Download or read book Christian Universalism written by Eric Stetson and published by Sparkling Bay Books. This book was released on 2008-02-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to Christian Universalism, the belief that Christ is the Savior of all mankind. An exploration of the biblical, historical and theological arguments for the doctrine that all will be saved in the end.
Download or read book Grace Saves All written by David Artman and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-04-17 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grace is amazing. About this all Christians agree. Yet nearly all forms of Christianity put significant limits on grace. Those forms of Christianity which proclaim grace alone actually saves typically don’t believe God gives grace to everyone; while those forms of Christianity which proclaim God gives grace to everyone typically don’t believe grace alone actually saves. Must grace either be that which saves alone but doesn’t go to all, or that which goes to all but doesn’t save alone? In Grace Saves All, David Artman argues that grace saves alone and goes to all. This inclusive approach to Christianity is variously called universal reconciliation, universal salvation, or perhaps most accurately, Christian universalism. He contends that the inclusive/Christian universalist approach is necessary because it offers the only Christian theology which successfully defends the goodness of God. For it logically follows that if God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then God must also be all-saving. Often dismissed as a modern feel-good theology, Christian universalism is an ancient, orthodox, and biblical theology which was expounded by early Christians and early church fathers. Artman brings much deserved attention to this wonderful spirituality.
Download or read book The Evangelical Universalist written by Gregory MacDonald and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can an orthodox Christian, committed to the historic faith of the Church and the authority of the Bible, be a universalist? Is it possible to believe that salvation is found only by grace, through faith in Christ, and yet to maintain that in the end all people will be saved? Can one believe passionately in mission if one does not think that anyone will be lost forever? Could universalism be consistent with the teachings of the Bible? In The Evangelical Universalist the author argues that the answer is ‘yes!’ to all of these questions. Weaving together philosophical, theological, and biblical considerations, he seeks to show that being a committed universalist is consistent with the central teachings of the biblical texts and of historic Christian theology.
Download or read book The Devil s Redemption 2 volumes written by Michael J. McClymond and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 1376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will all evil finally turn to good, or does some evil remain stubbornly opposed to God and God's goodness? Will even the devil be redeemed? Addressing a theological issue of perennial interest, this comprehensive book (in two volumes) surveys the history of Christian universalism from the second to the twenty-first century and offers an interpretation of how and why universalist belief arose. The author explores what the church has taught about universal salvation and hell and critiques universalism from a biblical, philosophical, and theological standpoint. He shows that the effort to extend grace to everyone undermines the principle of grace for anyone.
Download or read book Universalism the Prevailing Doctrine of the Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years written by John Wesley Hanson and published by Wentworth Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book The Inescapable Love of God written by Thomas Talbott and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will the love of God save us all? In this book Thomas Talbott seeks to expose the extent to which the Western theological tradition has managed to twist the New Testament message of love, forgiveness, and hope into a message of fear and guilt. According to the New Testament proclamation, he argues, God's love is both unconditional in its nature and unlimited in its scope; hence, no one need fear, for example, that God's love might suddenly turn into loveless hatred at the moment of one's physical death. For God's love remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. But neither should one ignore the New Testament theme of divine judgment, which Talbott thinks the Western theological tradition has misunderstood entirely. He argues in particular that certain patterns of fallacious reasoning, which crop up repeatedly in the works of various theologians and Bible scholars, have prevented many from appreciating St. Paul's explicit teaching that God is merciful to all in the end. This second edition of Talbott's classic work is fully revised, updated, and substantially expanded with new material. ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FORMAT The Inescapable Love of God is also available as an unabridged audiobook wonderfully narrated by the actor George W. Sarris (running time: 11 hours and 2 minutes). The audiobook can be downloaded from christianaudio.com and Audible.
Download or read book Rethinking Hell written by Christopher Date and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most evangelical Christians believe that those people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favor of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed, but due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the "second death"--an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earl Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.
Download or read book That All Shall Be Saved written by David Bentley Hart and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning reexamination of one of the essential tenets of Christian belief from one of the most provocative and admired writers on religion today “A scathing, vigorous, eloquent attack on those who hold that that there is such a thing as eternal damnation.”—Karen Kilby, Commonweal The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation. On the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, Hart argues that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail. And if he is not the savior of all, the Kingdom is only a dream, and creation something considerably worse than a nightmare. But it is not so. There is no such thing as eternal damnation; all will be saved. With great rhetorical power, wit, and emotional range, Hart offers a new perspective on one of Christianity’s most important themes.
