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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 2

COSMOLOGY OF ENMITY AND JUDGMENT

§ Cosmological Domains and Divided Destiny

5. Since the fall of Lucifer (Ezk. 28:11-19), three cosmological domains—the heavens, the earth and the netherworld—have existed and are seen to exist to the end of the cosmologic Revelation, where the netherworld is finally divided from the other two ((Gen. 1:1→ Rev. 20:1; Mt. 25:41); (Rev. 5:13→21:1→8)). (Please see further below § Jesus on the Universal Enmity Continuum, Point 26. Because the scripture canon concludes with unreconciled universal division between the netherworld and the wedded new heaven and earth domains, the burden is upon Universalists to scripturally prove that such reported concluding enmity does not reflect the true final universal conclusion. They must prove, not merely allege, that the final expression of the netherworld (i.e., the Lake of Fire) is by some “transmutative” means to eventually be eliminated unto becoming "wedded" through an equal reconciliation together with the new earth and heaven—without redefining the common meanings of such terms as “annihilation” and “abolition” to mean “reconciliation.”)
   
   

• A fixed impassable barrier exists between the netherworld domain and the domain of the (already) redeemed (Lk. 16:26). (The impassability of the domain barrier indicates that no one can become redeemed out of the netherworld. And no subsequent scripture evidences any later removal of the barrier. For this cause there is no foundation for any assertion that anyone can at any time become redeemed from within the netherworld or that the barrier can or will be removed to where any could ever return from the netherworld to the domain of the redeemed.)

6.      The creation, being defined only as the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1→Mk. 10:6) was made for the direct purpose of displaying God’s glory (Pr. 3:19; Ps. 8:1; Hab. 3:3) and fully expects to find redemption out from sin’s chaos (Rom. 8:19-21). The netherworld, however, was created only in response to and for the express negative purpose of punishing / destroying the angels that rebelled from within the creation (Mt. 25:41). (No statement exists anywhere in scripture to include the netherworld within the embrace of the Creation to the effect that it was created for the same purpose of radiating God’s glory or that it holds any expectation of creational redemption as if to become merged with it. To the contrary, scripture repeatedly states that God receives no salvific praise from the netherworld (Ps. 6:5; 88:10-12; 115:17; Is. 38:18). Thus, asserting equality of netherworld purpose or hope of redemption with that of creation is entirely groundless.)

7.      The filling of creation by God’s fullness, His “all-ness,” His kingdom, His creational authorship and ownership, His salvation and His reconciliation, restoration and summation of “all things” in Christ—are co-equal cosmological concepts specifically identified with respect only to the domains of the body of Christ and the union of heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1; 2:1,4; Ex. 20:11; Dt. 4:32,36; 10:14; 32:1; I Chr. 16:31; 29:11; Neh. 9:6;  Ps. 8:1; 57:5,11; 89:10-11; 96:11; 102:25; 108:5; Pr. 3:19; Is. 42:5; 44:22; 45:12,18; 48:13; 49:13; 51:13,16; 65:17; 66:22; Jer. 10:12; 23:24; 32:17; 51:15; Am. 9:6; Hab. 3:3; Zec. 12:1; Mt. 6:10; 8:11; 16:19; 18:18; 28:18(→Jn. 13:3; 16:15; 17:10); Mk. 9:12(→Ac. 3:21); Mk. 13:27; Jn. 6:33,51; 17:20-26; Ac. 7:49; I Cor. 15:27-28→Eph. 1:10,22-23→3:15→4:4-6(Rom. 11:36)→Col. 1:16-20; Heb. 1:10; II Pt. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-5→10,24). (Universalists assert that all scripture statements of God’s reconciling “allness” extend past heaven and earth to eventually embrace all the netherworld’s “purified” damned inhabitants into God’s Eternality by the “end of time”—with zero testimony  to any such effect.  Not a single Universalist “proof text” cites a union to come of the netherworld with heaven and earth. Rather every Universalist proof text of such eventual union is based upon mere inference of netherworld redemption forced upon it. Would the Holy Spirit have left such a massive universal proposition to mere debatable inference??)

