The Restitution Of All Things

[FineLinen]

"For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was in preparation, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water....Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."

Preached = euangelizō =

To bring good news/ announce glad tidings

The joyful tidings of God's kindness.

Disobedient = apeitheō =

To refuse/withhold belief.

To refuse belief and obedience.

Non compliance.

The dead = nekros =

Lifeless/ breathed his last.

Deceased/ departed.

Destitute of life/ without life.

Live = zaō =

Live, breathe, be among the living.

Not lifeless, not dead.

To be in full vigour.

 

[FineLinen]

The larger hope is entirely in our Gods hands extending to everything in the heavens, earth and underworld.

The timing of this glorious consummation of ta panta (the all) is in "the fulness of times"/ the fulness of the aions.

Thunder in the desert!

Prepare God’s arrival!

Make the road smooth and straight!

Every ditch will be filled in,

Every bump smoothed out,

The detours straightened out,

All the ruts paved over.

Everyone will be there to see

The parade of God’s salvation.” -MSG-

 

[FineLinen]

"The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat, and live forever. So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life."

Guard = sāmar =

Keep watch/ keep guard/ protect.

To keep within bounds/ restrain.

"So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life." -MSG

The way back into the Tree of Life must be through the flaming sword of the Lord. The natural man can only return with the loss of all he is.

 

[FineLinen]

Love's Goal

All that love is, God is, for God is love. As the negative side of love is unselfish - seeks not her own - so her positive side is concern for others, a deep, ardent, all consuming concern: dauntless, self-sacrificing, invincible.

Love never fails.

Such is the divine essence and this it is that is imparted to the creature.

There can be no self-complacency with God, neither could He provide a self-satisfied salvation. Divine joy is in the fullness of love, and love is all-embracing.

To speak of a happy shepherd with an incomplete flock, or even of a happy flock with comrades missing, would be to malign both sheep and shepherd.

Heaven's joys will be full only when sins sorrow cease. "Tis of mine? will be the yearning cry of the Good Shepherd Spirit in the bosom of both saint and Saviour until the last of all the lost has been gathered home.

Love cannot omit; His soul travail was for all.

Neither can love abandon or forget.

His purpose, as His promise, is until He find it.

Thus it is that He is yet to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

And surely we too shall be satisfied when conformed to this likeness.

Oh, the fullness of heavens joy when sin's sorrows shall have ceased!

There can be no self-complacency with God, neither could He provide a self-satisfied salvation. Divine joy is in the fullness of love, and love is all-embracing. To speak of a happy shepherd with an incomplete flock, or even of a happy flock with comrades missing, would be to malign both sheep and shepherd.

Heavens joys will be full only when sins sorrow cease.

"Tis of mine" will be the yearning cry of the Good Shepherd spirit in the bosom of both saint and Saviour until the last of all the lost has been gathered home. Love cannot omit; His soul travail was for all. Neither can love abandon or forget.

His purpose, as His promise, is until He find it.

Thus it is that He is yet to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. And surely we too shall be satisfied when conformed to this likeness.

Oh, the fullness of heavens joy when sins sorrows shall have ceased! -D. Buchanan-

Father seeks till He finds = Abba's Lost & Found

 

[FineLinen]

"God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see Gods original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and leading the resurrection parade he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe people and things, animals and atoms get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross." -MSG

Everything = pas =

Radically means all.

Reconcile = apokatallassō =

To reconcile completely to a former state of harmony.

Back again.

Mystery = mystērion =

Hidden purpose / council.

Confided only to the initiated.

 

[FineLinen]

The Lord Jesus Christ is not a potential Saviour perched on His lifeguard tower!

https://forum.evangelicaluniversali...65ec72c4ea63e6e1babce936ce6bb9b17dce2ae5.jpeg

He will save you!

https://forum.evangelicaluniversali...17be5406855736c7f672d4e4b03fe78311557df3.jpeg

 

[FineLinen]

The Father's Heart

“ . . . He is simply and altogether our friend, our father – our more than friend, father, and mother – our infinite, love-perfect God. Grand and strong beyond all that human imagination can conceive of poet-thinking and kingly action, He is delicate beyond all that human tenderness can conceive of husband or wife, homely beyond all that human heart can conceive of father or mother.

