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"But if Satan alone were to suffer such a fate (tormented for ever and ever),
and even if he be consigned to the remotest corner of the universe, his single case
would not allow us to speak of the reconciliation as universal*. We need to
consider most carefully, then, the words which seem to teach the endlessness of
Satan's doom" (U.R. Vol. 3:, No. 5, p. 205).
The belief in the future universal reconciliation, even to the inclusion of Satan, caused
the author to consider the meaning of the words translated "for ever" and "everlasting."
His findings on this subject so far as the meaning of the words are concerned are
valuable, and we do not hesitate, with others, to acknowledge help received in this study.
We state the fact, however, to show how every doctrine, every aspect of truth, every
interpretation offered has had behind it, either manifest or hidden, confessed or
unrealized, the inexorable necessity, that if the goal and consummation of the ages be the
reconciliation of all things, then they that have perished only for the eons, that they
whose "end is destruction" have blessing beyond that "end," that even those whose
names were not found in the book of life must sometime live again. The absence of the
remotest hint of any such thing at the end of Rev. 20: must not prevent us from believing
that it MUST be so, even to Satan himself.
"What though we do not understand how it can be possible (argues the
author), what though it jars our theology, what though it seems* to us contrary to
some other of His statements--these are no excuse for denying the record of God
concerning His Son. His Son is supreme! And His supremacy depends upon His
reconciliation of the universe" (U.R. Vol. 4:, No. 6, p. 279).
We need quote no more to prove that the interpretations of Scripture put forth by those
who believe the future universal reconciliation have not resulted from an unbiased study
of the passages themselves, but from the felt necessity enforced by the pre-conception as
to the ultimate goal of the universe. Consequently we refrain from further word battles
over I Cor. 15: Without the impelling necessity of the future universal reconciliation the
death spoken of in I Cor. 15: would never have been thought to mean other than that
which the context declares it to be, viz., that connected with Adam. We come to the
subject itself. We ask the question, Supposing Scripture does not teach that the goal of
the universe is the reconciliation of all things? IF the Scripture teaches that as the climax
and the goal, then we must believe it "though it seems to us contrary to some other of His
statements," but IF it does not, shall we not be guilty of wresting the Scriptures even
though we may have conceived the idea of adding to the glory of God thereby?
We believe that our studies together of the subject will prove that very many of God's
people have been obsessed with man-made doctrine. There is NO SUCH DOCTRINE to
be found in Scripture as that the goal or consummation of the ages is the reconciliation of
all things. Reconciliation as taught by Paul is dispensational, it does not reach out to the
consummation of the ages. Reconciliation as taught by Paul has to do with nations in
relation to Israel in its first stage, and with the two-fold aspect of the church of the one
body in its second stage. Reconciliation as taught by Paul is finished and done with long
[NOTE: * - Author's own italics.]