• The Lord’s Prayer, which establishes the universal governmental purpose of God’s will to be achieved through the prayers of Christ and His disciples throughout their generations, conspicuously excludes any consideration and embrace of netherworld redemption (Mt. 6:10 / Lk. 11:2 with Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4 (“prayers of all the saints”)). (It is commonly understood from scripture even by Universalists that all divine governmental purpose, including that of redemption and reconciliation, is accomplished only in partnership with the prayers of the saints.  Given that the redemptive kingdom will of God is established only by prayer, yet the netherworld is completely excluded as an apostolic prayer target for redemption or any purpose, such exclusion disproves the possibility of universal reconciliation with the damned inhabitants therein. Had universal reconciliation been the “plan of God” involving the “loving corrective fire” of hell, the Lord’s Prayer would have had to have been worded, “Thy will be done, in earth and in the netherworld, as it is in heaven”; and this theme would have dominated all apostolic prayers going forward. Such a domain reconciliation could not occur without such prayer. (Please see further PART 3 § Salvation Delimited by Temporal Opportunity and Terminal Limits on the Means of Grace, Point 70; and PART 5 § Salvation is Identified Only within a Restricted Kingdom, Point 111 ff.). Further, all attempts otherwise by men since to “pray for the dead” are without any divine authority. Finally, that all redemptive prayer is exercised only on behalf of the living also summarily nullifies the Universalist contention that Paul’s exhortation to offer “prayers on behalf of all men…who desires all men to be saved” (I Tim. 2:1→4) has anything to do with God’s intention to save all men out of hell and the Lake of Fire. Paul exhorts to prayer only for living men only to be saved in the land of the living from the wrath to come (Rom. 5:9 / I Th. 5:9). (Please see further PART 3 § Salvation Defined Preventatively of the Universal Bar of Adjudication, Point 36 and § Salvation Adjudicated Only Upon Terrestrial Life Action, Point 72 ff. Please also see APPENDIX C., Point 1))
  
  

8.      Paul’s highest stated passion and most detailed vision of reconciliation is of that between the Jews and Gentiles to form the complete body of Christ and otherwise of the bringing together of everything (only) in heaven and earth (Ac. 13:46-47; 14:27; 15:3; 21:19; 26:16-23; Rom. 1:5,13,16; 2:9-11ff; 3:29-30; 9:23-24; 11:11-33; 15:7-12; Gal. 3:8-9,14; Eph. 2:11-3:12; Col 1:16-20). (Had universal reconciliation embracing the netherworld been Paul’s belief, its cosmological implications would have been so great as to have far outshone any emphasis on the much smaller reconciliation between Gentiles and Jews, requiring far more exposition and defense of it than what he allotted to the Jew-Gentile reconciliation, not just a few scattered debatably defined terms / comments to be deciphered between the lines.)

• New Covenant transcendent racial reconciliation (Ephesians 2) unto holiness exemplifies the bringing together of things on earth (Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:10) yet remains predicated on identity severance from the unholy netherworld domain (Col. 1:13). (For this cause, the earth-wide interracial reconciliation exposited by Paul fails as a pattern for positing a future universal covenantal reconciliation with the domain of the damned. Paul’s doctrine of the terrestrially reconciled “one new man” defined outside of and against the kingdom of the netherworld cannot be “prophetically” extended to teach the reconciliation of the inhabitants of the kingdom of darkness with those of the kingdom of light as “one new domain.”)

