PastorKevin said:
Its already in the Battle Royale. Sorry if you missed it, but I don't like repeating myself over and over again. When someone shows you things that clearly fly in the face of Universalism you refuse to look at it and consider it. How about you suggest to Stephen he ask that question in the debate and I would be glad to answer it again as I have all of his questions.
God bless and have a good day!
pastor - I think the very nature of this debate causes people to (hopefully) question the points, I have a couple of questions for you which I would appreciate your answers on (when you have time of course, i understand things are a bit busy....!)
Having read your last post I am still bewildered as to the misconception you cling on to regarding universalism, the 'psycho chef' being IMO totally ludicrous, no universalist that i'm aware of believes that God will 'force' people into being with him at all, rather that once a person comes to a full knowledge of the truth they would
willingly want to be with God, its inconceivable to me that you think that people would somehow not want to be....!
whats more - even if we were to take the hypothetical scenario that God did in fact force people to be with him it would hardly make him any less psychopathic than in forcing people into a literal lake of endless burning fire!!!! How many people do you think if they were given the choice out of being roasted alive or not being roasted alive would pick option A.....?!
Secondly your response regarding the passage of 'Jesus gave himself a ransom for all to be testified to in due time', when I confronted you with this passage your answer at the time was that the testification had occurred at Jesus's death on the cross, now it seems that you believe it to be something about the apostles testifying afterwards......how does either make sense?
It doesnt make any sense for Jesus's ransom to have been testified at the time of the cross because the passage actually describes jesus's death
as a past event which would be testified to
at a future point in time....if it meant what you would seem to believe then the passage would read Jesus gave himself a ransom for all
which was testified at the time (or at least words to that effect)....it seems pretty straightforward that this passage indicates that all men will be ransomed in due time.......unless what seems very straightforward on the face of it has to be contexturalised to fit into a set belief?
It seems to be something that you accuse universalists of doing constantly but passages such as the above and "God being the saviour of all men especially of those who believe" are hardly allowed to read as what they say on the surface in your doctrine.....they have to fit in with a doctrine that
simply wont allow them to be read for what they say ...
If God wills or desires all men to come to a knowledge of the truth then I believe he'll accomplish his desire - and come from that starting point instead of automatically believeing that God cant or wont because of fallible men.....!
As another poster here has already pointed out you seem either incapable or unwilling to notice any symbolism at all in revelation, passages that seem swamped in allegory you will read as literal events - and yet literal passages such as the above verses you will try and read some type of deep contextural meaning into them......it hardly smacks of consistency......