The Verse That Turns the Entire Religious Argument Upside Down

There is a passage in Paul’s letters that exposes a massive problem with what Christianity has taught about destruction, Satan, judgment, and salvation.

Paul is dealing with a man in Corinth living in serious sexual immorality. His instruction sounds severe:

“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved…”
— 1 Corinthians 5:5

Read those words carefully.

Delivered to Satan.
Destruction.
Saved.

All three appear in the same sentence.

Religion has trained people to see destruction as the opposite of salvation. Paul presents destruction here as serving a purpose that ends in salvation.

That should completely change the way we approach biblical words like destroy, perish, consume, and death.

Satan Destroys—But Destruction Does Not Defeat God’s Purpose

Jesus describes the thief as one who comes:

“to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
— John 10:10

Peter describes the adversary as:

“a roaring lion… seeking whom he may devour.”
— 1 Peter 5:8

Paul even speaks elsewhere of people being delivered unto Satan:

“Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”
— 1 Timothy 1:20

Notice that last phrase: “that they may learn.”

Satan’s destructive activity is real. But nowhere does that require Satan to have the final victory over those he destroys.

In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Satan is not handed this man so Satan can keep him forever.

He is delivered to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh” with an explicitly stated purpose:

“that the spirit may be saved.”

That is almost the exact opposite of the story religion tells.

Traditional Christianity often pictures Satan as somehow gaining people forever—either through their endless ruin or their permanent extinction.

But Paul can speak of Satan’s destructive work as something that, under God’s sovereignty, is subordinate to God’s larger purpose.

Satan destroys.

God saves.

And Satan’s destruction cannot overturn God’s salvation.

Scripture Repeatedly Shows Destruction Before Restoration

This pattern is bigger than one verse.

Paul says:

“For when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
— 1 Corinthians 11:32

Judgment has a purpose.

The writer of Hebrews says God’s chastening:

“afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
— Hebrews 12:11

Again: pain and correction are not necessarily the destination. There is an “afterward.”

Even Paul’s language concerning the destruction of the old humanity points toward something beyond destruction:

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed…”
— Romans 6:6

What is being destroyed?

That which belongs to the old creation—the flesh, sin, corruption, and ultimately death itself.

And what emerges on the other side?

Life.

Paul gives the pattern perfectly:

“What you are sowing is not being vivified if it should not be dying.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:36

Death precedes life.

That is the great mistake religion makes when it encounters biblical language about people perishing, being destroyed, being consumed, or experiencing death. It automatically assumes:

That must be the end of their story.

But why?

Christ’s entire victory demonstrates the opposite pattern.

Death → resurrection.
Destruction of the flesh → salvation.
Judgment → correction.
Corruption → incorruption.
Mortality → immortality.

And ultimately:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:26

Here is the irony that should be impossible to miss:

Even destruction itself ultimately reaches DEATH.

Death destroys mankind, but Christ destroys death.

Satan may participate in destroying the flesh, but Satan does not determine the final destiny of God’s creation. Satan himself operates inside a purpose larger than himself.

So when Scripture says the wicked perish, are destroyed, consume away, or experience death, we should not automatically import the religious conclusion that they therefore remain dead forever.

That conclusion becomes especially difficult when Paul tells us explicitly what eventually happens to death:

Death itself is destroyed.

The man in Corinth gives us the pattern in one extraordinary sentence:

Satan. Destruction. Salvation.

“For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved.”

Destruction is not God’s failure to save.

In Scripture, destruction is part of the road by which God brings an end to what must die so that His ultimate purpose in Christ can prevail.

And once we understand that distinction, both eternal torment and permanent annihilation begin to face the same enormous problem:

They take something Scripture can use as a means—judgment, destruction, and death—and turn it into the final destination.

That brings us to the real question:

What did Christ actually accomplish?

THE SALVATION OF ALL!

Below is my response to a comment made by a person supporting the annihilation lie.

COMMENT: He would not burn his creation forever. However, if we, as humans, decide that we don’t want to be with him, then he will not force us to be with him. He will allow unrepentant human beings to unplug from him and cease to exist.

Before I respond directly to this comment, I want to say this:

There is something fundamentally strange about the annihilation argument when you really think it through.

