Thanks for sharing. It is necessary to inquire and ask what is meant by the term Universalism you use because the diversity that exists in universalist beliefs warrants further examination. So in a nut shell can you give me the gist of it, before I retort?
I started to read the link to a article you shared in your opening post. I have all of Augustine's works and will review, Enchiridion, sec. 112.
God Bless!
Looking forward to discussing this matter with you.
In Love, not Hate.
First off, let me say this. I truly appreciate
'the spirit' of inquisitiveness with which you have come here. You may ultimately find you are in total opposition, as we reveal that which our hearts have come to see. But that is truly OK with me because I don't demand that a 'brother' be a theological 'twin brother' in order to be in God's family. Having said that, I don't know if 'you are' any more than you know if 'I am'...yet. But it's a start.
Our admonition from scripture is to '
sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron'. I'm probably the only one here who spent two years in a packing plant making my livelihood with a knife. So I have a very personalized and applicable understanding of proverb 27:17. During those years of working I came to understand this ‘
iron will only sharpen iron’ when 'the two' come together in an appropriate or correct angle/attitude. It only takes the poor angle/attitude of one to make that contact as sword dulling as a clanging cymbal..
If you're looking for a black and white definition for Universalism you may be disappointed. I'm not, because it seems like I so often hear someone share something in their 'definition...with a twist', that I'm not seeing...or agreeing with.
Actually, I also don't even completely like the unbiblical word
Universalism. Other than to say this, concerning us...as well as ALL Christianity; '
Everyone is an avowed universalist when it comes to ADAM. In Adam ALL die.'
In a nutshell, I like
Ultimate Reconciliation or
UR, as my favored term for the plan of God. In my belief, Jesus died for the forgiveness of the sins of ALL. And it is in Him that God has appropriated the plan whereby we are ALL saved. And God's plan still has..'
in the ages to come', a time frame, wherein He will fulfill His plan. One of my big disagreements with 'church tradition' is this belief; 'You're only chance to make 'the decision', is in this vapor of a moment in which you live or die.' I don't limit God in regard to time.
1JO 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
For me it all simply boils down to this; if '
eternal hell' or '
eternal death' or '
eternal separation from God', is the price for sin, then why isn’t Jesus sitting in 'eternal hell', 'eternal death', eternal separation from God', paying that
eternal price, for you and me? Him being sinless never ‘changed the price for sin’. And that 'price' was either 'eternal hell' or it was a '
physical death'. His
spirit never died, and his
soul died to self daily, as He
worked out His salvation with fear and trembling' even as we are instructed to do. His ultimate soul dying event came in the Garden when
His soul was sorrowful even unto death...with 'the last temptation'. The temptation of a suffering death on the cross. It was the Father's plan "
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
But being sinless and perfect never changed God's price for sin, it simply ‘qualified’ sinless Jesus to vicariously pay 'the price' for us, that we might live again beyond the grave. And He did so by dying an UNJUSTIFIED physical death with a 'very short' time separated from the Father, in our place. And He did so, that we might be JUSTIFIED by His physical death. But the price was never 'eternal separation from God’ and it was never 'burning in Hell eternally' either. If that was 'the price' of sin, then that's where Jesus should eternally be, making payment. Jesus being perfect, or being sinless, or even being GOD, did not change the price for sin. The big difference between our Jesus and the ETers is, our Jesus is 'the savior of all' and your Jesus is the 'savior of a pitiful few'. Our Jesus came that we might have life 'here and now' as well as in the 'hereafter'. You guys are suffering through the now in the hope that a pitiful few of God's beloved creation ever make it to heaven in the hereafter. Which really makes your 'God view' the loser of most of His beloved creation. Not a very good plan of salvation for an omniscient God knowing the end from the beginning. A God who is creator of ALL but loser of most.
Our divine plan 'view', has God dying for ALL and ultimately winning ALL. Your divine plan has God loosing most and then torturing them, for all eternity.
And then 'your God view' also puts US on a mandate GOD HIMSELF isn't going to live up to...and that mandate is 'we must always forgive' but He 'eternally never will'. I like our God view much better philosophically as well as scripturally.
Maybe too much to start with. I really do hate a post that's longer than what fits on a screen. Yep I just went and checked. Others have weighed in and you will have your hands full, so I'll just post and then step back.
And I won't quit loving you if we do find 'stinking thinking' doctrinal differences between us. Brother. 
