6, 2012 3:49:06 GMT -8
#123 - MAN’S FAILURE OR GOD’S SUCCESS – WHICH WILL STAND? – LEE SALISBURY
“The teaching of the ultimate exaltation of Jesus Christ and the ultimate reconciliation of all men unto Him, make God’s judgments consistent with His plan of creation. God’s judgments become understandable, purposeful, and constructive without violating any aspect of justice, truth, or mercy. If just one person were condemned to eternal torment, then God’s purpose in creation would have been defeated. God’s judgments are redemptive.
The end result of God’s judgments is, ‘That in the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, celestial, terrestrial, and subterranean, and every tongue will acclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10,11). God planned for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, both in the heavens, and on earth (Eph. 1:10). Amplified Bible
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 7, 2012 3:03:17 GMT -8
#124 - ETERNITY EXPLAINED – LEE SALISBURY
“Eternity and its synonyms are grievous mistranslations of Hebrew and Greek words. Both the Old and the New Testament misuses indicate a biased mind-set which hides God’s true nature and purpose. Based upon decisions made in this life on earth, it is supposed that the vast multitudes that miss heaven enter an eternal hell of burning torment and anguish.
The uniform translation of aion and its adjective form aionios solves many inconsistencies in Scripture study. Jesus came to give life eonian, a quality of relationship with the Father through Himself, a life that is only the earnest of much more to come.
The most shameful consequences of this error are the grotesque images which Christianity projects of God, Who is really so loving, wise, and powerful. God’s love nature corresponds with His purpose. His wisdom and majesty dominate the ages through which all mankind will be drawn to God’s goal of creating man in His own image, ‘that God may be All in all’ (1Cor. 15:28).
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 8, 2012 4:16:17 GMT -8
#125 - JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN? (SERIES OF16 CHAPTERS) J. PRESTON EBY A great sixteen chapter introductory series to ultimate reconciliation. J. Preston Eby does a thorough job covering many aspects of the topic. Fundamental reading for any person interested in studying universalism from a solid Biblical perspective. Highly Recommended! Internet version www.godfire.net/eby/saviour_of_the_world.htmlAlso watch the testimony video of J. Preston Eby www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEwcWR8kxUs&feature=sub
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 9, 2012 3:23:35 GMT -8
#126 – FUNDAMENTALS OR BASIS OF BELIEF – Thomas Griffith
“We will get good out of evil. Our gracious Educator does evolve for us out of corruption, temptation and sin, new purposes, new skill, new triumphs.
Beyond the overruling of intermediate evil into subserviency to a higher good, what has been superinduced as a transition state of things is therefore seen to be necessary only for a time. It will pass away with the functions which it is made to fulfill. It will at last be superseded by the highest good for everyone.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 10, 2012 2:52:07 GMT -8
#127 – DOOMED TO BE SAVED – Frances Power Cobbe
“I think if we were not caught in the meshes of that wretched Augustinian scheme of theology which postulates eternal hell to compel us to accept it, -- I think, I say, if it were not for this theology, all Christendom must have long ago come to see, that, at the very least, God feels towards a sinner as a saint would do, and not as a man less good, or wise, or merciful.
We do not think man’s evil can, in the long run of the ages, finally outspeed God’s ever-pursuing mercy. He must overtake us sooner or later. We may temporarily choose evil rather than good, and vileness instead of nobleness, and be ungrateful and sinful. But God will get the better of us at last.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 11, 2012 3:30:13 GMT -8
#128 - This is a thrilling poem by Matthew Arnold, keeping in mind the following fact. Universalism was The Prevailing Doctrine Of The Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years hellbusters.8m.com/updcontents.html As students of the history of Christian doctrine know, among believers in eternal torment, Tertullian was one of the most extreme. That is why I think this poem is so powerful. It sent a thrill up and down my spine. “He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save!” So rang Tertullian’s sentence, on the side Of that unpitying Phrygian sect which cried, -- “Him can no fount of fresh forgiveness lave Who sins, once washed by the baptismal wave!” So spake the fierce Tertullian. But she sighed, The infant church, of love she felt the tide Stream on her from her Lord’s yet recent grave, And then she smiled, and in the Catacombs, With eye suffused, but heart inspired true, On those walls subterranean, where she hid Her head in ignominy, death and tombs, She her Good Shepherd’s hasty image drew, And on His shoulders, not a lamb, a kid.
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 12, 2012 4:00:01 GMT -8
#129 – A POEM BY A.G. CAMPBELL
I deem they greatly err, who hold That He Who made the human soul, Will not its destinies control For final good – but, wrathful, fold It in the shrouds of hopeless woe, Of deathless gloom, of quenchless fire, The creatures of His vengeful ire, Whence it can never ransom know.
So, in the world to come, His love Shall freely unto all abound; Even prisoners in the depths profound Shall see His kind face beam above Their dreary cells, and hear His voice, Unheeded once, in mercy call, -- “Turn, turn to Me and live!” and all Shall hear the summons and rejoice.
Lost men, lost angels, shall return, -- Satan himself be purified; Death shall be conquered in his pride, And hell’s fierce fires shall cease to burn. Then shall our God be All in all – His love bear universal sway; His love preserves all souls for aye, Nor shall the weakest fear a fall.
