Hello All,
Just a quote from Athanasius today, regarding how it was impossible in God's character for him to allow humanity to ultimately perish. Athanasius, an early church father, did not believe in a monstrous God.
Athanasius (d. 373) believed that because humanity was created in the image of God and by sharing that image with God, reflected God's glory. Because of sin, however, death entered and was antithetical to man's nature. God, being good, could not let man perish into nothingness. Either God, because he is Goodness, would act to save humanity, or if he did not, then the only conclusion would be that he was not good, or that he was an impotent god. Instead, God saves, restores, resurrects, heals, revives, and sustains forevermore. Therefore, Paul was absolutely correct when he wrote to the church of the Philippians:
"At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue JOYFULLY confess (exomologeō) that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:10-11)
Note: the Greek word exomologeō means to joyfully confess, a detail that was "conveniently" omitted by Bible translators. Having been recited for generations without that understanding, the Church has constantly cited this passage with the idea that those who will eventually be sent to hell must at this time be subjugated before a justly angry God. Fortunately, that's not the true meaning of the passage. Every person will see the Lamb and this passage gives at the very least hope that every heart will be persuaded, thus "saved."
And now from Athanasius:
"Man, who was created in God's image and in his possession of reason reflected the very Word Himself, was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone. The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no escape. The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die ; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption. It was unworthy of the goodness of God that creatures made by Him should be brought to nothing through the deceit wrought upon man by the devil; and it was supremely unfitting that the work of God in mankind should disappear, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of evil spirits. As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation, and that far more than if He had never created men at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself."
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
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