They didn’t choose to be created, and yet supposedly they possess the ultimate choice to remove themselves from God’s creation forever. The creature never chose to exist, but somehow the creature gets the final word over whether God’s act of creation will have an everlasting result. It is almost as though the clay can say to the Potter, “No. I reject what You are making. Stop creating me. I will not exist.”

Think about this example.

Suppose I told you, “I have ten children, and I am a great father. All of my children are successful, have good jobs, and have become respectful people.”

You look around and see only one child.

You ask, “Where are the other nine?”

I answer, “Oh, they weren’t successful, so I killed them. They’re gone forever.”

Then I proudly say, “See? Every one of my children who exists is successful!”

Would anyone consider that a great victory for the father?

Yet this is essentially what annihilation does with God’s final victory. It says that eventually everyone remaining in existence will belong to God—but only because everyone who would not belong to Him has been permanently eliminated.

That isn’t death being defeated. That is death permanently keeping its victims.

Paul says:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
—1 Corinthians 15:22

And then:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
—1 Corinthians 15:26

If billions of human beings remain dead forever—erased from existence with no resurrection to final life—then in what meaningful sense has death itself been destroyed?

Annihilation doesn’t solve the problem of death. It makes death permanent.

My argument is not that the wicked never perish. Scripture plainly says they do. The Old Testament repeatedly describes mankind returning to dust, going to the grave, perishing, and consuming away. That is precisely what humanity needs Christ to save it from.

The question isn’t whether people die.

The question is whether death gets the final word—or Christ does.

And Paul’s answer is extraordinary: all who die in Adam will ultimately be made alive in Christ; death itself will be abolished; all things will be subjected to Christ; and ultimately God will be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:22–28).

The Potter does not lose His clay.

He finishes what He began.

MY DIRECT RESPONSE TO THE COMMENT SUPPORTING ANNIHILATION:

What a sick thought—that God would create human beings, know every detail of their lives, and then erase them from existence forever because they did not respond to Him as you believe they should.

You reject eternal torment because you recognize how monstrous it makes God appear, but then replace it with eternal annihilation and call that love. You have simply exchanged one eternal defeat for another.

The entire Old Testament repeatedly speaks of mankind perishing, consuming away, returning to dust, going to the grave, and dying. What is that describing? Annihilation. That is death.

“All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” (Ecclesiastes 3:20)

“What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” (Psalm 89:48)

And Job asks the question at the heart of the entire issue:

“If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14)

The Old Testament speaks repeatedly about this condition without yet revealing the fullness of what Christ would accomplish. The righteous and wicked alike die. They perish. They return to dust. Death is the annihilation from which humanity needs resurrection.

Then Christ changes everything.

He enters the very death that held humanity and comes out of it victorious. And through Paul we are given the fuller revelation of where Christ’s victory ultimately leads:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26)

That is the enormous contradiction in the annihilationist position. People recognize that eternal conscious torment makes God into a monster, so they reject hell and embrace annihilation—without realizing they have made permanent the very enemy Christ came to abolish.

If billions remain annihilated forever, death has not been abolished. Death has won permanently over billions of God’s creatures.

And saying God must allow this because He cannot violate man’s “free will” doesn’t solve anything. Was Saul seeking Christ on the Damascus road? No. He was persecuting Christ’s followers when Christ intervened and completely changed his course. Was that love, or was Christ violating Saul’s supposed autonomous free will?

Think about the deeper contradiction: the creature never chose to exist in the first place, yet supposedly possesses the ultimate power to defeat God’s purpose for creating him by choosing permanent nonexistence. I don’t believe Scripture gives the creature that kind of sovereignty.

Christ is called the “Savior of all mankind” (1 Timothy 4:10). God reconciles “all things” through Christ (Colossians 1:20). All who die in Adam are made alive in Christ, every enemy is abolished, including death, and finally God becomes “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:22–28).

Annihilation is not the abolition of death. It is death made permanent.

I believe Christ’s victory is infinitely greater than that. He doesn’t defeat death by allowing death to keep its victims forever. He defeats death by taking every victim out of it.

You believe God’s final answer for part of His creation is permanent death. I believe God’s final answer is resurrection, reconciliation, life—and ultimately God all in all.

Is God’s “Gift of Free Will” Actually an Example of Hate?

