Universal Reconciliation: A brief selection of Pertinent Quotations

by Michael R. Phillips

MATTHEW 18:11-14 “The Son of man came to save the lost. What do you think? Suppose a man has a hundred sheep. If one of these strays, does he not leave the other ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the one that strayed? And if he should find it, I tell you this: he is more delighted over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that never strayed. In the same way, it is not your heavenly Father’s will that one of these little ones should be lost.” (NEB)

MATTHEW 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (KJV)

And these shall go away into age-abiding correction, but the righteous into age-abiding life. (The Emphasized Bible.)

MARK 9:48-50 . . . into hell, where . . . the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? (NIV)

LUKE 2:10 “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (NIV)

JOHN 1:7 He came . . . that through him all men might believe. (NIV)

JOHN 1:9 This was the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world. (NIV)

JOHN 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save t...

JOHN 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all 5 men to myself. (NIV)

3:19, 21 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord . . . He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. (NIV)

until the time of universal restoration

ROMANS 5:18-19 Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (NIV)

ROMANS 8:19-25 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (NIV)

ROMANS 11:25-26, 32 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers . . . Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved . . . . For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. (NIV)

1 CORINTHIANS 15:20, 22-24, 26, 28 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep . . . For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come . . . The last enemy to be destroyed is death . . . so that God may be all in all. (NIV)

EPHESIANS 1:9-10 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (NIV)

He has made known to us his hidden purpose—such was his will and pleasure determined beforehand in Christ—to be put into effect when the time was ripe: namely, that the universe, all in heaven and on earth, might be brought into a unity in Christ. (NEB)

PHILIPPIANS 2:10 . . .

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow 6, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NIV)

COLOSSIANS 1:18-20 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased . . . through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or thi...

1 TIMOTHY 2:4-6 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men, to be testified in due time. (KJV) . . . whose will it is that all men should find salvation and come to know the truth. (NEB)

Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

HEBREWS 2:9 But we see Jesus, who . . . suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (NIV)

JAMES 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. (NIV)

1 PETER 4:6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might . . . live according to God in regard to the spirit. (NIV)

2 PETER 3:9 The Lord . . . is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (NKJV)

it is not his will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance. (NEB)

1 JOHN 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.(NIV)

1 JOHN 4:14-15 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. (NIV)

REVELATION 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! (NIV)

Matthew 25:46, as the most obvious example, has been rendered in our English translations to support the view of eternal punishment, without a hint of the pruning, corrective, and non-eternal aspects which the Greek original conveys.

We are left with a passage where “pruning for the age of the ages,” or “chastening for the age,” has been given as: eternal punishment.

Each must examine the Scriptures himself or herself and come to whatever conclusion he or she feels the Holy Spirit is leading him or her.

a “forced” bowing and an “unwilling” confession, as through clenched teeth.

to the glory of God the Father”—what glory could such a forced confession

possibly bring him?)

As noted above there are two Greek words for bow: , (KAMPTO—willing veneration and reverence,) and (SUNKAMPTO—enforced and unwilling compulsion.) The first...

Growth and insight comes from examining the Scriptures openly and humbly, asking ourselves how various passages fit into the overall message of the Bible and into what we know of the character of both the Father and Son.

The concept of “hell” as an eternal place of torment for the wicked, is probably a late-first century or second-century doctrine.

unseen or invisible.

The fire of destruction and the unseen place of the dead, however, were not fused into the single destination called hell until New Testament times.

Hades, in fact, was universally seen as a temporary home for the dead.

In this original state, the word had a very mild and harmless significance.

cover up, conceal,

or ...

To hele over a thing, meant to cover it.

heling, to this day; and in Lancashire the covers of books are so called.

a covered or unseen place, the grave, or perhaps the ...

the fundamental orthodoxy concerning the doctrine of hell is one with roots in tradition and interpretation, not in irrefutable scriptural fact.

“fire” and “punishment”