2. The second passage that is appealed to by those who deny the
endlessness of future punishment is Phil. 2:9-11: +"Wherefore also
God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above
every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father."+ Here it is said, we are told, that all those
"under the earth" as well as in heaven and on earth should bow the
knee in the name of Jesus and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and
that this implies that they are saved. But it does not imply that they
are saved. Every knee of lost men and of the devil and his angels too
will be forced some day to bow in the name of Jesus and every tongue
forced to confess that He is Lord. If any one does that in the present
life of his own free choice, he will be saved, but otherwise he will
do it by compulsion in the age to come and every one has his choice
between doing it now willingly and gladly and being saved, or doing it
by compulsion hereafter and being lost. There is absolutely nothing
in this passage to teach universal salvation or to militate even
inferentially against the plain statements we have been studying.
3. The third passage that is appealed to is Acts 3:19-21: +"Repent
ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that
so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;
and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even
Jesus: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of
all things whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that
have been from of old."+ Here we are told of a coming "restoration
_of all things_" and those who contend for the doctrine of universal
salvation hold that this means the restoration to righteousness of all
persons. But that is not what it says, and that is not what it refers
to. We are taught in Old Testament prophecy and also in the book of
Romans, that in connection with the return of our Lord Jesus there is
to be a _restoration of all nature_, of the whole physical universe,
from its fallen state. For example, in Rom. 8:19-21 we read: +"For
the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of
the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of
its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the
creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the liberty of the glory of the children of God."+ And in Isa.
55:13 we read: +"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree;
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall
be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off."+ And in Isa. 65:25 we are told: +"The wolf and the lamb
shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust
shall be the serpent's food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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