THE NEGLECTED KERYGMA OF CHRIST
a series of lecture essays on the biblical concept of a universal salvation in Christ
LECTURE FOUR
Copyright © BRI/IMCF 2020 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)
CAUTION: BRI/IMCF Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI/IMCF Yeshiva lecture.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Lk 12.48).
In today's mini-lecture I wish to address why it is that I oppose a very popular view associated with the burning up of the “wicked” at the Final Judgment. The view of which I am speaking concerns incorrigible human beings paying their own penalty for sin in the Lake of Fire at the conclusion of the ages.
There are multitudes who hold that if men and women reject the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf then they will have to face the personal penalty of eternal damnation by paying the ultimate price for their sin. It is a belief shared by both those who accept the doctrine of endless torment, and it is also held by some who say they believe in a universal salvation. In the case of the latter persuasion all will be saved even if that salvation comes about by the personal payment of one's obliteration in Gehenna for their own transgressions against the commandments of God. Once they are burned up they will then be resurrected to glory for the outstanding account of sin's penalty will have been fully paid.
This was also a notion taught by my late friend Dr Ernest Martin and which I opposed from the moment I read it in one of his lectures. And I let him know it in no uncertain terms. As far as I am aware he held tenaciously to that idea until the day of his death. He also held to the belief in justification as intending being “made righteous” – a term he often used in his recordings – rather than being “declared righteous.” I opposed this view as well. His rather lengthy background and sojourn in “Armstrongism” made it somewhat difficult for him in his later life to expand his considerably brilliant mindscape beyond the parameters of certain church doctrines (including the Russellite version of man's innate mortality).
Now listen! Listen carefully. What I wish to state categorically and decidedly – so there can be absolutely no wavering in anyone's mind about the certainty of this issue – the Bible contains NO SUCH REFERENCE to human beings paying the ultimate price for their own sins. It's nowhere to be found in the biblical revelation. The Bible is entirely silent on this lying assessment. Rather, the Word of God states that it is CHRIST AND CHRIST ALONE who paid the ultimate price for the depravity of human transgression and deranged behaviour.
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer” (2 Cor 5.14-16).
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who will have all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and humankind, the man Messiah Yeshua, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim 2.3-6).
“But we do see Yeshua — who indeed was made for a little while lower than the angels — now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God’s Grace he might taste death for all humanity” (Hebrews 2.9).
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Pet 3.18). N.B. That's all the unrighteous NOT just some of the unrighteous.
“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10.12).
Christ's sacrifice was once for ALL – a PERFECT redemption once for ALL humanity, not merely for the “elect” or the “Firstfruits.” He paid the penalty for our sins and for the sins of the entirety of the world.
The IMCF and this lecturer in no way teaches a “hell redemption.” If we did teach such nonsense we would be accused (and rightly so) of acknowledging that hell (Gehenna fire) could accomplish in a human being what the awesome merciful blood sacrifice of Yeshua could not achieve. CHRIST ALONE CAN SAVE. There can be no other way to salvation. God the Father is entirely a SALVIFIC GOD. And we should rejoice that this is the case.
It is tragic that Christians have the audacity to replace the SALVIFIC NATURE of Christ (and His Father) with a COUNTERFEIT form of salvation – man redeeming and saving himself through the horrifying “Lake of Fire.” We may feebly try to argue that I am magnifying church doctrine out of all semblance of reality. No, I am not. This is the argument Christians themselves employ in their distressing attempts at vindictively ridiculing the construct of a magnificent and God-satisfying “universal salvation in Christ.”
THE QUEST FOR RESTORING LOST KNOWLEDGE
Indeed, for the most part Christian believers have lost any valid comprehension of the biblical description of the Nature and Character of our Creative God, the Father – in whose IMAGE we are created. Overall, the universal church has no effective teaching ministry based on the Word of God as the Foundation of All Knowledge. Here and there we hear of attempts by certain sectarians, and churches, and religious organisations to “restore what has been lost” but such endeavours usually turn out to be ineffective partial reconstructions of the biblical teachings. The Reformers set out to pursue the restoration of 1st century doctrine and discipline but it all fizzled out miserably as we all are very well aware.