§ Cosmological Enmity: Holiness vs. Sin, Death & Judgment

9. Holiness (sovereign separational distinctiveness) is the Self-declared chief attribute of God ((Rev. 4:8 → Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7,26; 21:8; 22:2,32; Is. 43:3,15; 48:17; Ezk. 20:39-41; 36:22-23; 39:7; Hos. 11:9; Mt. 6:9; I Pt. 1:16)→ (Ex. 20:3; 34:14; Dt. 4:35,39; 32:39; II Sam. 7:22; I Ki. 8:60; II Ki. 19:15; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 18:31; 86:10; Is. 43:10; 44:6-8; 45:6,14,18,22; 46:9; 64:4; Hos. 13:4; Jl. 2:27; Mk. 12:32; Jn. 5:44; I Cor. 8:4; I Tim. 1:17)). (Contrary to all Universalist and humanist Christian belief, love is not the chief attribute of God, but rather takes its expression only with respect to God’s self-defining sovereign separational distinctiveness. Holiness is the only attribute by which God repetitively identifies Himself (I AM holy); and although He greatly displays and exhorts to love, nowhere does He declare Himself to be love. Therefore ultimate cosmological truth cannot be determined upon a presumption that love is the chief attribute of God by which all cosmological destiny is driven and must be defined.)
   
   
   

• The expression of the love of God through Christ is completely subject to the will of God, whose ways are past finding out ((Mt. 6:10; 12:50; 26:39,42; Mk. 3:35; 14:36; Lk. 11:2; 22:42; Jn. 1:13; 4:34; 5:30; 6:38-39; 7:17; 8:28-29; 14:21,23; 15:10; Eph. 1:5; Heb. 10:9) → Rom. 11:33). (As an attribute dependent upon divine will for expression, the love of God cannot be self-standingly cited to command belief in a universal reconciliation as the final cosmologic outcome. Christian Universalism can only stand if it can objectively scripturally prove the determinative intent and will of God to be to transmutatively reconstruct the fire-consumed, worm-eaten bodies and souls of all the damned out from the Lake of Fire. Please see further below Point 29, rebuttal.)
  
  

10. Sin is the violation of God’s holiness by creational self-assertion (i.e., by pride, lust and disobedience) (Is. 14:13-14; Ezk. 28:15-17; Rom. 5:14; Jas. 4:17).

11. From the cosmological Beginning, enmity runs through all three cosmological domains caused by satanic and human sin (((Ezk. 28:2,6-19; Is. 14:12-15); Gen. 2:16-17→3:5→15), resulting in creational death (Gen. 2:17; 3:14-19; Rom. 5:12; 6:23a; 8:20-22) and a cosmological Closing judgment (II Pt. 3:7) upon all sin-affected angels (II Pt. 2:4; Jude 6) and men (Heb. 9:27)). (Sin, death and closing judgment, as both the cause and consequence of universal enmity, are of one indivisible nature. This means that the consequential death and judgment due to sin have no self-actualizing reconciliatory power to repair the enmity caused by sin. It specifically means that the judicial death (Lake of Fire) consequent to sin cannot reconcile to God one born as an enemy under that cause and consequence. One’s own death and judgment under enmity cannot transmute to become elements of His reconciliation.  One cannot “pay” for the cause of his own enmity (sin) by suffering the consequences of his enmity (death and judgment).  Enmity’s consequences do not cure enmity’s cause in an enemy (Rom. 5:6-8). Enmity cannot pay for enmity within an enemy. Such a concept directly contradicts the gospel of substitutionary atonement through the sinless holy Christ alone who, never having lived under enmity with God, could alone cure enmity’s cause by enduring its consequences (I Pt. 3:18; Hebrews 4:15 “without sin.” Please see also PART 3 § Salvation Established Only by Sovereign Unilateral Covenant, Point 46.). Yet the doctrine of universal reconciliation finally depends exactly on a philosophy of transmuting enmity’s consequences to become curative of enmity’s cause in those born as enemies. It is therefore a false gospel proposing a false adjunctive means to salvation in addition to the blood of Christ.)      

§ Cosmological Destiny and Divine Judicial Decree

12. Cosmological destiny is terminally established only by divine judicial decree, declaration and/or oath (Is. 14:24; 46:10; Ps. 110:4; Heb. 6:17-20; 7:17,21; Rev. 21:6). (Cosmological destiny is not established by apostolic commentary (I Cor. 13:12) or by human will and mind (Jn. 1:13; Jas. 1:18; Rom. 8:7) including presumption, speculation upon silence or evaluation upon the nature of God. To validate an assertion of eventual universal reconciliation, Christian Universalists must evidence the divine judicial decree(s) requisite to authoring such reconciliation. They may not appeal to passing apostolic comment or poetic prophetic utterance to establish such a massive cosmological proposition.)

