This paragraph ponders the meaninglessness of Christian inclusivism that says Christ has saved all people regardless of their faith and lifestyle. If such inclusivism were true, then haters of God have always been saved and will always be saved regardless if they never repent of hating God. Likewise, what is the value of proposing that a departed hater of God went to heaven and continued to hate God? Or what is the value of proposing that populations in heaven will continue to disbelieve Christ as Lord? However, perhaps Christian inclusivists believe that departed unbelievers go to heaven and eventually embrace Christ as Lord. That would mean that everybody eventually converts to Christian faith, so that inclusivism would no longer include unbelievers.
November 28, 2012
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2 comments:
I take it that you must believe in some sort of purgatory then.
Hey SLW, Thank you for stopping by.
Many ask me that question, and many evidently misunderstand ancient and medieval church history in regards to the doctrines of (1) postmortem conversions and (2) purgatory. For example, Augustine in City of God distinguished between (A) the then popular doctrine of postmortem conversions in 21:17 and (B) the doctrine of postmortem purging of believers in 21:26. The former clearly preceded the latter in church history while the latter developed into the medieval doctrine of purgatory. Also, Augustine rejected the doctrine of postmortem conversions while calling it an amicable dispute of his time. He only outright condemned extreme versions of Originism that taught about everlasting alternations of bliss and sufferings for believers and the eventual salvation of Satan.
More precisely, I agree with many in the ancient church that the Bible teaches about God never giving up anybody, which includes that God never gives up on anybody in hades or hell. I explain more about this in Conditional Futurism chapters 13 and 15.
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