A FEW QUESTIONS CONCERNING
THE CREATOR'S PLAN TO SAVE ALL MEN
Why is it that so many Christian leaders resist and wrestle with the solid scriptural
evidences and truths of the ultimate salvation and reconciliation of ALL THINGS? Is
it because only a minority of theologians now support this view? Does not history
show that a majority of them did hold this view for the first four centuries after
Christ? Do they resist out of the fear of man and certain reprisal from his religious
establishment? Is it fear because of glaring error in counterfeits of this glorious
truth? Is it a case of blind leading the blind in teaching and tradition? Is it simple
lack of faith? Is it the inability for whatever reason, to see much beyond the letter
of the word--beyond translation inconsistencies? Maybe? But beyond this, is there
not a simple yet profound basic answer?
How can we read that--of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are ALL THINGS and
then in our restricting doctrine believe and teach only SOME THINGS?
Why do sincere men continue to believe contrary to God's word, that He is the
Saviour of only SOME men, who will have only SOME men to be saved and come to
the knowledge of the truth?
Why do so many find their hearts so slow to believe God at His word but quick to
believe the flesh and the devil?
Was the potential knowledge of evil placed in the very midst of Eden by God or by
Satan?
Was the curse of the original fall placed there by God or by Satan?
If God Almighty and no other primarily has the authority to allow the devil the
limited freedom of first roaming the garden of Eden and then the earth seemingly as
he will, [and he has the same extent of freedom in the mind of man], is God
Himself then not the one ultimately responsible to somehow negate all the negative
effect?
Has He not promised He would?
Is He not now in the merciful process of carrying this out through the unconditional
gift of grace by faith from the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is not the purpose of evil ever working in a divinely controlled order toward an
ultimate goal of good?
Are not all things working together for the good of those who love the Lord?
Is God in any way able to be limited or hindered?
Does not our sovereign and omnipotent creator merely use opposition to His
revealed will to mysteriously work out His blessed hidden intentions?
Were we not created and purposed to experience and taste of evil spirit so we could
of ourselves come to know and truthfully appreciate by experience---that opposite
holy Spirit which is righteous and godly?
Could we truly appreciate holiness or even attain to it, without despising profanity?
If the purpose and existence of evil was eternal, never ending, would that not
defeat the ultimate purpose of its own creation and existence allowed and permitted
of the Creator?
Would it not also defeat for the most part, the very purpose of Christ's existence?
Were the creation ever damned to the evils of eternal torment or punishment, would
not God because of His eternal nature of mercy and love, suffer Himself in eternal
grief for the creatures in the world that he so much loved?
Or does He stop loving them when they live their lives without ever accepting
Him---turning them over to eternal grief? If God created an eternal hell, was it
included the works which He pronounced "very good?"
If God is the efficient cause of all that is...then did He not somehow play a part in
the authoring of evil and sin?
And if He is, how can it be morally right for Him to condemn man to an endless hell
or annihilation for doing what He directly or indirectly, caused him to do?
Does not His own permissive will allow God to permit whatever He thinks fit to
permit or to hinder or totally restrain?
In whatever He permits, does He also not regulate, and sooner or later use it to
bring about glorious and wise purposes and results of His own choosing?
If God was truly manifest in Christ to destroy the works of the devil, and yet most
souls are to be held captive in the power of sin and death forever or be annihilated
as even the world suggests, will not Satan have succeeded in ultimately destroying
or rendering futile most of the works and goals of God Almighty?
Would not this render God as being less than Almighty?
How could God be all in all if any less than all remained outside of Him and apart
from Him in death?
How could death in any form remain if the life and love of God were in all, and all
were in life?
Does not the scripture say that the last enemy even death will be swallowed up and
destroyed?
Is not the devils power present in all sin and death that holds humanity captive to
his will? Will not the devil and all his works be totally destroyed leaving God to be
all in all?
If God Almighty truly is all powerful, and unregenerate man has no power of himself
to save himself except God draw him and convince him of his need for a Saviour,
how is it their loving Creator will apparently not exercise His power in, and for them
all?
Where are His bowels of mercy and compassion when He sees all of His helpless
creation in need of His gift of life and love?
Can God truly love and not apply this, His own nature, in truth and also in deed?
Is His love in word only and not in power of action or deed?
Does love omit?
Will love come to be forever frustrated? Or shall every man be given life in God's
own divine order?
How else shall the grace that brings salvation appear to every man?
How else shall he see the travail of His soul and be satisfied?
Does not the scripture say that God opens His hand to satisfy the desires of every
living thing?
Who is, and always shall be supreme, in or over all things? God, Satan, or man?
Is the strength and power of God to be limited or nullified by either man or Satan's
will power, apart from the will of God?
Is God's hand be shortened that He is unable to save or that He will not save?
Can man frustrate God for any length of time much less eternity?
If he doesn't save all would not God be eternally frustrated?
If we had sufficient power would we not deliver all men from their sin?