Download or read book Christ for Unitarian Universalists written by Scotty McLennan and published by Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: McLennan addresses the concept of Jesus as historical figure and as the presents Christ. In doing so he explores the reality and meaning of the Christmas and Easter stories, the Trinity, Christ's divinity, miracles, salvation, religious pluralism and exclusivism, and more.
Download or read book The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis written by Ilaria Ramelli and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 910 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of apokatastasis (restoration), most famously defended by the Alexandrian exegete, philosopher and theologian Origen, has its roots in both Greek philosophy and Jewish-Christian Scriptures and literature, and became a major theologico-soteriological doctrine in patristics. This monograph—the first comprehensive, systematic scholarly study of the history of the Christian apokatastasis doctrine—argues its presence and Christological and Biblical foundation in numerous Christian thinkers, including Syriac, and analyses its origins, meaning, and development over eight centuries, from the New Testament to Eriugena, the last patristic philosopher. Surprises await readers of this book, which results from fifteen years of research. For instance, they will discover that even Augustine, in his anti-Manichaean phase, supported the theory of universal restoration.
Download or read book The Universal Christ written by Richard Rohr and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.
Download or read book Love Wins written by Rob Bell and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news"? Troubling questions—so troubling that many have lost their faith because of them. Others only whisper the questions to themselves, fearing or being taught that they might lose their faith and their church if they ask them out loud. But what if these questions trouble us for good reason? What if the story of heaven and hell we have been taught is not, in fact, what the Bible teaches? What if what Jesus meant by heaven, hell, and salvation are very different from how we have come to understand them? What if it is God who wants us to face these questions? Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance. The result is the discovery that the "good news" is much, much better than we ever imagined. Love wins.
Download or read book Patristic Universalism written by David Burnfield and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the earliest days of the church, there have always been three views on what happens to those who die without knowing Christ...damnation, annihilation, and restoration. Patristic Universalism presents scriptural, philosophical, and historical support for the restoration view and demonstrates why it was the model advocated by some of the earliest and greatest church fathers. Anyone disillusioned with the traditional view that one must get it right in this life or spend eternity in hell will find Patristic Universalism an appealing alternative that remains true to Scripture. One does not need to abandon the Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God to discover that there might be more to the salvation equation than we've been led to believe.
Download or read book Dare We Hope 2nd Edition written by Hans Urs von Balthasar and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is perhaps one of the most misunderstood works of Catholic theology of our time. Critics contend that von Balthasar espouses universalism, the idea that all men will certainly be saved. Yet, as von Balthasar insists, damnation is a real possibility for anyone. Indeed, he explores the nature of damnation with sobering clarity. At the same time, he contends that a deep understanding of God’s merciful love and human freedom, and a careful reading of the Catholic tradition, point to the possibility—not the certainty—that, in the end, all men will accept the salvation Christ won for all. For this all-embracing salvation, von Balthasar says, we may dare hope, we must pray and with God’s help we must work. The Catholic Church’s teaching on hell has been generally neglected by theologians, with the notable exception of von Balthasar. He grounds his reflections clearly in Sacred Scripture and Catholic teaching. While the Church asserts that certain individuals are in heaven (the saints), she never declares a specific individual to be in hell. In fact, the Church hopes that in their final moments of life, even the greatest sinners would have repented of their terrible sins, and be saved. Sacred Scripture states, “God ... desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:4–5).
Download or read book All Shall be Well written by Gregory MacDonald and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2011-08-25 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Universalism runs like a slender thread through the history of Christian theology. Over the centuries Christian universalism, in one form or another, has been reinvented time and time again. In this book an international team of scholars explore thediverse universalisms of Christian thinkers from the Origen to Moltmann. In the introduction Gregory MacDonald argues that theologies of universal salvation occupy a space between heresy and dogma. Therefore disagreements about whether all will be saved should not be thought of as debates between the orthodox and heretics but rather as in-house debates between Christians. The studies in this collection aim, in the first instance, to hear, understand, and explain the eschatological claims of a range of Christians from the third to the twenty-first centuries. They also offer some constructive, critical engagement with those claims.
Download or read book Erasing Hell written by Francis Chan and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing a variety of views on hell, the Bible, and the character of God, offers an eloquent response to the recent media storm surrounding questions of eternal destiny.
Download or read book Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism written by Kathleen Rolenz and published by Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This book was released on 2006 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen personal stories from laity and clergy alike show what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist Christian today. These men and women arrive at their faith by many paths--influenced by the Bible, Jesus Christ Superstar and even the Bernstein Mass. Here is a fresh and much-needed look at UU Christians, who, for decades, have kept the work and spirit of Christianity alive in our liberal religion. Foreword by Carl Scovel.
