Hey Wayne! Love your content. I had some thoughts about the goodness and severity passage in Romans - Because of the language of “goodness”, it seems people read it as if it’s contrasting Gods “good” side with his “bad” side. Of course, we know he is only light and no darkness dwells in him from 1 John. Do you think instead of “goodness”, it could maybe be understood as “gentleness, patience, forbearance..” leading to repentance.. or behold Gods severity (determinism, judgement) to achieve a desired result? I’m thinking about this in terms of Romans 1 being “handed over” and the same language here as being “cut off”…? Seems like there is a parallel here. His patience and kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, but if we will not respond it leaves no choice but to be handed over (cut off, judgement) to wrath for the desired result to bring one to repentance. Tell me what you think. Thanks!
I think you’ll find your answer in this & begin to understand “hardness of heart” & how God actually feels about this hardness. I find it similar to “the Holy Spirit yearns for you jealously.” “And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.” - Mark 3:4-5
I would enjoy if you could engage with the notions I see often, that of a kind of “Pascal’s Wager”, that it would be better to fall on the side of ECT and be wrong in the end than embrace Universal Restoration and be wrong. Particularly because many pastors I see will use arguments such as the Galatian Heresy or being captured by “philosophy” when it comes to these questions.
I will be brief here... after 15 years if embracing UR (and being "captured" by its Biblical vision of just who the Living God really is) I do not in the least fear the loss of my soul for believing that God IS Love - and more loving than anyone could ever imagine. My "wager" is completely "all in" that this is the Truth - and to wager otherwise out of fear is (for me) out of the question - and would be not be grounded in faith in His mercy and faithfulness❤️ (I cannot imagine that some day God will say to me: you believed I am more loving than I in fact am - to eternal hell with you!) Blessings - and thanks for your comment!
I wish. I commited a grave mortal sins 4 years ago. Months later the Devil grabbed my back (when I was sleeping) told me "you should have been careful, I own you now". Then licked me behind my left ear. Since then I lost my soul. It's gone. I'm damned. Your soul is what connects you to God. It's the spark of God inside of us. It's what nakes you God child. But if you lose your soul you belong to the Devil. You are just a carcass (only flesh = devil) and your spirit is connected to your new father.... Why and how would a damned be given a new soul at some point? Nowhere it is written it can happen. Being soulless is agony and terrifying. Im gonna die soon and be in Hell for a long time before being put in the lake of fire for eternity. My spirit being tormented forever. Cause you have no soul left to be saved (some that leave Hell and are in the book of life can be saved) and the spirit is immortal thus the torment. (My dreams; sucked in flames, being a goat, worms eating my flesh, lava, volcanoes, sucked in fire inside water, etc)
Above all things remember this: The devil is a LIAR. And, secondly, and more importantly: God IS Love. His Love "endures all things" - it "never fails" (1 Cor.13) You cannot lose the Image He impressed on your very being when He made you after His own Image - the very imprint of Jesus Christ! Focus on the story of the man possessed by a legion of demons: what kinds of sin must he have committed to have come into that state of spiritual oppression? But - before the Almighty God - this "impossible" situation was as nothing.... Jesus delivered him in an instant - and he was restored to his right mind. You are suffering mentally because you are believing the lies of the enemy. Let go - release ALL of these false beliefs about God and yourself: You have been bought with the precious blood of the Lover of your soul... THAT is the Truth❤️! You are in my prayers! wayne P.S. I encourage you to listen and soak in the following: His Love will NEVER let you go! ua-cam.com/video/88b4pJQ4YaM/v-deo.htmlsi=_E400KHmj9O6LPPy ua-cam.com/video/U2cqblTDR8w/v-deo.htmlsi=SyQDjkp59c2r4f9g
Noemie, there's a good chance from your description that you're suffering from clinical chronic depression (which Martin Luthor used to describe as being mugged by the devil -- except all the time in this case). I know there isn't any point trying to reason oneself out of a depression, so I don't recommend trying. By the same token, our beliefs aren't your beliefs, and I'm not sure how much good it will be to just say here, have our beliefs instead (much less try to help you reason to better beliefs when you're in such fits.) You may not even be able to believe that we actually do believe that God will succeed in saving whomever He intends to save from sin, and that God certainly intends and acts to save you from sin, not maybe you. But we do trust God to get that done for you, sooner or later. Every part of you was created by God to begin with, and is still sustained by God at every moment, your flesh as well as