Is it in God's creative and redemptive plan, His final will and purpose, His intents, or
the ultimate scope of His decrees, that any should be lost for eternity?
How can the will of God prevail in His all encompassing and positive decrees if
physical death fixes the eternal condition of all men?
How could ALL Israel be saved if this be so?
How could ALL men be drawn unto Christ?
How could all the creation, the created universe, be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God?
How could every knee bow and every knee willingly confess to God's glorious
liberation?
Does the Holy Ghost use unnecessary force?
Does God require any carnal assistance from man to fulfill His final redemptive and
restorative purposes?
Or is God to become a miserable failure?
Shall not the progressive, ever increasing accumulative process of His determined
will, bring about according to the immutability of His written and spoken word, the
ultimate fulfilled goals of all His purposes?
Do you really think anything is impossible or even too hard for God?
Is our eternal God not righteous? Does the scripture not say that the desire of the
righteous shall be granted?
What is God's ultimate purpose in love, in righteousness, in justice?
Is it to punish men forever?
Or perhaps merely to negate man's existence, hence His own creation in planned
oblivion?
Shall God forever allow the rebellion and resistance of man to nullify His glorious
all-encompassing objectives?
What real total victory would Christ's death accomplish if He was not also going to
personally give His life to all the individuals for whom He died?
Why die for all foreknowing only a few would find life?
Does God suffer for lack of foresight?
If man has any influence in His own destiny, why did Jesus die?
Is eternal torment and misery or ultimate annihilation and eternal death to be the
good tidings of great joy that the scripture says shall be to all people?
Does the belief of eternal punishment cause the believer to rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory?
Can a belief that is any thing short of universal salvation, fill the soul with peace
and joy?
Since Christ died and rose again for all becoming a propitiation for the sins of the
whole world, and as it be in the fullness of truth that no one can really resist His
saving power, what is to prevent all from receiving salvation thus fulfilling His
determined and decreed will of salvation for all?
Shall not God perform the ultimate intents of His heart?
He will work and who shall hinder it?
Who can forever resist or change His will?
Who are we that we can effectively argue against God?
If God declares the end from the beginning, can the ultimate destiny of mankind be
contrary to His will?
If the PROVISION of the atonement is UNLIMITED, how shall not its APPLICATION
and APPROPRIATION be also?
If Christ died for the sins of all men and has paid the penalty for all their sin, how is
it that men will continue to be punished for their sins forever and ever?
Does salvation rest in man's abilities or power, or in God's?
Shall not He draw all men to Himself or is it that men do draw Him to themselves?
Is God a man that He is ever limited in any way to His mighty acts?
Is God responsible only for the resurrection, and man responsible to put it into
effect?
Did God only go half way to rescue man? Wouldn't that ensure failure of much of
His will?
Is salvation based on our acts or on God's acts? Our works or his works?
Our ways or His ways? Our choosing or His choosing?
Is it based on human desire or divine desire? Our will or His will?
Is salvation based on human faith or a gift of faith that must come from the
faithfulness of Christ and the Father Himself?
Is it based on our thoughts or His thoughts? Our, life or the life Christ lived for us?
Is man's salvation predestined or self-destined?
Is it predetermined and decided by God or is self determined and decided by man?
Is it self ordained or is it God ordained? Is it self willed or God willed?
Are we chosen and accepted of God or do we choose and accept of ourselves?
Does the clay form the potter or the Potter the clay?
Is God dependent upon man, or is man dependent upon God?
Is grace dependent on man's actions or man's action
dependent of God's grace?
Who can resist His will? Who can know it until He reveal it? Who is like unto our
God?
If God's choice of mankind in salvation is determined by mankind's choice of Him,
then wouldn't we be the initiator and He the responder?
Would not this contradict scripture and be inconsistent both with the sovereignty of
God and with the nature of grace?
Is not the response which men are required to express, the RESULT of God's saving
work, and not the CAUSE of it?
If God is dependent upon man in any way, then would this not negate and deny the
right of God to choose as he will?
Does not the type of free will teaching that leads to an eternal hell conclusion, deny
this basic right of God to chose as He will?
Do you really think man has the power to deny the right of God to choose as He
wills and pleases?
And do we really think that man always has the power to choose as he really wills?
Is man really any freer to carry out his own will than is Satan?
Is Satan not totally subservient to God?
Ehat makes man any less subservient?
If even the devil's will power is stronger and more influential than man's how much
more powerful and directive is the working will of God in authoritative sovereignty
over both man and Satan?
Can our perfect God have a fallible corruptible or will or faulty will which is in
anyway way subject to failure?
If under any circumstances, God wills or even directs man's soul to an eternal hell
or death, how does he really differ from Satan?
If God wills all men to be saved and is rendered impotent to carry out to perfect
completion the desire of His will; and if man prevails in his rebellious will desiring
not to be saved, is this not giving omnipotence and sovereignty to man rather than
to the Almighty?
Is it not actually deification of man and dethronement of God forever?
God would hardly be considered mighty, much less Almighty, would He not?
