Opposition to Universal Reconciliation

Dr Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum (Dr Arnold) is a brilliant Messianic Jewish theologian living in USA whose expertise in the Scriptures, particularly regarding Israel's past, present and future, is outstanding.

Although I am learning so much from his written and video publications, I do not agree with his opposition to God's plan to eventually reconcile and save all His creation, a position I find promised in a correctly translated Bible and discussed in my book "The Really Good News About God" published in 2015.

Dr Arnold sees three different versions of what he calls "Unlimited Second Probation".
1. Universalism, which he defines as "all are eventually saved without the necessity of after life repentance".
2. Restorationism, which he defines as "all are saved because of a second chance to hear the gospel after death and a subsequent repentance after death".
3. Universal Reconciliation, which he defines as "after a long period of existence in the Lake of Fire, all are going to be reconciled back to God, all are going to be saved, including Satan".

We will focus on Dr Arnold's third definition in this series of posts as that definition is closer to what the Bible seems to teach than the other two.

Dr Arnold presents his criticism in a paper titled "The intermediate State Between Death and Resurrection (MBS104)" available for download on the Ariel Ministries website www.ariel.org.
His arguments against Universal Reconciliation (UR) are offered under five headings:
a. The Scriptures Used
b. The Fixed State of the Unbelieving Dead
c. The Basis of the Final Judgement
d. The Final Decision Made in this Life
e. The Contradiction to Scripture.

In the upcoming posts, I will address each of these arguments and demonstrate from Scripture why I think they are insufficient to dismiss God's plan to eventually reconcile all creation to Himself, and thus save everyone.

After all, the Bible does say ...

Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us.
[1 Cor 15 : 22  CEV]

which encourages us to

... put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
[1 Timothy 4 : 10  NIV]

confirming Jesus' words cited by John.

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
[John 12 : 32  NIV]

Blessings, Barry

PS.  In the following posts, I will use underlining to help identify Dr Arnold's actual words.