A Good Article On Christian Universalism

Okay, I finally got my character to level 55 and made my Death Knight in WoW, so finally I may be able to begin posting again. To start things out I'll make up my usual Sunday posting on faith and the salvation of all with this adaptation of an article from the 1880s:

The Beauty of Christian Universalism

Christian Universalism appears to me very simple, consistent, and beautiful. It regards this world as God's, and the whole human family as His children. It accepts without distrust the fundamental fact of the gospel, that God, out of his great love to mankind, now alienated from him by sin, sent his only begotten Son to seek and to save that which was lost, and by redeeming men from sin, to restore them to their right relations with God, and thus fit them to glorify and enjoy Him forever.

It teaches that whatever mystery or difficulty there may be in the work of redeeming and saving souls, it is precisely the same in one and all. The truth, the grace, the love, the spiritual power, that can seize and transform one sinful soul, yours or mine, a Peter's or a Paul's is able to seize and transform all souls, for it can accommodate itself to all possible diversities of character and all conditions of life.

It is in virtue of this comprehensive power and fitness for the work it has in hand, that the gospel of Christ is qualified to be, and is to become, in fact, a universal religion. If there is one human soul in the universe that Christ cannot subdue and bring into willing subjection to his law, he is not "the Savior of the world," as inspiration proclaims him, and not the Savior the world needs.

Yet this redemptive work, let me add, is always carried on in perfect accordance with man's moral nature. Transcendent and divine as the power is, it operates in harmony with all human powers, so that, while Christ subdues our hearts to his will and brings them in subjection to his holy law, there is no violence done to our personality or our own will. We never act more freely than when we recognize the divine love, and sweetly yield our wills, ourselves, to its all-conquering power.

It was his prophecy and promise, as he stood in the immediate presence of the cross, that if he were lifted up from the earth, thus signifying by what death he was to die, he would draw all men unto himself (John 7:32). And this word "draw" expresses admirably the attractive forces of the Christian religion and Christ's method of accomplishing his work. Men are not driven to goodness and heaven, but are drawn thither. And we cannot properly consider the power of the divine love, as exhibited in the mission of Christ, without feeling convinced that it is sufficient to do all that Christ undertook. Prophecy assures us that he will not fail nor be discouraged in his work, but bring it at last to a glorious consummation.

As there is one God, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, so there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time (I Tim. 2:3-6). And that Christian seems to me weak in the faith who does not see in his Lord and Master a will, a love, a patience, a persistence, equal to the great work he came to do.

Nor do the various punishments which necessarily befall the sinner, whether here or hereafter, in any manner interfere with Christ's redeeming purpose, or interrupt the processes of his grace. On the contrary, they may always be, as we know they often are, the means of breaking the stubborn will, and so preparing the heart for the readier reception of the divine love and law. And as Christ in his history has experienced all the states of human existence, having sojourned and suffered in this world, descended into Hades, and ascended into heaven, that as the Apostle says, "he might fill all things," so he embraces in the arms of his redeeming power and love the whole human family in all their possible states of being, whether alive upon earth, or whether they lived before the flood, or are to live in the ages to come. He tasted death for every man, and is therefore to be the Savior of the world.

In the language of the Apostle we say, "Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11). And it needs no argument to show that universal homage to Christ and this confession of him as Lord can be nothing else than a personal and individual act. No man can make this confession for his neighbor and the Apostle elsewhere assures us that these acts of homage and allegiance can be performed in no other temper than that of profound sincerity. "No man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost" (I Cor. 7:3).

In the realm of the spiritual, forms and ceremonies count little, and unmeaning or forced confessions, in which the heart does not utter its own feelings and convictions, count nothing at all. The Apostle, in declaring that every knee is to bow in the name of Christ, and every tongue to confess him Lord to the glory of God the Father, was surely not speaking of any mere outward service or any hypocritical homage, and quite as little of that confession which orthodoxy madly dreams will be extorted from the damned in hell.

The salvation of the whole human race is what God proposed in the creation. It is what Christ came into the world to effect, and for the accomplishment of which he was given all needed power in heaven and earth. To this end he died the death of the cross, and thus tasted death for every man; and I submit that such self-sacrificing love cannot suddenly cool, or readily give over to endless torment souls for which it thus willingly suffered.

I should be ashamed of myself, if, believing in God and in Christ, I still feared their ultimate failure in this great work of redemption, whose history fills the Bible. God never fails. I cannot associate failure with him even in thought. It is for him who inhabits eternity, and who is at once omniscient and omnipotent, to say, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 46:10). And I beg those of the contrary part to reflect that the final issue of the divine government, whether it be in harmony with our theology or theirs, must be what God saw it from the beginning, and what, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, he himself proposed.

The above article was adapted, with slight editing, from the book "Endless Punishment In the Very Words of Its Advocates" by Thomas J. Sawyer, S.T.D., 1880

Some good stuff here, well worth pondering.