Is not a doctrine that renders the Lord as being less than totally fruitful and short of
total success and perfection in all that He wills, a doctrine that is nigh unto
blasphemy?
If personal salvation were left up to man to decide or accept and this was
determined solely according to the choosing of his own free will, would it not be
hypothetically possible for none to accept?
Is there even one iota of that which man calls chance, luck, fortune or mere
opportunity in the power of grace?
If the choice of salvation or rejection of it, was left to man himself, would this not
then in fact be salvation by chance?
Do we serve a God of chance who must depend upon man?
Do men discover and accept their personal salvation by chance or by grace? Which
is most scriptural?
Would God leave his decreed will and promises up to blind fate or chance?
Would He leave such an integral,essential and necessary thing in His plan such as
personal salvation up to mere chance?
If salvation is totally by grace without man's works, why do men continue to believe
and teach that it is ultimately left up to us to accept or reject Christ; that He gives
us a chance?
Is salvation really dependent or conditional upon the chancery or opertune working
of man's will power?
Is it God's will to only give man an opportunity or chance to be saved?
If so, how could God ever even have a hope in heaven or hell of fulfill His eternal
purpose?
Can the Almighty's unlimited loving and determining will be negated in any way by
man's limited, alienated human will?
Who's will is greater? Who's power is greater? Who's will power is greater?
Who's will is absolute? Man's or God's?
If Almighty God is bound in exercising His own will, then who becomes mightier?
Man can change His own will and God can change man's will but can man change
God's will, for who can hinder it?
If God wills all men to be saved, can we correctly and safely infer that most will be
damned or destroyed forever?
If the scripture said that God will have all men to be damned, could we safely infer
that most will be saved?
If salvation is totally by grace and if as some believe, God only elected and
foreknew some men, and God predestined that same some to be saved and serve
Him, and the rest of mankind to perish, then why did He bother dying and making
provision for all of mankind?
Would it not for the most part have been in vain?
Is vanity in God's nature?
Did He create anyone or anything in vain?
What about the millions apart from Israel in Old Test. and even New Test. times
that were never presented the true plan of salvation or even heard the true gospel?
Must these suffer forever in hell because of their apparent unfortunate
circumstance?
Can Jesus truly be the Saviour of all and the Saviour of the world if all the world is
not ultimately to be saved by Him?
Are not the tender mercies of the eternal Lord over all His works?
Does this attribute change or cease?
Would our all seeing, all knowing God in His marvelous foreknowledge, create
mankind in vain, knowing full well He would ultimately have to punish them or
destroy them, either in eternal hellfire or in fruitless annihilation?
Why would the omnicient One bother creating individuals in the first place if He
foresaw that their end was to be worse...or at least no better than before their
creation?
Does not God punish us for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness?
Would endless punishment be for anyone's profit?
Is it God's plan that mankind as a whole continue in regression, or is His plan that
the creation be set free from the regressive bondage of corruption into the glorious
and mature liberty of His life that will have developed in God's firstfruit sons?
If it is God's perfect will that all be saved, why would He only predestinate a
comparative few to salvation and the rest to an eternal hell or to total destruction in
oblivion?
Would not God Himself then be working eternally against His own determined will
and purpose?
Would not many of His holy attributes including His omnipotence, be compromised?
Could He who is perfect in all His ways and works, settle for anything less than
fulfillment and perfection in His own works?
Could He perform any work that was not in ultimate perfection?
Is the work of the holy spirit not geared to saving all men?
Can the perfect One's perfect work somehow fail in its objectives?
Will God prove to be a colossal failure?
Will His works be found wanting and unfulfilled?
Can Love fail?
Will the Lord cast off forever?
If God's perfect will is that all men be saved, why would He created all men with a
free will so powerful that it could resist His own will forever?
Can the Almighty ever, in any way or at any time, be a victim to the will of His own
creation?
Is He to be a victim to the will and the workings of the curse which he Himself
instituted and purposely upholds for the time being?
Is the ever present power of God's will in salvation limited in its action to the realm
of mere hoping or wishing?
Is God limited to just wishing or hoping men will accept him?
Is His rescue operation contingent in waiting upon man to call for a lifeboat?
Who is it the Bible teaches is helpless? Is it God or is it man?
If God would save all men, but cannot, does not this negate His absolute and
infinite power? His omnipotence?
If God desires to save them, but will not, does this not negate His infinite goodness?
Would God require us to pray in faith for all men unless He actually intends to save
them all?
Does not God's word say..that when we ask Him anything according to His will, He
will grant the petition desired? Is it not His will to save all men?
When we pray that He will do just that according to His will, should we not believe
Him? Are we not to pray in faith and not to doubt?
Do you really think God won't do it, can't do it or wills not to do it?
Maybe some don't believe Him, can't believe Him or think He is a liar?
If you believe endless torment or eternal death to be true, why should you desire
and even pray that it may prove false?
