Our Fathers judgment leads to change & transformation

[FineLinen]

Aionios: the Greek word for Eternity

https://wordgems.net/time.barclay.html

Eternal destruction -Dr. Marvin Vincent

https://www.mercyuponall.org/2016/11...thron-aionion/

Aionios -Dr. Orville Jenkins

http://orvillejenkins.com/theology/aionios.html

[FineLinen]

Divine Justice =

The nature of divine justice?

Traditional views of hell are based on a particular view of what divine justice is. It's the view that justice is understood in terms of retribution, the punishment must fit the crime, it should be appropriate to the crime and proportionate to the crime. Which in itself, raises a whole bunch of questions about traditional hell. Because if traditional hell is built on the idea that the punishment should fit the crime, how could a finite sin committed by a finite creature be so severe that the appropriate punishment is an infinite punishment? So in itself, the doctrine of retribution which props up traditional views of hell seems to undermine them at the same time, or at least make problems for them. There are attempts to defend traditional views of hell in the face of this kind of objection but there are also explorations among philosophers and theologians of alternative understandings of what divine justice might be. Oftentimes in Scripture, justice is seen as something that is about God's saving justice. God saves people through justice. God restores people through his justice. It's not simply about retribution. So there are all sorts of discussions about what divine justice might be in Biblical Studies and contemporary theology particularly. -Dr. Robin Parry

https://reforminghell.com/dr-robin-parry/

[FineLinen]

Hope Rediscovered?

One of the fascinating things about the history of universalism in the post-Reformation period is that the doctrine seems to be rediscovered over and over again. While we can trace universalist genealogies in the post-Reformation period, the more interesting feature is just how many folk seem to stumble into it for themselves without having had it passed on to them. Some folk have unexpected religious experiences that lead them to become universalists; others, simply reflecting on the Bible come to believe that it teaches universalism; yet others find that wresting with the tensions in Christian doctrine draws them to the larger hope. But from the seventeenth century onwards we find universalism in Protestant countries breaking out again and again, here and there and everywhere. And when one genealogical line dies off, as many do, new ones spring up, often unconnected to earlier movements.

Why?

My conviction is that a part of the answer to this question lies in the following claim: universalism feels like a better fit within Christian theology than the alternatives, at least at face value. As such there is an internal pressure generated by various Christian doctrines that pushes in universalist directions. The doctrine of hell puts a blocker on that push, but in so doing it generates a build-up of unresolved theological pressure that sometimes needs to be released. One of the ways that it can be released is by pushing out eternalist interpretations of hell (like a cork from champagne) and embracing universalism. So I think that if every Christian universalist and all their universalist materials vanished into thin air today, we would not have to wait long before some Christian was led to rediscover universalism again.

Think of Christian theology like an incomplete jigsaw: how do we know which pieces do and do not fit into the gaps? The clues are provided by the shape of the gaps left by the pieces that are already in place and by the image contained on them. My suggestion is that there is no obvious hell-shaped hole in this puzzle. Hell, understood as ones eternal fate, has been squashed and squeezed into a space in the jigsaw, but the shape and the picture on the piece are not quite right. The space clearly has to do with judgment and punishment, so the hell piece is not completely out of place, yet something is wrong with it and this creates a niggling sense of dissatisfaction. That this is the case is indicated not merely by the fact that some people throw the piece away and seek out a piece that they think fits better, but also by the lengths those who support the inclusion of the piece go to to defend its appropriateness. -Dr. Robin Perry

https://reforminghell.com/2017/10/17...utics-of-hell/

[Lazarus Short]

Hello, Fine Linen!

I was one of those who picked up Universalism.  I first really heard of it from a Christian newsletter writer, who mentioned it, but I was not entirely convinced, as he admitted that the Bible appeared to teach Damnationism, Annihilationism and Universalism.  One day, about 1990, I was reading a magazine article which was headed by a depiction of the Tibetan Buddhist Hell.  The only thing I could see that differed from "Christian" versions of hell was ARTISTIC STYLE.  I began to wonder where our ideas of Hell came from, and that question has led me until now. 

[FineLinen]

Hi there Laz. There are many degrees of glory flowing from our God. As we move from glory to glory new and wonderful avenues of Him break upon us. The beginning is Him, the end is Him!

It is a delight hearing from you again.

[FineLinen]

Nothing shall separate us or them from the love of God. The whole of creation is precisely that, the radical all of pas.

"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."

The hugies shall be made sozo!