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 13, 2012 9:11:41 GMT -8
#130 – FROM A SERMON ON UNIVERSALISM – Stopford A. Brooke
“That Christ should have descended to assume the nature of all men, only to cast them away as refuse to be burned, does so contradict His revelation that it is no wonder that the idea of everlasting d**nation should have destroyed men’s belief.
No, the earthly dead will move on, a mighty stream to mingle in the ocean of the righteousness of God, on that far off but certain day when God will be All in all.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 14, 2012 3:57:30 GMT -8
#131 – ENIGMAS OF LIFE, POSTSCRIPTUM – W.R. GREG
“Given a hell of torment and despair for millions of our friends and fellow men, can the good enjoy heaven except by becoming bad, -- miraculously changed and changed deplorably for the worst. In a word, putting on, along with the white garments of the redeemed, a coldness and hardness of heart? Does not this simple reflection suffice to disperse into thin air the current notions of a world of everlasting pain?”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 15, 2012 4:40:39 GMT -8
#132 – THE SHAKING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH – Charles Kingsley
“We do not deny that the wages of sin is death. We do not deny the necessity and certainty of punishment. Only tell us not that it must be endless, and thereby destroy its whole purpose. We too believe in an eternal fire, but we believe its existence to be not a curse but a blessing. That fire is God Himself Who taketh away the sins of the world, and of Whom it is therefore written, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 16, 2012 3:02:59 GMT -8
#133 – POEM BY HELEN BRONTE
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 light and life arise.
I ask not how remote the day, Nor what the sinner’s 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 Who died.
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 17, 2012 3:48:44 GMT -8
#134 – DISPUTED POINTS – George Dawson
“Take the doctrine in which most of you were brought up – that every man who is not saved will go to hell, and that hell is a constant fire whereunto a man must be condemned forever.
I am told this is in the Scriptures. I can’t find it; but if it were there I would not believe it. I was told that it was so, and I have no doubt I said it was so. But now I disbelieve it. If this is backsliding, I will backslide.
Well, how came we ever to doubt this horrific doctrine? Not that any commentator with marvelous exegesis showed us that the text did not mean that; -- for I am but little interested in the quibble that the fire burns forever, but that the thing put into the fire burn only so long as it is capable of burning.
What has put hell fire out is a better understanding of God, and a fuller comprehension of the quality of God’s love. The love of God conquers the assertion of orthodoxy.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 18, 2012 3:56:06 GMT -8
#135 – YUSEF – J. Ross Browne
“Oh, ye who are wrapped in the selfishness of a single idea! – ye who bode eternal destruction to others! Look out upon the world and learn that there are millions of human hearts as sincere and devoted as yours, who perceive a divine power great and good and merciful enough to save all, even to the weakest and most benighted.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 19, 2012 4:52:50 GMT -8
#136 – BODY AND MIND – George Moore
“Every soul that is out of keeping with divine order must remain, in the license of a perverse will, forever vile, until restored to the dominion of truth by the attractiveness of light, and the miseries of darkness.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 21, 2012 5:08:17 GMT -8
#137 – CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE – J.S. Taylor
I cannot believe that any being will exist in any part of the universe, so steeped in guilt and anguish (no, not Satan himself), as to be beyond the redeeming love and healing power of the Creator.
Oh, no; on the contrary, I believe that in this mysterious, but divinely ordained conflict of good and evil, the powers of light are everywhere slowly but surely gaining the ascendancy over the powers of darkness, and that it will continue to be so, even unto the perfect day; yes, that perfect day, wherein all these blessed victories over sin and ignorance shall have been consummated, these transformations completed, and no solitary stain of folly, guilt, or grief, be left to mar the luster of the universe.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 22, 2012 4:36:01 GMT -8
#138 – CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD – Edward Clodd
“You would think your father very hard and cruel if he loaded you with good things, and sent your brothers and sisters to some homeless spot to live uncared for and unloved. And yet that is exactly what some people say that God does. They have spoken of Him Who has given life to every man, woman and child as staying near only a few of His creatures, and leaving the rest to care for themselves.
Believe that He who is called our Father is better, more just, more loving, than the best fathers can be.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 23, 2012 3:58:51 GMT -8
#139 – BIBLE DICTIONARY – John R. Beard
“The word translated ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal’ expresses time, and not eternity.
Punishment that does not end in reformation is vindictiveness, which cannot be ascribed to our Merciful Father.
How then has it come to pass that belief in eternal punishment took root in the Christian church?
Ancient doctors of the church, mislead by theoretical conclusions, declared that sin was an infinite transgression, to be atoned for only by an infinite expiation. The doctrine is the child of human reasoning.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 24, 2012 4:28:57 GMT -8
#140 – IN MEMORIUM – Alfred Tennyson
“Oh, yes, we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood.
That nothing walks with aimless feet, That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete:
Behold! We know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last – far off – at last to all, And every Winter change to Spring.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 25, 2012 4:41:34 GMT -8
#141 – ONE RELIGION; MANY CREEDS – Ross Winans
“Our belief is that man, being governed and trained through time, a good and happy result must ensue to each individual. The idea of hell fire and eternal torment, when properly considered, is an idea that is alike blasphemous and illogical.