If God's word is true that He wills all to be saved and that he will sooner or later
grant the petitions of our desire.....why is it then that when we ask sincerely in
prayer for Him to save our loved ones...or any or even all men for that matter...why
do we often see our loved ones and most all other men dying still as unconverted
sinners?
Is carnal man's limited knowledge of grace and death to make the promises of god's
word of none effect?
Is God slack concerning His promises? Is He unreliable or untrustworthy? Would
He lie about such an important thing? Would He ever be found as a liar?
Why do men believe so strongly that the mere death of the physical body hinders
forever the salvation of an unregenerated soul? Does not God begin in saving the
spiritual makeup of man rather than the physical body?
What's to prevent Him from beginning a work in the spirit after death? Does he
only have power over all flesh and not over all soul and spirit? Is there anything to
hard or to late for Him to accomplish?
Can man hinder God in any way in subduing all things unto Himself?
Why do so many insist that He is only going to subdue some things and that even
some of these will not be subdued unto Himself?
Is He unwilling or even unable to subdue all things?
Can things come into a divine subjection unto Himself, unto love, apart from a
remedial change?
Who initiates that change, man or God?
Who carries it out, man or God?
Shall not every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord? Shall this be
attributed to the glory of God or to the glory of man?
Who can confess that He is Lord, except they confess by the Holy Ghost?
If this was to be a forced confession, how would that give God any glory; how would
it be to the glory of God the Father?
Would the vast majority of mankind writhing in hell forever or their lives snuffed out
forever bring glory to God?
Why does God command us to love our enemies, if it is His own purpose to punish
and torture His enemies in eternity, whether they have heard the gospel or not?
Is God a hypocrite?
Shall not all His enemies eventually submit themselves unto Him through the
greatness of His power of love and salvation?
Is not the carnal mind of all men the enemy of God? Has He not a sure fire plan to
rectify this? Or does He leave it up to the unregenerate carnal mind to remedy it as
if it could?
If we are commanded to overcome evil with good, may we not expect God to do
same?
Is the idea of eternal punishment compatible with this?
If the goodness of God leads to repentance, why do we teach eternal torment to
sinners?
If there are those who shall be tormented forever with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the Lamb and His holy angels, does this mean that the Lamb and his
angels are in their hell also?
If the Father gave Christ to die for all men and it is the Father's will that He lose
none, why do men insist that He will lose most?
Though He chooses to lose none, would not the view of everlasting torment
mean--that at the end or consummation of the working of God's sovereign purpose
for good by His age abiding Spirit, the vast majority of His creation will then be
further from perfection than at the beginning of man's creation before the fall?
Is God not trustworthy to complete all the work He began?
Did not Jesus promise that He would draw all men unto Himself?
Is God any better than the sinner if His love is granted only to those who love Him?
And if he does good to only those that do good to him, do not even sinners do that?
Are not all men sinners?
Is the wisdom that comes from above based in wisdom that is full of mercy and
good fruits without partiality, or with partiality?
Is the power of natural life or death really any more in the power of men's hands
than is the sure power of spiritual life or death?
Is man personally responsible, or has he any control or say in the condemnation
that comes upon all men in conception and natural birth?
If not, then how can he be held responsible to bring the free gift of life upon himself
in spiritual rebirth?
Can men ask or order the spirit when to come or where to go concerning initial
rebirth?
Does he have any more control over it than he does the wind?
If the Lord originally appointed all men to spiritually die, would He not be less than
just and righteous--and even obligated, if He did not eventually appoint and grant
them all personal impartation of the Spirit of life?
If you think that it was all the woman's fault, why should the rest of humanity be
eternally doomed for someone else's mistake?
Stating He made provision for all to live means nothing, because do not most agree
that we can do nothing of ourselves to effect our salvation--except the Holy spirit
personally invites each individual and reveals Christ's gift unto them?
Where can we find any form of true love, long-suffering or justice if mankind is
going to suffer billions of ages of torment for every act of sin and every evil word or
thought expressed during his mere twenty, forty or eighty odd years on earth,
where are these things even though man himself made no choice to come into this
evil world, nor can he flee his captivity of temptation and passions unless he be
called and chosen of God out of this death?
Does He deserve eternal torment for not accepting a God whom He cannot see, nor
hear nor touch and consequently cannot believe.
Does this vindicate God's justice, His equity, His mercy, His compassion, His love,
His holiness. His righteousness, His repentance etc.?
Is not the doctrine and spirit of eternal damnation, a condemnation?
Whereas, on the other hand, is not the nature and purpose of Christ to take men out
of whatever hell they may be in rather than to cast them in or leave them in that
state for evermore?
If he can deliver even the most wicked souls from the lowest hell on earth, is it any
more difficult for Him to deliver souls from death and hell under the earth? Does he
have any pleasure in the death of the wicked?
Is death to continue eternally as in eternal hellfire? Is life to cease eternally as in
annihilation? Or is death the very last enemy that is to be destroyed as in
reconciliation?
If the actual power of sin and death is destroyed and done away with, what is left to
separate man from God?
