Response to Universal Reconciliation Opposition - Part 7

This is the seventh in a mini-series of posts responding to the arguments offered by Dr Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum (Dr Arnold) against God's plan to eventually reconcile and save all His creation.

His arguments against Universal Reconciliation (UR) are offered under five headings, the second of which is b. The Fixed State of the Unbelieving Dead. (see a previous post "Opposition to Universal Reconciliation" here)

Under the b. The Fixed State of the Unbelieving Dead heading Dr Arnold claims that the unbelieving dead are seen in a fixed state that cannot be altered and then quotes numerous texts from the New Testament hoping to illustrate his assertion.

I will address these cited texts in five groups:
(i) Four texts from Matthew's gospel describing Jewish unbelievers weeping and gnashing their teeth;
(ii) The Rich Man and Lazarus parable from Luke's gospel which is presumed to show the fixed state of "hell";
(iii) Two texts from John's gospel which announce that Jews not believing in the Messiah will die in their sins;
(iv) Two texts from 2 Peter declaring that the unrighteous will need to face judgement; and
(v) Two texts from Jude describing so-called "eternal" dark outcomes for sinners.

(i) The Matthew Texts.
These texts are used by Dr Arnold to argue that the unbelieving dead are in an unalterable fixed state of punishment.
They are part of the conclusions to parables Jesus was using to teach his Jewish audience.
(Parables are stories that use familiar earthly ingredients to illustrate spiritual principles or realities.)
Matthew 13 : 41 - 42

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [NIV]

Matthew 22 : 13

Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ [NIV]

Mathew 24 : 51

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [NIV]

and Matthew 25 : 30

'And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' [NIV]

I certainly agree that the places and experiences described in these parable are extremely unpleasant.
In each case, Jesus has used strong hyperbolic images for severe chastisement to communicate to the Jews the serious cost in rejecting their long-expected Messiah and the kingdom He came to establish for them. 

However, none of these texts gives even a hint that the situation is an unalterable fixed state, as Dr Arnold claims.  
The punishment suffered is being locked out of the Messianic Age, the coming earthly kingdom often called the millennium, for which they will suffer agonising grief.

But that's not the end of the story - for them (or for anyone else for that matter).

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited:
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,
and in this way all Israel will be saved.
As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
[Romans 11 : 25 - 27  NIV]

So there is nothing permanent in the cited texts, nor is permanent torture or destruction or agonising grief consistent with God's plan for national Israel found in other texts.

Here's an example from one of their prophets, Jeremiah.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
 
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”
[Jeremiah 31 : 31 - 34  NIV]

We'll discuss Luke's parable in the next post.
Blessings, Barry