My pastor, taking a cue from A.W. Tozer, always said how my view of God is of utmost importance. I held to his beliefs that all of God’s attributes were equally held as 100% concurrently (wrath, justice, mercy, love, etc.). It was forbidden to elevate one attribute above another. As I scratched my head, he added that it is a mystery our finite minds could not comprehend. The appeal to mystery hadn’t bothered me much being raised a Catholic (that I am much grateful for) because much of God’s ways were higher than ours and accepted as mystery.
When I read 1 John 4:8, and specifically reflected on the Parable of the Lost Son and viewing God through Jesus colored lenses- my doubts started. My doubts grew as I discovered this did not reflect an understanding of God, our Father, as the Ultimate Good. My thought process held to the tenet that God is, indeed, love. His essential characteristic is so evident in the Triune cosmic dance of self-giving Love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Before creation, it is this perfect union that existed. Wrath and justice were logically absent in this circular flow of love in the Trinitarian kenosis. I bring this point up not to abolish the justice, wrath, and holiness attributes but rather to highlight God’s essential attribute of love as evidenced in the God-man. All other attributes flow out of His divine attribute of love.
I uphold a God of restoration, and in the end, the God of consuming fire, lovingly (for, however “eons” it takes) to burn away the dross in all His creation so as to be “All in All.” Our Father shall bring all through this refining fire to and through His Son. A time, indeterminate on the degree of refinement needed, so as all shall bow their knee joyfully to Jesus Christ.
Can an earthly father love his children more than a Father of Love? If God is the ultimate Good how could He let even one of His be lost forever?
It is through this great revelation of our Father through Jesus Christ that I came to understand my impartial understanding of free will. Is the grace of God stronger to usurp my free choice to reject God? I see through a dark glass without full knowledge of the Truth. Does anyone, logically, know ALL truth entirely? If we did wouldn’t that put us in the realm of the Ultimate? But I have come to see, even if incompletely, the Truth ever so incrementally clearer that I have been set, also in stages, free.
“God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy, there may be opportunity to win it in the future.” – Martin Luther, Letter to Hanseu Von Rechenberg, 1522
Romans 11:29: For the gifts and calling of God are without attrition.
Romans 6:23: For the incomes of sin is fatality, yet the gift of God is immortality via Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8: For by poise are ye conserved with belief; which not of yourselves: it is the presence of God.
The Bible tells us that the gifts, as well as the calls of God, are without repentance. This is to say, that the presents and calling of God are not drawn away, withdrawn, or reversed towards himself who gave it – and also below I will certainly express that without attrition the ways of God are also “without a deadline, or expiration, or discontinuing to be, or canceled”. Fundamentally, God’s phone call never falls quiet, and neither are his grace-gifts withdrawn.
In Romans 6:23 we are informed that the gift of God is immortality, or “zoe aionios”, a “charisma” or grace-gift which is never ever withdrawn, and certainly, the word for a gift in Greek is “χάρισμα” which indicates “grace-gift” – this coincided word utilized for gifts in Romans 11:29 – these “grace-gifts” God will not revoke, nor repent of, neither terminate.
There is an extremely vital message in this knowable that we have to surely see, and that is that not only are the gifts of God not repented of, or terminated, however, the extreme calling of God is not repented of. The Greek word for “calling” is “klesis” which according to the Strong’s Concordance implies an invitation – Glory to the Highest in his infinite mercy, just as the gifts of God are not revoked neither is the invite to participate in His kingdom ever terminated!
It is below that we locate a Biblically defendable position for the concept that the possibility to get Salvation does not finish at death, as we are wont to think – due to the fact that the invitation to join the banquet, to take part in the grace-gift of eternal life, which comes only by salvation in Jesus Christ is never, ever, ever repented!
