gpatton{at}bayou.com wrote:

> I have not yet read all the books in my library about Christian
> theology.  Shedd's book is not in that library. Therefore, I will not
> be able to have the joy of studying the doctrine of eternal
punishment
> during this Christmas season.  (I will not sing "Jingle Hells" this
> season.)
>
> But, I conclude that Shedd does not like the idea that no people will
> be damned.  I guess some people teach, that all good Christians
should
> insist that some other people (and a lot of them) are going to be
> damned. And those Christians, who think God can and will save
everyone,
> should read Shedd's book and see how important it is to know that a
lot
> of people are going to suffer in hell.
>
If you read Shedd's book

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=517544&netp_id=221765&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW

(a mere $8)

you would see your argument listed and answered.

I have written at great length on this in past, confronting both
universalism and annihilationism, which, oddly enough, use the very
same scriptural passages to defend their position.  So there is no need
for us to retrash old topics.  Suffice it to say, that if you are
honest in your reading of what Christ Himself had to say on the
subject, you would find that universalism is estranged from what the
gospel writers record of it.

Universalism has a major presuppositional failure.  It is based upon
love circumscribing God.  The problem with this is that it is not love
which is the governing attribute, it is holiness.  In its trice
encantation, "Holy, Holy, Holy" which is endlessly sung by the 4 living
creatures.

Rev. 4:8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six
wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do
not cease to say, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty,
who was and who is and who is to come."


Three times the four living creatures are mentioned in scripture.  Once
prior to judgment, once in the midst of judgment, once after judgment.


Yes, eternal damnation is a horrible reality to contemplate, yet
reality it is.  It cannot gainstayed by false hopes based upon
emotional sentiment.  It is a sober reality which should shake the
fiber of being of each of us.  Grace is infinitely magnified by its
reality.  Each and every called believer, should continually fall on
their knees and worship God for both His longsuffering and His grace of
offering salvation to all.  But God cannot act contrary to His very
nature.  If one does not accept the offer of having their sin taken
from them as far as the East is from the West, then who is at fault?
It is the fault of silly men who are so easily deceived.  How was it
that Tolkien put it, "Little man of little lords and brief kings."  We
think we have all the time in the universe.  We think we are special.
We deceive ourselves by believing that only happens to others, but not
to me.

Perhaps the biggest disception is that while standing on the precipice
of eternal damnation, that there will be repentent hearts.  In reality,
the moment will reveal the hardness of heart in each and every
disbeliever.  There are those who go so far as to hold that Satan
himself will repenent and be restored to his original place of glory,
having learned a lesson that he could have no otherwise known.  This is
foolishness for the scriptural record is clear as to his destiny and
all those who allign themselves with the father of all lies.

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