Famous Quotes Concerning The Reconciliation of All Things
"And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross."
[Colossians 1:19-20]
"Punishment is for the sake of amendment and atonement. God is bound by his love
to punish sin in order to deliver his creature; he is bound by his justice to
destroy sin in his creation. Love is justice-"
George McDonald, "Sermon: Justice"
"I believe that justice and mercy are simply one and the same thing; without
justice to the full there can be no mercy, and without mercy to the full there
can be no justice."
George McDonald, "Sermon: Justice"
"It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the
fire will burn us until we worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after
all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and
consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God."
George McDonald, "Sermon: The Consuming Fire"
"We cannot conceive of a Creator who knows the end from the beginning, one who
is Love, who has infinite wisdom, and infinite power, giving to any being life,
life which is never to end, but to continue in suffering to all eternity. The
Bible does not teach it anywhere in the original languages. God's punishments
are remedial and take place within the span of the ages during which he is
accomplishing the making of man in His image and likeness. Punishment will last
no longer than is necessary to bring man to hate his sin and be reconciled to
his Saviour."
G. Campbell Morgan Pastor, "Sermon: The cross and the ages to come" ,
Westminster Chapel, London
"When a baser metal is mixed with gold, refiners restore the more precious metal
to its natural brightness by consuming the alien and worthless substance with
fire…In the same way, when death, corruption, darkness, and other offshoots of
vice have attached themselves to the author of evil, contact with the divine
power acts like fire and effects the disappearance of what is contrary to
nature. In this way the nature is purified and benefited, even though the
process of separation is a painful one."
St. Gregory of Nyssa "De anima et resurrectione", 375
"The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered
by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by
God and in love with God."
William Barclay
"God will have all men to be saved. This truth is a supernatural mystery. It can
only be understood by a spiritual mind through the teaching of the Holy Spirit."
Andrew Murray, "God's Will: Our Dwelling Place", Salvation of All, Chapter
23.
"Under the instruction of those great teachers many other theologians believed
in universal salvation; and indeed the whole Eastern Church until after 500 A.D.
was inclined to it."
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (vol. 12, p. 96)
"If I were Christ, nothing couild satisfy me but that every human being should
in the end be saved, and therefore I am sure that nothing less will satisfy
Him."
Hannah Whitehall Smith, 1870
"Clarence Jordan, in a sermon on the parable of the woman seeking the lost coin
(Luke 15:8), asks, 'What does she do? She gets a broom. She sweeps and sweeps
and sweeps. She lights a lamp and sweeps until what? Until she wore the broom
out? No. Until the lamp went out? No. Until her husband came home and said,
'Hey, get my supper, what are you doing with that broom?' No. How long did she
sweep? Until she found it. How long was that? As long as necessary.'"
Clarence Jordan, Author: "The Cottonpatch Gospel", "The Substance of Faith
(New York: Association Press, 1972), 148.
If we really believe in one God and in the Jesus Christ, in what He was and what
He did, truly shows us what God's character and His attitude toward men are
like, then it is very difficult to think ourselves out of a belief that somehow
His love will find a way of bringing all men into unity with Him.
C.H. Dodd
-- on the subject of hell as everlasting punishment for our sins: "I find that
most people accept or even assume this view as being the orthodox view of the
church, being largely unaware that this view has been questioned and rejected by
many devout Christian interpreters of the faith."
R.Kirby Godsey, President, Mercer University "When we talk about God, let's
be honest"
"He saves all, but converting some by punishment, and others who follow by their
own will-that every knee may bend to Him, of things in heaven and earth and
under the earth."
St. Clemens of Alexandria
"In our English translation the word "hell" seems to speak what is neither
warrantable by Scripture or reason."
Dr. J.B. Lightfoot, prominent theologian and bible commentator
Of John 12:32 in the "Speaker's Commentary": "(tap anta) all men: The phrase
must not be limited in any way. It cannot mean merely 'Gentiles as well as
Jews,' or 'the elect,' or 'all who believe.' We must receive it as it stands
(Rom. 5:18;8:32; 2 Cor. 5:15; Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2). The
remarkable reading 'all things' (omnia) points to a still wider application of
Redemption (Col. 1:20)."
Dr. Brooke Foss Westcott