He has not two thoughts about us. With Him all is simplicity of purpose and meaning and effort and end – namely, that we should be as He is, think the same thoughts, mean the same things, possess the same blessedness. It is so plain that any one can see it, every one ought to see it, every one shall see it. It must be so. He is utterly true and good to us, nor shall anything withstand His will.

How terribly, then, have the theologians misrepresented God! Nearly all of them represent Him as a great King on a grand throne, thinking how grand He is, and making it the business of His being and the end of His universe to keep up His glory, wielding the bolts of a Jupiter against those who take His name in vain. They would not admit this, but if you follow what they say, it comes to this.

Brothers, have you found our king? There He is, kissing little children and saying they are like God. There He is at table with the head of a fisherman lying on His bosom, and somewhat heavy at heart that even he, the beloved disciple, cannot yet understand Him well. The simplest peasant who loves his children and his sheep is a truer likeness of our God than theology's monstrosity of a monarch.” -George MacDonald (Unspoken Sermons)

 

[Yahcubs777]

"Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets."

1. What is it?

2. What it is not.

3. What are the Scriptures pointing to this?

4. Who are some of those who have grasped the "Larger Hope"?

1. The restitution of all things is the restoration of the Word of GOD, the restoration of the celestial body, the restoration of the celestial earth, the restoration of those sleeping in Abrahams Bosom.

Setting again the altar of God which the prophets of baal threw down.

– Making eternal corrections of misinterpreted messages due to apostacy.

– Perfectly breaking down the apokalupsis (Rev. 10:7).

– Unleashing accurate interpretation of the LOGOS.

– The repairer of the breach.

– The re-builder of the Jerusalem temple brought down by Roman government.

Our Supreme Lord, referring to him, called him the Good Samaritan.

– Redeeming the names of the blasphemed,

– Turning the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

– Blotting away the marks and scars of apostacy.

– Removing every blemish, spot, wrinkle or any such thing.

– Collapsing Babylon – the entire Kingdoms of Satan.

2. Everything else.

3. Revelation10:7 Revelation 18:4 Genesis 1:28 Acts 3:19-23 Malachi 4:4-6 Matt 17:10-13 John 16:12-15 Jeremiah 31:31-40 Isaiah 60 Deuteronomy 18 Ezekiel 37 Daniel 10

4. Those that have come to the accurate knowledge of the GOD, the Son of GOD, and the Son of Man, who have come to the accurate knowledge from whence we are fallen, are those that repented and did the first works. The first works is the meditation therapy given by the GOD that we must meditate in HIS Word. These people are they that have the Larger hope.

 

[FineLinen]

Questions ? ? ?

Since we are required to love our enemies, may we not safely infer that God loves His enemies? (Matt. 5:44)

If God loves His enemies, will He punish them more than will be for their good?

Would endless punishment be for the good of any being?

Since God loves His friends, if He loves His enemies also, are not all mankind the objects of His love?

If God loves those only who love Him, what better is He than the sinner? (Luke 6:32-33)


Since "love thinketh no evil," can God design the ultimate evil of a single soul? (1 Cor. 13:5)

Since "love worketh no ill," can God inflict, or cause, or allow to be inflicted, an endless ill? (Rom. 13:10)

Since we are forbidden to be overcome by evil, can we safely suppose that God will be overcome by evil? (Rom. 12:21)

Would not the infliction of endless punishment prove that God had been overcome by evil?

If man does wrong in returning evil for evil, would not God do wrong if He was to do the same?

Would not endless punishment be the return of evil for evil?

Since we are commanded "to overcome evil with good," may we not safely infer that God will do the same? (Rom. 12:21)

Would the infliction of endless punishment be overcoming evil with good?
Is God a changeable being? (James 1:17)

If God loves His enemies now, will he not always love them?

Is it just for God to be "kind to the evil and unthankful," in their present life? (Luke 6:35)

Would it be unjust for God to be kind to all men in a future state?

If all men justly deserve endless punishment, will not those who are saved, be saved unjustly?

