Romans 9-11 has been used to argue for pre-destination and concepts of election. Some jars of clay are made for destruction and some for glory. Cannot the potter smash the clay if that's the potter's desire? This theology has been used to explain eternal conscious torment. If a 14 year old Muslim girl is raped to death and burns in eternally in hell, well that's God's prerogative. The Jews who died in the Holocaust? Eternal conscious torment. The kids who died in residential schools? Suffering eternal torment.
Eventually that way of thinking can mess a person up, not to mention a civilization, and the entire earth.
Romans 9-11 is just as likely to be saying that God chooses which "pottery" gets repaired and saved and it's God's business not mine. And it turns out, in the most surprising text of the New Testament, God chooses... everyone. Eventually everyone. Why do we want there to be a hell? What's in it for us.
Perhaps the wrath of God is redemptive and never punitive. Perhaps God really does reconcile all things and perhaps God really does love the whole world. Maybe one day every tongue does confess that Jesus (the lamb) is Lord and maybe everyone who confesses is SAVED. Maybe Jesus is really the king of creation.
Advent Week 1: Impossible Hope
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART6: Paul's Letters
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART 5: Parables as Puzzles
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART4: The Wisdom Literature
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART 3: The Prophets
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART 2: The Violent Histories
How and Why to Engage the Scriptures PART 1: The LAW
ACTS Ep12: The Church is a Guest
ACTS Ep11: Breaking Bread in the Storm
Acts Ep10: Non-Anxious Paul in an Anxious World
ACTS Ep9: Paul Performs theScript
ACTS Ep8: The Image of God is Ordinary
ACTS Ep7: Cut and Run
Acts Ep6: The Politics of Respectability
Acts Ep5: Changing Our Mind
Acts Ep4: But The Bible Clearly Says
ACTS Ep3: Marriage, Money, and Power
ACTS Ep2: The Kin-dom of Christ and the House of Commons
ACTS Ep1: The Elisha to my Elijah on the Day of Pentecost
Episode 7: The Apocalypse of Jesus and The Everlasting Garden
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