{"id":1037,"date":"2012-05-31T23:15:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T06:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2016-05-10T01:52:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T08:52:38","slug":"acts-29-church-walks-into-paradigm-of-universalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/acts-29-church-walks-into-paradigm-of-universalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Acts 29 Church Walks into Paradigm of Biblical Universalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader, noting how we have been making the connection between Biblical justice and the doctrine of the ultimate reconciliation of all, sent me the link to a sermon preached by two pastors from the Seattle area that just entirely floored us\u00a0(the church is a part of the Mars Hill network). It was a sermon on the concept of justice presented in a very open format with dialogue. The two pastors leading the discussion were helping the congregation to unpack a “Biblical view of justice.” We have been calling it what the late beloved Charles Colson called “justice that restores.<\/em>” I read Colson’s book by that title but never followed the logic of God’s earthly vision of restorative justice to be indicative of his ultimate justice. But when we heard this sermon we were absolutely stunned. Do they hear what they are saying??<\/p>\n

You might be tempted to ask if they are “evangelical universalists.” It’s difficult to imagine they are not (at least secretly) but this would be impossible for them to confess since they are “Calvinists” (Mars Hill affiliate-Mark Drisoll). But I will quote from their sermon here so you can judge for yourselves what the logical implications of their statements must produce.\u00a0I believe these pastors must either embrace a doctrine of the universal redemption of all mankind or retract their sweeping statements about what is the Biblical definition of justice. As you will see from their statements they cannot have it both ways.<\/p>\n

(If you are unfamiliar with the Calvinist or Reformed position see end of post ***)<\/p>\n

I will quote pastors Caesar Kalinowski and Dave Wilke who made the following pastoral presentation on the true meaning of justice …according to Scripture:<\/p>\n

(Better yet, listen for yourself: \u00a0http:\/\/somatacoma.org\/resources\/sermons-training\/preacher\/caesar-kalinowski-and-dave-wilke\/<\/a>\u00a0 NOTICE: it appears that their website has been updated and the archives where this sermon is found has been deleted. It was preached June 18, 2007. I found it here on SermonCloud.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n

“The world’s view of justice is revenge but not a whole lot of mercy floating around. \u00a0Luke 1:50 is Mary’s song, ‘His mercy extends to those who fear Him.’ If you were to look up justice and mercy in the Bible you’d see how closely linked they are. You’d see how often this view of a merciful God is there. God’s mercy according to Mary’s song here extends forever.” (Kalinowski)<\/p>\n

“We speak of getting justice but the Bible actually speaks of doing justice. Doing justice.<\/strong><\/em> That’s very different.\u00a0Getting justice is sort of like getting even. But doing justice is what the Bible actually speaks about. Now it’s interesting looking up this definition of justice. It means “to be put or made right.” That’s actually what justice means. But it also has a deeper meaning: to be just is to be righteous. Interesting. To make someone righteous is actually what justice means. Isn’t it crazy? This kind of blows my mind: the word justice and righteousness is the SAME WORD. How can that be? I mean, is that how we interpret it when we read the word righteous or righteousness? But it’s the SAME WORD. Interestingly too, that word is both a masculine and a feminine noun and a verb. The word justice in the Scripture, God’s idea of justice, is this all-encompassing idea of righteousness. The word righteousness carries with it this idea: that of “right-useness”. To do justice, this right-useness would be to restore things back to how they were meant to be. So, if we’re looking to be a people in our region that do justice, because God’s about doing justice, then what’s that say about our perspective on justice? It would be about putting things back to the way they were meant to be, to their righteousness, to their “right-useness.” (Kalinowski)<\/p>\n

That’s what God has been up to. God gets even closer. He is born Immanuel, God with us. Jesus’ first words of ministry are “Teshuva” …”Repent for the kingdom of God has come near…” This kingdom is the means for God to come close to His creation. Teshuva means to return.\u00a0This sounds like justice–to be brought to right. Return to right-useness before my Father.\u00a0Return to the life you were always meant to live.\u00a0God in Christ is about doing justice in order to bring us back to be the people we were always meant to be.\u00a0And family, we’ve got to grasp that as the core concept today for justice. In doing justice we see a picture of God restoring humanity, restoring us back to the people we were always meant to be. And it’s not about mankind deciding what that looks like. It’s about God looking for us, to restore us into the image, His image, that He created us in. (Kalinowski)<\/p>\n

