Love's Final Victory / Ultimate Universal Salvation on the Basis of Scripture and Reason

by Horatio

I say, that objection may appear a formidable one at the first glance.
Let us examine it with all fairness and candor.

In the first place, I would say that it is not God's way to give us His revelations all at once. No, not even when He inspires men to write them. Those revelations have a primitive meaning, suited for men of a primitive age. But as the ages go on, and men become more developed, there breaks on them more light from the Word. And that light is brighter very often than even the original writers apprehended. They built better than they knew, for they were writing, not for their own age alone, but for all time. This unique character of the revelation shows that it is divine. And thus there still "breaks more light from God's holy Word" as the ages move on. Whether or not, then, we see the reason of it, we note the fact that it is not God's method to pour the full flood of His light on the minds and hearts of men all at once. If we could see no farther than that, we might be content, and reverently say, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight."

As an instance of this growing illumination, take the fact that in the primitive ages there was no clear revelation of immortality. I have no doubt that men of high spiritual calibre believed it; but the revelation came to them more directly from the movement of the Spirit, than from any intimation in the Word. Yea, when men had no Word at all, I believe there were devout souls who had glimpses, more or less clear, of a future world. But the mass of mankind, even the religious people of mankind, had in most instances no such revelation.

Now if that is true, it becomes less surprising that the most devout souls have had for so long no conception of Restoration. The analogy of revelation shows beyond all doubt that Restoration may be true, though for ages and ages men had no conception of it. Nay, they may have been students of the Word through all those ages, and yet have been blind to its higher revelations. That is no disparagement. There is a time for everything; and there is a time for brighter divine light to break on the minds and hearts of men.

Then it may be supposed that if further divine light were to be given, God would have chosen more worthy mediums for communicating it. But as a rule, it is not through the great and the learned that revelations generally have come; but rather through the humble and comparatively obscure. This is God's way. He may choose what media He will as well as what time He will. We read that "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty." And He did the same thing long ago in giving a written revelation to the world. Some of the writers were noble and learned, while others were illiterate and obscure. So it is no disparagement to this larger view if it does not come to us through what the world calls respectable channels.

Then it may be noted that truth was given to men as they could receive it. To reveal the whole truth in an obscure age would dazzle more than it would enlighten. God knows men's capacity for receiving truth; and He adapts His communications accordingly. Jesus could say to His disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you; but you cannot bear them now." And, by His Spirit He has been saying those "many things" ever since, as men could receive them. It was a great thing for His disciples to have, for instance, such a clear vision of immortality as they certainly had when Christ ascended on high. That was enough along that line for the time; but now there is breaking on our hearts the larger view of Restoration.

Yes, and we might have had that glorious truth much sooner, if we had not grossly lapsed into sin, and so obscured heaven's light. The fact is, that in the early centuries of the Christian era the larger view was accepted freely. But by and by the church of Rome invented the dogma of eternal torment for its own gain; and that is how we came by our evil heritage. So that in this matter we have lapsed from our early faith; and a sad, sad lapse it was, entailing untold mourning, lamentation, and woe.

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But it is a glorious truth that men with the utmost limitation can be used of God for the highest ends. Elsewhere I cite the case of the Apostle Peter in this regard. He could be used for the conversion of three thousand men by means of one sermon; and later the conversion of five thousand men; and yet he did not believe that the Gospel was intended for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. It is a marvel of divine wisdom and grace that such a poor instrument could be used for such a glorious work. And we have seen the same principle at work in our own time. If Restoration is true, yet men who believed in endless torment, and counted it a prime article of the orthodox faith, were, notwithstanding, the very salt of the earth, and were used of God in conserving and disseminating the limited truth which they knew. I say, that is a marvel of divine grace and condescension.

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