What is evangelicalism? The term has become so ubiquitous and opaque. The term connotates a universal distaste for many people and has rightly confused the many adherents to this religious movement. Evangelicals have become a mishmash of every Protestant denomination to include a straight ambiguous smattering of circular dogma to fit a square rendering of sacred Scriptures. The time is ripe for a counter-movement to right this drifting ship of dogmatic meanderings through inspired text. Remember, the Bible is an ancient, ambiguous, and diverse collection of texts pointing to Jesus Christ. Here, the Son upsets the apple cart of our view of God. God is Love. The Bible is a progressive revelation of our Father fully culminated in the person Jesus and fully revealed in the resurrection of the Universal Christ. Here, I would like to delineate from the sacred written text, which we call the leather-bound Bible to the original Bible of Creation we have had for billions of years. Jesus Christ is the Logos and the Word has been eternally present before Creation. Rooted in self-giving, the kenotic invitation to the Trinitarian divine dance has been unleashed for Creation to join the celebration. The eternal, Universal Christ present in all Creation was our original Bible- the Word ever-present in all creation. The written Word came after ages and in many circles has led to biblicism- a sacred book- held higher than the One it proclaims! On Mount Tabor (Transfiguration) there present was Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets) and Jesus (the God-Man). The Bible was conspicuously absent. And a loud voice (God) thundered, “Listen to Him!”. My Evangelical friends, woefully, have listened to only their “inerrant” Scripture. Jesus spoke, “You search the Scriptures for eternal life, but they testify to the one standing right in front of you”. Lest you believe I do not hold a high view of Scripture you would be incorrect. I hold, in totality, the Bible that has pointed to Christ before Creation existed. I am saddened by the distractions of hierarchy, politics, and power that have taken our eyes off the eternal Love that hounds and woos us to join the Cosmic Divine dance.
We begin a wonderful adventure. We start something brand-new. The promise is upon us. God will provide us something new. All we have to feature is cravings. We need to come anticipating as well as wanting something greater than what we have currently. We get what we anticipate from God. When we have new ears to hear with, God can talk a new word to us. When we no more anticipate anything brand-new or anything even more from God, for all practical objectives, we do not truly count on God. God currently intends to talk something new to us.
When we have an understanding of the fantastic styles of Scripture, the entire publication from Genesis to Revelation, we see it as interacting a magnificent pattern to humanity. One basic message finally interacts with all Spirit-filled individuals that enter this faith dialogue with the Scriptures. The message of “Good News” is this: You are enjoyed. You are distinct. You are totally free. You get on the means. You are going someplace. Your life has significance. That is all based on the experience and the expertise and the truth of the genuine love of God. This is what we indicate by being “saved.”
When we have new ears to hear with, God can speak a brand-new word to us. When we no longer anticipate anything new or anything more from God, for all practical objectives, we do not truly think in God. God, right now, desires to speak something brand-new to us. And we have the ears to hear merely by listening.
I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects…. To return to God means to return to God with all that I am and all that I have. I cannot return to God with just half of my being. As I reflected this morning again on the story of the prodigal son and tried to experience the embrace of the father myself, I suddenly felt a certain resistance to being embraced so fully and totally. I experienced not only a desire to be embraced but also a fear of losing my independence. I realized that God’s love is a jealous love. God wants not just a part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.
The story of God’s dominating love starts before Creation– prior to the start of time. From there we will quickly take a look at Biblical background in connection with God’s never-failing love as well as the teaching of endless penalty.
Before Creation
Unlike what our religious custom has instructed us, there has actually only been one plan–” Plan A.” Our Creator got it right the first time, and absolutely nothing has taken Him by surprise, consisting of human wrong and failing. The apostles Paul, Peter, and John all make that extremely clear in the following 5 statements: “Grace … was offered to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” (2Tm 1:9; Eph 1:4 -5) “Redeemed … with the valuable blood of Christ … foreordained prior to the structure of the globe.”
( 1Pt 1:18 -20) “Jesus was the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the globe.” (Rv 13:8) “The hidden wisdom of God … predestined to be for our glory before the ages started.” (1Cor 2:7 -8 JB) “The mystery … from the get-go of the ages has been concealed … completed in Christ.” (Eph 3:9 -11).