13. The decrees of the Lord made during the present cosmos will not be altered or pass away due to the introduction of a new cosmos (Mt. 24:35: Mk. 13:31; Lk. 21:33). (Therefore any terminal decrees of vanquished annihilation issued under this cosmos against the netherworld and the wicked will not be altered to provide for their “reconciliation” just by virtue of the creation of a second “all new” cosmos (Rev. 21:5). The “all new” cosmos does not erase the divine decrees of cosmological separations made under the first cosmos. (Please see further below § The Meaning of Death as a Vanquished Enemy, Point 22.))

§ Divine Judicial Decree and the Universal Enmity Continuum

14. Immediately upon the founding creational enmity event in Eden (Gen. 3:1-6), God judicially declares a universe-wide enmity continuum to be in force, decreeing opposing destinies to opposed mutually exclusive seeds; one, the “seed of the woman” to victorious life, the other, the “seed of the serpent,” to vanquished annihilation under foot in death (Gen. 2:16→3:15; Ps. 110:1,4→Lk. 19:27; Ezk. 28:19; Rev. 12:17) in which those bearing the serpent seed nature will be cast into the deep fire pits of hell from which they can never rise to life (Ps. 140:3→(140:10; 36:12)). (See further PART 5 § Two Mutually Exclusive and Opposed Seeds. No subsequent divine judicial declaration or oath exists throughout all scripture reversing or terminating the original universal enmity declaration or the decreed destiny of the serpent or his seed to vanquished annihilation in death and hell. Postulation or quotation of such a judicial decree would have been required of Paul had Paul, the legal expositor of reconciliation, intended to indicate reversal of the Ezekiel 28 and Genesis 3 vanquishment decrees in asserting the final “allness” of God (I Cor. 15:28). The lack of reversal decree disproves the Universalist interpretation of Paul’s comment on the final “allness” of God as evidence of universal reconciliation.)

• Destruction and life are opposite terminal judicially decreed destinations (Mt. 7:13-14) wherein Christ’s appearance destroys the perishing (son of perdition) oppositely to saving the believing. (II Th. 2:8→1:10; II Tim. 4:8; Tit. 2:13; I Jn. 3:2). (As opposites, the judicial terms related to the consequential perishing, damnation, wrath and destruction of the wicked are not transmutable to mean or somehow be productive of salvation, age-enduring life (zoe), reconciliation and redemption.)

• The judicial terms vengeance, anger, wrath, judgment, destruction and annihilation are used interchangeably and synonymously in anti-reconciliatory context (e.g. Ps. 59:13; Mic. 5:15; Nah. 1:2; Zeph. 1:15,18; Rev. 16:1→5,7;18:6→8,10) wherein to destroy (Gk. appollumi) is to slay (Mt. 2:13→16), to slay is to abolish/end ((Gk. katargeo) II Th. 2:8) and destruction is a terminal end (Php. 3:18-19). (The unbreakable interlock of these multiple anti-reconciliatory judicial terms throughout all scripture prohibits the transmutation of any one of them to mean “redemptive purgation” by which to abolish by “reconciling” the destiny polarity established by the original divine judicial decrees.)

• The judicial Lake of Fire embraces the co-equal concepts of perishing and damnation together with destruction (Mt. 23:33 (“damnation”)→Rev. 20:11-15 (19:20)→II Th. 2:8,10 (“perish”)→Rev. 17:8,11; II Th. 1:9 JUB/YLT with Ps. 68:2 (“destruction—by the glory/fire of the Lord”). (See further PART 10 § A Profile of the Lake of Fire (a.k.a. Gehenna), Points 219, 228 et al. Compare further the concept of perishing and fire in hell (PART 10 § A Profile of Hell (a.k.a. Sheol, the Pit, the Abyss), Points 209-210.) The co-equality of the anti-reconciliatory concepts of perishing and damnation together with burning destruction in judicial context of the Lake of Fire (all oppositely to salvation) further prohibits by all these terms any conception of redemptive purgation by which to “reconcile” the destiny of the cursed perishing seed of the serpent with the victorious redeemed seed of the woman. (See further PART 3 § Salvation Defined by Relation to the Universal Bar of Adjudication, Point 32.))

