'If Grace is True: Why God Will Save Every Person'
Rowland Croucher
Gulley & James Mulholland, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
The questions -
* How can the God Jesus talked about - who is both loving and powerful -
tolerate seeing his creatures tormented forever in hell?
* How can the "saved" actually enjoy heaven while some of their loved ones
are being tortured in hell?
* If Christians really believed in hell they'd go crazy urging people to
avoid it. But they're mostly not crazy in this way. so are most of them
closet universalists?
* Can God's will (God wills that 'all come to repentance') ever be
ultimately thwarted?
* What do we do with statements like Paul's "As in Adam all die, so in
Christ shall all be made alive"?
* If Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, and do good to them, why can't
God do that to his enemies?
* But does all this mean Hitler shares the same hell - or even heaven - with
the Jews he murdered?
- have haunted thoughtful and compassionate Christians (and others) for
2,000 years.
Here's a book (climbing the best-seller lists in the U.S. recently) where
two Quakers - a theologian and a pastor - try to confront these questions
honestly.
It's a brilliant read, but is deficient in one important theological area
More... http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/15025.htm
*
Shalom! Rowland Croucher
* *
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ *
(14900+ articles, 3200 clean jokes/stories)
*
spam_j.aemtp@pa0nline.c0m jd
"Rowland Croucher" <rccro...@removethispleaseoptusnet.com.au> wrote in
message news:4287f4d1$0$5180$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Book Review: 'If Grace is True: Why God Will Save Every Person', Philip
> Gulley & James Mulholland, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
> The questions -
>
> * How can the God Jesus talked about - who is both loving and powerful -
> tolerate seeing his creatures tormented forever in hell?
"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and
let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him, and to our
God, for He will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7).
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations...
Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly
exalted....He will sprinkle many nations,... Surely our griefs He Himself
bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon
Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all... For the transgressions of My people He was
stricken... By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 42:1; 52:13 - 53:12)
"But when Jesus Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come,
He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of
goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once
for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12).
> * How can the "saved" actually enjoy heaven while some of their loved ones
> are being tortured in hell?
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things
shall not be remembered
or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I
create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a
gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more
shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress....
...and the hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants, and he shall
show his indignation against his enemies." (Isaiah 65:17-19; 66:14)
> * If Christians really believed in hell they'd go crazy urging people to
> avoid it. But they're mostly not crazy in this way. so are most of them
> closet universalists?
"Therefore, brethren, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus,
the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who
appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus
has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses--as much more glory as the
builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. Now Moses was
faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were
to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a Son.
....For the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard
did not benefit them, because it was united by faith in those who heard. ...
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts." (Hebrews 3:1-4; 4:2, 7)
> * If Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, and do good to them, why
can't
> God do that to his enemies?
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more
shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now
that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ..." (Romans 5).
Rowland Croucher
"jd" <no spam_j...@pa0nline.c0m> wrote in message
news:DoGdnfsd16r...@paonline.com...
It's typical for Pharisees ancient and modern to quote Scriptures rather
than engage empathetically with people and their issues (as Jesus did)...
--