Is not the Old Test. law a perfect type and shadow?
Is death stronger than divine life? Is lust stronger than love? Is sin stronger than
the righteousness of grace?
What other thing than life could be left after death, if it ends in a resurrection at the
end of the millennium and thereafter a second death begins?
Is fire necessarily punitive or evil in all applications?
Does God indeed lock up all men in the stubbornness of death that He might damn
them forever? Or does he lock them up that he should be merciful unto them all?
Can not He who locked as He willed also unlock as the wills? He who hardens, does
He not also soften?
Is it not God alone that can initiate and then accomplish a change in these locked
up rebellious hearts? Or can they do it apart from His divine convicting and
cleansing action of grace?
If it is God's will for man to forgive seventy times seven, how is it that God would
forever hold unforgiveness from mankind?
Did not even Jesus Himself pray in the Father's will--Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do---in refusing to accept Him as their Saviour Messiah, or in
crucifying Him?
Does not God obey His own edicts? Is He not bound to the fulfilling of His word?
If vindictiveness, retaliation, vengeance and punishing sentence of judgment lie in
the heart of God forever, or even at all, why is it He has purposed to purge and burn
all such things out of the hearts of His own creation?
If God loves the sinner but hates the sin, does it not make more sense that His plan
would be to ultimately judge and destroy the sin rather than the sinner?
Would He punish them more than would be necessary for their own good?
Are not all men the object of His love and not His wrath?
Is it not always the purpose of God's fire to cause judgment upon sin and to burn up
that which causes it?
Or is it God's loving purpose to destroy the unfortunate vessel that is empowered
and overpowered by the overwhelming unseen forces of sin and evil that are
inherently at work in him?
Is man to be judged forever because of imputed unrighteousness which God himself
put upon him in Adam's transgression?
If the Creator knew man could resist His love forever, why did He even create man
with His capacity to love?
Does that initial form of God's saving love begin with an act of God's will or an act
of man's will? In other words, does it originate from God or does it originate from
man himself?
Who determines the fulfillment and the timing of all prophecy as recorded in
scripture? God or men?
Who determines the final outcome of ALL things? God or men?
In whose hands is the ultimate destiny of the soul of every living creature? God's or
men's?
Is love, or is torment, the fulfillment of the law? Can they fulfill the law of love who
are rendered eternally miserable?
Does God tell us to be kind to the widow and the orphan and then Himself ignore
multiplied billions who, through the death of a God-arranged fall, have been
widowed in the loss of their true Husband and Head? Or does He not feel the pain
of those orphaned natures who cannot cry, "Abba, Father!"?
Does God charge us to forgive seventy times seven times in a day and to go the
second mile, while He, Himself, is willing to forgive only in this short span of life
during which most never hear the name Jesus, and he has made no provision for
the second mile?
Does God tell us not to be overcome of evil while Himself is impotent to remove
every last vestige of evil, as if Love, after all, does fail?
Does god tell us to have compassion on the stranger that we might be like Him, and
yet Himself has no compassion on those who are yet strangers to His goodness as it
is expressed in Christ Jesus?
Is this God of love so concerned with all His creatures that He makes provision for
the oxen fallen into a pit or a ditch but leaves the crowing glory of His creation to
groan in the endless torment of a much deeper, much more horrible pit?
Has the Lord charged us to visit the sick and those in prison and Himself is not
willing to visit and even heal those infected with sin's death-dealing disease, but
shut them up forever in an eternal prison which He never visits in mercy?
Are we to believe that He would have us expend our comfort, or fortunes and even
our very lives to see that men come to know Him while living, but that we are to
rejoice with Him over their endless torment if they stop breathing before coming to
repentance?
And what of the billions who have never so much as heard that there be a Savior
during this life? If God is love, and we know that He is, how is it that we can be
guilty of casting Him in such awful light?
As we are required to love our enemies, may we not safely infer that God loves His
enemies? (Matt.5:44)
If God loves His enemies, will He punish them more than will be for their good?
Would endless punishment be for the good of any...being As God loves His friends?
If He loves His enemies also, are not all mankind the objects of His love?
If God loves those only who love Him, what better is He than the sinner?(Luke
6:32-33)
As "love thinketh no evil," can God design the ultimate evil of a single soul?
(1Cor.13:5)
As "love worketh no ill," can God inflict, or cause, or allow to be inflicted,an endless
ill? (Rom.13:10)
As we are forbidden to be overcome by evil, can we safely suppose that God will be
overcome by evil? (Rom.12:21)
Would not the infliction of endless punishment prove that God HAD been overcome
by evil?
If man does wrong in returning evil for evil, would not God do wrong if He was to do
the same?
Would not endless punishment be the return of evil for evil?. As we are commanded
"to overcome evil with good," may we not safely infer that God will do the same?
(Rom.12:21)
Would the infliction of endless punishment be overcoming evil with good? If God
hates the sinner, does the sinner do wrong in hating Him? Is God a changeable
being? (James 1:17)
If God loves His enemies now, will he not always love them?