• Satan’s intrinsic enmitous identity as “adversary,” “deceiver,” “father of lies,” “serpent / dragon,” and “destroyer” is never changed throughout scripture from beginning to end. (This precludes any basis for postulating a closure to the enmity continuum by an eventual reconciliation with satan or his seed, and hence any basis for true and complete “universal” reconciliation.)

15. From the point that scripture first introduces the universal enmity decrees (Ezk. 28:15-19 →Gen. 3:15), enmity remains to the end of scripture demonstrably resolved only in part by redemptive reconciliation and in part only by means of anti-reconciliatory terminal vanquishment to annihilation (abolition) (I Cor. 15:25-26; Rev. 22:11,15), affirmed by the conclusive open-ended enmity between the netherworld domain and the united domains of heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1→8). (To be cosmologically true, Christian Universalism must demonstrate complete closure to the scripture-wide enmity continuum by divine judicial decree somewhere by the end of the scripture mainframe, without dependence upon mere inferences defended only by isolating particular terminologies from within a host of scattered inorganically connected scriptures or by transmutation of common anti-reconciliatory word and concept meanings. No such decree appears anywhere in scripture.) 

16. Rev. 22:18 forbids adding to the cosmological decrees issued within the Revelation. (Thus it is forbidden to postulate any additional “later” judgment for reversing the Second Death as well as to construe that Paul’s declaration of God’s final “allness” in I Cor. 15:28 envisioned any such reversal beyond the scope of the Book of Revelation. Please see further Point 25 below.)

• The wicked embody destruction and death (Ps. 5:9) wherein their destiny under divine vengeance is written off terminally (Ps. 58:3-10). (As the embodiment of death, the wicked share the fate of death itself in death’s ultimate effectual vanquishment unto abolition in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14), thus prohibiting the possibility of their eventual reconciliation with Christ. The wicked are never identified anywhere at any time under any conditions as other than wicked, hence as unreconciled. Further see PART 7 § The Existential Termination of the Wicked.)

22.  The Second Death remains in force while it is simultaneously declared that all things are made new and there is no more death in the New Jerusalem, a state of life awarded only to overcomers (Rev. 20:13-14→21:1-5→6-8→22:14-15). (Thus the abolition of death as a cessation of anti-energy applies only to the environs of New Jerusalem and her overcomers while death’s abolition as anti-energy refers to its ceaseless consignment to the Lake of Fire. The cessation of death has no application outside the New Jerusalem in any regard to the Second Death. Neither cessation of death’s anti-energy within the Lake of Fire nor cessation of the Lake of Fire appears anywhere. See further PART 9 § The Nature of Restoration Age Lordship and Worship, Point 198.)

§ Jesus on the Universal Enmity Continuum

23. During His earthly ministry, Jesus reinforces the open-endedness of the universal enmity continuum both retroactively (as the common man already believed) to the Flood, Sodom and satan’s fall (Lk. 17:26-30; Jn. 8:44) as well as forward to the final universal judgment (Mt. 25:41-46; Jn. 5:29). (Jesus therefore left no alternative to His original hearers but to believe the universal enmity continuum was to remain open in perpetuity. Jesus did not teach universal reconciliation either by common understanding or by parable.)

27.  The wounds of the Lamb of God remain forever visible in His glorified body (Rev. 5:6,9,12) as an unending reminder of the universal enmity responsible for His death. (Unless Universalists are prepared to claim that the glorified body of the Lamb of God will itself also eventually be replaced by a woundless new body in the alleged “all in all” eternal phase of existence to follow the alleged cessation of the “ages to the ages,” the unending eternal reminder of the universal enmity responsible for His wounds defeats all human demand for a final universal closure to the enmity continuum based in the Lamb’s declaration that He “makes all things new.” Those wounds will never go away but will always attest, as will the Lord’s military nature, to the fundamental enmity with all that ever has violated His holiness. (Please see further PART 9 § The Nature of Restoration Age Lordship and Worship, Point 189, rebuttal note.))

