Hope of Glory
New Member
A thought just hit me, like a wet fish: Universalists use some of the same passages to "prove" that everyone will be saved. How? They see the present tense and the subjunctives, but they also fail to see the distinction between the salvation of the spirit and the salvation of the soul. Most people see the salvation of the body, either as a present reality (such as being saved from a physical peril) or future, such as the resurrection, but they stop there. They fail to see that man who was created in the image of God is trichotomous, just as God is triune.
There is no place in the Bible that talks about "truly saved" or "professors, not possessors", or any such thing. Those are all man-made terms to try to explain things that seem contradictory, that when taken in context (soul/spirit) are not contradictory at all.
Most of these terms are coined to explain why works are required to be "saved", even though it's a gift, or how perishing applies to a person, or something else such as that.
And universalists (as well as those who think you can lose your salvation) use the exact same passages to come to an opposite conclusion, but for the same reason: The failure to distinguish between the soul and the spirit.
There is no place in the Bible that talks about "truly saved" or "professors, not possessors", or any such thing. Those are all man-made terms to try to explain things that seem contradictory, that when taken in context (soul/spirit) are not contradictory at all.
Most of these terms are coined to explain why works are required to be "saved", even though it's a gift, or how perishing applies to a person, or something else such as that.
And universalists (as well as those who think you can lose your salvation) use the exact same passages to come to an opposite conclusion, but for the same reason: The failure to distinguish between the soul and the spirit.