What Does it Matter?(by Jim Ober)      There is a train of universalist thought that says, "Since we are all going to be saved anyway what difference does anything make." I believe that is wrong. As a "scripture alone" believer, I see lots of stuff in scripture that is important (apparently to the whole church.) If God didn't see it as important why is it in there? John was led by God to call Jesus the "Word" (logos) implying not an esoteric, hypnotic, new age fog of good fellings but a highly structured concrete reality. I see the written (rhema) word as the concrete expression of the Logos. If you will, the logos by analogy is the laws of physics and the rhema is the Golden Gate Bridge that the laws of physics built. So are we looking for axioms and derived principles of the Word\word? Or are we just speculating about (as dispensationalist J. D. Pentecost put it) "On which side of the head the beast will part his hair?" In looking at error, the big ones, what I see is Luke 18:10-14, that I am better than you are because I ...... and you don't. It's usually not said quite that explicitly but there is an implication of superiority in the false teaching. I have refuted, at least to my satisfaction, many of those errors (at least one of which--The doctrine of eternal torment-- is held by just about everyone called a Christian). In fact the right answer is so obvious to me from the standpoint of exegesis that I wonder why the error persists. I believe that we have to understand that our real enemy is not faulty exegesis. The holders of false doctrine aren't that stupid. Nobody could be that stupid. The real problem is spiritual pride. That has been the problem, from the beginning (with Eve) to the end of the biblical story, of our fallen nature. Are we wrong to incessantly hammer away at what we see as error? I'll say in defense of the incessant hammerer, that it was one such man who finally pulled me over the line into the universalist camp. I used to think, "O no, here he comes again." But now I am grateful he didn't give up. If one is going to be persistent, may prayer and prudence bring all his thoughts into submission. One of the big "blank fill in's" is "I am a calvinist (or I am an arminian) and you aren't." When I studied this, the exegesis seemed to be overwhelmingly contradictory--God IS sovereign and God DOES want to save all--And then I saw that the weak link was eternal hell. God is sovereign and so he WILL save all. Exegesis problem solved. But men resent the fact that "bad people" will be saved, as if we aren't such bad people. Pride again. A massive problem of Biblical exegesis can be made to disappear, yet, as always, pride gets in the way. Perhaps this is the guiding principle..... Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:1-6, NIV) Amen. Jim                                                         HOME