If we are still defaulting to justice as fairness we need to begin to see that God’s justice is so totally different than our human default mode.\u00a0Somewhere in us the image of God that was marred because of sin, God through Christ is desiring to restore back to what it was. You see, God is all about doing justice in your life and in my life. Right now if you are following Christ, God is doing justice for you. Be glad it is God who is doing the justice for you and not someone else who is drawing the line and saying this is what needs to be done to get even for all the crap in your life. God is not looking to restore you to a punished you or of getting even with you.\u00a0If you got what you deserved it would be a hellish thing wouldn’t it?\u00a0God is looking to restore you to the you He created you to be, that which was broken because of sin. That’s what’s going on here. That’s the idea behind justice. Now take a look at what Jesus said in Luke 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach…the year of the Lord’s favor.” What a picture of justice here! It’s not about revenge or about getting even. \u00a0(Wilke)<\/p>\n

We’ve got to grasp this picture. Even in the story of the Prodigal Son the father is waiting with open arms to do justice and lavish mercy on his son–the ring, the robes. He says, “You’re home” and he throws him a party. So different from this son who earlier expected to come back and work as a hired hand. Even if we say we believe that justice is restoration back to what He intended we might stop there and say we are to go back to the garden but that’s not what justice means! It’s not back to some level of “even-steven”, everything back to the way it was. That’s not the image of divine justice–just going back to the way it was.<\/p>\n

The Prodigal son left having a certain status but returned and was granted a status that greatly exceeded that with which he left.\u00a0And that’s exactly where we are when we are called to let that created intent that God had for us be fleshed out, matured and developed. Paul says you are being conformed to the image of Christ. \u00a0That’s the ministry of justice that is taking place in you. How profound is that? When Paul tells the Corinthian church, you have been reconciled with Christ, therefore you have been given the ministry of reconciliation. The reason it’s such a big deal is because I am a recipient of it right now. I am in the active flow and throes of being reconciled and restored under God’s economy of justice, not mine. That’s good news.\u00a0That’s why it’s called good news. (Wilke)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well it just goes on and on getting even more intriguing and fascinating as they walk right into a paradigm of “Ultimate Restoration of all creation” with every sentence! They address crime in the form of thieves and sex offenders and what true justice should look like for them. \u00a0Is locking them up “justice”? Hear what they have to say about this. They apparently do not realize that they have painted themselves right into the corner of Evangelical Universalism. You will just have to listen to it to believe it.\u00a0I have listened to it 5 times because it is just so good. These pastors lay out a beautiful paradigm of the restorative justice of God. We believe it must be applied to all of God’s justice, past present and future; for God is One<\/strong> and He is the same yesterday, today and forever.<\/p>\n

You might ask of what consequence is this idea coming from a church no one has ever heard of. I looked them up and to the contrary they are all over the internet as a hub for training church-planters from all over the country and the globe. Their unbeknownst tracking with this view of the universal restorative justice of God will have far reaching influence.\u00a0And for this we praise God!<\/p>\n

\n

Note: This is a fairly old sermon but the concepts are still promoted in their teachings and on their website.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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***A summary of Calvinism or The Reformed Faith:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

These men are part of a resurgence movement to revive Calvinism or what is called the Reformed faith. Being Calvinists (I was one for 35 years) means they embrace the doctrine of election which is the belief that God before time chose a definite number of the human race to be the recipients of His love, grace and redemption. All others are passed by and sovereignly allowed to perish forever in a hell of eternal conscious torment for their sin. This, they have been taught to teach, is what brings God the most glory. When the red flag of fairness rises in our hearts we are assuaged with “it is an awesome mystery.” The reasoning goes that all are sinners and not one person that ever lived was ever worthy of the love of God and so therefore the fact that God chooses the fraction that He does is in itself a boundless picture of grace.<\/div>\n
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But most of the evangelical church rejects this doctrine since it portrays God as the author of evil while not claiming responsibility for any of it. This God creates the very people whom He knows will rebel against Him resulting in billions of souls experiencing unimaginable unredemptive pain forever with no reprise.\u00a0And while Calvinism asserts God is all powerful and His grace is irresistible they believe God chooses not to exercise this ability to redeem and save all those whom He brought into existence. In fact they are hardened, but not just for a season in order to fulfill some higher\u00a0purpose, but for eternity. For all eternity they are allowed to sin, rebel, and cycle unhealed and unredeemed in their sin and hatred for God. Never mind that these Calvinists, echoing the voice of John Piper, simultaneously claim that “God gets all the glory in the end” while asserting that billions will “glory in their shame,” sin, rebellion and hatred forever. Can you see the incoherency in the claim that ALL glory will be to God while most of mankind will NOT give Him ANY glory but in fact hate Him forever?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader, noting how we have been making the connection between Biblical justice and the doctrine of the ultimate reconciliation of all, sent me the link to a sermon preached…<\/p>\n

Read MoreActs 29 Church Walks into Paradigm of Biblical Universalism<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[91,93,94,95,37,70,92,90],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acts-29-network","tag-acts-29","tag-biblical-universalism","tag-caesar-kalinowski","tag-dave-wilke","tag-evangelical-universalism-2","tag-justice","tag-mars-hill","tag-soma-communities","excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4379,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/4379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}