Is it just for God to be "kind to the evil and unthankful," in their present life? (Luke
6:35)
Would it be unjust for God to be kind to all men in a future state? If all men justly
deserve endless punishment, will not those who are saved, be saved unjustly?
If God "will by no means clear the guilty," by what means can just punishment be
evaded? (Ex.34:7)
As no man can measure endless punishment to his neighbor, will endless
punishment be measured to him? (Luke 4:38)
Would it be merciful in God to inflict endless punishment? -- that is, merciful to the
sufferer?
Can that be just which is not merciful?
Do not cruelty and injustice go hand in hand?
Can that be merciful which is not just?
Does divine justice demand the infliction of pain from which mercy recoils?
Does divine mercy require any thing that justice refuses to grant?
If the demands of divine justice are opposed to the requirements of mercy, is not
God divided against Himself?
If the requirements of mercy are opposed to the demands of the justice of God, can
His kingdom stand? (Mark 3:24)
If the justice and mercy of God are any way opposed, do they "keep the unity of the
spirit in the bonds of peace?
If justice and mercy are opposed to their requirements can Deity be a just God and
a Savior? (Isaiah 14:21)
If "a God all mercy is a God unjust," would not a God all justice be a God
unmerciful?
Is there any such thing in God as unjust mercy, or unmerciful justice?
Is there any such thing in God as just cruelty, or merciful injustice?
If you had sufficient power would you not deliver all men from sin?
Are you more merciful than the God Who made you?
'Can a woman forget her sucking child?'
Is the Creator of human sympathy less benevolent than the creature?
If God WOULD save all men, but CANNOT, is He infinite in power?
If God CAN save all men, but WILL NOT, is He infinite in goodness?
Does God DESIRE the salvation of all men? (1 Tim.2:3-4)
As God is righteous, must not the desire for universal salvation be a RIGHTEOUS
desire?
Is it true, that "the desire of the righteous shall be granted?"
(Prov.10:24)
Did God design universal salvation when He created man?
Will God carry His original design into execution?
Can finite man frustrate the purposes of the Almighty?
Is every individual under obligation to be thankful for his existence? Will this
obligation eternally continue? Can any one be thankful for that which, on the whole,
is not a blessing?
If any one be rendered endlessly miserable, will he be still under obligation to thank
God for existence?
Would endless misery benefit the Almighty, as the INFLICTOR?
Would endless misery benefit the saints, as SPECTATORS?
Would endless misery benefit the sinner, as the SUFFERER?
If endless punishment be the "wages of sin," could the sinner ever receive payment
in full? (Rom.6:23)
As man is a finite being, can he commit an infinite sin?
If man cannot commit an infinite sin, can he deserve endless punishment?
If one sin be infinite, can a million be any more?
If ONE sin be NOT infinite, can a million of sins amount to an infinite sin?
If sin be infinite, can one sin be greater than the other?
If sin be infinite, can it be true that, "where sin abounded grace did MUCH MORE
abound?" (Rom.5:20)
If sin be infinite, can it ever be finished or brought to an end?
If ONE sin deserves an eternity of punishment, how much punishment will TEN sins
deserve?
Do you ardently DESIRE the salvation of all men?
Is it not true that God "openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living
thing?" (Ps.145:16)
Do you fervently PRAY for the salvation of all men? (1 Tim.2:1)
Do you pray in FAITH, nothing doubting? (James 1:6)
Are you aware, "that whatsoever is not of faith is sin?" (Rom 14:23)
Would God require us to pray for all men, and to pray in faith, unless He intends all
men should be saved?
If you believe endless misery or total annihilation to be the truth of God, why should
you desire and pray that it may prove false?
Can the pleasure of the Almighty be contrary to his determinate will?
Would the infliction of endless misery afford pleasure to the Deity?
Can God be glorified by that which gives Him no pleasure?
As Jesus "tasted death for every man," can it be true that "the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hands," if a part are never saved? (Heb.2:9)
If God "declares the end from the beginning," can the final destiny of mankind be
contrary to His will?
Can endless misery or cessation of existence be brought about contrary to the
GOOD PLEASURE of the Almighty?
Can God WILL anything contrary to His knowledge?
Did God know when He created man, that a part of His creatures would be endlessly
miserable?
If God, when He created, did not know the result of creation, is He infinite in
knowledge?
Power is the ability to do: is knowledge simply the ability to know?
If God knew when He created man, that some would be eternally wretched, or
eternall destroyed did He not will this to be their doom?
If God willed the endless misery or destruction of most of His creatures, why is it
said that "He will have all men to be saved?" (1Tim.2:4)
If the Scriptures should testify, that God "will have all men to be damned," could we
safely infer that a part might be saved?
If the Scriptures testify, that God "will have all men to be saved," can we safely
infer that a part may be damned?
If God made an endless hell before He created man, did He know there would be
any use for it?
If God knew there would be use for an endless hell, must He not have created some
men for endless misery?