your mind and your spirit. God hasn't abandoned you; much of the point of the cross is to show that God always suffers with us, including when we're being victimized by injustice, including when we're wounded and sick. Even when we're being punished for doing unjust things ourselves (or otherwise suffering the consequences of doing unjust things.) As the poem goes, Remember remember the thieves on the cross; one of them penitent, both of them lost. The Good Lord did suffer with both of those men; dying to rise and to live again. Eventually Jesus will tied up and conquer Beelzeboul, the plunder-possessor, freeing his captives and plundering him of his plunder. But God still loves devils, too, even though they're being very bad children and making their fellow children miserable: for God is still the Father of all spirits, even when they're being unmerciful. I know my prayers aren't much compared to many other people, but I'll pray for the Holy Spirit (the gift of God, from God the Father and God the Son, to God's creatures) to intercede for you, evangelizing any rebel spirits messing with you, and leading you to find better help than I can be. Meanwhile, I know from having chronic (though less intense) depression of my own, it helps to look around for any duty at hand, and to do that, however small or little it may seem. Then look around for another one, and so on, taking a rest and eating every once in a while. Your soul still belongs to the Father of all spirits, even if you've misplaced it: God isn't going to let you go. The Son goes to the cross and dies as far as any creature can die, in solidarity with us all, so that all shall be coming to honor the Son and the Father (and also the Spirit), so thus coming out of the death and into God's own life which He gives to us. That's the just judgment of God, and the Devil himself isn't exempt from that crisis: God will even save the chief of sinners in the end, back into being a loyal and penitent servant of God, loving God and loving his fellow creatures. God will surely have an easier time saving you from your sins -- your rescue from the grip of the Devil will be one more sign to the Devil that he can't win, so he might as well give up... and go home. So God will save you for your sake; and even for the Devil's sake (in the long run)! But even more importantly, the Father will save you for the Son; and the Son will save you for the Father; and the Holy Spirit will lead you someday back into loving communion with the Father and the Son, all together. As for being given a new soul: your soul needs healing, not replacing. But in that sense, quite a few scriptures talk in different ways about us becoming new people, all things being made new, being given a new name that only you and God will know, as we're saved out from our sins. God can and will renew you (even reform you) eventually, even if you have been shattered like a pot down to where no shard can hold a drop of water; even if you have been destroyed so far that you are neither slave nor free -- there's scriptural testimony about that, too. But again, it may be impossible for you to believe that yet, or even for a long time to come. God doesn't wait until we can trust God, much less until we're loyal to God, to save us from our sins. God saves us into being trustworthy people, however long that takes, and into being faithful people toward Him and toward our fellow creatures. God will bring you to repent of that mortal sin you spoke of; and to repent of any and all our sins, eventually. If you can repent of that sin already, even if only to spite the devil, that's some kind of start on your side of things! -- but God isn't waiting for your repentance, to prepare you and empower and lead you to repentance. So if you can't repent of that sin yet, I know God won't give up on you, and He voluntarily suffers with you meanwhile.
The fact that this concerns you indicates you haven't lost your soul, for had you lost it, you would have no concern over it. I'd encourage you, in your pain, to call out to the loving God who created us all. I was reading earlier about Saul, who persecuted Christians, had them arrested and put to death before he became Paul when he encountered the living Jesus. Your pain at your grievous mortal sin, reminds me that Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who put Him on the cross. A mortal sin doesn't get any worse than being responsible for killing Jesus. May the Lord heal your pain and sin Noemie.
Shalom Noémie. Please sister, cry to Him and pray to Him, The All Mighty Loving GOD, day and night until He delivers you. PUT ON THE ARMOUR, YOU ARE IN A BATTLE FOR YOUR SOUL. HE will make it good. GOD's love never fail. Trust in Him. Lamentations 3: 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; There is a purpose for doubts and the darkest of the dark nights, when He sets us free, we love Him even more, and trust in Him even more so.
Excellent presentation. Thank you. Maranatha, GOD the Savior of the whole world.
Thanks so much, Chan❤️
Thank you so very much for spreading the TRUE GOSPEL, the REAL GOOD NEWS, for all to hear. You have blessed many with this, thank you!💜✝️💜
Thanks for your kind and encouraging words!
