Time.It is truly a fascinating thing. When viewed through the eyes of Christ, it is a conundrum almost beyond our comprehension....almost.
For we are temporal creations and while time was made to say something about God and His glory as were all things, time was created for our purposes, to "contain us" as it were. As such, it can be known to the extent that God has given us the information about it that we have. We know that it consists of three distinct parts, as do so many things in life, each one wholly separate, yet without one of them there is no complete whole. Past, present, and future make up the trinitarian nature of what is time. It flows forward without any hesitancy nor care for what it effects. It is unstoppable, all-governing, and seamless. A vast number of words would carry zero meaning if it were not for the existence of time. Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend existence at all without the constraints of time.
We know that God is literally outside time. He has formed time with His very breath. He has created it to say something about Himself, namely that He is eternal. If God were defined by temporal means, He would be no God at all. He is the very definition of eternity. He has no beginning nor end. When we die, we will meet God face to face as either forgiven or unforgiven, justified or unjustified. We will then enter our eternal state accordingly.
Time as we know it will cease, but we must by necessity ask what time will actually look like, since though we are thrust into the great eternal realm, we will have had a beginning. There will be a certain sense of time as perceived by our minds, but the essence of it will have changed and therefore finality or "end" as it were must needs change to a much more immediate, ever-present, and ongoing thing rather than some future event. In other words, progression will also be completion, and this will never stop being. These last few words are of course extremely ssubjective. Revelation speaks of a half an hour passing in Heaven. No creature will ever be outside of time, but I wonder if time Will look different once we pass from this life to the next. Maybe it won't, however the point is that we as creations cannot ever escape the notion and reality of time, for we have "started", we have begun, we have been created.
Time is something that I have very little of these days, though I do enjoy spurts of extended time to read and write, well.....from time to time. As I write this, it is my final day with the ones I love as I prepare to embark on yet another venture from home, leaving my family for an extended period in order to provide for them in my chosen mode of employment. This time home has been very short, and even now I am missing time spent with my young son and wife in order to make this blog entry. The thoughts I wish to impress upon this blog screen are many and varied and have to do with the apostate beliefs of Universalism. Nevertheless, I do not wish to devote the time it will take to flesh out the particular things about which I wish to write. I will be saving the majority of my dismantling of Universalism for a series of blog posts I've decided to do; I'm guessing a total of three, give or take. Please subscribe and stay tuned for that.
Universalism as a worldview is on the rise. We are seeing a great many people ensnared in this false view of God and salvation. Since the Doctrine of Hell is what theologians know as an essential doctrine to the Christian faith, when it is altered or tampered with, you are left with a different Gospel altogether.
There are many different factions of Universalism, but for our purpose we will focus on what has been dubbed "Christian" Universalism which is to contrast Unitarian Universalism. These so-called "Christian" Universalists, hereafter termed "CU", like to affirm the existence of hell and of God's judgement upon the wicked, but they insist that it is only temporary and a purging of the wicked, so that even after death in their sins, all persons who lived without Christ will eventually be saved. They believe they are thoroughly Christian, even affirming Orthodoxy by referencing errant early theologians such as Origin as having affirmed their position.
They equivocate on terms like elect, hell, judgement, destruction, lake of fire, redemption, and many others.
They have to change the meaning of Biblical terms that have been soundly understood from the days of Christ Himself, in order to cram in their false ideas.
CU is a doctrine of demons, for it changes the very nature of God as well as how He works within creation and what He has said about sin, righteousness, death, and life. It is pure heresy.
While many of these apostate Christians are just parroting things they've gleaned from Youtube channels like TentMaker or from heretical pastors and books, occasionally we see an intellect or two trying very determinedly to be academic about the subject and affirm from Scripture, logic, and reason the position of CU. I have discovered such an individual online and he has fully engaged me on the subject, providing extensive paragraphs for my perusal. It is the kind of stimulating dialogue that he has provided which I admittedly enjoy a great deal, and I always find that great fruit comes from such an interaction, even with apostates, because it causes me to dig deeper, learn more about false beliefs, learn how to expose them, and of course to draw nearer to Christ.
Rather than studying more about CU right now, pick through the aforementioned individual's advanced wording and elaborate presentations, as well as prepare well thought out rebuttals, I have quickly jotted down these few words to begin this several part series, and to let you know I am still alive!
