Paul's Universalism

[Guest]

Just my addtl 2 cents. I don't see how justice can be served if all there is , is the choices we make in this life alone.
If Calvinism is true i can't see any justice yet if man has free will the enormous disparity in the circumstances and opprtunities we have to know God preclude the possibility of true justice in this life alone. This seems self evident to me.
Also how can the allowance of evil serve any purpose if we only have this life to experience it and learn from it because so much evil is senseless.
For justice to be served and for the allowing of evil to make sense, the next age must be something beyond just punishment or annihilation, as far as i can tell.

[Pierac]

The following URL points to Chapter 5 of Thomas Talbott's The Inescapable Love of God. The chapter is titled St. Paul's Universalism.

Several other chapters also are available for free download.

Paul's Universalism

Please comment freely.

Hi Paidion,

I enjoyed the Book but think it is too Philosophical for most Christians. They just want scripture to support their views...

Now Thomas Talbott in the book “Universal Salvation? The Current Debate”. States, the whole thrust of Jesus’s teaching, moreover, pointed in the same direction. He categorically rejected the prevailing understanding of the retaliatory justice.

Mat 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

,the prevailing understanding of limited forgiveness…

Mat 18:21 Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

and the prevailing understanding of a limited obligation to love

Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Why, according to Jesus, are we to love our enemies as well as our friends? So that we might be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect Why should there be no limit to our forgiveness? So that we might be perfect as even our Father in heaven is perfect. Why must we forsake retaliation of a retributivist kind? So that we might be perfect for even as our Father in heaven is perfect.
As I see it, then, we have here overwhelming evidence that God, as Jesus understood him, never ceases to love his own enemies, never ceases forgiving them, and sees no ultimate justice in punishment of the retributivist kind. The idea that we are expected to be better than God is unthinkable.


Paul