Alan,
It is my desire to choose my words carefully, trying not to convey a confrontational attitude. If I fail in my attempt, please forgive me.
Following is one paragraph from a piece dealing with what I sense the writer believes is God's ultimate plan.
The usual way is to view the goal in the darkness of the way. We go back to passages which deal with judgments and allow them to throw their dark shadows across the consummation. We should believe that God will justify all mankind (Rom.5:18), and view the previous judgments in the light of this final achievement. We bring up passages which tell of death, to darken God's declaration that it will be abolished. We should believe that God will make death inoperative at the last, and view the previous passages in this glorious light. We turn to texts which prove that unbelievers will be lost or destroyed, and, with these passages, dim the great declaration that God wills the salvation of all. We should illumine them with the later and higher revelation. We find God's enemies in the fiery lake at what seems to be the close of revelation, and misuse this fact to deny God's declaration that all will be reconciled (Col.1:20). We should not take one to destroy the other, but believe both, for reconciliation follows estrangement, and it alone accords with God's final goal.
With all due respect, I believe the writer is in error, unless he has been privileged with some spiritual interpretive knowledge which I fail to recognize. He quotes Romans 5:18 and says, "We should believe God will justify all mankind, etc." Yes, and no. While it is true all men have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, it is conditional upon the individual to accept the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord by confessing Christ as Lord, asking for forgiveness with a contrite spirit and an honest desire to repent of one's sins, and ask Jesus to come into their life and be their Lord and Saviour. You'll also note in the following verse (5:19) it says, "so by the obedience of one shall MANY (not ALL) be made righteous.
Regarding Col. 1:20. Paul isn't speaking to all men in this passage, those who both have and have not accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour. Paul is speaking specifically only to those who have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour. And Paul is comforting those who have accepted by relating what God has done for those who believe by the work of Jesus at the cross.
To suggest that all men will ultimately be saved stands in direct disagreement with the words of Jesus when He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me." To suggest that even after the second death in the lake of fire there is a way to be redeemed unto God not only calls into question the need for Christ to be crucified for all the sins of mankind, but also suggests one can live a life without any care for what is to come after death, expecting God will still redeem them unto himself.
I believe 2nd Peter 3:9 is quite explicit as to what God's hope is for mankind in addition to 1st Thessalonians 5:9. Again, both scriptures suggest the onus is on mankind to accept God's gift of salvation to mankind. Otherwise, I suspect there will be a whole lot of people standing on a trap-door on the Judgement day.
Blessed be God,
Mike
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