The following is an open letter to Lyle based on our substack correspondance:
Subject: On “All,” Election, the Lake of Fire, and the Finished Work of Christ
Hey Lyle,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I know this isn’t a small topic, so I’ll try to engage what you actually said and not a caricature of it.
You keep saying “universalism is false” and that I start with an idea and then twist Scripture. But the issue isn’t a label. The issue is: What did God reveal through Paul and the rest of Scripture? Let’s walk through your main points one by one.
1. “All without distinction” vs “All without exception”
You say my “understanding of words like all and world is shallow,” and that all often means “all without distinction,” not “all without exception,” so it can refer to “all kinds of people” but not literally everyone.
Fine—let’s actually apply that to the texts:
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:22
Who is the “all” in Adam? We both know it’s literally all humanity—no one escapes Adam’s death. If you make the second “all” smaller than the first, you’re doing violence to Paul’s logic. He uses the same group in both halves of the verse.
Same with Romans 5:
“So then as through one offense the sentence came on all men to condemnation, even so through one just award the grace came on all men to justification of life.”
— Romans 5:18
You can’t make all mean “every single human” in the first half and then magically shrink it to “some from all groups” in the second half just to protect your doctrine. That’s not exegesis—that’s evasive.
Colossians 1 is even more explicit:
“…in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him…
and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.”
— Colossians 1:16, 20
You agree the “all” created is truly all—every creature, every power, earthly and heavenly. You can’t then turn around and say the exact same “all” in verse 20 suddenly means “a smaller group of elect humans.” Paul doesn’t change subjects mid-breath.
If the “all” that was created in Him is the same “all” that is reconciled through Him, then your “all without distinction” move simply collapses. Paul defines his own terms.
2. Election, God’s Will, and Who Gets Saved
You say: “Those whom the Father has chosen are saved by Jesus. That’s it.”
On that much, I agree: only those the Father gives will come.
“All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me…”
— John 6:37
But then we have to ask: What has the Father given Him?
“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.”
— John 3:35“…All was given up to Me by My Father…”
— Matthew 11:27“…He subjects all under His feet…”
— Ephesians 1:22
If all things have been given to the Son, and all that the Father gives Him shall come to Him, then you can’t shrink that down to “a few elect” without openly denying these verses.
You also admit God is sovereign and chooses. But Scripture also says:
“[God] wills that all mankind be saved and come to a realization of the truth.”
— 1 Timothy 2:4“For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified. Yet each in his own order…”
— 1 Corinthians 15:22–23“God locks up all together in stubbornness that He should be merciful to all.”
— Romans 11:32
So which is it?
- Does God sovereignly choose,
- and God wills all to be saved,
- and God works all things after the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11),
yet somehow fails to save the vast majority?
That makes His “will” into a wish and His “sovereignty” into a slogan. I’m not the one weakening sovereignty—you are, by teaching that man’s unbelief is stronger than God’s purpose in Christ.
3. “Eternal destruction” and aionion
You quoted:
“…These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord…”
— 2 Thessalonians 1:9 (NASB)
But “eternal destruction” is a translation choice, not the Greek word itself. The word there is aionion, from aion, which means age.
- aion = age
- aionion = of or pertaining to an age, age-during, age-lasting
This is not some fringe idea; the word clearly refers to limited spans in many contexts. Paul himself proves that aionion cannot mean “eternal” in Titus:
“In hope of life aionion, which God, Who cannot lie, promised before times aionion.”
— Titus 1:2
“Before eternal times” makes no sense. You can’t have a “before” if it’s truly eternal. But “before the ages” fits perfectly. The adjective must match the noun: age-lasting, age-pertaining.
So when you read aionion and automatically plug in “endless, eternal,” you’re importing a theological decision, not reading a lexical fact. If the “eternal destruction” is age-lasting judgment, it fits perfectly with the picture of aionion fire that purifies and corrects, not endless sadistic torture.
4. The Lake of Fire, the Second Death, and Satan
You heavily leaned on Revelation 20:
“This is the second death, the lake of fire.”
— Revelation 20:14
Then you act as if that’s the final word. But Paul gives us the end of the story:
“For He must be reigning until He should be placing all enemies under His feet. The last enemy is being abolished: death.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:25–26
If death is the last enemy and it’s abolished, then the “second death” cannot be endless. You can’t have a death that never ends if death itself is destroyed. The lake of fire is called “the second death.” If death goes, the lake goes.
That means the lake of fire is a phase in God’s plan, not the final state of the universe.
You ask if I really think Satan will be saved. Paul forces the question:
“For in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or sovereignties or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him…
and through Him to reconcile all to Him, making peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.”