I began this post speaking of time. One thing to keep very clear when discussing CU, is that adherents to this belief must bring God down to a temporal idea of existence in order to validate their claims.
They will vehemently deny this, because they see themselves believing that God simply purges all evil out of the wicked and then the lost are redeemed post-mortem. What is actually happening is a maligning of God's perfect eternal justice upon eternal crime against Him, and they must think in temporal terms with regards to how God saves, what He does to the wicked, and His design of real justice.
Time as we know it ends at death. Our "test" is over. In eternity, there is the fullness of God in all His many attributes. He moves as one, completely at peace and harmony with Himself, exacting all actions through His attributes as a whole. God does not come apart. There is no "time" for the wicked at death. Time is up. Eternity is now faced, and for the wicked this means they will pay eternally for their eternal crimes against Eternal God.
To say that there is only a space of time that the wicked will be purged through punishment, is to miss the eternality of God altogether as well as the atonement of Christ, not to mention His Holiness and all the rest of His attributes.
Hebrews 9:25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Yeah, that would be "ONCE TO DIE...AND THEN JUDGEMENT". They will twist this verse though to mean something entirely different than it means, but it stands as a clear refutation of any eventual salvation of all who ever lived.
Before I close, I will leave you with a quick-shot of expository truth from Revelation, and in addition provide two philosophical questions put to me. The answers to these questions could easily be drawn out and will be done so in subsequent posts, however I will be providing the most basic, short answer available.
Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
This figuratively portrays the Coming of Christ for what it represents to the wicked. Christ returns "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 1:8).
Before Satan can actually harm the Christian order (he merely surrounds "the camp of the saints and the beloved city," Rev. 20:9), Christ's Second Advent ends history and sweeps all evil into eternal judgment. This is forever and ever and will indeed be unending torment upon those who have rebelled against God.
At this event, men enter their final, eternal abode: either the New Heavens and New Earth or the Lake of Fire. Not only will the Lord vindicate His people by historical sanctions on earth, but there will be a final and conclusive judgment of the wicked and a blessed confirmation of the righteous.
Here are two questions that were put to me. Remember, they will be dealt with at length later, but they are quickly undone as well.
These should serve to whet your appetite for more exposure of the heresy of CU as we shred it for the grievous error that it is.
Please submit questions and comments and let's allow truth to set us free.
///////"How is it that God vanquishes evil without actually vanquishing evil?"///////
This is barely a real question, for it is a misunderstanding of the nature of God's eternality and His goodness. All one must really do is look at the cross.
Evil is the corruption of a good thing. All it takes for evil to exist is for God to dump the creation out of His divine and special upholding grace. Those who have embraced their own depravity over the Holiness of God, will receive divine justice. Their sins against Him are eternal because they are against eternal God.
God removes all wickedness and rebellion from the pure life of creation, nevertheless He must punish sin, which He has done for many upon Christ, and which He will also do unto many who are without Christ.
Evil is vanquished by a simple act of God, and it will be punished in those who have embraced it.
////////"How can the sinful nature sustain itself in the presence of God pouring Himself directly upon it?"//////
Again, evil is the deprivation or corruption of an otherwise good and real thing. All God does is remove His divine sustaining of a thing for evil to exist. Men go to hell on their own, though of course God physically places them there. They are fast running from God into the crushing torment of hellfire. God does nothing for them to perish.
Hellfire (whatever it is) has been created by God to specifically exact eternal punishment upon those who have sinned against Him, both demons and men. The Bible is clear on this. The nature of man is fallen and as such is totally infested by sin. It will be given to its utter depths in hell where men will suffer for all eternity. These mortal bodies can no more withstand the flames of hell as they could the glories of Heaven.
All will be raised, and all will be given immortal bodies. For those wicked destined for hell, their new frames will be submitted to eternal death, and their sinful natures will be at maximum destruction both within and without.
Beyond this, the question is really struggling with the stuff of hellfire, what it is made of, and that we just have no Biblical information for.
God is actually God. He has a real salvation from real sin. He has also prepared a place that will serve to exact Holy justice upon those vast eternal crimes against Him. For all who have been given this life to live, time is truly running out.....