Richest Blessings, Christopher!
wayne
This is good news!
Thanks, Wayne. As always, your content is encouraging and thought-provoking. Blessings!
Thanks as always, James!
Love this!
Awesome well done Godspeed bro ❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks for the encouragement!
Hey Wayne! Love your content. I had some thoughts about the goodness and severity passage in Romans - Because of the language of “goodness”, it seems people read it as if it’s contrasting Gods “good” side with his “bad” side. Of course, we know he is only light and no darkness dwells in him from 1 John. Do you think instead of “goodness”, it could maybe be understood as “gentleness, patience, forbearance..” leading to repentance.. or behold Gods severity (determinism, judgement) to achieve a desired result? I’m thinking about this in terms of Romans 1 being “handed over” and the same language here as being “cut off”…? Seems like there is a parallel here. His patience and kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, but if we will not respond it leaves no choice but to be handed over (cut off, judgement) to wrath for the desired result to bring one to repentance. Tell me what you think. Thanks!
I think you’ll find your answer in this & begin to understand “hardness of heart” & how God actually feels about this hardness. I find it similar to “the Holy Spirit yearns for you jealously.”
“And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.” - Mark 3:4-5
I would enjoy if you could engage with the notions I see often, that of a kind of “Pascal’s Wager”, that it would be better to fall on the side of ECT and be wrong in the end than embrace Universal Restoration and be wrong. Particularly because many pastors I see will use arguments such as the Galatian Heresy or being captured by “philosophy” when it comes to these questions.
I will be brief here... after 15 years if embracing UR (and being "captured" by its Biblical vision of just who the Living God really is) I do not in the least fear the loss of my soul for believing that God IS Love - and more loving than anyone could ever imagine. My "wager" is completely "all in" that this is the Truth - and to wager otherwise out of fear is (for me) out of the question - and would be not be grounded in faith in His mercy and faithfulness❤️
(I cannot imagine that some day God will say to me: you believed I am more loving than I in fact am - to eternal hell with you!)
Blessings - and thanks for your comment!
I wish. I commited a grave mortal sins 4 years ago. Months later the Devil grabbed my back (when I was sleeping) told me "you should have been careful, I own you now". Then licked me behind my left ear. Since then I lost my soul. It's gone. I'm damned. Your soul is what connects you to God. It's the spark of God inside of us. It's what nakes you God child. But if you lose your soul you belong to the Devil. You are just a carcass (only flesh = devil) and your spirit is connected to your new father.... Why and how would a damned be given a new soul at some point? Nowhere it is written it can happen. Being soulless is agony and terrifying. Im gonna die soon and be in Hell for a long time before being put in the lake of fire for eternity. My spirit being tormented forever. Cause you have no soul left to be saved (some that leave Hell and are in the book of life can be saved) and the spirit is immortal thus the torment. (My dreams; sucked in flames, being a goat, worms eating my flesh, lava, volcanoes, sucked in fire inside water, etc)
Above all things remember this: The devil is a LIAR. And, secondly, and more importantly: God IS Love. His Love "endures all things" - it "never fails" (1 Cor.13) You cannot lose the Image He impressed on your very being when He made you after His own Image - the very imprint of Jesus Christ!
Focus on the story of the man possessed by a legion of demons: what kinds of sin must he have committed to have come into that state of spiritual oppression? But - before the Almighty God - this "impossible" situation was as nothing.... Jesus delivered him in an instant - and he was restored to his right mind.
You are suffering mentally because you are believing the lies of the enemy.
Let go - release ALL of these false beliefs about God and yourself: You have been bought with the precious blood of the Lover of your soul... THAT is the Truth❤️!
You are in my prayers!
wayne
P.S. I encourage you to listen and soak in the following:
His Love will NEVER let you go!
ua-cam.com/video/88b4pJQ4YaM/v-deo.htmlsi=_E400KHmj9O6LPPy
ua-cam.com/video/U2cqblTDR8w/v-deo.htmlsi=SyQDjkp59c2r4f9g
Lamentations 3 v 19-23
Noemie, there's a good chance from your description that you're suffering from clinical chronic depression (which Martin Luthor used to describe as being mugged by the devil -- except all the time in this case). I know there isn't any point trying to reason oneself out of a depression, so I don't recommend trying. By the same token, our beliefs aren't your beliefs, and I'm not sure how much good it will be to just say here, have our beliefs instead (much less try to help you reason to better beliefs when you're in such fits.) You may not even be able to believe that we actually do believe that God will succeed in saving whomever He intends to save from sin, and that God certainly intends and acts to save you from sin, not maybe you.