— Colossians 1:16, 20
Are Satan and his hosts not included in “sovereignties and authorities” in the heavens? Are they not part of the “all” that were created in Him and for Him?
Paul uses the same vocabulary for evil celestial powers in Ephesians 6:12:
“…not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, world forces of this darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.”
Colossians 1:16–20 says those same entities were created in Christ and will be reconciled through Christ. You can either believe Paul or protect your tradition. But you can’t do both when they conflict.
5. “Infinite sin needs infinite punishment”
You said:
“Sin is an infinite transgression of God’s infinite holiness and God’s justice demands an infinite payment.”
Show me that in Scripture. That exact philosophical line is not biblical language—it’s imported theology. The Bible says:
“The wages of sin is death…”
— Romans 6:23
Not “infinite conscious torment,” not “eternal misery”—death.
And then what?
“…but the gift of God is eonian life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 6:23
Christ’s cross doesn’t merely “make salvation possible.” It actually deals with sin and death:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”
— John 1:29“…He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.”
— 1 John 2:2“…Christ Jesus, who annuls death and illuminates life and incorruptibility…”
— 2 Timothy 1:10
Sin’s “infinity” is not the problem; man never had infinite power to sin. The center of the gospel is not the size of sin but the sufficiency of Christ. You’re effectively saying: “Sin is so bad that not even the cross can ever fully deal with it for most of creation.” That’s not exalting justice—that’s insulting the work of Christ.
6. Hebrews 10 and “no more sacrifice”
You quoted Hebrews 10:26–31 as if it proved endless damnation:
“There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire…”
— Hebrews 10:26–27
Hebrews is addressing people rejecting the one sufficient sacrifice and going back to the law system. If you refuse Christ, there is no second sacrifice. There is only judgment. I agree completely.
But what is God’s purpose in judgment? Paul says:
“When we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”
— 1 Corinthians 11:32
Even judgment has a preventive and corrective purpose in God’s hands. Hebrews nowhere says that those judged are never reconciled or that God’s judgments last beyond the ages into endlessness.
You are taking real warnings—which I affirm—and stretching them into a doctrine of never-ending separation that Paul explicitly contradicts when he reveals the end of God’s plan:
“That in the consummation of the ages He might head up all in the Christ…”
— Ephesians 1:10“And when all is subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:28
You can’t have God “All in all” while an endless hell still burns with billions of unreconciled creatures.
7. “Why evangelize if all are saved?”
You asked why evangelize if we all end up in the same place anyway. Paul answers that:
“We are ambassadors, then, on behalf of Christ, as God entreating through us: we are beseeching for Christ’s sake, ‘Be conciliated to God!’”
— 2 Corinthians 5:20
Evangelism is about when and how people come into the experience of reconciliation—not about if God will ultimately reconcile His creation.
- Some are granted faith now and are “firstfruits” (James 1:18, 1 Corinthians 15:23).
- Others will come through judgment, correction, and the lake of fire.
- But all will eventually bow and confess willingly:
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
— Philippians 2:10–11
You think that’s forced hypocrisy in hell. Paul says it’s to the glory of God. God doesn’t get glory from fake confessions wrung out by endless torment. He gets glory when reconciliation is complete.
Evangelism today is about being used in this age—drawing people into reconciliation earlier, into the joy and realization now, instead of through harsher judgment later. That’s a privilege, not a necessity to “save God’s plan.”
8. Tradition vs Revelation
You appeal to “99% of theologians” and “orthodoxy.” I get it—that’s the system most of us grew up in. But Paul warned us:
“Let God be true, yet every man a liar…”
— Romans 3:4
And he claimed this:
“…to complete the word of God, the secret which has been concealed from the ages and from the generations, yet now was made manifest…”
— Colossians 1:25–26
If Paul’s revelation completes the word of God, then we have to let his plain statements about the end of the ages, the abolition of death, and God being All in all interpret everything else—including our reading of Revelation, our inherited traditions, and yes, the opinions of beloved theologians.
I’m not asking you to follow me. I’m asking you to actually believe what’s written:
- All in Adam die, all in Christ will be made alive.
- All created in Christ, all reconciled through Christ.
- God is the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers.
- God locks up all in stubbornness to have mercy on all.
- Death is abolished. God is All in all.
If that’s not universal reconciliation through Christ, then the words don’t mean anything.
We can stop going in circles, that’s fine. But I’m not going to surrender the plain statements of Scripture to keep a tradition that paints God as a failure, Christ as a partial Savior, and the cross as a limited tool.
I’ll stand with what Paul actually revealed:
“For out of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory for the eons of the eons. Amen.”
— Romans 11:36
Grace to you,
Scott
Saved ignoble 
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