L.Neil Smith on Sarah Palin

I have long admired the books of libertarian sci-fi writer L. Neil Smith. People have often called him a proper heir to the works of Robert Heinlein, with his novels being full of fun-loving, gun-toting free thinkers. I'm not sure I would go that far, being I feel Heinlein's stature will probably never be matched, but I do love the guy's books.

He made some very interesting comments about Palin, liberals, and the election on his website:

Apparently liberals can't handle the idea of a woman with power if that woman isn't another liberal.

Enter Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. When Mad Jack McCain announced the choice he'd made of Palin as a running mate late last summer, I was delighted and surprised. It wasn't simply the only smart move the Hanoi Senator had made during his campaign, it was probably the only smart move any Republican had made since Eisenhower ended the Korean War.

High on the list of reasons I was delighted and surprised was that we'd have an excellent chance now to see clearly just how sisterly all those left-wing socialist feminists could be toward the third woman in American history likely to score herself a vote in the Electoral College.

The first, of course, being Tonie Nathan, a Libertarian.

What I saw and heard during the next three months exceeded even my wildest imaginings—and remember, I'm an imaginer by profession—a vitriolic spew of blind, visceral, dogmatic hatred that the nation's "progressives" hadn't lavished even on Randy Weaver, back when Ruby Ridge was in the headlines, nor on Timothy McVeigh after the explosion in Oklahoma City. Some feminists even claimed that, somehow, Palin wasn't a woman. Meaning, of course, that she dared to cherish values differing from those a woman, in their demented view, is supposed to cherish.

One so-called female so-called comedian referred to Palin as a "...little freaked out, intimidated, frightened, right-wing Republican, thin-lipped bitch", unintentionally describing herself by temperament, if not by political persuasion. She also warned the vice presidential candidate that she (Palin) would be gang-raped by her (the comedian's) "big black brothers" if she (Palin) visited Manhattan.

This to a real woman who, at least by implication, knows how to deal with a rapist the way a rapist ought to be dealt with, not with a little plastic whistle or a sisterly candlelight vigil, but with... well, let's just put it this way: there are places in Alaska where you're not allowed to venture unless you're carrying at least a .357 Magnum.

Same way the streets and subways of New York should be.

The so-called female so-called comedian also warned Palin to "stay away from the Old Testament", whatever that means, and referred to Palin's religion as "new goyish crappy shiksa funky bullshit!" Then, not realizing how funny she was being unintentionally, she added, "I'd just like [Palin] to explain to me how she can hold such outrageous views." I believe this calls for a new category of bigotry. How about "anti-Gentilism"?

Observers as disparate as freethinking liberal Camille Paglia and conservative Michael Barone have suggested that Palin became a target for bitter militant feminist hatred not simply because she opposes abortion, but because she declined to abort her own fifth child when she learned, in advance, that he would be afflicted with Down's Syndrome.

However not everything is about fetuses, and I believe there is a much wider and deeper reason that the left have unzipped and exposed themselves this way. There is a war going on, after all, between the so-called "dominant culture"—for which read the Parasitic Class—and the American Productive Class that clothes, feeds, and houses this country and much of the world and generally keeps the whole thing running.

The Parasitic Class decided for themselves long ago that we, the members of the Productive Class, should keep our places, work hard, turn over all our money to our "betters", and shut up. They, the Parasitic Class, for the most part alumni of Ivy League universities—alma maters of most of the morons who got us into, not only the current economic, military, and constitutional mess we find ourselves in today, but all of the economic, military, and constitutional messes of the 20th century, as well—would do the thinking, planning, and ruling.

Unannointed by such an Ivy League education or even the minimum requirement for membership in good standing in the Parasitic Class, a law degree (after trying other schools she graduated in media from the University of Idaho), Palin's an upstart, a usurper, a bounder, crimes that transcend even her protected status as a female. She isn't even from "Flyover Country"—nobody who's anybody ever flies over Alaska.

Perhaps as important, Palin isn't some pallid East-coast hotel dweller, accustomed to room service, but a real human being, a real live female who can do all of the things listed in the song "I'm A Woman"—she can handle a rifle, hunt, fish, clean and cut up wild game, make something edible out of it, keep house, raise five kids, keep her husband interested since they were in high school together, plus run a city and run a state—and most of the things any human being should be able to do, according to The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.

In short, she's a Heinlein woman.

That, I submit, is why she's hated by those females who are not Heinlein women, and by those Milquetoast males who are desperately afraid of the kind of real woman she is. That's why she was betrayed by her own party—Mit Romney's faction—which was the source, as it develops, of many of the most vicious falsehoods that were spread about her. That's why she's being blamed for McCain's pathetic failures, in an attempt to make sure she won't have a political future.