Old Testament
Silence
The surprising point is that the Old Testament (OT), which covers over 4,000 years– that’s 2/3 of Biblical history, does not point out or instruct concerning a location of unlimited punishment! Certainly, if endless pain threatened all mankind, a caring God would certainly have warned the world concerning it from the very beginning.He did not! Not only is limitless pain not educated in the OT, yet rather we locate words of wonderful hope as well as joy! Allow’s take a brief consider its earliest statements as well as tales: Genesis 1 “God saw every little thing He had made [past, future and also existing] and also undoubtedly it was very good!” (Gn 1:31) God can not have said this recognizing that billions of people were destined for countless suffering. He knows the future9 and would have recognized our terrible fate before producing us! Whatever would certainly not have been without a doubt very good however undoubtedly indescribably horrible. Genesis 2 At the very beginning, not 4,000 years later on, God alerted our initial moms and dads of the effects of sin in Genesis phase two. He called it fatality. Death is not a secret language for countless lives in pain. And also note: fatality is not the last word with God (Anchor 5). Genesis 3 After humanity’s very first sin, God promptly forecasted Jesus’ complete triumph over evil on our behalf. Instead of condemning Adam as well as Eve (with all mankind) to endless pain, He extended mercy by garments them in chitons of skin. This was a pythonic indication of our Savior’s fatality for us. Just believe! In evaluating our initial transgression, God offered us profound hope! Genesis 4 Note just how God handled Cain, the first killer. This would certainly have been an excellent time to advise of limitless punishment. Rather, He had mercy on him by shielding him. Not just was endless charge not proclaimed, grace was extended. Genesis 5-11 Consider the wonderful flood of Noah’s time. Death was not God’s last response for those that sank! Christ, Himself went and preached fortunately particularly to them!
The Gospel to Abraham
Here is just one of the best guarantees in the Bible– made to Abraham, the patriarch of Israel. It is duplicated 7 times in Scripture in numerous kinds. The number 7 indicates completeness as well as perfection.16 “In you, all the families of the earth will be honored.” (Gn 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Acts 3:25 -26; Gal 3:8) Paul called this the Gospel (Good News) and recognized that we are justified by confidence! Observe: “Scripture, visualizing that God would warrant the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, claiming, ‘In you, all the countries will be blessed.'” (Gal 3:8) The essential question is this: Do “nations” include everyone in the world? The apostle Peter claims “Yes!” “In your seed, all the family members of the planet shall be blessed. To you first, [not solely] God, having increased up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to honor you, in turning away each of you from your iniquities.” (Acts 3:25 -26) Note words to every one of you. Everybody is predestined to be honored. That is good information of terrific happiness for all individuals!
Misery of Love
But I have a question: How are any of us honored if we are tortured in mind and also heart over the threat of countless suffering after we die? I’m thinking of my other half, little girls, parents, grandkids as well as everybody I like, including myself. Unless I think that all my loved ones will certainly cooperate the delights of heaven with me, pleasure is impossible– just anguish is left. It can’t be or else if we truly love others as we love ourselves, which is the true life of Christ. Tragically, there’s a dark side of a particular Christian theology, which shows a distorted and also dreadful vision of God. One of its early American proponents taught these surprising words: “The sight of Hell’s torments will certainly honor the joy of the saints permanently. … Can the thinking partner in Heaven enjoy with his unbelieving spouse in Hell? Can the thinking father in Heaven enjoy with his unbelieving kids in Hell? Can the caring other half in Heaven more than happy with her unbelieving partner in Hell? I inform you, yea! Such will certainly be their sense of justice that it will certainly increase rather than decrease their bliss.” I’m deeply grieved … specifically in light of this man’s horrific description of hell. How does an individual come to be so heartless? Jesus explains it in the following analogy: Lamp of the Body.
