Thread: Really Old Books that Confirm the Permissive Sense of Isaiah 45:7

It seems to me that God can do many different things that amount to judgment, from doing nothing to withdrawing his protection to actively imposing calamity.

1 Cor 3:12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

God is light and he is a consuming fire. Even if that fire consumes our work and we receive no reward, we will still be saved on account of Jesus living in us. But in a similar way that someone is saved through a fire. Which is not a pleasent experience.

1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

For those who have no work and no life in them either there is only the consuming fire. Is that a literal fire ? Nope, it's God's substance manifested.

1 Cor 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

To the redeemed his manifested substance will be like the ocean, like the air, like light itself. When everything that is opposed to it by nature has been swallowed up by the resurrection life of Jesus, that is.

Originally Posted by Quest

Not going to hijack here but this sounds really similar to what Mr. Young says in his book regarding Hell...

Now that I have updated myself on Paul Young's universalism, I'll comment on that. The lake of fire represents separation from God and a total lack of communion even if the consuming fire as such is present. The fire doesn't have the effect of drawing the sinner towards God, to the contrary it has the effect of manifesting God's wrath towards him.

"perhaps hell is hell not because of the absence of God, but because of the presence of God, the continuous and confrontational presence of fiery Love and Goodness and Freedom that intends to destroy every vestige of evil and darkness that prevents us from being fully free and fully alive. This is a fire of Love that now and forever is “for” us, not against us." - Paul Young, "The lies we believe about God"

https://carm.org/lies-we-believe-abo...-by-paul-young

That's not eternal judgment he is describing, it's rather a form of refining fire that in afterlife brings the sinner to communion with God.