I want to talk about a statement I’ve heard my entire life in Christianity:

“God loves us so much that He gives us a choice. He won’t force anyone to love Him. We have to freely choose to accept or reject Him, because without free will, it wouldn’t be love.”

It sounds reasonable from the human perspective. But when you really think through what Scripture says about human beings, influences, circumstances, the heart, Satan, faith, and God’s sovereignty, I think the argument creates the exact opposite problem.

If God could change the influences that lead someone to reject Him, but deliberately refuses to do so and then punishes that person forever for the resulting rejection, how is that love?

That sounds much closer to hate.

We aren’t born neutral. We enter this world under sin, corruption, weakness, ignorance and death. Romans 8:20 says creation was subjected to vanity not voluntarily. We didn’t choose the condition into which we were born.

Then Christianity tells us God loves us so much that He allows our ultimate destiny to depend upon a choice made while living under these conditions.

Let’s think about that.

What Does “Free Will” Actually Mean?

If free will means making a choice free from influence, nobody has it.

Everything influences us: genetics, parents, childhood, culture, education, personality, intelligence, fears, desires, relationships, suffering, temptations, spiritual forces and circumstances.

You didn’t choose your parents, genetics, birthplace, childhood or the experiences that formed you. Yet all of these contribute to the person supposedly making this completely “free” decision.

The response is usually:

“Sure, people are influenced, but influences don’t determine choices. Two people can experience the same thing and respond differently. Someone with terrible influences can make a good choice, while someone with wonderful influences can make a bad one.”

That’s true.

But it doesn’t establish an independent will.

It raises another question:

Who formed the person responding to those influences?

Psalm 139 says God formed our inmost being and knit us together in the womb. God didn’t merely create the external circumstances. He created the individual experiencing them. In fact, He can turn the heart wherever He desires (Proverbs 21:1).

So yes, two people can react differently to the same influence. But God knows precisely who each person is, how each heart responds, and what influences and circumstances will move that individual.

And Scripture shows that God can change those influences.

God Is Not Outside the Influences

Acts 17:26 says God determines people’s appointed times and boundaries. Proverbs 16:9 says a person plans his way, yet the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in God’s hand and He turns it wherever He desires.

Philippians 2:13 goes even further:

God operates in us “to will as well as to work.”

That’s enormous.

God isn’t merely influencing what happens around you. Scripture places Him at the level of the will itself.

Now, people will immediately point to the verse right before it, Philippians 2:12, and say, “See! It says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That proves it’s our choice.”

But keep reading. Why are they working it out? What is producing the willing and the working in the first place?

Verse 13 gives the reason: God is operating in you to will as well as to work for the sake of His delight.

In other words, we work out what God is working in.

“Work out your own salvation” doesn’t suddenly make the human will independent of God. We live it out. We walk through it. We make the decisions. We perform the actions. But underneath our willing and working, Paul identifies God as the One operating in us to produce both the willing and the working.

The order matters.

It isn’t:

You independently will → you independently work → God responds to your choice.

It’s:

God operates in you → you will → you work → you live out what God is working within you.

So yes, the choice is experienced as our choice. We’re the ones thinking, deciding, willing and acting. But the willing itself isn’t independent of God.

If God operates within someone to will and to work, what happens?

They will and they work.

That doesn’t mean people don’t choose. They absolutely do.

The question is who is ultimately behind the willing that produces the choice?

Philippians 2 doesn’t leave that unanswered.

It is God Who operates in us to will as well as to work.

So “work out your own salvation” isn’t a free-will escape hatch from verse 13. Verse 13 explains how verse 12 happens. We work it out because God is working it in.

The choice is ours in experience, but the willing behind that choice originates in God’s operation. God is not waiting to discover what an independent will decides. He is the One operating in the will itself.

What would it mean if God withheld influences that would bring people to accept Him? You would have to conclude that He is hate unless you believe that He does not control influences at all, then He is not God. Which is it?

I contend that God controls all influences and everntually everyone ends up at God’s perfect workmanships. So, God is God, and He is the God of love.

The argument, “But God tells us to choose,” proves nothing about independent free will. Of course God tells us to choose good rather than evil, because those choices are part of the experience through which He is forming us. A command does not mean God is standing back, waiting to discover what an autonomous will decides. Paul confronts that very assumption: “Who has withstood His intention?” (Romans 9:19).

