The Restitution Of All Things A.K.A. Universalism

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President Abraham Lincoln

Merciful Truth : Abraham Lincoln Stands Up

One of Lincoln’s associates, Mentor Graham, tells of Lincoln: He took the passage, ‘As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,’ and followed up with the proposition that whatever the breach or injury of Adam’s transgressions to the human race was, which no doubt was very great, was made just and right by the atonement of Christ."

 

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Do you know what this means?

This is our God who not only is the Source, Guide & Goal of all that is, the ta panta, He is the Alpha & Omega, the beginning and the ending! He is the first letter of the Greek alphabet & the last letter.

I am the Alpha & Omega

 

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Christ Triumphant

Preface

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter I – The Question Stated

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter II – The Popular Creed Wholly Untenable

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter III – The Popular Creed Wholly Untenable (continued)

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter IV – What the Church Teaches

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter V – What the Church Teaches (continued)

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter VI – Universalism and Creation

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter VII – What the Old Testament Teaches

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter VIII – What the New Testament Teaches

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter IX – What the New Testament Teaches (continued)

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

Chapter X – Summary and Conclusion

Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin

“Am I then to believe that the same God Who expends millions of years in slowly fitting this earth for man's habitation, will only allow to man himself a few fleeting years, or months, or hours, as it may be, as his sole preparation time for eternity? To settle questions so unspeakably great in their issue -questions stretching away to a horizon so far distant that no power of thought can follow them-in such hot haste, does seem quite at variance with our heavenly Father's ways. Is God's action outside man so slow, and within man so hurried? Is the husk of far more value than the seed? Are millions of years allotted to fashioning man's earthly home, while for man's spiritual training for eternity, but a few brief years are given, and these so largely broken up by sleep, by work, by disease, by ignorance? What should we say -to take a homely illustration -of an arrangement allotting 10,000 years to fashioning a man's coat, or building his house, while assigning to his whole education but a few hours?” - Thomas Allin- (Christ Triumphant)

 

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“In Romans 5, the justification is co-extensive with the condemnation. Since all share in one, all share in the other. If only a certain portion of the human race had partaken of the sin of Adam, only a certain portion would partake of the justification of Christ. But St. Paul affirms all to have been involved in one, and all to be included in the other.” -John A.D. Mauricq-

Romans 5

"You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses.

So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do!

There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift.

The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

Here it is in a nutshell:

Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right." -The Message-

 

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“Nothing can be more contrary to the divine nature and attributes, than for a God all wise, all-good, all-powerful, and all-perfect, to bestow existence on any being Who He foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery without respite of end. His goodness could never give birth to any one being, and much less to numberless beings whose end He foresaw would be irretrievable misery; nor could even His justice inflict everlasting punishment.

God made all His creatures finally to be happy; He could never make any whose end He foreknew would be misery everlasting. God is love; infinite benevolence alone prompted Him to action, and infinite benevolence combined with unerring wisdom, and supported by irresistible power, will infallibly accomplish its purpose in the best possible manner.” -Thomas Newton-

 

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"The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God!

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.

And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about.

But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms.

It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?

When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent.

There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.

God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"

God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

And we know we are going to get what's coming to us - an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times.

The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next.

Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead.

Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs.

These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.

That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored.

We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?

If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?

And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? 34 Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us - who was raised to life for us! - is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?

There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. -The Message-

 

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“…Nothing can be lost that is not first owned. Just as a parent is compelled by civil law to be responsible for his family and his property, so the Creator --by His own divine law–is compelled to take care of the children He has created. And that means not only caring for the good children, but for the bad ones and lost ones as well. So the word lost came to be for Mrs. Smith, a term of greatest comfort. If a person is a “lost sinner” it only means that he is temporarily separated from the Good Shepherd who owns him. The Shepherd is bound by all duties of ownership to go after all those who are lost until they are found.” -Catherine Marshall- (Beyond Ourselves)

 

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“If suffering was eternal, we should be compelled to conceive of it as independent, as subsisting by itself, or to admit something still more monstrous, for if it was not self-existent, if it was dependent on the divine will, God would be the direct author of eternal suffering.

But what Christ said is now and ever will be true:- ‘Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And one day all will come unto Him. The world, deluged with light, and feeling within itself, with the revival of hope, the revival also of faith and love, shall salute that day with songs of joy.” F. De La Mennais (1782-1854)

 

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“And thus, on the grand and final consummation, when every will shall be subdued to the will of good to all, our Jesus will take in hand the resigned chordage of our hearts. He will tune them as so many instruments, and will touch them with the finger of His own divine feelings. Then shall the wisdom, the might, the goodness of our God, become the wisdom, might and goodness of all His intelligent creatures. The happiness of each shall multiply and overflow in the wishes and participation of the happiness of all. The universe shall begin to sound with the song of congratulation, and all voices shall break forth in an eternal hallelujah of praise transcending praise, and glory transcending glory to God and the Lamb.” - Henry Brooke-

 

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“The drama of creation begins with a scene in which the first Adam takes a step that Ieads all his posterity into ruin and death. It closes with a vision in which the last Adam presents to the Father, as a fruit of His Cross and Throne, a universe of beings delivered from sin and death, and worshipping in adoring wonder at His feet. This is the “purpose of the ages.” (Eph. 3:11). This is the goal of creation. Then will Christ see of the travail of His soul and be SATISFIED.” -A.E. Saxby-

Romans 5:18,19

"For as by one man’s disobedience polus were made sinners,

SO

by the obedience of One shall polus be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound/pleonazo.