And that the peasants won't revolt.

The 2008 election is behind us now, a part of history, and the collectivists who triumphed are going to enjoy it while they can. The observations I've made here might be unimportant, except that, owing to the ascension of their god-king, we're going to be living with these animals for a while. In the end, it may be that the best thing Sarah Palin's candidacy accomplished is exposing them for what they are.

Gotta give props to Mr. Smith for his insightful commentary here.

/Hat Tip to the Libertarian Republican for this one.

Instead of the Usual Sunday Bible Study...

Been a real hard couple of days, grinding my tush off in WoW since the new expansion. here then in lieu of my normal Sunday sermon is something I pulled off of MMOFringe.com.

Commentary: All dogs go to heaven. God has reconciled the whole world in Christ, not just people and creatures with "souls." All existence "goes to heaven." Your pets, your rocks, and your pet rocks.

Watchmen Trailer

I am very much looking forward to this movie. One of my favorite graphic novels, I remember WAITING for these as Alan Moore first wrote them.

It's Here!

So there I was at midnight last night at my local Gamestop, waiting in line with forty other nerds as we chatted about what servers we play on, PvP, PVE, Hunters, Pallys, nerfs, the doom that came to SWG, and other geeky recondite matters, when I realized just how lame we all really are...

But I still got my copy of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW.

Here, once again, is the Cinematic trailer:


Death Knights FTW!

I, Robot

Wow check out this VERY realistic robot...



The article going with it:
Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being

Two Nerds Talking About Star Wars Games

Jedi Diggnation Discussion from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

The guy on the left used to play a Wookiee on my server in Star Wars Galaxies. I was friendlier with his colleague Josh Brentano, aka the great Mantelo Mandalorean. These guys were all from TechTV back in the days before it mutated into G4.

Now they drink beer on the internet. Nice work if you can get it.

Honoring Our Veterans

Remember to thank them every chance you get. Freedom isn't free.

What Would Cap Do?

I often ask this question of myself, when deciding things, especially about freedom, force, and heroism. In this case, I am asking the question, what would Captain America do, if he could pick his own director for his movie?

Well, he'd probably pick a man like Joe Johnston. Joe shows he understands old-fashioned values, how to be corny-but-cool, and how to create that "I love America" with just the right combination of hip and sappiness.

As the director of The Rocketeer and October Sky he has shown that he UNDERSTANDS. He knows that sense of wonder and that American "can-do" spirit.

He is one of the few guys who started out as an effects artist and went on to become a really effective director.

Well, according to Hollywood Reporter, he has been selected as the director for Captain America: the First Avenger.

Joe Johnston has inked a deal to direct "First Avenger: Captain America," Marvel Studios' take on its classic comic book character. Marvel's Kevin Feige is producing.

No writers are on board, but the studio, which is hearing pitches, expects to hire shortly.

Johnston first met with Marvel two years ago. When the two parties clicked, general talks turned into Captain America-specific meetings, with much of the project's current direction resulting from those early conversations.

"This is a guy who designed the vehicles for 'Star Wars,' who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' " Feige said. "From 'Rocketeer' to 'October Sky' to 'The Wolfman,' you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one."

The article discusses the ultimate plan a bit more:

Kicking off with "Iron Man," Marvel Studios' slate of movies --including "Thor" and the "Iron Man" sequel -- is building toward an "Avengers" movie set for release in 2011, in which the characters from the films team for one big adventure. "Captain America" is scheduled for release May 6, 2011.

"Captain America" will be a World War II-set movie, and the character will appear in the modern day-set "Avengers." Executive producing on "Captain" are Louis D'Esposito, Stan Lee and Marvel Studios' chairman David Maisel.

Color me excited. Color me red, white and blue.

1 John 2:2

It was through His sacrificial death that our sins were atoned. But He did not stop there -- He died for the sins of the whole world. (The Voice)

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.(NIV)

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (KJV)

Here we have the Beloved Disciple discussing how we should not sin, but IF we do (and of course we do every day), we should not live in fear because Jesus was a fully proper and effective sacrifice NOT only for our sins, but for the sins of the world. Once again, we can see, as I have discussed before, the infinite power of an infinite Son of God atoning infinitely for finite sin.

No matter how much YOU and I sin, it is some finite number. Huge, but finite. No matter how much everyone sins, it is still some finite, although much greater number. No matter how many permutations of sin there are, they are limited within time -- therefore, some finite number.

Jesus, being of God and of man -- 100% of both, is the mathematical intersection of the finite and the infinite. As a finite man, he lived completely by faith and thus was sinless. He then was sacrificed on the cross as an offering for sin. His finite nature and his infinite nature combine, thus covering ALL men.

In fact, the whole world -- or even further -- all of existence. Even beyond what exists but all that is possible, since such is contained in infinity, with a few more left over.

Amen.