People can resist God’s commands while still fulfilling His ultimate intention—Pharaoh and the crucifixion are obvious examples. God can intend for people to experience disobedience, failure, and evil, not because evil is His final goal, but because He is using even those experiences to produce His workmanship, ultimately bringing His creation into a deeper knowledge, appreciation, and love of Him.

Scripture Shows God Controlling the Influences

Consider Satan.

Second Corinthians 4:4 says the god of this eon blinds the apprehensions of unbelievers so that the illumination of the evangel of Christ does not irradiate them.

That’s an influence.

But is Satan independent of God?

Look at Job. Satan couldn’t simply do whatever he wanted. God established exactly how far he could go. Satan could affect Job’s possessions, family, body and circumstances only within boundaries established by God.

So Satan influences people, but God governs Satan’s boundaries.

Now compare 2 Corinthians 4:4 with 2 Corinthians 4:6. Satan blinds, but God is the One Who shines light into the heart.

That’s fascinating.

One spiritual influence blinds.

God can illuminate.

Acts 16:14 gives us Lydia. Why did she respond to Paul’s message?

The Lord opened her heart.

Matthew 16:16–17 gives us Peter. Peter recognizes Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Did Jesus congratulate Peter for figuring it out through his independent free will?

No.

Jesus tells him that flesh and blood did not reveal it to him, but His Father in the heavens did.

Acts 26:18 describes Paul’s commission in terms of opening eyes, turning people from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God.

Notice the pattern.

Satan blinds.
God illuminates.
The Lord opens hearts.
The Father reveals Christ.
People are turned from Satan’s authority to God.

And we’re supposed to believe God has nothing to do with the decisive influences that result in belief?

Saul of Tarsus Proves God Can Change the Influences

Saul may be the clearest example.

Saul wasn’t sitting neutrally between Jesus and unbelief trying to decide which one he preferred.

He had already rejected Christ.

He was persecuting Christ’s followers, imprisoning believers and traveling to Damascus with authority to arrest more of them.

What did Christ do?

Did He stand back and say:

“I love Saul too much to interfere with his free will”?

No.

Christ changed Saul’s circumstances.

A light from heaven suddenly surrounds him.

Christ personally confronts him:

“Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?”

Saul is struck blind.

He is led into Damascus.

Ananias is sent directly to him.

His entire understanding of Jesus is shattered.

God radically changes the information, circumstances and influences surrounding Saul—and Saul changes.

That’s the pattern.

Saul rejected Christ under one set of influences. Christ changed the influences, and Saul became Paul.

So don’t tell me God cannot interfere because that would violate free will.

He did.

And don’t tell me changing someone’s circumstances somehow makes their response meaningless. Paul’s faith wasn’t less real because Christ confronted him personally.

If anything, it demonstrates exactly how sovereign grace works.

What About Ahab?

First Kings 22 shows the same sovereignty operating in the opposite direction.

Micaiah sees God upon His throne surrounded by the heavenly host. A spirit proposes becoming a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets so that Ahab will go into battle. God authorizes it.

Think about the chain:

Ahab chooses.
The prophets influence Ahab.
The spirit influences the prophets.
God governs the entire circumstance.

Ahab genuinely makes the decision, but the influences leading to that decision are not outside God’s sovereignty.

Judges 9:23 says God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. First Samuel 16:14 is equally revealing. The Concordant Old Testament says, “As for the spirit of Yahweh, it had withdrawn from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh frightened him.” Both the departing spirit and the troubling spirit are described in relation to Yahweh.

And look again at Ahab: First Kings 22:22 describes the spirit undertaking to deceive Ahab through his prophets, while verse 23 declares that Yahweh has put a lying spirit in their mouths. Scripture describes the spirit acting and then attributes the action to God.

Do you see the pattern? God’s creatures participate in what He is accomplishing. Their actions are not independent events to which God must react. He governs the spirits, the influences, and the circumstances through which His purpose unfolds.

Second Thessalonians 2:11 likewise speaks of God sending an operation of deception, while Romans 1 repeatedly describes God giving people over.

God isn’t watching influences from the sidelines, responding to whatever His creatures decide to do.

