The Evangelical Universalist Forum

SNIPPETS FROM MY HARD COPY UR LIBRARY

#115 - THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL – TONY HINKLE & GARY AMIRAULT

“Christian leaders have locked themselves into the teaching that the King James Bible is ‘the inerrant’ translation of the so-called original texts. They say the 66 books of the present King James Bible are inerrant, but they don’t tell you it lacks 14 entire books which were in the original King James of 1611. They don’t tell you the King James Bible has been changed many times in the last 350 years, and there have been thousands of corrections!

This world needs to be set free of false images and concepts of our wonderful Father. Please meditate on this very thoughtfully and prayerfully. If eternal torment is the penalty for sin and the Creator did not want anyone ending up there, then it should stand to reason that He would make the warning as absolutely clear as He could make it to all mankind, past, present, and future. But the fact of the matter is that thousands upon thousands were born after Adam and they were never warned. Read the prophets and you will not find a place of eternal torment for the wicked. If the Creator loved us and created such a horrible place, He would surely have plastered the warning everywhere. The KJV has the phrase ‘everlasting punishment’ only once. Yet, when looking at those words in the Greek, even those two references turn out to be ‘age-during correction.’ Again we ask, if eternal torment be the horrible fate of most of mankind, why such a little warning?

The Scriptures tell us the mind of man cannot conceive the height, length, depth, and width of our Father’s love for His creation. His ways are much higher than ours in all areas, including His justice, love, and wisdom. He wounds, but like a doctor, to bring about healing. He says ‘Vengeance is Mine’ knowing only He can return good for evil, an innocent life for a guilty one. He overcomes His enemies with good and tells you to do the same. His love never fails. Believe it. It will never fail anyone, including you. You can now enter into your rest. ‘For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth, or things in the heavens (Col. 1:20).

#116 - THE SECOND DEATH – A.E. SAXBY

“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.’ ”

#117 - OVERWHELMING GRACE – JOHN H. ESSEX

“God is a despot. Paul in Ephesians 1:11, speaks of ‘the purpose of the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will.’ Yes, God exercise a despotic sway over the whole universe, but we are thankful for this because He is Love. Though He will brook no opposition to the furtherance of His purpose, He is never a tyrant. When He inflicts evil upon any, it is always in order that good may follow. His sovereign will is the ultimate salvation and blessing of all, that He may be All in all.

For all creation in its need,
The future is engraved
In words of life, for all to read,
‘In grace shall you be saved.’

Let every mental conflict cease,
Let every barrier fall,
For grace removes each bar to peace
Till Thou art All in all.

O God, how glorious is Thy grace!
How radiantly divine!
It stretches out its wide embrace,
To make all creatures Thine.

When God is All in all, the whole creation will have become His achievement, and every member will be a beneficiary of His OVERWHELMING GRACE.”

#118 - THE GOSPEL OF GRACE – CHARLES W. WELLER

“Love conquers all, for it is the love of God that allows humanity to see its frailty that in the bitter dregs it may choose life. I thank the Lord that the plan of redemption wasn’t a stop gap measure but a well thought out plan that in the fullness of time, all will have Christ as their head. Victory in Jesus!

Before creation there was no time. Since creation there has been time. But with the consummation of things and God becoming All in all, time will end, and sin, which is limited by time shall end. Yet, God and creation shall go on.

If God cannot surmount the evil in the world and turn it all into good, then there is a power equal and opposite to Him. But sin isn’t eternal. The cross of Calvary isn’t a ‘hope so’ move by God, but rather, a well conceived thought out solution to the problem of sin. There is an end to sin and to the death it causes. All shall be swallowed up into victory. Some, God has planned to accept Him now. Others, like Pharaoh, He hardens their heart. But being a righteous Judge He will show wrath on those who need it to cleanse them of their fallen nature.

The plan of God is such that His grace, that unmerited favor, will cause man and all of creation to be restored. Great was the joy of the father for the return of his son. How much more so will God be rejoicing at the restitution of all.

A father never beats a child to death for wrong, but corrects and loves regardless. Even so is our Heavenly Father. The mercy and love of God is to be so revealed that Jesus shall be All in all.

The purpose for the present is to save some. The purpose for the future is to save all. Because men have failed to see and understand the doctrine of election, it has propagated false ideas of salvation. Even he who dies in sin shall be saved as by fire. Victorious grace covers a larger redemption than many would consider.”