God has ordained that every man shall sooner or later, recognize and appreciate His blessings. Nothing else is consistent with His determinate will. God is a God of infinite goodness, not of vengeance; to be loved; to be worshiped for love’s sake, not through fear of everlasting punishment. We believe that every man will eventually love Him, and strive more and more to serve Him.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 26, 2012 5:04:51 GMT -8
#142 – THE STRANGER IN LOWELL – John Greenleaf Whittier
“Through discords of sin and sorrow, pain and wrong, truth rises, a deathless melody whose notes of wailing are hereafter to be changed to those of triumph as they blend with the great harmony of a reconciled universe.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 27, 2012 4:52:04 GMT -8
#143 – THE UNITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT – John A.D. Mauricq
“In Romans 5, the justification is co-extensive with the condemnation. Since all share in one, all share in the other. If only a certain portion of the human race had partaken of the sin of Adam, only a certain portion would partake of the justification of Christ. But St. Paul affirms all to have been involved in one, and all to be included in the other.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 28, 2012 4:21:18 GMT -8
#144 – DISSERTATIONS ON THE FINAL STATE OF MANKIND – Thomas Newton
“Nothing can be more contrary to the divine nature and attributes, than for a God all wise, all-good, all-powerful, and all-perfect, to bestow existence on any being Who He foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery without respite of end. His goodness could never give birth to any one being, and much less to numberless beings whose end He foresaw would be irretrievable misery; nor could even His justice inflict everlasting punishment.
God made all His creatures finally to be happy; He could never make any whose end He foreknew would be misery everlasting. God is love; infinite benevolence alone prompted Him to action, and infinite benevolence combined with unerring wisdom, and supported by irresistible power, will infallibly accomplish its purpose in the best possible manner.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 29, 2012 4:57:55 GMT -8
#145 – THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE – Hans Christian Andersen
“I received gladly, both with feeling and understanding, the doctrine that God is love. Everything which opposes this –- a burning hell, therefore, whose fire endures forever –- I could not recognize.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 30, 2012 4:37:49 GMT -8
#146 – LIFE – Thomas Guthrie
“St. John uses a very broad expression. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he says, ‘is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ ‘The whole world. Ah,’ some would say, ‘that is dangerous language.’ It is God’s language – John speaking as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. It throws a zone of mercy around the world. Perish the thought that would narrow it by a hand’s breadth.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Oct 31, 2012 3:57:14 GMT -8
#147 – AUTOBIOGRAPHY – LEIGH HUNT “Are God and His ways to be represented as something so different from the best attributes of humanity? If an angel were to tell me to believe in eternal punishment I would not do it; for it would better become me to believe the angel a delusion, than God monstrous; and we make Him monstrous when we make Him the author of eternal punishment, though we may not have the courage to think so. For God’s sake, let us have piety enough to believe Him better.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Nov 1, 2012 4:28:23 GMT -8
#148 – THE PEOPLE’S OWN BOOK – F. De La Mennais (1782-1854)
“If suffering was eternal, we should be compelled to conceive of it as independent, as subsisting by itself, or to admit something still more monstrous, for if it was not self-existent, if it was dependant on the divine will, God would be the direct author of eternal suffering.
But what Christ said is now and ever will be true:- ‘Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And one day all will come unto Him. The world, deluged with light, and feeling within itself, with the revival of hope, the revival also of faith and love, shall salute that day with songs of joy.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Nov 2, 2012 9:07:51 GMT -8
#149 – THE EPICURIAN – Thomas Moore
“The God of benevolence, in Whose hands sin and death are but instruments of everlasting good, and Who, bringing all things ‘out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ proceeds watchfully, and unchangingly to the great, final object of His providence, the restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Nov 3, 2012 4:07:38 GMT -8
#150 – POEM BY HOSEA BALLOU (1771-1852)
“In God’s eternity There shall a day arise, When all the race of man shall be With Jesus in the skies.
As night before the rays Of morning flees away, Sin shall retire before the blaze Of God’s eternal day.
As music fills the grove When stormy clouds are past, Sweet anthems of redeeming love Shall all employ at last.
Redeemed from death and sin Shall Adam’s numerous race, A ceaseless song of praise begin, And shout redeeming grace.”
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Post by rodgertutt on Nov 4, 2012 4:26:33 GMT -8
#151 – In A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, John Wesley Hanson quotes Thomas Belsham (1750-1829).
“I affirm that there is not in the whole voluminous code of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, from the beginning of Genesis, to the end of Revelation, one single passage, one solitary text, in which the doctrine of the eternity of hell-torments is taught. We see the triumph of God’s benevolence in restoring the dead transgressor to life; in visiting him with suffering in exact proportion to the greatness of his offences; and finally, in his ultimate purification from moral stain, and his restoration to virtue, to happiness, and to God. This clears up at once all the difficulties of divine dispensations, and the belief of it fills the pious and contemplative mind with unspeakable satisfaction and delight.”
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