HAVE you ever wondered how God was intending to end all this
business of running the universe? Did you ever stop to think that God knew how everything
would be and become before He created a thing? Did you ever realize that, because of this
fact, God must have certainly had a purpose in view before He created Adam? Did you ever
stop to realize how the teaching of eternal punishment would fit in with that unchangeable
truth? Did you never wonder if Christ meant in a literal, actual sense what He said in
John 12:32: "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
Me?"
Will all men be saved when God has completed His plan for the ages? The Scriptures
clearly say God will accomplish this to His great glory, but many are the arguments
against thus interpreting the Scriptures. We believe that, if you will consider these
carefully, you will reverently worship God as the Supreme One, Who, in His love, plans
far, far ahead, and by His surpassing wisdom and power makes the most dark and tedious
ways all open into the terminus of shining glory!
(1) Colossians 1:20: "And, having made peace through the blood of His [Christ's]
cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven."
Arguments Against
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Answers
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| "All things" means material
things only. |
Material things cannot have
feelings of enmity or peace. And the Greek (in which Scripture was inspired) is not
"things"--simply "THE ALL." |
"Reconcile" simply
means the general satisfaction of God with Christ's sacrifice for all the world. |
A reading of verses 21 and 22
disproves that. (Scofield says, "Reconciliation . . . is that effect of the
death of Christ upon the believing sinner which, through divine power, works in him a
'thorough change' toward God from enmity and aversion to love and trust.") |
| Reconciliation can only be accomplished by
faith. |
Paul was saved by sight of
Christ in His glory without any choice of his own (Acts 9; compare vss.1 and 6). |
(2) Paul was chiefest of sinners (1 Tim.1:13-15) if he was saved
by God's deliberate choice and convincing proof of Christ's divine Sonship and of His
grace, then all lesser sinners can more easily be turned to God, in His own time, by Him
in this same way.
Argument Against
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Answer
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Paul called himself
"chiefest of sinners" because of that deep humility which makes every convert
feel his own depravity as the worst. |
The greatest sins are
unbelief, persecution and hatred of God's people, rejection of Christ, and cruelty
and murder. Of all these Paul (Saul then) was supremely and actively guilty (Acts
9:1), all of these sins being magnified by his superior knowledge of God's
revelations (Phil.3:4-6) and his first-hand witnessing of the greatest testimony of
Christ's divinity and resurrection up to his time, i.e., Stephen's vision (Acts 7:56, 58). |
(3) Philippians 2:10,11: "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."
Argument Against
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Answer
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This is a forced obeisance. |
This would not be
particularly "to the glory of God the Father." Also, they will all bow in
the name of Jesus, which means "Jehovah-Saviour." Compare very carefully
verse 11 with 1 Corinthians 12:3:"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost." |
(4) 1 Corinthians 15:22: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive."
Arguments Against
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Answers
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Only those who die "in
Christ" will be made alive. |
That is not what it says
(else why bring Adam in?). |
That life is only
resurrection for condemnation to the second death (the lake of fire). |
Verse 26, "the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death," makes it a final, ultimate
vivification for all. |
"The last enemy" is
the occurrence of dying, not the resultant state of death. |
It includes both, and the
time occupied by that state up to the resurrection (1 Cor.15:21: "For since by
man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.") |
(5) General Argument Against
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Answer
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There is then no
urgency to be saved now. |
Every unsaved man shall be
judged "according to his works" (Rev.20:12) and enter the lake of fire. Also,
ages of glory and joy will be missed by the unsaved. |
(6) General Argument Against
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Answer
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The Bible speaks of
"ever-lasting punishment" (Matt.25:46) and "everlasting fire"
(Matt.18:8). |
The Greek word translated
"ever" is (as spoken in English) "eon," and the Greek word for
"everlasting" is an adjective "eonian," which reverts the
argument back to the meaning of "eon." Just one proof that the Authorized
Version translation of the word "eon" as "ever" is wrong, is that the
same version often translates it "world" and it is used in the phrase "end
of the world" (Matt.13:39,40,49,etc.); another proof is that the same version some
times translates the plural form "ages" (Eph.2:7; Col.1:26). But in two very
important passages it translates this plural form with the singular form "world"
(both of which Scofield changes to "ages") (1 Cor.2:7: "before the world
[ages]" and Heb.9:26: "end of the world," or, as Scofield says,
"consummation of the ages "which, by the way, should refer to the future putting
away of sin, not the time of Christ's sacrifice). "Eon" therefore must be a
limited period of time, having a beginning, an end, and a plural number. |
Arguments Against
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Answers
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"Eon" varies in
meaning in the Bible, sometimes having a temporal meaning, and sometimes being
eternal and unlimited. |
No word can have such
contradictory uses, else how do we know what it means at any given time? Finiteness and
infinitude are as opposite as east and west. |
Granted, "eon"
means "age" or a limited period of time, then "for ever and ever"
(torment in Rev.20:10) will not be for a lim- ited number of ages, but, as the Greek
has it, "for the eons of has the eons," i.e., unli- mited numbers of ages
containing other ages, or "ages tumbled upon ages." This must be as endless as
Christ's reign (Rev.11:15), and that of the saints (Rev.22:5). |
A period of time cannot
contain other periods of time of the same kind, or the term becomes meaningless.