If God made an endless hell, was it included in the works which He pronounced
"very good?" (Gen.1:31)
If there be an endless hell, and it was not made before the creation of men, when
was it made?
If there be a personal devil, who made him?
Can there be any such thing as sin in heaven?
If there was sin in heaven, may not sin be committed there again?
If an angel of light became a devil, was not Paul in error, when he said Satan is
transformed into an angel of light? (2 Cor 11:14)
As sin presupposes temptation of some sort, who tempted a holy angel to sin?
If an angel could sin without a devil to tempt him, may we not sin without a devil to
tempt us?
If a holy angel was tempted to sin by surrounding evil, was or is heaven a holy
place?
If an angel was tempted by evil passions, could he have been holy?
If an angel became a devil by sinning, was Adam's the original sin?
If Adam became mortal (that is, subject to death,) by sinning, must he not have
been created immortal?
If Adam had been created immortal, could he ever have died?
If Adam sinned without inheriting total depravity, why should inborn depravity be
assigned as the cause of our sins?
Would there be any more impropriety in imputing MY sins to Adam, than in imputing
HIS sins to ME?
If men are totally depraved by nature, must not children be so likewise?
If children be totally depraved, is it true, that "of such is the kingdom of heaven?"
(Mark 10:14)
If evil men and seducers "wax worse and worse," (2 Tim.3:13), can they be totally
depraved at first?
If human reason be "carnal and delusive," why did Jehovah say, "come now and let
us REASON together?" (Isa.1:18)
If reason be delusive, why should some folks reason against the use of reason?
Can an effect exist without a cause sufficiently powerful to produce it?
If "we love God because he first loved us," is it true that we must first love HIM
before He will love us?
If "we love God because he first loved us," is it not plain that He loved US when we
did not love HIM?
If God loved US when we did not love HIM, is not our love to Him the EFFECT (and
not the CAUSE) of His love to US?
Was it consistent with divine justice, to love us, when we did not love Him?
If God who changes not, loved us, will not that love eternally continue?
If the love of God is the cause which produces love in man, can anger and wrath
produce the same effect?
If it the revealed will of God that all men should be saved, can God honestly will all
men to be saved, knowing that a part will be forever lost?
If God has two wills, why is double-mindedness condemned in the Scriptures?
If God has two wills, why does the Bible say, "He is of one mind?"
If God has a secret will, how did you gain a knowledge of it? Can that be a secret
which has been revealed?
If God revealed His secret will to "the saints," why should they reveal it to "the
wicked?"
If God under any circumstances, wills the endless misery of a human soul, in what
does He differ from Satan?
Can Jesus Christ be the Savior of any more or less than He actually saves?
Can Jesus be "the Savior of the world," (1 John 4:14), if the world is not saved by
him?
Can Jesus be "the Savior of all men" (1Tim.4:10), if all men are not saved by Him?
Is Christ, in any sense, the Savior of unbelievers?
If Christ be in no sense the Savior of unbelievers, why are unbelievers called upon
to believe in Christ as their Savior?
If unbelievers are not called upon to believe in Christ as their Savior, what are they
to believe?
Must not the thing to be believed, be true before it is believed?
Must not the thing to be believed continue to be true, whether it be believed or
disbelieved?
What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith, [or faithfulness] of
God of none effect?" (Rom.3:3)
Is it true that "God hath concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy on all?"
(Rom 9:32)
Can God be "especially the Savior of them who believe," unless He be actually the
Savior of all? (1Tim.4:10)
If belief and good works in this life, be essential to eternal salvation in the next, can
infants be saved?
Can the good actions of finite man merit an infinite reward?
Can the evil actions of finite man merit infinite punishment?
If men are saved by works, is salvation of grace?
If one man is saved by grace, why should not all be saved in like manner? Is God a
partial being?
Can the faith of the Partialists be based in the wisdom that is "full of mercy and
good fruits, without partiality?" (James 3:17)
Can sufficient provision be made for the salvation of all men, if some men are never
saved?
Must not sufficient provision be sufficient to subdue the will of the creature?
Is there any other way to determine the sufficiency of the means employed, than by
the accomplishment of the end designed?
Does not the law of God require all men to love him supremely, and their neighbors
as themselves?
Is it true, that "not one jot or tittle of this law shall pass till all be fulfilled?" --
(Matt.5:18)
Does not justice require of us the fulfilment of the law of God?
Will not justice be eternally violated, if the law of God be not universally fulfilled?
Can they fulfil the law of love who are rendered eternally miserable?
Can justice require the obedience of the sinner, and at the same time require his
eternal disobedience?
If whoso "offereth praise glorifieth God," (Ps.1:23), can He be glorified by those who
have no cause to praise Him?
If any one be rendered eternally miserable, can he have any cause to praise His
Maker?
Will God ever place some of his creatures in such a situation they cannot praise
him?
Do you believe that endless punishment or eternal destruction would manifest the
glory of God?
Can you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God?