If God "will by no means clear the guilty," by what means can just punishment be evaded? (Ex. 34:7)

Since no man can measure endless punishment to his neighbor, will endless punishment be measured to him? (Luke 4:38)

Would it be merciful in God to inflict endless punishment? -- that is, merciful to the sufferer?

Can that be just which is not merciful?

Do not cruelty and injustice go hand in hand?

Can that be merciful which is not just?

Does divine justice demand the infliction of pain from which mercy recoils?

Does divine mercy require any thing that justice refuses to grant?

If the demands of divine justice are opposed to the requirements of mercy, is not God divided against Himself?

If the requirements of mercy are opposed to the demands of the justice of God, can His kingdom stand? -- (Mark 3:24)

If the justice and mercy of God are any way opposed, do they "keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace?

If justice and mercy are opposed to their requirements can Deity be a just God and a Savior? -- (Isaiah 14:21)

If "a God all mercy is a God unjust," would not a God all justice be a God unmerciful?

Is there any such thing in God as unjust mercy, or unmerciful justice?

Is there any such thing in God as just cruelty, or merciful injustice?

If you had sufficient power would you not deliver all men from sin?

Are you more merciful than the God Who made you?

Is the Creator of human sympathy less benevolent than the creature?

If God would save all men, but cannot, is He infinite in power?

If God can save all men, but will not, is He infinite in goodness?

Does God desire the salvation of all men? (1 Tim. 2:3-4)

Since God is righteous, must not the desire for universal salvation be a righteous desire?

Is it true, that "the desire of the righteous shall be granted?" -- (Prov. 10:24)

Did God design universal salvation when He created man?

Will God carry His original design into execution?

Can finite man frustrate the purposes of the Almighty?

 

[FineLinen]

The larger hope is entirely in our Gods hands extending to everything in the heavens, earth and underworld.

The timing of this glorious consummation of ta panta (the all) is in "the fulness of times"/ the fulness of the aions.

Thunder in the desert!

Prepare God's arrival!

Make the road smooth and straight!

Every ditch will be filled in,

Every bump smoothed out,

The detours straightened out,

All the ruts paved over.

Everyone will be there to see

The parade of God's salvation. -MSG-

 

[FineLinen]

It is simply impossible to make too much of the Christ being necessary for new life!
His life, and all that flows out of that life, is in the dimension of exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can think.

dynamai >>> poieō >>> hyper >>> perissōs

 

[FineLinen]

The power of God is almighty; nothing can resist his will; nothing can defeat his purpose; nothing can prevent the fulfillment of his promise.

What he had promised He was able to perform. (Rom. 4:21)

If God were not almighty, then the world might not be saved; but He is almighty; none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what do You do and therefore, in Gods own time (and that is the best time), and by his own means, the whole world shall be saved.

God not only wills the salvation of all men; not only has purposed to save them all; not only has promised it; and has confirmed that promise by an oath); but also has provided the means, in the death of Christ, for the salvation of all men. Jesus died for all. He gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Tim. 2:6)

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. (Heb. 2:9) And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

Here are three expressions: 1st, ALL; 2nd, EVERYMAN; 3d, THE WHOLE WORLD.

The sacred writers took the utmost care to guard against being misunderstood in this important particular. Some would have us believe that these expressions are to be understood only in a general sense, in opposition to the contracted opinions of the Jews, who confined the blessings of God to their own nation only; and that the words are intended to declare, that Jesus died for Gentiles as well as Jews. We cannot so restrict the sense. Look at the connection in which these passages are found, and it will be seen that the terms used, apply to all men, in the widest sense of these terms.

Paul instructs Timothy to pray for all men; not for Jews and Gentiles in the general sense, but for kings and all in authority; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, who will have all men to be saved. So John says, if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father. (1 John 1:1)

Is not the language here designed to apply to all men? (Thomas Whittemore)

 

[FineLinen]

Father's Love Letter

 

[Isolde Schulz]

Surely you jest!