BUT

But where sin pleonazo (ed), grace did much more abound/huperperisseuo (ed)"

Jesus Christ the predestined Lord of the Universe meets pleonazo with huperperisseuo!

Sin abounds: His grace abounds beyond measure!

Sin abounds: His grace abounds exceedingly!

Sin abounds: His grace overflows the banks!

The Scope Of Adam one: Pleonazo

Pleonazo=

To superabound/ to exist in abundance.

To increase/ be augmented/ to make increase.

The Reconciliation Of Jesus Christ: Combination Of Huper+Perisseuo

Huper=

In behalf of/ For the sake of.

Over/ beyond/ more than.

More/ Beyond/ Over.

Perisseuo=

To exceed a fixed number of measure.

To be left over and above a certain number or measure.

To be over/ to remain.

To exist or be at hand in abundance.

To be great (abundant)

A thing which comes in abundance, or overflows unto one.

Something falls to the lot of one in large measure.

To redound unto, turn out abundantly for, a thing.

To abound, overflow.

To be abundantly furnished with, to have in abundance.

Abound, to be in affluence.

To be pre-eminent, to excel.

To excel more than. To exceed.

To make to abound.

To furnish one richly so that he has abundance.

To make abundant or excellent.

Huper & Perisseuo= Huperperisseuo=

Huperperisseuo=

To abound beyond measure/ abound exceedingly.

To overflow/ to enjoy abundantly.

Perisseuo Rooted In Perissos

Perissos=

Exceeding some number or measure or rank or need.

Over and above, more than is necessary, super-added.

Exceeding abundantly, supremely.

Something further/ more/ much more than all/ more plainly.

Superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon.

Pre-eminence, superiority, advantage, more eminent, more remarkable, more excellent.

Assuredly the Bible is not the story of sin, deepening into eternal ruin, of God’s Son, worsted in His utmost effort; it is from the opening to the close the story of grace stronger than sin–of life victorious over every form of death–of God triumphing over evil.

His grace superabounds!

 

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“I thank God that He has at last brought me to a lively sense of His infinite goodness and mercy to all, and that I now see it in all His works, and in every page of His Word. It has taught me to love every man and to rejoice in the happiness which our Heavenly Father intends for all; and has dispersed all the gloomy and melancholy thoughts which arise from the apprehension of eternal misery for myself or friends.

How long, or how much God will punish wicked men, He has nowhere said, and therefore I cannot tell. But this I am sure of, that in judgment He will remember mercy; that He chastens only because He loves, and His tender mercies are over all His works. God will conduct the wicked through all the afflictions which He thinks fit to lay upon them for their good, with infinite tenderness and compassion.” - Dr. David Hartley-

Assuredly the Bible is not the story of sin, deepening into eternal ruin, of God’s Son, worsted in His utmost effort; it is from the opening to the close the story of grace stronger than sin–of life victorious over every form of death–of God triumphing over evil.

 

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“Christ Jesus will deliver all mankind out of bondage. This I see to be a truth by testimony of Scripture, as God is pleased to teach me. But this mystery of God is not to be done all at once, but in several dispensations, some whereof are past, some are in being, and some are yet to come. The whole creation of mankind, which is God’s work, shall be delivered from corruption, bondage, death, and pain. Mankind shall be by Christ reconciled to his Maker and be made one in spirit with Him; i.e. the curse shall be removed, and the power of it killed and consumed.

Truly this is according to the current of the whole Scriptures, that everyone shall be made of one heart and one spirit, i.e. that all shall be brought to obey the Father, walk humbly before Him, and live in peace and love in Him. This is the doctrine of Christ and the gospel. This is glad tidings to hear of. When you are made to enjoy this doctrine as yours, then you shall know what it is to know the Son, and what it is to be set free by the Son.” – Gerard Winstanley- (The mystery of God)

No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground:
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.

 

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“It is so. We read it in the book of God, that word and truth and gospel of our salvation, that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Yes Doddridge, it is so. The fruit of our Redeemer’s sufferings and victory is the entire and eternal destruction of sin and death for everyone. And is it not a glorious destruction? A most blessed ruin? No enemy so formidable, no tyranny so bitter, no fetters so heavy and galling, no prison so dark and dismal, but they are vanquished and disarmed; the unerring dart is blunted and broken, the prison pulled down and razed. Our Lord is risen as the first fruits of them that slept.” -letter to Dr. P. Doddridge from Henry J. Barker-

"Behold, I make all things new"

New= kainos = without precedent

New in form and quality

 

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“God can never punish any, more than is necessary for his reformation. He cannot mistake in the choice of His means, and must always reach His end. He would appear less lovely if one creature should be forever miserable.”