Would not the salvation of half of mankind glorify God more than the salvation of
one-fourth? Would not the salvation of nine-tenths of mankind glorify God more
than the salvation of one-half?
Can we give "glory to God in the highest," without believing in the salvation of all
men?
If "all have sinned, and (thus) come short of the glory of God," (Rom.3:23), would
eternal sinning mend the matter?
Shall "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father?" (Philippians 2:11)
Is endless misery or eternal destruction "good tidings of great joy which shall be to
all people?"
Could man be endlessly miserable without being endlessly a sinner?
If sin exist eternally, can it be true that Christ was to finish the transgression, and
to make and end of sin? (Dan. 9:34)
Could man be forever destroyed in death if the last enemy death is to be forever
destroyed? (1Cor.15:26)
If God loves man is man God's enemy or is God only man's enemy?
Can man remain an enemy to God forever if the last enemy is destroyed?
As Jesus gave himself a ransom for all men, can he ever "see the travail of his soul
and be satisfied," if endless misery or eternal death be true?
Do you hope that endless misery or eternal death is true?
Is "faith the substance (or foundation) of things hoped for?" (Heb.11:1) If endless
misery or eternal death be not a thing hoped for, can it be a part of the Christian
faith?
Is it certain that one soul will be eternally lost?
Is it certain that one soul will be saved?
Is it certain that all will not be damned?
Is it certain that all will not be saved?
Can that be certain which is not decreed?
If it be certain that one soul will be saved, must there not be a decree concerning
the salvation of a definite number?
If the number of the saved be definitely fixed, must not the number of the damned
be equally definite?
If there be no certainty in relation to the final destiny of man, is not salvation
merely a work of fate or chance?
What better is chance than Atheism?
If God knew, when he created, what the end of each soul would be, is not that end
as certain as if it was decreed?
Is not the merciful man always merciful to his beast?
Will not the merciful God be always as merciful to His creatures, as the merciful
man is to his beast?
Is it true that the "tender mercies of the Lord are over all his works?" (Ps.145:9)
Is it true that the Almighty is without variableness, or the shadow of turning?
Would there be any tender mercy in the infliction of endless misery?
Are the tender mercies of the Lord like unto the tender mercies of the wicked which
are cruel?
If God is not the Father of sinners, why should sinners pray, saying, "Our Father,
forgive us our trespasses?"
"Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" (Mal.2:10)
If God be the Father of all men, will He do less for His children than earthly parents
would do for theirs?
Is it true that God punishes us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness?" (Heb.12:11)
Would endless punishment or eternal death be for our profit?
Would endless punishment or annihilation "yield the peaceable fruits of
righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby?"
Is there an afterward to eternity? (Heb.7:14)
Can any doctrine be too good to be true?
Will God contend forever and be always wroth? (Isa.62:16)
Will the Lord cast off forever? (Lam.3:31-33)
Can he be a Christian who worships the Lord through fear of the devil?
Can he be a Christian who affirms that if he believed in the salvation of all men, he
would not worship God?
Can he be a Christian who inquires, "if all men are to be saved, what use is there in
being virtuous?"
Some persons say, that if they did not believe in endless punishment, they would
take their fill of sin. How much sin would it take to fill a Christian?
If "the goodness of God leadeth to repentance," why should His eternal wrath or
eternal death be preached to sinners?
If "the goodness of God leadeth to repentance," why should it not be supposed that
repentance leadeth to the goodness of God?
If "the goodness of God leadeth to repentance," are not the impenitent the objects
of His goodness?
Is not the goodness of God co-extensive and co-eternal with His wisdom and power?
As the wisdom of God can never change to folly, nor His power to weakness, will His
goodness ever change to hatred?
Can Deity be universally and eternally good, if endless misery be true for a single
soul?
If all men deserve endless punishment, would it not be right for God to inflict it?
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
If it would be right for God to punish all men eternally, would it not be wrong for
Him not to do it?
As the infliction of endless misery would be returning evil for evil, would it be right
for Deity to inflict it?
If the return of evil for evil be right in Deity, would it not be equally right in man?
As "fear hath torment," and true religion is happiness, can fear produce true
religion?
As "perfect love casteth out fear," will not fear cast out perfect love?
Can fear imbue the soul with perfect love?
Must not they who "believe and tremble," be possessed of the faith of devils?
Does the belief of endless misery or eternal death cause the believer to "rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory?" (1Pet.1:8)
Can a belief of any thing short of universal salvation, fill the soul with "joy and
peace?"
Will not the devil and all his works be destroyed? (Heb.2:14; 1 John 3:8)
Will not death, the last enemy, be swallowed up in victory and destroyed? (Isa.
25:6-8; 1 Cor. 15:26-54)
If death, which is separation from God, be put out of existence,what could there be
left but true eternal life?
In whose words and ideas have you been trusting my brethren? God's or men's?
Are not the correct answers to the foregoing questions to be found in the overall
revelation of the holy Bible? Surely, "the heart of the righteous studieth to answer."
Prv.15:28. Will you?
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