Theological Term of the Week

universalism
The view that all persons will ultimately be saved, even those who die in unbelief.

• Scripture teaches that universalism is false:
  

  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46 ESV)

  And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” (Revelation 14:9-11 ESV) 

• From The London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689:

  Chapter 32: Of the Last Judgment
  
  1._____ God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.
  
  

  2._____ The end of God’s appointing this day, is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect; and of his justice, in the eternal damnation of the reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient; for then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive that fulness of joy and glory with everlasting rewards, in the presence of the Lord; but the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast aside into everlasting torments, and punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

  The question of the eternity of the future punishment deserves … special consideration … because it is frequently denied. It is said that the words used in Scripture for “everlasting” and “eternal” may simply denote an “age” or a dispensation, ” or any other long period of time. Now it cannot be doubted that they are so used in some passages, but this does not prove that they always have that limited meaning. It is not the literal meaning of the terms. Whenever they are so used, they are used figuratively, and in such cases their figurative use is generally quite evident from the connection. Moreover, there are positive reasons for thinking that these words do not have that limited meaning in the passages to which we referred. (a) In Matt. 25:46 the same word describes the duration of both, the bliss of the saints and the penalty of the wicked. If the latter is not, properly speaking, unending, neither is the former; and yet many of those who doubt eternal, do not doubt everlasting bliss. 

Learn more:

1. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry: Universalism
2. Got Questions.org: Is universalism / universal salvation Biblical?
3. Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries: Is Universalism Biblical?
4. Richard Bauckham: Universalism: a historical survey
5. Dr. Tim Beougher: Understanding the Ism’s: Universalism, Inclusivism, Pluralism, and Exclusivism 

Related terms:

• exclusivism
  
• inclusivism
• pluralism
• annihilationism
  

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Round the Sphere Again: All Fun and Games

The Eyes Have It … or Not
How accurately can you sight things in without measuring? It’s not as easy as you might think. (Woodgears.ca) I’m very good at finding centers of circles and not so good at finding points of convergence. How did you do?

Update: I’ve found that my ability to eyeball improved significantly with practice…lots of practice. I might be addicted to this game. My best score so far? 2.93.

Yes, Spelling Counts
Two from mental_floss Blog:

• Name all the states that end with A in four minutes. (I can’t remember how I did on this one.)
• What states have a coastal border? Can you name all 23 in three minutes? (I knew the western and southern ones. East coast? Not so much.)

Status Report: January

Sitting…on the couch in the living room, sharing the space with the old dog.

Taking…a cue from Lisa and doing a status report, too.

Loving…having company here with me, but also loving the idea that the company will leave and things will return to normal tomorrow.

Wondering…which January organizing project to tackle first. First up, I suppose, is putting away all the Christmas decoration. And then?

Reading…Sola Scriptura, edited by by Don Kistler. It includes a collection of essays by a bunch of good men on the Protestand postition on the Bible.

Also reading…a bunch of old home decorating magazines. Okay, I’m not really reading them, but I am looking at the pictures.

Wanting…my Amazon order to arrive so that I have new reading material.

Thinking…that I haven’t told you this story: Before Christmas, my church choir sang several  familiar carols at an extended care facility (aka the nursing home) after their annual Christmas dinner. When we were done singing, an elderly lady in the front row motioned me over to her. “That was beautiful,” she said.

I thanked her and mentioned that I’d seen her singing along with us.

“Yes,” she replied, “I picked up all those songs”—and here she snapped her fingers—“just like that!”

Enjoying…a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Planning…to paint my coffee table and maybe a few pieces of furniture. I’m also thinking of trying to slipcover something. I’ve always wanted to do slipcovering, but I’ve been too scared to actually do it. I can sew almost anything, clothes-wise, including doing tailoring, so there’s no reason I wouldn’t be able to slipcover, is there?

Hoping…that the cold weather is all behind us now and the the warm days stay for the rest of the winter. Hoping that I wake up with lots of organizing energy tomorrow.