Christian Universalism

[Gregory_de_Bois]

I had never heard these arguments until yesterday. I am amazed.

Christian Universalism

Here's a snippety nip: ( I have no idea why I said that, I just felt like being random.)

Let me state the dilemma clearly. Aion either means endless duration as its necessary, or at least its ordinary significance, or it does not. If it does, the following difficulties at once arise;

1 -- How, if it mean an endless period, can aion have a plural?

2 -- How came such phrases to be used as those repeatedly occurring in Scripture, where aion is added to aion, if aion is of itself infinite?

3 -- How come such phrases as for the "aion" or aions and BEYOND? -- ton aiona kai ep aiona kai eti: eis tous aionas kai eti. -- See (Sept.) Ex. 15:18; Dan. 12:3; Micah 4:5.

4 -- How is it that we repeatedly read of the end of the aion? -- Matt. 13:39,40,49; 24:3; 28:20; I Cor. 10:11; Heb. 9:26.

5 -- Finally, if aion be infinite, why is it applied over and over to what is strictly finite? e.g., Mark 4:19; Acts 3:21; Rom. 12:2; I Cor. 1:20, 2:20, 2:6, 3:18, 10:11, etc. But if an aion be not definite, what right have we to render the adjective aionios (which depends for its meaning on aion) by the terms "eternal" (when used as the equivalent of "endless") and "everlasting?"

[revtj]

As a universalist christian, I appreciate your question. The early American universalists certainly grounded their faith in an interpretation of scripture.

I no longer feel that biblical word studies/etymologies of Greek or Hebrew necessarily prove anything, so I can't say I care much one way or the other what aion proves to mean. Universalism goes back in christianity as far as Origen, the early church "father' who was a gnostic christian. He believed that ultimately all spirits would return to God. He borrowed from gnosticism to prove this in the same way the writer of the gospel of John borrowed from gnosticism to prove Jesus as the divine logos.

I would rather look at the fruit of universalism. In America, it was a reaction against the hypercalvinism of the Puritans, and it was a serious effort to curb the mean-spirited practices in Puritan community (witch burning, throwing anabaptists out of the state, hanging a Quaker on the Boston Square, etc.) The American universalists essentially said judgement belongs to God and humans cannot begin to perceive the limitless mercy God will show. Thus, they wanted to build communities of mercy like Little House on the Prarie author Laura Ingalls Wilder, a prominent Universalist, wrote about.

When you look at what the fruit a particular theology bears it is sometimes more telling than what a word study of a biblical word means.

There is a new universalism dawning on planet earth as the world gets smaller by technology. It is so obvious now that people are of a certain religion due to factors they have no control over: I am a christian and not a hindu because I was born in Alabama instead of Calcutta...But will universalism have its chance to bear fruit in building loving, merciful communities...or will the witch-burners and theocrats choke them out?

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by Gregory_de_Bois

Here's a snippety nip: ( I have no idea why I said that, I just felt like being random.)

It's because you're gay, Greg, but its OK, you can't help it.

[Gregory_de_Bois]

Originally Posted by u-dog

It's because you're gay, Greg, but its OK, you can't help it.