Sadly, today (as it has ever been since the bloodied tree of Golgoleth) many Christians have become in character largely indistinguishable from the world in which they are located. As I have taught for decades, such folk are designated as “Laodecians” (Rev 3.14-22) Certainly among nominal believers there exist Sunday (or Saturday) non-thinking “pew-warmers” at church, just as there are enthusiastic street-corner evangelists who have a passionate and extremely zealous (and most times unbalanced) perception of what is expected of them by God. Rather than the Ruach Yehovah converting people, they feel its on their on personal shoulders to save everyone. Authentic disciples (students, pupils, followers) of Yeshua the Messiah must possess the following qualities I am about to list.
The closer we get to the living God through our recognition of what Christ has done for us personally – and all of humanity in general – the greater is our understanding and grasp of the wonderful saving GRACE of our unbounded living WORD. The SPIRIT of God IS GOD Himself. We must always remember this fact.
GETTING BACK TO SOME BASICS
The Bible tells us that a disciple is loving. “God is love” we are told twice for emphasis by the apostle John (1 Jn 4.7-21). God wants His children – sons and daughters – to be loving and kind as He is and to eventually become LOVE itself. “We shall see Him as He is” we are told confidently in 1 Jn 3.1,2. In other words, we shall see God's FACE without self-destructing because we shall be composed of PURE SPIRIT as God is composed of everlasting purity in character and by Nature. This is why John added a few more words directly subsequent to telling us that we shall see Him without becoming ash in a flash. “And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure” (1 Jn 3.3).
To be “born of God” is to ultimately evolve into that very same self-sacrificial love as God is composed in His own form of sharing love. “By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another” (Jn 13.35). At the time the Lord uttered these words his students were in personal conflict with each other – more divisive than they were loving. Indeed, their arguments and disagreements centred on who among them would the greatest in God's Kingdom! (Lk 22.24; Mk 9.33-34).
The Bible tells us that a disciple is obedient. “Yeshua therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed him, 'If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine' (Jn 8.31). “If you abide.” Abiding in Yeshua's word means that one remains in it, if words mean anything. A very fine Bible teacher, Dr Rick Yohn, has noted “As God's Word saturates your mind and motivates your heart, you demonstrate discipleship.” Yes, its automatic. Saturating the mind with the words of God and His Son produce thoughts within that demand activity – in many ways we are our own placebo. What we think about all day results in the world in which we live. We create our world because we are co-Creators with the Father God. Our works of faith are actually produced by US. That's precisely what Yeshua stated on many an occasion (see Mt 8.13; 9.22; 15.28; Mk 5.34; 10.52; Lk 7.50; 17.19; 18.42 etc).
The Bible tells us that a disciple is fruitful. Stop and consider: how fruitful is our discipleship? How productive is our spiritual life? Yeshua said, “By this is my Father glorified – that you bear much fruit, and so PROVE to be my disciples” (Jn 15.8) What spiritual gifts do YOU possess? Are others blessed because of your positive input into their lives? Is God effecting change as a consequence of your precious time spent in their lives?
The Bible tells us that a disciple is totally committed to Yeshua. Our Lord taught, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate” – by comparison with his love for the Lord – “his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14.26,27). Yes, and “even HATE HIS OWN SPIRITUAL GIFT!” Our gifts, by which we have been astonishingly Graced by God in the first place, ought to be placed ONLY at God's disposal.
Yohn expresses this last thought well. He notes “When the Holy Spirit distributed His gifts, he desired them to be used in a positive way. But even in the early church, gifts were at times used for selfish purposes with negative results. Knowledge produced pride (1 Corinthians 8:1). Tongues brought confusion (14:23,26-33,40). Prophecy and teaching produced divisions (3:4-9). Such undesirable results were not always the fault of the one who possessed the gift (3:4-9)... Spiritual gifts are essential to serving the Lord in specific ministries. But spiritual character must control those gifts. Discipleship is determined by our love, obedience, faithfulness, and commitment” to the One who purchased us at enormous personal cost.
The Bible tells us about God the Father's design, plan and purposes for the human race and the entirety of the universe. It also bequeaths to us a pure knowledge of the character and nature of the One who brought all things into an existence. These factors are essentials to the centrality of the Gospel of Christ – of GRACE – but the world has grasped only a minute part of the true Gospel. They do NOT have an understanding of the proper outcome of God's purposeful conclusion of all His Work. And the Bible tells us that God has determined to be, and indeed is, “a satisfied Saviour.” God “shall see the travail of his [Christ's] soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53.11). God is entirely SATISFIED with the FINISHED Work of His Son.
