Saviour of All Fellowship
August 1999
Dear Friends in Faith,
“Who rescues us from a death of such proportions, and will be rescuing; on Whom we rely that He will still be rescuing also; you also assisting together by a petition for us, in order that, from many faces He may be thanked by many for us for the gracious gift given to us” (2 Cor.1:10,11). How very thankful I am to God that He saved Paul so that he could continue to pen his epistles. For the last two thousand years many have thanked God who surely did “happen upon the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with glory eonian” (2 Tim.2:10). And it was for that reason that Paul was “enduring all because of those who are chosen” (2 Tim.2:10). And now I ask you who are reading this that you too would pray for us that the word may race and be glorified; that God would be thanked by many, as He surely will. James Alexander sent a couple of articles regarding the Polish National Catholic Church of America and its belief in God saving all mankind. In the “Handbook of Denominations” by Frank S. Mead concerning the beliefs of this group it is written: “The doctrine of eternal damnation and punishment is supplanted in the church’s Eleven Great Principles by an expressed hope and surety of universal salvation as taught in the church by Gregory of Nyssa and Clement of Alexandria. The seventh of their Eleven Great Principles reads: “We cannot conceive that God created man out of sheer caprice, nor selfishness, (as various theological systems, drawn up according to the model of present day political and social relations, interpret the matter) nor for the purpose of delivering him to devils for them to abuse and treat him cruelly by physical and spiritual torment and torture; nor would He destroy, bring to naught and erase His own work, the child of His mind, love and power, but He created man that he should live his own life according to his creator’s image.” In a different article put out by this church, is a list of articles of faith which states concerning the Greek adjective “aionios” that “The Greek word ‘aionios’ used by the Evangelists with the word Gehenna, does not mean everlasting, but long lasting, i.e., lasting through a certain time, through a future age, a future time. So when the Lord Jesus presented the consequences of transgression, He did not say that they would be everlasting for ages and ages; but He wished to emphasize that those consequences would undoubtedly befall sinners in the future and that they would be of a severe and grave nature.” Travis Ogletree sent us a nice small article on Universalism. If you who have a connection to the internet it can be found at: http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txc/universa.htm. In it D.B. Eller traces the roots of the Universalist movement back to the early days of the Christian church. He points out though that “many who have professed a belief in final salvation have remained outside the Unitarian Universalist tradition. He cites Karl Barth as being one such person who “although he did not teach final salvation directly, certain passages of his massive Church Dogmatics stress the irresistible universal triumph of God’s grace.” In His Grace and Peace, Tony Nungesser |