March 18, 2015

Restorationism(AKA Christian Universalism)

by Frank DeRemerPrior to Augustine (AD 354-430) Christians held all three

views of hell without condemning each other.Question:

If you were captain of a ship that arrived at a sinking yacht,

that had your whole family aboard,how many would you save?

I grew up in church. Not all I heard have I found not to be

Biblical:

Salvation is a one-time transaction.No, relationship, e.g., marriage

Salvation is about “dying and going to heaven”.No, resurrection, life on a new earth

Salvation is all about me. (benefits to me)No, God getting his lost sons back, His kingdom

Lost coin, lost sheep, lost son

Salvation is about avoiding hell, gaining heaven.

No NT sermon makes either point

Jesus often mentioned avoiding hellNo, only on 4 occasions re GeHenna, not hell:

KJV, others: “gehenna” translated “hell” 

Greek “Ge” land or valley; “Henna” Hinnom “GeHenna” the Valley of Hinnom, AKA “Tophet”

 

Isaiah, Jeremiah: people offered babies to idols 

Dead Jews of Jeremiah’s time VoH/GeHennawhen Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem

in 586 BC Jesus warned Jews of his time of a similar fate

by the Romans -- in AD 70

The Biblical timeline:…creation; fall…… ……now (building His kingdom, rescuing sons)…

heaven, with Jesus, if Jesus is your Lord

…resurrection&rapture; judgment…sentence…

Sentence:– righteous: new earth– wicked: punishment (hell: the lake of fire)

This we do know

More Bible facts:OT: no hell, just sheol, the place/state of the deadNT: rarely hell--hades, the place/state of the deadLazarus, rich man pre-resurrection interim, not hellPaul: with Jesus after death, pre-resurrectionPaul & Revelation say we believers will be

on the new earth after the resurrectionTartarus once; where fallen angels are nowHades/Sheol cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14)

so not the same as the lake of fire

Hell:

the place of punishment, the lake of fire

after resurrection & rapture then judgment

only mentioned in a handful of places,in apocalyptic contexts

we are told little

no epistle defines hell

as if God didn’t want to tell us much about it

Who goes there? For what purpose? For how long?

Theologian Thomas Talbot: a logical approach.Reason not from the details up to God,

putting God in a box,but from the Bible’s big picture; fit hell into that.

Talbot’s Template –three statements that cannot all be true:

1. God’s redemptive purpose (His will)is to reconcile all sinners to Himself.

2. God is sovereignly ableto achieve His redemptive purpose.

3. Some sinners will never be reconciled to God.

1. Arminian theology: Scores of #1 verses - some:

Ps 66:3-4; Ps 22:27,29; Ps 86:9; Isa 45:22-23; Phil 2:10-11; Ac 3:21;

Rom 5:18; Eph 1:10; Col 1:19-20; Rev 5:13

2. Calvinist theology: Scores of #2 verses - some:

Job 42:2, Eph 1:11, Phil 3:21, Matt 19:25-26

3. A handful of verses seem to support idea #3;they are in apocalyptic passages(discussed below)

Remarkably, As & Cs agree on #3and fight about howto interpret the many #1 & #2 verses.

The restorationist chooses #1 & #2 as true;the least supported, #3, is suspect.

 

Therefore, all eventually must be saved, even if after the judgment and serving their sentence. 

God too would save all His family, every last one! 

“With God all things are possible”,“above & beyond anything we may ask or think”. 

God is like a great chess master, able to play the entire human race at once and win. 

Win them all over to His great love, even if some require more than a lifetime to be won.

Possible timeline (?):

righteous: new earth …...……. ∞sentence … repent?

wicked: punished redemptive

according to their deedsleading to repentance:

redeemed by the bloodof Christ, as are we all

What about the few verses that seem to support #3,

some sinners never reconciled with God?Consider the words translated “eternal”: 

Hebrew olam and Greek aionios.Both refer to periods of indefinite length,

including but not limited to infinity.Both are used of periods known to be finite. 

Olam means “beyond the horizon”.The smoke rising from Sodom was olam.

Aionios means “age enduring” or “lasting”.Josephus: JtB was in jail aionios, three years.

The Parable of the Sheep and Goats:The Final Judgment (Matt 25:31-46)

Jesus said, (the lake?)“Depart from me, you cursed, into aionios fire

prepared for the devil and his angels.”(he didn’t say that it was prepared for people)

 

See also Rev 19:20, 20:10,14,15.

Difficulty (v46): age-related?“and these will go away into aionios punishment,

but the righteous into aionios life.” God-kind?

How could eternal torture be“according to their works/deeds”, i.e.

proportional?(many verses, e.g., Rev 20:12-13)

If instead all are tortured forever,then they all get infinite punishment.

Objection: different degrees –– but 150 * ∞ = ∞

and 1,000 * ∞ = ∞Justice is never served ––punishment never ends, sin is always a problemGod’s intended idyllic universe

is always contaminated with unrepentant sinners

The problem of sin is never resolved/finished.A major problem!

Better: God annihilates sinners after a finite time,

but God is still the loser:Jesus came to save “that that was lost”

(it does not say only some lost)Jesus’ sacrifice was for “all the world” ––

ineffective if all do not come to Him(SEAL Team 6 goes for 10, saves 1;

success?)God desires that all come to salvation,

not just some (God’s heart for His kids)Lost coin, lost sheep, lost son – owner’s loss

God’s desire thwarted if not all come, eventually..

Another major problem!

RestorationismGod is brilliant, to wit, creationHe can “play chess” with all humans simultaneously God foresaw the fall and the problem of sinHe had a plan for our good futureGod’s grace is unfathomable. God is love.Love never fails/gives up. Love wins in the end. God’s punishments have a redemptive purpose The duration: “according to their works”,

and until they finally “see the light” “Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that

Jesus is Lord, TO THE GLORY OF GOD”

Where is it written that God cannot forgiveafter judgment & punishment for deeds done?

It is neither stated that He will nor that He will not,

but His desire is for ALL to be saved.Who set up this system? God.Would He set up a system in which most of His sons would be tortured forever? Or annihilated?Is that consistent with His nature?God is light. God is love. Love never fails.God is sometimes angry & meets out vengeance,

but “joy comes in the morning”.He is not anger or vengeance.So what kind of system would He set up?

William Barclay, conservative evangelical scholar (AD 1907-1978):“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.”

The Three Views Compared

• After the resurrection of just & unjust,unjust are separated to themselves

• ET: Separation from God is forever• CI: No, finite, per person, per deeds,

then allowed to cease to exist• UR: Yes, finite, per deeds, but also

redemptive (God wooing each;each to new earth, no rewards

ReferencesSteve Gregg’s book

Hell: God’s final solution to the problem of sin, three Christian views

www.TheNarrowPath.comlectures, Bible teaching, verse-by-verse & topical,

radio program live & archives, or

listen on KKMC 880 AM or KFIA 710 AM: 2-3 PM each workday

Steve teaches how to think critically about the Bible,rather than indoctrinating listeners.

“Showing how to think, not what to think – about the Bible.”