The Bible tells us a great deal about the things of God and yet many of us who name the Name of Christ fail to believe Him! There is for instance NO WORD for “eternity” in the Hebrew Scriptures. Ol'm does not speak of “eternity.” Neither does its equivalent aion in the New Testament. A consistent rendering of both Hebrew and Greek words translated as “eternity” would grant us senseless renderings into our English versions as “the present eternity,” and “before eternity” (see 1 Tim 6.17 “the present aion”; 2 Tim 1.9; Titus 1.2). Just as ridiculous would be a translation of Hebrews 9.26 as “at the conclusion of the eternity.” “World” and “forever” are our English Bible translations from the Greek aion. If “forever” means “eternity” what does “forever and ever” mean? What does “forever and ever and ever” mean?
Dr F.W. Farrar has written, “It may be worthwhile, however, to point out once more to less educated readers that aion, aionios, and the Hebrew equivalents in all combinations are repeatedly used of things which have come to an end. Even Augustine admits (what indeed, no one can deny), that in Scripture aion and aionios must in many instances mean 'having an end,' and St Gregory of Nyssa, who at least knew Greek, uses aionios as the epithet for an 'interval'” (The Wider Hope, 1890, 327-330). Dean Farrar also states: “The pages of theologians in all ages show a startling prevalence of such terms as 'everlasting death, everlasting damnation, everlasting torments, everlasting vengeance, everlasting fire' – not one of which has Scriptural authority.”
Let certain Messianic Jews, Noahide converts, and even Gentile Christians of every persuasion argue with the Greek scholars! Our Lord Yeshua said that some people revere “the traditions of men” and place them above the truths of God!
And remember the Bible tells us also that a coming universal salvation in Christ is absolutely assured because it will be accomplished by God the Father. I have stressed this FACT for 40+ years in this ministry and Work of God. And Christians especially HATE it. And they HATE ME and they hate you because we take God at His word. If you do not believe it try some of your own personal evangelism constellating around that very express notion and you will discover what we have experienced right throughout this small (but importantly effective) ministry. So much for their sharing of Christian “love.”
On a lighter note, some years ago I was in contact with an atheist calling himself “Shy David” – I think he's dead now – and who at that time ran a web site critical of the teachings of “Churchianity” (he would have said he was critical of “Christianity” but like many atheists he was turned “right off” the churches for reasons with which we would all have sympathy with him and others of the same identical mindset). In any event he was quite a humorous fellow. In a short article he penned entitled “Going to Hell (What to Bring?)” Shy David suggested the following (among many other items):
“Hi everyone! Since I'm going to hell, I've been wondering just what to pack for the trip. One can't plan too much for a trip that will last for an eternity, I always say! There are several things I'm sure hell already has that I won't need to bring with me, such as matches, Catholic priests, entire Assemblies of God congregations, sulfur, brimstone, and summer-wear. But what to bring? Hummmm. Here's my list – I'd like to see what YOU all plan on taking.
BOOKS
What Hell Already Has
Every book Shirley McClain ever wrote
The Holy Bible
The Children's Book of Bible Stories (15,000 pages)
The complete works of Carl Sagan
What To Bring
Dante's “Inferno”
Kama Sutra
Anything by Asimov
Anything by Voltaire
MUSIC
What Hell Already Has
Theme song from the TV show “Jeopardy”
All of the songs from the “Sound of Music” movie
Anything by Neil Sedaka
“The Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott-Key
Anything by the BeeGees
“Like a Virgin” by Madonna
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”
Theme song from “The Brady Bunch”
What to Bring
Everything by Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mataya
“I saw God on the 405 freeway” by Mother Nature's Army
Everything by Carly Simon, Nancy Griffith, Kate Wolf
FOOD
What Hell Already Has
Coors beer
Rice and beans
What to Bring
Diet Coke
Tofu
Pizza
COMPANY
What Hell Already Has
Jerry Falwell
Ron Stringfellow
Charles Darwin
Ralph Stokes
Madonna
Steve Winter
Pat Robertson
Isaac Asimov
What to Bring
Stephen Hawking
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
Einstein
Edward Abby
S.R. Donaldson (Thomas Covenant books)
Steven King
Mark Twain
Doctor Ruth” [end selection and quote]
Shy David asks pertinently “WHY IS HELL THE DEFAULT?!” and follows with the observation – which I really can't fault – “Wouldn't an all-knowing, all-loving, all-compassionate, all-just god [sic] have made “salvation” the default, instead of “damnation”?!
