All Saints Day

[David]

“All Saints Day” is a day to honor all those who have entered heaven. This remembrance is celebrated every year on November 1st by the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant denominations. All of us can celebrate this day, be at peace and rejoice in knowing that all people will ultimately enter into heaven because of God’s love through Christ. 

As Richard K. Murray has written:

“Patristic Universalism (aka Apocatastasis), to which I subscribe, believes that one must be spiritually reborn to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and that this rebirth comes solely from an extension of interpersonal faith in Jesus Christ. It simply holds that this conversion can come in this age (which is far better) OR in the heightened crisis of the postmortem ages to come.

In other words, even after our deaths, God will continue to woo us, convince us, and vibrantly confront our issues until we finally see and embrace the irresistible truth– that Jesus Christ is the one true light and love, and in Him alone our salvation lies. The church fathers believed that “God’s fire was wise” in purging and pruning our diseased souls back to a place of healthy receptivity.

This form of Universalism believes in a God who would never give His children the keys to a cosmic car with which they could crash, burn, and destroy themselves eternally. Rather, our dear Abba has installed spiritual guardrails, airbags, and safety equipment into the postmortem cosmos which will keep our souls from destruction no matter how hard we may have wrecked them during our earth lives.

Simply put, Patristic Universalism believes Jesus will win all people back, come Hell or high-water. God, through Jesus Christ, will ultimately rescue and convince ALL to receive their rebirth, even if it is after (in some cases) much “gnashing of teeth,” prolonged emotional anguish, and stubborn mental resistance. Many will hold out for extended periods of time, but all will eventually see that against an irresistibly virtuous God there is no eternal defense. As the lies are burned away, every soul will come to itself and behold this champion truth– Jesus Christ is God’s rescuing love.”

We have Scripture, early church fathers and today’s date to consider:

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.  28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:22,26,28 (NASB)

“When death shall no longer exist, or the sting of death, nor any evil at all, then truly God will be all in all.”
—Origen (185 to 254 A.D.)

“For it is evident that God will in truth be all in all when there shall be no evil in existence, when every created being is at harmony with itself and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; when every creature shall have been made one body.”
—Gregory of Nyssa (335 to 390 A.D.)

Today is November 1, 2019 A.D., “Anno Domini,” a Latin phrase meaning “in the year of our Lord” referring to the year of Christ’s birth. BC means before Christ. So today, 2019 AD is intended to signify that it has been 2,019 years since Christ was born.

The BC/AD system of dating has Christ as its central focus. It was developed in 525 AD, when the entrance of Christ into the world was recognized as being the turning point of history, and our calendars were made to reflect that.

The use of BCE and CE are more recent designations. BCE stands for “Before the Common Era,” and CE stands for “Common Era.”  BCE is used in place of BC, and CE is used in place of AD. The years are the same, only the designations are different. 100 BCE is the same as 100 BC, and 2019 CE is the same as 2019 AD.

No matter what the designation one uses for 2019 (AD or CE), the year 2019 signifies that it has been 2,019 years since Christ was born and that the entrance of Christ into the world is recognized as being the turning point of history! - Adapted & Abridged

For further consideration:
https://thegoodnessofgod.com/what-is-patristic-universalism/


God is love and love never fails!

Dave

[David]