Our God is the Alpha & Omega

The word for today=

anakainoo

anakainoo=

To make new/ to renew.

Present progressive renewal of the inner man.

 

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“It is argued that whatever be the meaning of the word aionios in the case of the lost, the same must be its meaning in the case of the saved; and our certainty of never-ending bliss for penitent believers is gone if the word bears not the same signification in the case of the impenitent and unbelieving. But the truth is that this word describes not the quantity or duration, but the quality of that which it is predicated.

The word which in Matt. 25:46 we translate punishment, in its primary sense means ‘pruning’ and is always used for corrective discipline which is for the improvement of him who suffers it. Even those who hold the common view of the endlessness of punishment are obliged to confess this; and this of itself proves that their doctrine is untenable; for any punishment, be it for a longer or shorter time would not be corrective discipline, but quite another thing if it left those who were so corrected unimproved and lost forever. But from the fall till now the changeless way of the Lord is to make even the curse a blessing.” -Andrew Jukes

 

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Whose will prevails?

”Tradition has taught that God will not save a person against their will. I agree. However He has the power to orchestrate whatever circumstances are necessary to effect one’s will to change.

Once a full revelation of God is received in the ages to come (Eph. 2:7), men will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord just as Isaiah and Paul prophesied (Is. 45:21-25; Rom. 4:11; Ph. 2:9-11). Who would want to continue in active and persistent rebellion knowing God only wants what is best for them? Knowing the great goodness and love of God, along with the Holy Spirit working in their hearts, these hardened hearts must melt before His glorious being.

It is impossible that an omnipotent God can fail in His purpose so that some would forever resist unconditional love opting for everlasting pain. This would be totally irrational. And even if one were that irrational, such resistance would not arise out of a ‘free’ will, but an ‘enslaved’ will, a will in bondage to an enslaved mind.” -Gerry Beauchemin-

Word for today=

boulema

boulema=

A deliberate design/ that which is purposed

"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

 

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Greek-English Lexicon Of The New Testament by William F. Arndt & Wilbur Gingrich

ta; pavnta.

In the abs. sense of the whole of creation all things, the universe.

(Pla., Ep. 6 p. 323d tw’n pavntwn qeov"; hymn to Selene in EAbel, Orphica [1885] 294, 36 eij" se; ta; pavnta teleuta’ [s. 2ad above]; Herm. Wr. 13, 17 t. ktivsanta ta; pavnta; Philo, Spec. Leg. 1, 208, Rer. Div. Her. 36, Somn. 1, 241; PGM 1, 212 kuvrie tw’n pavntwn; 4, 3077) Ro 11:36 (Musaeus in Diog. L. 1, 3 ejx eJno;" ta; pavnta givnesqai kai; eij" taujto;n ajnaluvesqai. Cf. Norden, Agn. Th. 240-50); 1 Cor 8:6a, b; 15:28a, b; Eph 3:9; 4:10b; Phil 3:21; Col 1:16a, b, 17>b (HHegermann, D. Vorstellung vom Schöpfungsmittler etc., TU 82, '61, 88ff); Hb 1:3; 2:10a, b; Rv 4:11; 1 Cl 34:2; PK 2 p. 13 (four times).

—In the relative sense, indicated by the context, everything (Kupr. I p. 42 no. 29 ta;" stoa;" kai; ta; ejn aujtai’" pavnta; PGiess. 2, 14 [II bc] in a bill: ta; p.=‘everything taken together’) ejn parabolai’" ta; pavnta givnetai everything (=all the preaching) is in parables Mk 4:11. Cf. Ac 17:25b; Ro 8:32b.

Of everything in heaven and earth that is in need of uniting and redeeming

“And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to Himself, making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross–to reconcile to Himself through Him, I say, things on earth and things in Heaven.”

 

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“The culmination of God’s Word is found in 1 Corinthian's 15 when God becomes All in all.

The book of Revelation does not take us quite this far. Corruption is eliminated and our bodies are now incorruptible. The worst enemy of all, death, has been abolished.

The salvation of all has not meant the ignoring of sin.

The lake of fire, the second death has accomplished its work. All men now recognize the wondrous ways of God and His grace as expressed through the work of Christ. The salvation of all does not negate or minimize the work of the cross. The work of Christ upon the cross and the power of God as displayed through the resurrection, were both very necessary.

But now at the end of the ages we see the true scope of God’s work.

Despite the sin and rebellion of humanity, God has found a way to bring every soul to the point of acceptance. The ages have ended. The purpose of the eons has now been fulfilled; to reconcile all to God. Wickedness and evil are gone. Death is no more. God is love, and He is All in all. Eternal life in perfection has begun.” -Bob Evely-

Word for today= kainos=

Unprecedented newness