Yes, I am SURE He would have, and I KNOW that He did!
The Bible tells me so.
There can be no such thing as “redemption through hell-fire.”
ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL
Without any doubt God wants converted men and women to create by the Spirit more and more of God's characteristics and nature so we can become more like Him in every respect. Tough call that it is, we have no choice in the matter. It's a case of all or nothing at all when it comes to God and His purposes in election for us human beings.
Paul tells us that “by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners” (Rom 5.19). You and I and all who have ever lived have shared in this “fall.” It is not some “original sin” that was passed on to humanity because of Adam's transgression – but death and a nature of hostility in our DNA. Adam and Eve as our forebears lost their innocent natures and died spiritually. And, horror of horrors, instead of repenting before God they self-justified their actions in Eden failing utterly to take any personal responsibility for their actions and the consequences which followed. Adam even went so far as to blame God. “The woman that YOU gave me...” (Gen 3.12). Adam had become like a dog with its bone. He wouldn't let go of it. Backed into a corner he became spiritually DEAD. In Ephesians 2.1 Paul noted, “And you [descendants of Adam and Eve] has God made alive [that is, when they were chosen by Christ to serve him], WHO WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS.”
He added, “You were by nature children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2.3).
You and I and the rest of humanity have inherited – in our DNA – Adam and Eve's spiritually dead nature along with their hostility. Spiritual life is something quite alien to the spiritually dead person. The yetzer ha'ra knows nothing of spirituality – but it has aroused into existence a counterfeit within its spirit called “religion.” It is completely impossible for such a one to come to Christ, to believe or to repent – he and she are unable to perform any function of a spiritual life. I have had dealings in the past with the dead – with corpses. And if you have also had any contact with a corpse you know quite well that they cannot touch, taste, see, hear or smell. The spiritually dead ARE spiritually dead (Rom 3.10-12; 8.6-8; Eph 2.1-4). Our DNA makes it impossible, unrealisable and unachievable for the “spiritually dead” to understand the “spiritual things” of God for when Adam fell we ALL inherited the same Adamic CONDITION not just the same Adamic PROCLIVITY. This is why we are ALL “conceived in sin” as even David grasped way back in time (Ps 51.5). It's why we all are sinners.
The perception that our free-will is instrumental in our salvation is a mythological falsehood of enormous proportions. We cannot use our free-will in positive matters pertaining to salvation any more than a corpse can will itself back to life. Bottom line is that NONE OF US can contribute ANYTHING to save ourselves. To simply enjoy the rest of our own life resisting “the Lordship of Christ” as a “Christian but not a disciple” and choosing rather to be saved through our own timetable working out our own salvation by our own experiencing of the fires of the future Great White Throne Judgment (as one ex-student recently and madly proclaimed in his skewed recognition that Yeshua the Messiah – “Jesus Christ” if you prefer – WAS AND IS A FAILURE) is an instruction in insanity. And, if we extend his logic the Lord Yeshua was not merely a failure, but one to be pitied. Man must suffer, according to his own argument, his own fate in hell to be “self-redeemed” and “saved by fire.” The teaching of “redemption through hell-fire” as popular in certain circles of faith as it is NEGATES the Sovereign Godhood of our Lord and Saviour.
Those who would seek to gamble with their fate in respect of the “Lake of Fire” that will burn through the Great White Throne Judgment aeon have not thought it all through intelligently. Their uncontrollable lusts and yearning for lasciviousness and licentiousness conclusively “put Christ to an open shame” by “treading underfoot the Son of God” thus “assessing the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, as an unholy thing, and has therefore done despite to the Spirit of GRACE” (Heb 10.29). They seem blissfully unaware that the Spirit of God cautions such people that “if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fear-ridden expectation of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10.26,27).
As we progress through this series of Essays on Universal Salvation in Christ we shall ponder the judgments and punishments of God during the coming aeons and arrive at an appreciation as to why they will exist. This includes an evaluation of the “torments” which are mentioned in the Apocalypse in regards to being operational in “the presence of the Lamb.”
It is a pleasure to share my understanding of these matters with you all.
THIS CONCLUDES THE CURRENT LECTURE
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