(October 3, 2024 at 6:30 pm)Lord Andreasson Wrote:(October 3, 2024 at 6:21 pm)Belacqua Wrote: It's an interesting issue, and one that's been debated for a long time.
You probably know, David Bentley Hart wrote a book on the topic that got some attention recently. He makes the case for universal salvation.
https://www.amazon.com/That-All-Shall-Sa...292&sr=8-4
May I ask you what changed your mind in favor of universalism?
Getting into the hebrew and greek.
Intentional mistranslations of the Bible are all over keeping the people in false fear.
I like how you base your arguments on what scripture says. (At least the part of your argument that you discuss in your video.) Sometimes I see universalists whose argument boils down to "I know what I would do if I were God, and I wouldn't damn anybody." Arguments like that, claiming to know the mind of God, tend not to be persuasive to me.
Several of the Christian writers I admire most reach the same conclusions as you. Lewis Carroll, for example (whom we don't usually think of as a theologian) rejected the idea of eternal damnation because he also read the Greek and thought it had been mistranslated. William Blake was OK with the idea that the lake of fire is everlasting, but was sure that no one would stay there forever. And as you point out, he had scriptural reasons for that.
So do you see hell [Sheol/Gehenna] as a temporary stage that's preliminary to salvation?