"Beloved, we are God’s children right now; however, it is not yet apparent what we will become. But we do know that when it is finally made visible, we will be just like him, for we will see him as he truly is. And all who focus their hope on him will always be purifying themselves, just as Jesus is pure. Anyone who indulges in sin lives in moral anarchy, for the definition of sin is breaking God’s law. And you know without a doubt that Jesus was revealed to eradicate sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in union with him will not sin. But the one who continues sinning hasn’t seen him with discernment or known him by intimate experience." -TPT

You mention Anarchy, which is an ideal, not a divine punishment. Some of us have it incarnate in our societies, others languish under the self-fulfilling prophecy of anarchy u.s.a. style, with guns and nukes.

 

[FineLinen]

Love's Goal

All that love is, God is, for God is love. As the negative side of love is unselfish - seeks not her own - so her positive side is concern for others, a deep, ardent, all consuming concern: dauntless, self-sacrificing, invincible.

Love never fails.

Such is the divine essence and this it is that is imparted to the creature.

There can be no self-complacency with God, neither could He provide a self-satisfied salvation. Divine joy is in the fullness of love, and love is all-embracing.

To speak of a happy shepherd with an incomplete flock, or even of a happy flock with comrades missing, would be to malign both sheep and shepherd.

Heaven's joys will be full only when sins sorrow cease. "Tis of mine? will be the yearning cry of the Good Shepherd Spirit in the bosom of both saint and Saviour until the last of all the lost has been gathered home.

Love cannot omit; His soul travail was for all.

Neither can love abandon or forget.

His purpose, as His promise, is until He find it.

Thus it is that He is yet to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

And surely we too shall be satisfied when conformed to this likeness.

Oh, the fullness of heavens joy when sin's sorrows shall have ceased!

There can be no self-complacency with God, neither could He provide a self-satisfied salvation. Divine joy is in the fullness of love, and love is all-embracing. To speak of a happy shepherd with an incomplete flock, or even of a happy flock with comrades missing, would be to malign both sheep and shepherd.

Heavens joys will be full only when sins sorrow cease.

"Tis of mine" will be the yearning cry of the Good Shepherd spirit in the bosom of both saint and Saviour until the last of all the lost has been gathered home. Love cannot omit; His soul travail was for all. Neither can love abandon or forget.

His purpose, as His promise, is until He find it.

Thus it is that He is yet to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. And surely we too shall be satisfied when conformed to this likeness.

Oh, the fullness of heavens joy when sins sorrows shall have ceased! -D. Buchanan-

Father seeks till He finds = Abba's Lost & Found

 

[FineLinen]

 

[FineLinen]

Why I Believe In Ultimate Reconciliation

"I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God." -Dr. William Barclay

William Barclay: Reasons for believing in universal salvation – Mercy Upon All

Church Witnesses

Church History – Mercy Upon All

 

[FineLinen]

Our God is holy, He takes awful things (hágos) and makes them hágios, just like Himself!

"I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe." -Dr. Wm. Barclay

 

[FineLinen]

"This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before." - Karl Barth

"Whatever we say about hell must be said under the rubric of a universal and effective reconciliation of all things in Christ. If we choose to say where hell is, it must somehow be inside Jesus' reconciliation. If we choose to explain how hell can be, we must somehow say that Jesus accepts our choosing of it without willing us into it in any deterministic way. If we want to say what hell does, we must somehow leave it with no detrimental effect on the universal picnic. And if we are so bold as to attempt to say what hell is like, we must somehow make it even more of a nothing than our first death, which is its master image. - Robert Farrar Capon

"God's love strides unswerving through everything, like a hero, and will not be insulted, despised, it rejected; it matches through the world with the helmet of hope on its head." -Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

"You all belong to God! Whether you are godless or devout, under judgment or under grace, blessed or damned, you belong to God, and God is good and wants what is best for you. -C.F. Blumhardt

Are our broadest hopes broad enough? Shall there be a nook or abyss, in all the universe of God, finally un-lightened by the Cross? Shall there be a sin, or sorrow, or pain unhealed? Is the very universe, is creation in all its extent, a field wide enough for the Son of God?

 

[FineLinen]

So this forum bans universalist's, then allows universalist threads like this to remain alive?

Hi there Ruthie & welcome to the wonderful world of R.F.

"It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance--the forgiveness of our offences--so abundant was God's grace, the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us, when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God's merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it--the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him."