You said "God does desire all to be saved but look, I've been repeating this over and over. Some people will NOT get saved!"
That is a presupposition, not a defense. Nowhere have you defended the presupposition that some will not get saved. I agree that some people will not be saved in this lifetime. But the Bible speaks of the ages to come. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 "
22For as indeed in Adam all die, so also in Christ
all will be made alive.
23But each in the own order: Christ
thefirstfruit, then those of Christ at His coming,
24then the end, when He shall hand over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He shall have annulled all dominion, and all authority and power.....
28 Now when all things shall have been put in subjection to Him, then also the Son Himself will be put in subjection to the
One having put in subjection all things to Him,
so that God may be all in all.
Paul is speaking to an order of how "all will be made alive". Jesus Christ himself was the first, the believers will be second at his coming and the rest will be reconciled to God at the end. Once every soul has been reconciled to God, Christ will hand over the kingdom to God, and all dominion, authority and power will be annulled. That includes the power of our free will to keep us from being reconciled to God. If any man were still in hell suffering eternal torment how could "GOD be all in all"?
The Bible says the wages of sin is death, not eternal torture. If in the end death, the final enemy, is destroyed that means no one is dead (physically or spiritually). The only way not to be dead is to be alive in Christ, i.e recondiled to God.
So despite what your tired church dogma and doctrine states, I have a solid biblical basis for a much glorious and wonderful portrayal of God and his love, mercy and grace. Yes God is a God
of justice, but He
IS Love. Justice will be served to all unbelievers, but the idea that eteranl infinite torment is justice for sin committed in a finite, temporal world is absurd. The punishment and correction of God will include torment and weeping and gnashing of teeth for unbelievers but it will not be without purpose.
Eventually every man's will shall be broken and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God. When the unbelievers come out of the Lake of fire, having been purified by the corrective, remedial fire of God, we the saints, the believers will be calling to them from Zion, the city that ascends out of heaven, saying come and drink from the living waters. I beleive we will also have the privelege of administiring the leaves of the tree of life as healing to the nations. So you see the doctrine of Apokatastasis encourages and motivates me to live for God now, so that I can be part of the bride of Christ and assist in the process (though how small that part may be) of healing and reconciling the nations to God.
For me that is a much more reasonable interpretation of the Bible, then the standard interpretation that says God will wipe away all my tears and there will no sorrow, even though I will know that most of mankind and plenty of my friends and family are suffering eternal torment.
The doctrine of Apokatastasis while not popular or well known in this day and age, has a strong history and lineage all the way back to the first century Church. It completely erases the issues and debates about pre-destination versus free will. It also satisfies the moral question of God creating sould that he know will end up in eternal torment.
It baffles me why Christian's, who themselves have experienced the grace of God, because of nothing of their own merit, when first confronted with the doctrine of Apokatastasis, are so offended and taken back to the idea. It seems to me if someone were telling you there was a biblical basis to support the reconciliation of all men to God, it would spark joy that such a hope could even be possible, even if you weren't ready to accept it without some prayeful consideration and study.
I don't expect anyone to walk away from centuries of Chruch tradition and indoctrination immediately, but I'm still surprised at the hostility that some Christians have towards the idea. They aren't even willing to study and look into what the doctrine actually consists of or what the Biblcial support for it is. What does that really say about what their true perception of God's character?
Have a good day.
