Lie vs Truth – Eternal Hell or Universal Reconciliation in Lord Jesus Christ?

1) Are personal spiritual experiences reliable in determining Truth?

 

Question

An eternal hell believer wrote this: Currently I am praying for this young man to come out of Satanism. During my one on one talk with me he told me something that I found ambiguous. I need your help on this one.

 

He told me Satan told him. Everything is gonna be fine. They are not in way less save than Christian who don’t drink human blood and eat human flesh.

He said to me Satan assured him that he has nothing to worry about as far as eternity is concerned.

 

At that time I want to shout : the devil is a liar!!!

 

Just when I was about to, shout I thought may be the devil is just being a universalist. Believing that God has it all under a divine control. I found myself wondering between Satan is a liar Vs Satan is a universalist.

 

I mean no offense but I’m just asking. If Satan indeed told the boy that him and the boy have bright eternity. Will universalists accept Satan as a like minded / a hope full universalist?

 

My Reply

 

I have heard demonic voices in the past.

 

 

 

I spoke to various Voices that have identified themselves as Satan and even deities of other religions.

 

I remember distinctly that the Devil’s Voice has Spoken to me (“audible” in my ear, the ‘hearing Voices & Conversing with it demonic attack’ for almost a year) —-> mentioning that “if I don’t believe in an eternal Hell, I will be tossed into it” (the demonic voices mentioned ‘many other lies too’ but I am highlighting this for the purpose of the similarity in your own spiritual experience as you quoted’ but quite ‘oppositely’).

 

So can I deduce likewise that since Satan is a liar, “Hell being eternal is false”?

 

To cut the long story short, I eventually heard a DIFFERENT VOICE (till today I do NOT know whether it is the VOICE OF GOD or the VOICE OF AN ANGEL but it is NOT a ‘voice of demons for sure’) —-> I heard it LITERALLY in the midst of the ‘demonic voices being cast into the background when it happened’ —-> and the Voice Said, “Get on your knees and Declare that Jesus is Lord/God” —> I immediately got on my knees and did that, and quite instantly, ‘the demonic voices’ volume were beginning to decrease as though someone was tuning down the volume’.

That Divine-Good Voice shook me and it came from the Center (from within – hard to explain but I can sense the direction when I heard it) while the ‘demonic voices which I was so acquainted to hearing at that time’ came from the ‘outside (externally) from all directions – front, back, left, right’.

Eventually, as I ‘repented’ and believed more strongly in Christ Centered Universalism, I heard those ‘lowered Volume demonic Voices’ NO MORE TILL TODAY. I was not immediately healed since at the time of hearing the demonic voices (‘due to falling into sins in the past’), I was neither a Christian Universalist nor a Eternal Hell Christian because I believed in either at times being ‘double minded’ at that time (James 1:8).

 

That’s ‘my personal spiritual experience’ in this area. Different, isn’t it?

 

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” – Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:43 – 45, NASB)

 

If my spiritual experience is ‘false’, I should hear even more demonic voices as Matthew 12:45 mentions but it NEVER HAPPENED again.

 

Why?

God’s Mercy as the Verse below (John 8:36) Majestically Declares (I believe that both a Christian Universalist or an eternal Hell believing Christian may both be HEALED by LORD JESUS CHRIST as He Wills – ‘meaning of Mercy’ – though we may NOT know it is HIM WHO HEALED us as a case in Hosea 11:3 too mentions this in Principle – each Verse is quoted below):

 

“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” – Lord Jesus Christ (John 8:36, NASB)

 

“Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did NOT KNOW that I HEALED THEM.” – God Speaks (in Hosea 11:3, NASB)

 

 

 

So, instead of analyzing all that, let us get back to the BIBLE ONLY to determine TRUTH. Let’s begin.

 

In the Gospels, the Devil also pointed that “Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God” in Verse below:

 

“When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. And they [the Demons] cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:28 – 29, NASB)

 

So, based on ‘your logic’, does it imply that Lord Jesus Christ is not the Son of God “just because Satan uttered it & so it must be a lie”?

 

 

Also, can we deduce based on the Verses above also that there is NO such thing as a TORMENT for DEMONS as their JUDGMENT (Punishment) at SOME TIME in the future just because the ‘Devil is a liar & he uttered it in Verse above’ (and so it must be ‘false’ based on such a ‘logic’)?

 

The ONLY way to determine Truth is to refer to His Word and NOT ‘subjective personal spiritual experiences’ because it is Written that “THY WORD is TRUTH” (John 17:17, NASB)

 

Peace to you

 

P/S:

I know the habit of some of the eternal Hell scholars to brush away the entire Scripture based deduction above as a ‘special case’ that ‘cannot be explained’ or that the ‘demons speak truth only to Christ’ but ‘lies to humans all the time’.

 

If so, please consider the Verses below which refutes this ‘special case idea’:

“It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.” (Acts 16:16 – 18, NASB)

 

Please note carefully that the girl with a “spirit of divination” (‘an evil spirit’ as apostle Paul casts it OUT later) —-> testified that “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation” (please note this phrase carefully) -> is this phrase ‘True or False’?

 

It is True.

 

Conclusion

 

Please also note carefully that the ‘special case argument that demons speak truth to Lord Jesus Christ only’ (as eternal Hell scholars often make up such strange excuses) does NOT hold here since the demons are speaking to “apostle Paul” here who is just a “man” like any of us.

The phrase “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation” is TRUE. But just because a demonic entity speaks a truth at times, it doesn’t prove anything because we put our faith in God’s Written Word (the Bible ONLY) as it is Written.