§ The Universal Bar of Adjudication

(verse references in blue, going forward, pertain specifically to deeds done in the earthly body)

28. Certification of opposed seed destinies stemming from the original universal enmity decree (Gen. 3:15 (Point 14 above.)) is terminally established by resurrectional summons to adjudication before a single conclusive universal bar of justice at the close of the present cosmos (Mt. 25:31-46 → Heb. 9:27→Rev. 20:11-15). (No judicial decree exists either at the universal judgment (Great White Throne) to limit the duration of the Second Death / Lake of Fire, or past the judgment to commute or reverse the Second Death sentence. And no subsequent bar exists to re-hear and to reverse either the individual judgment of anyone certified by resurrection unto annihilation or to reverse the originating enmity decrees against the vanquished seed in general issued at the cosmological Beginning. There is only one universal bar of adjudication. Consequently, the proposition of a future universal reconciliation is prohibited. (Please see further PART 10 § A Profile of the Lake of Fire (a.k.a. Gehenna), Point 226.))

• Resurrection is a terminally judicial event, occurring unto either age-enduring Life bodies or to anti-life Death bodies only in connection with judicial decree. (Jn. 5:21-22, 25-30→Rev. 20:12). (Resurrection to Death and Life are polarized bodily destinies by decree. And no subsequent bar of adjudication emitting any possibility of “cross-resurrectional body conversion” exists past the Great White Throne whereby burning worm-eaten resurrection Death bodies under annihilation in the Lake of Fire might somehow, by further resurrectional decree, be transmuted into or be replaced by resurrection Life bodies like to the righteous (Rev. 20:6). Thus the proposition of Christian Universalism is reduced to a human phantasm. Please see further PART 3 § The Parameters of Resurrection Life.)

• The preaching and writings of Paul identified from the above scripture set {including the writings of Hebrews, if Paul wrote them} demonstrate that the universal bar of adjudication, not universal salvation, is Paul’s ultimate cosmological reference point (Ac. 17:31; 24:25; Rom. 1:18→32; 2:1-6,8-9,12,16; 14:9-12; I Cor. 5:3-5;  II Cor. 5:10-11; 11:15; II Th. 1:5-12; I Tim. 5:24; II Tim. 4:1→8; {Heb. 2:1-3; 3:6-4:7,11-13; 6:2; 9:27-28;10:27,39; 12:23; 13:4,17}). (Only one ultimate reference point for cosmological destiny determination is possible. Wherefore, by weight of final judgment references contexting all Paul’s writings including that of Romans, Corinthians and Timothy, and because only one ultimate judgment context is required anywhere to defeat the proposition of universal salvation, it is plain that none of Paul’s few references to God’s “all-in-allness” (I Cor. 15:28), the desired saving of “all men” (I Tim. 2:4,6; 4:10; Tit. 2:11) or the “justification of life to all men” (Rom. 5:18) indicate universal reconciliation to be Paul’s ultimate cosmological reference point. If those were Paul’s ultimate point of reference, then not one of all these numerous other expressions of never-closed enmity under judgment could have been written. (Please also see APPENDIX C., Point 7.))     

§ The Terminal Endpoint of Cosmological Conflict

30.  All reporting of divine conflict with any and all other enemy powers ceases with the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:10-15) and none further may be speculated (Rev. 22:18). (Thus no further “conquering” process of the Lord over enemy powers (I Cor. 15:25-26) is taking place through the Lake of Fire as if the Second Death were such a power to be defeated / extinguished. Nor is occurring therein any redemptive process of divine conflict by which God further labors to “discipline” the incorrigible toward age-enduring life—out of all of which God finally becomes “all in all.” That all cosmological conflict ceases at the Great White Throne judgment, yet the Lake of Fire exists past the judgment, proves that the Lake of Fire is a terminally destinal place of anti-reconciliatory vanquishment serving no redemptive purpose worth universally fighting for.)