Lamp of the Body
The lens where we interpret the Scriptures is our perception (our “eye”) of God’s nature and also personality– particularly His love as well as its extent. “The lamp of the body is the eye. If for that reason your eye is great [ or sound21], your whole body will contain light. However, if your eye misbehaves [ not appear, unhealthy, undesirable],22 your entire body will have lots of darkness. “If for that reason the light that remains in you is darkness, exactly how wonderful is that darkness!” “Take regard that the light which remains in you is not darkness.” (Mt 6:22 -23; Lk 11:34 -36) Other passages validate that a “bad eye” is a misapprehension of God’s benefits originating from an unhealthy or unwell (selfish) heart.23 It misshapes our moral compass, and even worse, reverses its polarity: “Woe to those that call evil excellent and excellent wickedness, … placed darkness for light and also light for darkness, … bitter for sweet and also pleasant for bitter, … that are sensible in their own eyes!” (Is 5:20 -21) This is extremely major due to the fact that it skews exactly how we translate the Scriptures about God’s love, mercy, justice, judgment, and grace. We end up believing evil features of God, believing they are in fact “excellent.” Unfortunately, this faith is still shared by many today.
“Tweet” from God
Have you ever got a hand-written note, a text message, or a “tweet” from God? You would certainly say “Of course not!” In reality, you have– if you have a Bible. The Ten Commandments were etched by God Himself on tablets of stone. “Written with the finger of God.” (Dt 9:10) 25 The God of deep space created mankind a personal note! Billions of individuals hold the Ten Commandments in the highest possible respect. The Bible includes over 783,000 words as well as will certainly take the typical Bible visitor one to three years to read. Many Christians have not read it cover to cover. Just how long does it take to review the Ten Commandments? Two mins! Compared to the Bible, it’s a mere tweet. Right here’s my point: If something as dreadful as countless penalties loomed over all mankind, undoubtedly God would certainly have warned of it on these important tablets. Yet He really did not. Nonetheless, He did alert us of 2 limited fines! “Visiting the iniquity of the daddies … to the 3rd and fourth generations of those who dislike Me, however showing mercy to thousands [of generations]. For the Lord will certainly not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.” (Ex Lover 20:5 -7) Although seeing iniquity and not holding guiltless provide no certain details about these charges, they do disclose 2 crucial points that are definitive to my thesis: The judgment of those disliking God has a defined limit: numerous generations– the reverse of countless penalty. Grace to thousands of generations is embellishment significance that God’s mercy never ever finishes. That integrates perfectly with what God said elsewhere to Moses in this same context: “‘ Cut two tablet computers of stone like the very first ones, as well as I, will create on these tablets the words that got on the first tablets which you broke. … [I am] merciful as well as thoughtful, longsuffering, as well as being plentiful in goodness and also fact, maintaining mercy for thousands [of generations– i.e., forever], forgiving iniquity and disobedience and also wrong, never getting rid of the guilty … to the 3rd as well as the fourth generation.'” (Ex 34:1, 6-7) Amazing! God’s stone tablets, composed with His finger, recognized the world over, declare His limited judgment and also limitless mercy! The Torah Jewish scientist Ariela Pelaia creates: “In response to the inquiry, ‘What happens after we pass away?’
The Torah
Our most important spiritual message is surprisingly quiet. No place does it talk about immortality carefully. When the old rabbis discuss Gehenna [converted heck in the New Testament], the concern they are attempting to respond to is ‘How will negative people be managed in the afterlife?’ “Accordingly, they saw Gehenna as a place of penalty for those who lead an unethical life. However, the moment a person’s spirit might invest in Gehenna was limited to twelve months and the rabbis preserved that even at the extreme Gates of Gehenna an individual could stay clear of as well as repent penalty. After being punished in Gehenna a spirit was thought about pure enough to enter Gan [ Yard of] Eden.”
