Wednesday, October 3, 2018

We're not the ones Cherry Picking Verses

The critics of Universal Salvation like to claim we're taking random verses out of context and ignoring the clear overall message.  However it's their apparent Endless Torment verses that are far outnumbered by the verses that contradict that idea.

Is what Jesus said on The Cross an obscure unimportant part of Scripture?  He said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".  He didn't say "if they repent forgive them", in fact what He said makes it impossible to repent, you can't repent of what you don't even know you did.

Is the Sermon on the Mount obscure?  Cause right at the start in Matthew 5:26 Jesus makes clear the Punishment is not endless but until the price is paid, Luke 12 backs that up.

Some people like to say everything you need to know about Salvation is in John's Gospel, well interestingly there are no declarations of Eternal Fire in John nor does it mention Hell, but in John 12:32 Jesus does say He will Draw all Humanity unto Himself.

1 Corinthians 15 is often refereed to as the part of Scripture that most clearly explains what The Gospel is (it's The Resurrection).  And that happens to be one of our favorite chapters.  We're told all who Died because of Adam will Rise again because of Christ, and that Death and Hell will have no victory, the only time Paul ever refers to Hell BTW.

It is common in Protestant and Evangelical circles to refer to Romans as the definitive statement of Christian Doctrine.  Chuck Missler liked to say the first 8 chapters were laying out the Doctrine of Salvation and then 9-11 are about Israel.  People less Dispensational then Missler would say those two sections aren't so easy to separate.  Well again Romans never refers to Hell or Eternal Fire.

Romans 1 contains a rhetorical rant about how many Jewish Believers viewed the Gentile world, drawing on the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon.  But he then spends chapter 2 into chapter 3 explaining how Israel is no better.  Then by the end of Chapter 3 and into chapter 4 he talks quite a bit about how in the present tense those who Believe are Saved and those who don't Believe are currently Unsaved.  But then in Romans 5 he looks forward to the future and firmly declares that ALL who were made Sinners in Adam will be made Righteous in Christ.

Romans 6 goes on to explain why we shouldn't take that as a license to Sin, but that doesn't take away the clear message of Romans 5.  Then we reach Romans 11, where he talks about Gentiles being grafted into Israel.  He says that the Fullness of The Gentiles will be grafted into Israel and then All Israel shall be Saved.  For God consigned them all to disobedience so that he might have mercy on All.

I have done a post on how Revelation implies Universal Salvation, and also one on how the seeds of that message are planted right in The Torah.

The overarching meta narrative of The Bible clearly supports Universal Salvation, it's the doctrine of Endless Punishment that depends on cherry picking certain verses out of context.  Even if KJV onlyism were true that'd still be the case.

4 comments:

  1. I thought you stated you believe in justification by faith in Jesus christ the son of God alone?

    Yet here your saying everyone will be saved who ever existed not by faith alone ?

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  2. All shall be made alive..
    Yeh true
    But it says some to life everlasting
    and some to everlasting shame and condemnation

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  3. But it is God's will all men be saved by believing in Jesus the son of God
    And so be raised to life everlasting and not raised to everlasting shame and condemnation

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  4. We are to pray Gods will be done.

    ReplyDelete