1. 1. To Bring Us into the Home of His Heart Russ Fochler August 26, 2017 1
2. 2. New Territory This will be exploring new territory for many today. Each of you has freedom to question the material today, to research this for yourself, and arrive at your own perspective 2
3. 3. The Fathers Work This is and has been the Fathers work from the beginning - to bring us into the home of His heart. - George McDonald 3
4. 4. Further Reformation Needed? Its always been about our Fathers love for the world the people He created through Jesus and in Jesus. But, there have been huge distortions of what Father Gods love is. The Protestant Reformation 500 years ago unleashed a lot of energy: freeing people to read the Bible for themselves in their own language, to see themselves as having direct access to God - not mediated by the clergy. Yet, standard Evangelical doctrines and most English translations say that Gods wrath will send many people to unending torment after they die. Is this true? 4
5. 5. What About Gods Wrath? In my earlier talk Two Versions of the Gospel*, I promised at the time to look further into the references to Gods wrath in the New Testament Example: John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (NKJV) I had to face the N.T. scriptures about everlasting torment for those who arent saved. Example: Matt 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (NKJV) This everlasting punishment seems tied to Gods wrath. This didnt t with my understand of Gods love and kindness. Is it Gods kindness that leads to repentance or is it fear of Gods eternally punishing wrath? *http://blazingre.podbean.com/e/two-versions-of-the-gospel-russ-fochler/ 5
6. 6. Restoring the Shack Episode 16 from 7:48 to ~15:00 https://www.tbn.org/programs/restoring-shack/watch/restoring-shack-14 6
7. 7. In Brief Universal Salvation - that Jesus provided for everyone to be saved? Wm. Paul Young is in. Universal Reconciliation - that everyone is automatically saved and reconciled whether they want to be or not? Wm. Paul Young is not there. Because our yeses and our noes our participation matters. This is about love and relationship - not determinism that takes away our participation. So, please dont call Paul Young a Universalist Is Paul Young saying the Sinners Prayer is wrong? No. If the Sinners Prayer reects true desire to accept Jesus salvation for us and return to Father God - thats good! However if is not about an ongoing relationship with the Trinity if the Sinners Prayer is treated as magic words or re insurance by the one praying - does it really help? 7
8. 8. Greek Words Behind Everlasting Punishment Matt 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting (aionion) punishment (kolasis), but the righteous into eternal (aionion) life. (zoe) (NKJV) (aionion) is an adjective form of the noun (aion). Aion is used for: life, lifetime, generation, age, a long space of time, something that occupies an age (the world for example). Here is a denition for (aion): a period of time longer or shorter, past or future the boundaries of which are concealed, obscure, unseen or unknown. It does not mean never-ending. It means that the end is not known. John of Damascus (AD 750) says, The life of every man is called aion. . . . The whole duration of life of this world is called aion. The life after the resurrection is called the aion to come. 8
9. 9. Greek Words Behind Everlasting Punishment Matt 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting (aionion) punishment (kolasis), but the righteous into eternal (aionion) life. (zoe) (NKJV) Youngs Literal Translation reects the original Greek better: And these shall go away to punishment age- during, but the righteous to life age-during. (YLT) Jeromes Vulgate (Latin) translation of this verse used aeternum (eternity, immortality) for aionion (see slide 24 for more about the inuence of this translation) 9
10. 10. Greek Words Behind Everlasting Punishment Matt 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting (aionion) punishment (kolasis), but the righteous into eternal (aionion) life. (zoe) (NKJV) (kolasin) is a term originally used for pruning trees to help them grow better and then was applied to corrective punishment. In all Greek literature outside the Bible, its never used for anything but remedial punishment. * * Sarris, George W.. Heaven's Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed! (p. 141). GWS Publishing. Kindle Edition. 10
11. 11. Origin of Term Gehenna "And he (Josiah) deled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the re to Molech." (2 Kings 23:10) Besides its primary meaning of the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, it had come to acquire the secondary meaning of punishment with the intent to purify. . . . we nd a certain conrmation of what is said regarding the place of punishment, intended for the purication of such souls as are to be puried by torments, agreeably to the saying: The Lord cometh like a reners re, and like fullers soap: and He shall sit as a rener and purier of silver and of gold.* * Origen, Against Celsus, Book VI, Chapter XXV 11
12. 12. What if Hell Does Not Mean Separation from God?* If Hell(Gehenna) is a created thing**: Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. * From Wm Paul Young - Restoring The Shack Episode 15 and also the book Lies We Believe About God. ** See Colossians 1:15-18 12
13. 13. From Restoring the Shack Episode 15 www.tbn.org/programs/restoring-shack/watch/restoring-shack-13 13
14. 14. God - A Father Who Loves Us The death of our bodies in this Age (aion) means that the evil in each person stops hurting others sooner or later. Nero died, Attila died, Hitler died, etc. God decreed this limit when Adam and Eve chose to be independent and distrust God because He knew all kinds of evil would result. In the Age to come, the ones who still choose evil instead of returning to Father God will be separated from those who have returned to the Fathers heart. But they wont be separated from His ery love for them. 14
15. 15. From Restoring the Shack Episode 15 www.tbn.org/programs/restoring-shack/watch/restoring-shack-13 15
16. 16. God - Our Father Who Truly Loves Us Gods ery wrath is towards what evil does - both to the victim and the perpetrator. This ery wrath comes from Gods ery love for each of us. God loves us and grants to us the scary gift of living out the consequences of our heart-stances and our actions. Perhaps the aionion kolasis" will be a more intense form of the story of Prodigal Son? Or a bit like C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce? (Im just speculating!) 16
17. 17. From Restoring the Shack Episode 15 www.tbn.org/programs/restoring-shack/watch/restoring-shack-13 17
18. 18. Suggested Reading Heaven's Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed! by George W. Sarris Currently, the Kindle version on Amazon is $4.95 Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem by Brad Jersak (recommended by Wm. Paul Young) Lies We Believe About God by Wm. Paul Young 18