Proclamations of Hope
There are many guarantees in the Old Testament that verify God’s dominating love and also mercy for all. As an example, Psalm 136:1 -26: 1 “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy sustains for life.
2 “Oh, bless the God of gods! For His mercy withstands forever.
3 “Oh, bless the Lord of lords! For His grace sustains forever.
4 “To Him who alone does fantastic wonders, For His mercy withstands for life.
5 “To Him that by knowledge made the paradises, For His mercy endures permanently.
26 “Oh, thank the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever.”
All 26 verses of Psalm 136 end in the same way. In fact, “For His mercy endures forever” is seen 42 times in the Old Testament!
Keep in mind God’s all-encompassing love and grace in the adhering to OT examples. I have summarized them for quality: All the family members of the earth will be blessed.
( Gn 12:3, 28:14) All the nations of the earth shall be honored.
( Gn 18:18, 22:18, 26:4) All the ends of the globe will look to the Lord. (Ps 22:27 a) All the family members of the countries shall worship prior to God.
( Ps 22:27 b) All those who go down to the dirt will bow before God.
( Ps 22:29) All flesh will certainly come to God. He gives satisfaction.
( Ps 65:2 -3) All kings will fall down prior to God. (Ps 72:11 a) All nations (peoples) shall offer Him. (Ps 72:11 b) All countries shall come, prayer and also proclaim God– a God loaded with concern, as well as thoughtful, long-suffering as well as bountiful in grace. (Ps 86: 9, 15) All the kings of the planet will commend Him when they listen to words of His mouth. (Ps 138:4) All He has actually made will certainly receive His empathy.
( Ps 145:9 b NIV) All will experience the Lord’s benefits because He is full and also gracious of empathy, slow-moving to anger as well as excellent in mercy. (Ps 145:9 a, 8) All God’s jobs are wrapped in His tender mercies.
( Ps 145:9 b) All God’s works shall praise Him. (Ps 145:10) All living things will have their needs pleased by His open hand. (Ps 145:14 -16) All individuals will certainly get a feast from God. (Is 25: 6) All countries, as well as people, will certainly have the covering and also the veil that was cast over them destroyed. (Is 25: 6-7) All faces will have their rips wiped away as God engulfs fatality forever. (Is 25:8) All mankind together will certainly see the splendor of God.
( Is 40:5 NIV) All the ends of the earth will see the redemption of God.
( Is 52:10) All nations, back then, will certainly collect to honor the Lord no longer following their stubborn evil hearts. (Jer 3:17 NIV) All countries and also individuals of every language worshiped Him. (Dn 7:14 NIV) All people will certainly have God’s Spirit poured out on them.
( Joel 2:28 NIV) All individuals’ lips will certainly be purified that they may get in touch with the LORD and offer him shoulder to shoulder. (Zep 3:9 NIV) The above, though not extensive, highly attest to God’s never-failing, endless love for all individuals. As Well As King David would certainly include: “Great is Your mercy … You have actually provided my spirit from the depths of Sheol [converted “hell” 31 times in KJV; “Hades” in LXX 32]” (Ps 86:13) Just assume … God’s grace and also love will prevail– also in Sheol!
The Early Church
Consider this surprising truth: Belief in unlimited punishment was not the predominant view of the Christian globe during its first 500 years when Jesus’ fans read the Scriptures in the initial Greek! Dr. Edward Beecher writes: “Augustine himself composed, ‘Some, nay instead, wide ranges, do not count on the timeless penalty of the condemned’ (Enchirid., 112). … Deoderlein claims, ‘In proportion as anyone was distinguished in discovering in Christian classical times, the more did he safeguard the hope and also a treasure of the discontinuation of future tortures.’ (Theol., ii., 199) … Thus it shows up, by using passing through tests to history, that the contemporary orthodox views as to the teaching of everlasting penalty, in contrast to the final repair, were not fully developed as well as developed till the center of the 6th century, which, after that, they were not established by complete debate, yet by royal authority.” I recommend Beecher’s, History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution. It presents a concise historic exposition on what the very early church believed about best human fate. It is readily available as a complimentary download.