#119 - JUSTIFICATION – DONALD G. HAYTER

“Although God introduced sin through the agency of His creatures, yet He did not sin in so doing. For it was no mistake, no failure of His. It was in accord with His intention, and it will be justified by the beneficial results obtained through its agency.
God is justified in all He does, for His final intention to glorify Himself and bless all of His creatures is the dominating purpose which adds luster to all His eonian operations.
In the brilliant glory of His ultimate, the most somber and gloomy features of earth’s history are transformed into a brilliant display of His power, wisdom, and love.

During the final eons, every creature in the heavens, and on earth, and under the earth, will have learned of the sufferings of the Christ, and of the depths of the Father’s love revealed in them. And every knee will bow to Him Who died, acclaiming Him Lord, for the glory of God the Father. Very feebly we can enter into the joy, the satisfaction, the thankfulness that will be His as He views the vast potentials of love and adoration that will be pulsing within the heart of everyone.

Thus will all ultimately be justified. God’s matchless wisdom, serving in the cause of His love, has produced a method of salvation that calls forth the adoring wonder of our hearts. What a God we have!”

#120 - THE OUTCOME OF INFINITE GRACE – DR. LOYAL F. HURLEY

“Heb. 11:3 should read, ‘Through faith we understand that the ages were planned by the Word of God.’ The ages will collectively end. A literal translation of Heb. 9:16 is, ‘But now, once for all, with a view to the end of the ages, hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.’ (Alexander Thompson’s translation)

Throughout the eons there is sin and evil, condemnation and death. At the end of the eons, all will be reconciled through Christ’s blood (Col. 1:20). Only as one sees the plan of the ages does he see the beauty of God’s Program for the redemption of the race. When you perceive the truth concerning the ages your Bible will become a new and more wonderful Book than you knew you had.”

#121 - THE GOSPEL – BERT BAUMAN
“Our popular English Bible carries the name of an earthly monarch and so bears mute testimony to the influence the English King had over the translators. His directive to ‘do nothing that will disturb the tranquility of the church’, appears to have been taken very seriously by the translators since they often chose to interpret certain Greek words to support then current church doctrine, rather than render a faithful and consistent translation of the original.

I must confess to the admiration I feel for the absolute brilliance of Satan’s cunning and strategy. He has effectively polluted the entire fountain of truth from which Christians drink by causing confusion in the meaning of the single word aion, and its adjective aionios. It does not seem that this single word could be so important as to produce calamitous results, but it is just here that we see the utter genius of our adversary. Perhaps no other word, erroneously translated, could cause such widespread confusion and distortion of the truth. Practically all Christian doctrine is affected: the purposes of God, the nature of God, judgment, man’s destiny, and salvation – to say nothing of its effect upon our concept of the very God we worship and the way we treat one another as Christians, and the world at large.”

EDITOR’S ADDITION
AIÓN – AIÓNIOS
tentmaker.org/books/Aion_lim.html

BERT BAUMAN continues, “The doctrine of eternal torment is not found in the Scripture but the teaching of judgment certainly is. But why judgment? Is it a matter of God’s vengeance only? The scriptures suggest that God’s judgments are desirable but not necessarily enjoyable. It is never pleasant to be judged, but the fruit of judgment is desirable. Correction produces righteousness which yields the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, while the chastening is unpleasant, the results are a blessing. Out of love for His creatures, God chastens, and corrects. He judges His creatures for their own good.

Did not Jesus teach us to love and do good even to our enemies? And while He admonishes us to be perfect even as our heavenly Father, would our Father be less than we are expected to be? Can love pour out vengeance for its own gratification, or judge to satisfy its own sense of justice? The result of God’s judgments must ultimately be profitable and beneficial to the one being punished, ‘for the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’ (Luke 9:56).”

#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.”

#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

#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).

#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 universal salvation from a solid Biblical perspective.
Highly Recommended!
Internet version
godfire.net/eby/saviour_of_the_world.html

Also watch the testimony video of J. Preston Eby
youtube.com/watch?v=JEwcWR8kxUs&feature=sub

#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.”

#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.”

#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
tentmaker.org/books/Prevailing.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. :slight_smile:

“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.

#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.

#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 damnation 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.”

#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?”

#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.”

#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.

#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.”