A Vain Message?

From someone who had read my latest weblog, I received a response from which I quote the following:

What do you do with this?
Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.
Isaiah 41:11 Behold, all those who are inflamed against you shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish.
Isaiah 41:12 You shall seek them but shall not find them—those who contend with you; those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.
Isaiah 41:13 For I, YHWH your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
Isaiah 41:14 Fear not, you little worm Jacob, you little people of Israel! I will help you, says YHWH, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel!

Doesn’t it clearly say here that people will be no more, that they will not be found again?

Read also:
Psalm 1:6 For Yahweh is knowing the way of the righteous,
Yet the way of the wicked shall perish.

(…)

Surely, these are not pleasant messages for the unbelievers, it seems to me. There is only (true) Life in the Lord Jesus Christ:
John 14:6 Jesus is saying to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one is coming to the Father except through Me.” Isn’t that the biblical message?
Then how can there be salvation in Christ without faith? What does “free will” even mean in that case? What if someone absolutely wants nothing to do with God? Are they then forced, in the end, to live forever?

I know several people who want nothing—absolutely nothing—to do with God. They are so anti-God that they become furious even if you bring up the subject, and right up to their deathbed they deny God, like a close family friend who sadly got cancer, and until his final breath refused to have anything to do with God and didn’t believe in Him. On what basis would such a person one day (from within, with the tongue) honor God?
Would that truly bring God pleasure? That He, by compulsion, gives eternal life to everyone?

The Preacher says:
Eccl. 6:3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years – so that the days of his years are many – but his soul is not sated with goodness, and moreover he has no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he.

The Preacher also teaches that all is vanity under the sun—and indeed, when I read all those stories on your site about universal reconciliation, it makes the entire existence seem rather vain.

So much for the response. What stands out is that not a single one of the eight solid arguments was addressed – arguments that demonstrated that every tongue will truly rejoice to the glory of God. Apparently, they were indeed irrefutable. That’s point one.

2. I fully acknowledge—one hundred percent—that the godless will die for the coming eons (even a second time). That is to say: they will no longer be and will no longer be found. The many texts cited by the letter-writer each underscore this truth. What these texts, however, do NOT say is that the (first or second) death is final. Nor could they – for Christ Jesus is the One who abolishes death and will give life to ALL who are mortal in Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:18). God is the One “Who is vivifying the dead and calling what is not as if it were” (Romans 4:17). “Each in his own class.” Those who are not Christ’s will only be vivified after Christ’s reign has ended, when death, the last enemy, will be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:22–28).

3. There is no salvation without faith in Christ. On the contrary: one is saved when one calls upon the Name of the Lord. The point, however, is that every human being (ultimately) WILL acknowledge and call upon Him.

4. ‘Eternal’ life is the life of the eons, or ages. Christ reigns “for the eons of the eons” (Revelation 11:15), and at the conclusion of that reign, He will abolish death (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). Those who are vivified at that time will indeed receive imperishable life, but NOT “eonian” life – simply because the eons will then have come to an end.

5. God does not FORCE people to acknowledge Him, but He “is operating in you to will as well as to work” (Philippians 2:13). He hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Romans 9:16), but on the other hand, He opened Lydia’s heart so that she heeded Paul’s words (Acts 16:14). Even the heart of a king is in God’s hand like channels of water: He turns it wherever He wills (Proverbs 21:1).

6. God does not force anyone to choose Him – He wins their hearts. Even the hardest heart will unavoidably melt in the glow of His love. A single flash of Christ’s glory was enough to bring “the foremost of sinners” to his knees. That I may know and recognize Christ is not because I sought Him, but because He sought and drew me (see also John 6:44, 65).

7. The message that every tongue WILL call upon the Lord is certainly not a vain message! On the contrary – if God loves His creatures but ultimately has to destroy them because they do not end up where He wants them to be, ESPECIALLY THEN His love has failed. For He would have been unable to win their hearts. That God’s love “is never lapsing” (1 Corinthians 13:8) would then prove to be an empty claim. And the line “…what His love intends to do, His power will not deny Him” might as well be removed from the hymnbook…

God would then be a loser, who in the end must settle for far less than what He originally had in mind (“God wills that all mankind be saved…”).

Delen: