Matt 10:28

[rrich7]

I saw this as "proof" to deny Christian universalism on a site & I'm trying to see what you guys have to say about it? Again, this person did not take scriptures in context, but just pulled them out singly & I do think it important to address all scriptures that appear to show eternal torment or punishment. I look to some of you who are more versed in the original translations to help me out here! :HeartThrob: :friendstu: :friendstu:

Matthew 10:28 (KJV)

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

[eaglesway]

In Matthew 28, the word (in Greek) is not hell, it is gehenna. In this life the body dies by the hand of man or by nature. How then does God kill the body in gehenna, that has already died in earth? If gehenna is a metaphor for the lake of fire, it is so as the example of what gehenna was in real history, the garbage dump where detestable things were burned up so as to prserve the city from infectious diseases.

But, if one was to believe that the body, after resurrection, is cast into "gehenna", or if you would hav it, the lake of fire(Iam not saying gehenna is or is not the lake of fire, but this is the common belief I am speaking to), then surely 1 Corinthians 15 is still in force, testifying that after every adversary is subjected to Christ(Sit thou at my right hand unti I make all thine enemies to be thy footstool".....Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, whether things on earth, in heaven or under the earth)- then Jesus will return all things to the Father so that God may be ALL IN ALL.

The last enemy will be death. First death, second death- all death will be destroyed and all will be in God-alive. God will be in all- alive. So whtever the nature of the death, or "slaying" as the word is rendered in Romans 7:11, it cannot be permanent because God will be all in all- even in those who were His adversaries, according to 1 Cor 15:23-28.

God will reconcile all things to Himself by the blood of Christ, everything on heaven and earth....everything created by Christ- according to Colossians 1:11-16 and Romans 8:18-24

All things will be "gathered into one in Christ, whether things in heaven or things in earth" according to Ephesians 1:9-11 where it clearly says that this is the mystery of the will of God, according to His kind intention, "an administration suitable to the fulness of times".

So, as Christ spoke of avoiding the flames of gehenna, which according to some are burning now in the lives of the lost, and according to some is reserved for a future day of judgment- nevertheless, the death that natural men walk in now is not beyond recovery in this age or the next- and the lives of those who enter gehenna, whatever that second death may actually be- will also be redeemed, reconciled, revived and restored before the "completion/fulness of times", when God's administration is complete and He is all in all and all are in Him.

For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been His counselor.......For from Him and Through Him and to Him are all things.(Romans 11:36)

[Seth]

I saw this as "proof" to deny Christian universalism on a site & I'm trying to see what you guys have to say about it? Again, this person did not take scriptures in context, but just pulled them out singly & I do think it important to address all scriptures that appear to show eternal torment or punishment. I look to some of you who are more versed in the original translations to help me out here! :HeartThrob: :friendstu: :friendstu:

Matthew 10:28 (KJV)

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

James contains what we need to know about Gehenna in a simple scripture:

James 3:4-6
Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by Gehenna

Notice something interesting here: the combination of WATER imagery (think...lake) and FIRE imagery. What is James talking about here with regard to Gehenna and sin itself? Sin itself is like a lake of fire. This is why Jesus warned his believers not to be turned over to this Gehenna, to have it consume the entire body. James warns of the same thing. The Prodigal Son was in a lake of fire.

This judgment, being turned over to ones own sin, to be humbled is part of bringing people to humility. The Prodigal Son was brought to the end of himself. Unfortunately, that was a painful process, and it would have been better to stay by his father's side and receive a gentle rebuke, rather than have all his wickedness consume him and eat him up like fire on briars and thorns.

But as Eaglesway said, this not without ultimate redemption for as Revelation 22 demonstrates, there is a Bride of Christ saying "all who are athirst enter and take from the water of life freely."