19. 19. Additional Slides 19
20. 20. Fatherhood of God - Alexandrian Christianity The talismatic word of the Alexandrian fathers, as of the New Testament, was FATHER. This word, as now, unlocked all mysteries, solved all problems, and explained all the enigmas of time and eternity. Holding God as Father, punishment was held to be remedial, and therefore restorative, and nal recovery from sin universal. . . . For centuries in Christendom after the Alexandrine form of Christianity had waned, the Fatherhood of God was a lost truth, and most of the worst errors of the modern creeds are due to that single fact, more than to all other causes.86 86 J.W. Hanson, Universalism: The Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years, Universalist Publishing House, Boston and Chicago, 1899, p. 23 20
21. 21. Love Confronting That Which Violates Love "So, if we continue this thought (that if hell is a created thing, it cannot separate us from the love of God)perhaps hell is hell not because of the absence of God, but because of the presence of God, the continuous and confrontational presence of the ery Love and Goodness and Freedom that intents to destroy every vestige of evil and darkness that prevents us from being fully free and fully alive. This is a re of Love that now and forever is for us, not against us. Only if we posit that we have existence apart from Jesus can we believe that hell is a form of punishment that comes to us in our separation from Jesus. I propose the possibility that hell is not separation from Jesus but that it is the pain of resisting our salvation in Jesus while not being able to escape Him who is True Love. Wm Paul Young Lies We Believe About God pages 136-137 21
22. 22. George MacDonald George MacDonald was convinced that Gods intent is to bring about a complete victory over sin and death not simply by punishing sin, but by destroying it. Gods punishments have a positive purpose. The reason behind suffering in hell is to bring deliverance. Primarily, God is not bound to punish sin; he is bound to destroy sin . . . The only vengeance worth having on sin is to make the sinner himself its executioner . . . the opposite of evil is good, not suffering; the opposite of sin is not suffering, but righteousness. The path across the gulf that divides right from wrong is not the re, but repentance . . . It is a deliverance into the pure air of Gods ways of thinking and feeling.127 [127] George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, Third Series, Justice 22
23. 23. Kris Vallotton The Church is notorious for using fear as a primary motivator to get people to come into the Kingdom. We need to make sure that we dont build partnership with terrorist spirits, believing we can drive people to God, because there is no fear in love, and it is actually the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (see Romans 2:4). So it is very difcult to keep people in the Kingdom who have been driven there predominantly by a fatalist eschatology. Note: This quote has stayed with me as inspiration to seek a better Biblically-based theology of salvation and last things. Im not saying Kris Vallotton agrees with the material in this talk! January 10, 2015 https://www.facebook.com/kvministries/posts/10152631113438741 23
24. 24. The Inuence of Jeromes Vulgate Latin Translation The Inuence on Western culture For over a thousand years (c. AD 4001530), the Vulgate was the denitive edition of the most inuential text in Western European society. Indeed, for most Western Christians, it was the only version of the Bible ever encountered. The Vulgate's inuence throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance into the Early Modern Period is even greater than that of the King James Version in English; for Christians during these times the phraseology and wording of the Vulgate permeated all areas of the culture. Aside from its use in prayer, liturgy and private study, the Vulgate served as inspiration for ecclesiastical art and architecture, hymns, countless paintings, and popular mystery plays. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate 24
25. 25. Early Church Leaders Who did not believe or teach a doctrine of never ending torment for unbelievers: Athanasius, Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nysa, Gregory of Nazianzus 25
26. 26. Ultimate Restoration Allowed As a Private Belief in Some Traditions: 1. Eastern Orthodox Church In the Eastern Orthodox Church of today, the belief in the ultimate restoration of all is neither heresy nor established belief, but an allowed private theological opinion. The restoration of all . . . a valid possibility according to the Church, although not a doctrine, has a special place in the hopes of saints who pray for the redemption of their enemies, and it expresses our hope for the charity of God. . . . If even one human being is able to forgive and pray for the salvation of the entire cosmos, wouldnt Gods providence nd a way to allow it to happen?143 Sarris, George W.. Heaven's Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed! (p. 98). GWS Publishing. Kindle Edition. 2. Roman Catholicism Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar is considered one of the most important Catholic intellectuals and writers of the 20th century. He stirred controversy in Europe and in the United States by his teaching that, while one can never be absolutely certain of the nal salvation of all, it belongs both to Christian hope and to Christian love that its possible in the mystery of Gods saving grace that all will ultimately be saved. In the beginning of his book, Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?, he explained that one cannot divide the divine qualities of justice and mercy in such a way as to leave justice on one side and mercy on the other. Balthasar then told his readers, Now, since precisely this sort of assumption that divine qualities are nite is not acceptable, a dispute arises about whether one who is under judgment, as a Christian, can have hope for all men. I have ventured to answer this afrmatively . . .145 Balthasar died in his home on June 26, 1988, one day before he was to be made a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II. Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all supported Balthasars writings.146 Sarris, George W.. Heaven's Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed! (p. 99). GWS Publishing. Kindle Edition. 3. Protestantism As mentioned earlier, the belief in ultimate restoration is not a forbidden doctrine in the Anglican Church. In Congregationalist churches no position is taken on the future of the wicked, but most reject the idea of eternal punishment.147 In the majority of the Evangelical Protestant churches, however, the belief that hell is eternal conscious torment is clearly the dominant view.148 Sarris, George W.. Heaven's Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed! (p. 99). GWS Publishing. Kindle Edition. 26