 

I do NOT put my faith in spiritual experiences because a demon could be speaking a truth or a lie and so I analyze these things with His Written Word (the Bible ‘only’) in order to be “not deceived”.

 

Shalom

 

 

2) Devil – Is there Hope for Satan too in Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Yes.

 

Universal Reconciliation is clearly Mentioned implying this Hope in 1 Corinthians 15:24 – 28 with Colossians 1:16, 20 and Romans 8:20 -21 regarding being free from “corruption” (sin & its effects) which applies to ALL CREATION eventually (Romans 8:22 as they will be born again too in this aspect).

 

It’s probably not directly stated as it may be hidden things.

 

 

An Indirect approach in quoted Verses above is given since it may not be lawful for men to utter it directly or because this “ending part” doesn’t concern men and so, no elaborate explanation is given.

 

Two famous and holy Christian saints who believed in this Hope are St. Gregory of Nyssa (quote below) and Sadhu Sundar Singh (quote in image).

 

 

“Our Lord is the One who delivers man [all men], and who heals the inventor of evil himself” — Gregory of Nyssa (332-398 A.D.), leading theologian of the Eastern Church

 

P/S: Website link for a few posts discussing such details:

 

1) https://www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/the-unchangeable-god-everlasting-chains/

 

2) www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/satan-and-fallen-angels-hope-for-them-or-heresy/

 

3) https://www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/controversial-topic-demons/

 

4) www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/secrets-beyond-hell-sadhu-sundar-singh/

 

5) www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/sadhu-sundar-singh-a-christian-universalist/

 

6) www.anonymouschristian.org/blog/hell-hate-and-love/

 

 

Sadhu Sundar Singh’s Quote agreeing to this Hope is in image below:

 

 

 

 

3) Conciliation or Reconciliation or Both in the END?

 

Copied this Word Study regarding the Greek Words meaning Conciliation vs Reconciliation as follows from a Bible Discussion Group (from Ancil):

ON RECONCILIATION – reducing the Gap between God and man. This is why we look to the original Greek. (From my Notes, also credit Dr. Stephen Jones)

 

• There are two Greek words for reconciliation: katallaso and apo-katallaso. These words are related but slightly different. Technically there is a difference between reconciliation (both parties reconciling: apo-katallaso) and conciliation (one party reconciling).

 

• If two people are enemies and are separated by some dispute, they need to be reconciled one to another. But if just one of those people takes it upon himself to drop the case and forgive the other, raising the white flag of truce, a conciliation has just occurred.

 

• A conciliation is a one-sided peace, done outside the will or knowledge of the second party. It is done by the council of his own will in the secret chambers of his governmental palace. This is what God did when he “reconciled us”

 

• He who has conciliated his brother then sends his ambassador with the white flag of truce to sue for peace, to beg the other to conciliate in return. If he does so, then it is two-sided; it is a reconciliation.

 

• In 2 Corinthians 5 we find that God has conciliated the world to Himself. He laid aside his righteous and lawful case which he had against the world and conciliated the world. Then He sent us Christians into the world as His ambassadors to them to beg them to be conciliated to God in return.

 

• All who take heed and make peace with God, complete the process, they no longer make God their enemy and are reconciled to Him.

 

2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [katallasso, “conciliation”], 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling [“conciliating”] the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation [“conciliation”]. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled [“conciliated”] to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

• God was in Christ reconciling THE WORLD to Himself, not just Christians.

 

• He cancelled the books, by not imputing our trespasses unto us.

 

• God is not fighting the world and has conciliated the world.

 

• He has now committed to us (the priests), the word of reconciliation.

 

• If reconciliation already took place, that is, if everyone return conciliation to God automatically, there would be no need for ambassadors.

 

• In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul explains to the Christians that they have been called as ambassadors of Christ to a ministry of conciliation. That is, Christians have been entrusted with a message to give to the world. It is NOT a word of hellfire and brimstone. It is NOT the bad news of the damned. It is the good news “that God was in Christ conciliating THE WORLD to Himself, not counting their trespasses against THEM.”/

 

• Many will respond to God out of fear of hell, but vast numbers will reject God as well. Fear is a good motivator, but love is better.

 

• Jesus Christ will not need to FORCE the nations into submission, for once they come to know Him, He will prove to be “the desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7, KJV).

 

But Paul showed that full reconciliation WILL be achieved, and in His reality, has been achieved at the Cross.

 

Colossians 1:20-22.

20 And through Him to reconcile [apo-katallaso] all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled [apo-katallaso] you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

 

• Paul simply says that God’s purpose is to reconcile all things to Himself. That means BOTH parties are to make peace, and throughout the ages it WILL occur.

 

P/S: Which “All things” is being referred to in Colossians 1:20? (Context)

 

ALL CREATED THINGS as this Biblical Definition is Found prior in a “Consecutive Verse” below first (“Context”) as it is Written as follows Deeply:

 

“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.” – apostle Paul (Colossians 1:16, NASB)

 

Yes, please note the phrases “all things were created” and “visible and invisible” which certainly includes the “Devils and Demons” too in Verse above (Colossians 1:16) as part of the Definition of ALL THINGS which are to be RECONCILED to HIM eventually (and NOT conciliated to HIM ‘only’ – Colossians 1:20 as explained in Write up earlier).

 

Truly, Lord Jesus Christ is the Blessed God Who became Flesh to SAVE the WORLD!

 

Shalom