If Endless Punishment Threatened All People …
God would not have actually thought every little thing was great. He would certainly not have called it “fatality.” He would certainly not have actually waited 4,000 years to alert us. He would have etched it in stone for all to see. All families and countries would certainly not be blessed. God’s grace would certainly not endure forever. God’s precious guarantees would be worthless. I remind you, God has actually prepared our redemption from prior to production! Moreover, the fact that the Old Testament does not teach countless penalty needs to create all of us to seriously reevaluate what the New Testament truly claims regarding judgment. God’s pledges and also activities in Biblical background
demonstrate His prevailing love for all people.
The truly great news is that God is not a distant God, a God to be feared and also stayed clear of, a God of vengeance, however a God that is relocated by our pains and also takes part in the fullness of the human battle … God is a caring God. This indicates, firstly, that God is a God who has actually selected to be God-with-us … As soon as we call God “God-with-us,” we participate in a brand-new partnership of intimacy with him. By calling God Emmanuel, we acknowledge God’s dedication to staying in uniformity with us, to share our pleasures as well as discomforts, to protect as well as shield us, as well as to experience all of life with us. The God-with-us is a close God, a God whom we call our haven, our stronghold, our knowledge, and also, even more intimately, our assistant, our shepherd, our love. We will never ever really know God as a caring God if we do not comprehend with our heart and also mind that “words ended up being flesh and lived amongst us” (John 1:14).
Have we had three incarnations? Historically, we have categorized the incarnation of God through Jesus Christ in time and history. This I believe but would be apt to say this is an incarnation. God emptied himself (kenosis) into creation when the Trinity created the universe. It was a creative act and God was incarnated in all things. It is frequently (and derogatively) called panentheism. God is in all things yet transcends all things. How could it be otherwise? So our first incarnation is through matter, all things that we see, including mountains, birds, and dogs. The mountains clapped and God cares for the fallen sparrow and when I look into the eyes of my dog, God is looking back. You need to stay with me here. I know it is a paradigm shift, and religious paradigms are the hardest because we maintain that they cannot change. But if God created all, whether through breath, Big Bang, evolution, or Word it would naturally flow He is in all, however, still transcending all. Isn’t this more palatable than the personalization of Jesus that we have been wont to possess? God is everywhere and everything belongs. The third incarnation is the catholic, universal Church, with Jesus Christ as the Head. This should be comforting. We are still in the Flow. If you are still with me you can see a very immense God, having energy that possesses all and flows everlastingly in and through all. I will continue to flesh out the Universal Christ in future posts and I believe (hope) you will see the implications of such a view lends itself to loving ourselves, neighbors, enemies, earth, and all creation more fruitfully.
Theologically, there are many reasons Jesus was Incarnated- take our sins away, restore a relationship that had been broken (if you believe original sin), make the man (and woman of course) righteous and just before God, to warn the Jews of the impending doom of 70 AD and many other Atonement theories. The primary reason Jesus came to earth was not to change God’s mind about us; rather He came to change our minds about God. Repent uses the Greek word metanoia, which means to change one’s mind. Maybe we have always viewed God wrongly and through the ages, it continued people tenaciously held to an erroneous view of God. Until Jesus. His life, both in words and actions, demonstrated the true understanding of our ABBA. Jesus indeed is the exact representation of God. For that, we must be humble enough to accept we may have had a view of God contrary to the God revealed in Jesus.
I favor a church which is wounded, harming and dirty since it has actually been out on the streets, instead of a church which is unhealthy from being confined as well as from holding on to its very own security … More than by concern of going astray, my hope is that we will certainly be moved by the concern of continuing to be stopped talking within structures which give us a false complacency, within regulations that make us harsh courts, within practices which make us feel risk-free, while at our door people are starving as well as Jesus does not tire of stating to us, “Give them something to consume.”
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