"Eons of the eons" are the last "eons" (ages) outstanding from all the
ages because of their culminating program and unprecedented good nature. Every like
expression a similar meaning; e.g., day of days, heart of hearts, holy of holies. (The
Greek also has two singular forms, "eon of the eon" and "eon of the
eons," referring to the last great age--we cannot be correct unless we follow
the Scriptural forms and distinctions.) Christ's reign is NOT endless, but only
UNTIL all is subject (1 Cor.15:24-28)! Then ALL rule will be abolished. |
If the "eternal
punishment" of the unbelievers has an end, then the "eternal life" of the
saints has an end also, at the end of the ages. |
How can life end if death is
abolished at that time? (1 Cor 15:26). The "life of the ages" ends when all are
made alive, at the "end" of the ages (1 Cor. 15:24). |
Then God is not "
everlasting," as He is called in Romans 16: 26 (Greek, "eonian God"). |
It is surprising to look in
the verse previous and see that the phrase "before the world began "is really
"in times eonian" --thus "eonian" is certainly not eternal (it also
occurs in the phrase "before eonian times" (2 Tim.1:9; Titus 1:2).
"Eonian" as an adjective means "pertaining to the eons." That He is
God of the eons does not limit Him any more than He can always be the "God of
Israel" alone, as He is called. Other "gods" fall and are forgotten, but we
have a God Who made the ages (Heb.1: 2); they belong to Him and He belongs to them, and
His shall be the glory for them long after they are over! (The doctrine of the eons, in
itself, makes an interesting study which the reader may follow out). |
In 2 Corinthians 4:18,
"eonian" must mean "eternal" because it is set in contrast to the word
"temporal," meaning enduring for time as apposed to eternity. |
The Greek word translated
"temporal" has no connection with the word for "time;" it is literally
"toward-seasons," therefore means "temporary." In the passage in
question it is easily seen as a comparison between our afflictions, which last for a brief
season, and our promised eonian glory, which lasts until all opens out into the glorious
consummation. |
(7) 1 Corinthians 15:28: "And when all things shall be subdued unto
Him, then shall the Son [Christ] also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things
under Him, that God may be All in all."
Argument Against
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Answer
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| "Subjecting" signifies the use of
force. |
Not altogether, for though He
may use force as a means, in the end He will have so led and taught His creatures that
they will no longer need government (v.24, "put down all rule"), but God, by His
Spirit, will be everything to each of them--"All in all"--the Holy Spirit will
fill each heart. What else can these words mean, for all shall be at peace with God? |
(8) Romans 5:18: "As by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life."
All will be justified, at the end, of the guilt which even just punishment cannot
efface, though teaching the justice of God and the inherent insufficiency of the creature.
"Through the blood of His cross" Christ makes peace for all with the Father and
at last so teaches each as to bring all into the blessed family of God, the Father, which
He planned to do before He created Adam ("the purpose of the eons,"
Eph.3:11)--His grand adventure to gain the enduring love of every creature.
And so here are, in brief, the most important and simple facts concerning what God's
Word teaches on Universal Reconciliation. Our part is to believe what the Scriptures say
(not doubting if we cannot see how God works), to love all as God does, and to serve
faithfully and lovingly in being, or in helping those who are called to be, evangelists,
pastors, teachers (Eph.4:11).
God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will"
(Eph.1:11). How? That's for us to believe, but not always to understand now, for God is
"the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (1 Tim.4:10; see 1
Tim.2:4). "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory
for ever (Greek, for the eons). Amen!" (Rom.11:36).
To possible unsaved readers we say: What do you think of this Christ Who
lovingly throws His all into such a grand plan to gain the love of every individual? If
you believe on Him and His sacrifice for you, you are "justified by faith"
(Rom.5:1), and you'll love Him and serve Him and share His glories in the grand ages to
come.
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