But we do trust God to get that done for you, sooner or later. Every part of you was created by God to begin with, and is still sustained by God at every moment, your flesh as well as your mind and your spirit. God hasn't abandoned you; much of the point of the cross is to show that God always suffers with us, including when we're being victimized by injustice, including when we're wounded and sick. Even when we're being punished for doing unjust things ourselves (or otherwise suffering the consequences of doing unjust things.) As the poem goes, Remember remember the thieves on the cross; one of them penitent, both of them lost. The Good Lord did suffer with both of those men; dying to rise and to live again. Eventually Jesus will tied up and conquer Beelzeboul, the plunder-possessor, freeing his captives and plundering him of his plunder. But God still loves devils, too, even though they're being very bad children and making their fellow children miserable: for God is still the Father of all spirits, even when they're being unmerciful.
I know my prayers aren't much compared to many other people, but I'll pray for the Holy Spirit (the gift of God, from God the Father and God the Son, to God's creatures) to intercede for you, evangelizing any rebel spirits messing with you, and leading you to find better help than I can be. Meanwhile, I know from having chronic (though less intense) depression of my own, it helps to look around for any duty at hand, and to do that, however small or little it may seem. Then look around for another one, and so on, taking a rest and eating every once in a while. Your soul still belongs to the Father of all spirits, even if you've misplaced it: God isn't going to let you go. The Son goes to the cross and dies as far as any creature can die, in solidarity with us all, so that all shall be coming to honor the Son and the Father (and also the Spirit), so thus coming out of the death and into God's own life which He gives to us. That's the just judgment of God, and the Devil himself isn't exempt from that crisis: God will even save the chief of sinners in the end, back into being a loyal and penitent servant of God, loving God and loving his fellow creatures. God will surely have an easier time saving you from your sins -- your rescue from the grip of the Devil will be one more sign to the Devil that he can't win, so he might as well give up... and go home.
So God will save you for your sake; and even for the Devil's sake (in the long run)! But even more importantly, the Father will save you for the Son; and the Son will save you for the Father; and the Holy Spirit will lead you someday back into loving communion with the Father and the Son, all together.
As for being given a new soul: your soul needs healing, not replacing. But in that sense, quite a few scriptures talk in different ways about us becoming new people, all things being made new, being given a new name that only you and God will know, as we're saved out from our sins. God can and will renew you (even reform you) eventually, even if you have been shattered like a pot down to where no shard can hold a drop of water; even if you have been destroyed so far that you are neither slave nor free -- there's scriptural testimony about that, too.
But again, it may be impossible for you to believe that yet, or even for a long time to come. God doesn't wait until we can trust God, much less until we're loyal to God, to save us from our sins. God saves us into being trustworthy people, however long that takes, and into being faithful people toward Him and toward our fellow creatures. God will bring you to repent of that mortal sin you spoke of; and to repent of any and all our sins, eventually. If you can repent of that sin already, even if only to spite the devil, that's some kind of start on your side of things! -- but God isn't waiting for your repentance, to prepare you and empower and lead you to repentance. So if you can't repent of that sin yet, I know God won't give up on you, and He voluntarily suffers with you meanwhile.
The fact that this concerns you indicates you haven't lost your soul, for had you lost it, you would have no concern over it. I'd encourage you, in your pain, to call out to the loving God who created us all. I was reading earlier about Saul, who persecuted Christians, had them arrested and put to death before he became Paul when he encountered the living Jesus. Your pain at your grievous mortal sin, reminds me that Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who put Him on the cross. A mortal sin doesn't get any worse than being responsible for killing Jesus. May the Lord heal your pain and sin Noemie.
Shalom Noémie. Please sister, cry to Him and pray to Him, The All Mighty Loving GOD, day and night until He delivers you. PUT ON THE ARMOUR, YOU ARE IN A BATTLE FOR YOUR SOUL. HE will make it good. GOD's love never fail. Trust in Him. Lamentations 3: 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; There is a purpose for doubts and the darkest of the dark nights, when He sets us free, we love Him even more, and trust in Him even more so.