He governs them. His sovereignty is absolute.

Evil Intention and God’s Intention Are Not the Same

None of this means God possesses the evil motives of His creatures.

Genesis 50:20 gives us the distinction.

Joseph’s brothers intended what happened to Joseph for evil.

God intended it for good.

Same event.

Different intentions.

The brothers weren’t secretly righteous because God was sovereign. Their intention remained evil. But their evil could not prevent God’s good purpose.

The cross is the ultimate example.

Judas chose. Herod chose. Pilate chose. Israel’s leaders chose.

Yet Acts 4:27–28 says they ultimately accomplished what God’s hand and counsel designated beforehand to occur.

Human choice and divine determination existed in the same event.

Choice does not equal independence.

Now Apply This to Salvation

This is where the traditional argument falls apart for me.

We’re told God wants everyone saved but loves people too much to interfere with their decision.

Yet Scripture says believing is graciously granted (Philippians 1:29). God grants repentance (2 Timothy 2:25; Acts 11:18). The Lord opens Lydia’s heart (Acts 16:14). The Father reveals Christ to Peter (Matthew 16:16–17). God shines into hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). Paul is commissioned to turn people from darkness to light and Satan’s authority to God (Acts 26:18).

Put everything together:

God forms the person.
God knows the heart.
God directs the steps.
God determines times and boundaries.
God governs circumstances.
God establishes Satan’s boundaries.
God can overcome Satan’s blindness with light.
God opens hearts.
God reveals Christ.
God grants repentance.
God grants belief.
God works within us to will and to work.

And Ephesians 1:11 says God operates all according to the counsel of His will.

Where exactly is the human decision that exists independently of all of that?

“But Different People Respond Differently”

Of course they do.

But that doesn’t solve anything.

If I know two people will respond differently to the same circumstances, and I know exactly what circumstances would change each person’s response, then their differences don’t somehow remove my involvement if I control those circumstances.

How much more does that apply to God?

He didn’t discover our personalities after we were born.

He formed us.

He knows what each heart needs.

He knows which experiences will humble one person, which revelation will open another person’s eyes, which circumstances will break another person’s pride and exactly what it will take to bring someone from darkness into light.

Saul proves that God knows how to change a person’s entire direction.

So here’s the uncomfortable question:

If God knows exactly what influence would bring someone to Christ, has complete authority over the circumstances necessary to provide that influence, demonstrated with Saul that He can do exactly that—and nevertheless intentionally withholds it forever—how could we call that love?

Especially if the alternative is supposedly endless torment.

If God places someone into circumstances He controls, permits Satan to blind that person’s mind within boundaries He controls, knows precisely what revelation would overcome that blindness, but refuses to provide it—and then endlessly punishes that person for remaining blind—

that isn’t a convincing picture of love.

If that were actually God’s final intention toward that person, I would call it hate, not love.

Thankfully, I don’t believe that’s God’s intention.

Which View Actually Demonstrates Greater Love?

Now return to the original claim:

“God loves us so much that He lets us choose.”

I believe Scripture gives us something infinitely better.

Love isn’t God creating people, subjecting them to mortality, placing them among influences they never chose, allowing spiritual blindness He could overcome, knowing exactly what would change their hearts, and then refusing to provide it because He supposedly respects their “free will.”

Love is God refusing to lose them.

Love is God knowing every detail of every person’s journey because He planned the journey toward the greatest possible outcome.

Not necessarily the greatest happiness right now.

The greatest ultimate joy.

The greatest understanding.

The greatest appreciation of righteousness, life, immortality and God Himself.

That means even our darkest experiences aren’t evidence that God lost control. Joseph eventually looked backward and understood that what others intended for evil, God intended for good.

Romans 8 says creation was subjected to vanity in expectation of liberation.

And Scripture carries God’s purpose all the way to its conclusion.

Christ reigns until every enemy is subjected.

The last enemy abolished is death (1 Corinthians 15:26).

And finally:

God becomes “All in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

That’s the destination that makes sense of God’s sovereignty and God’s love.

Imagine reaching that point and finally seeing every detail of your life from God’s perspective—every joy, sorrow, weakness, failure, relationship, influence, loss and victory—and understanding what God was creating through all of it.

We appreciate life because we experienced death.
We appreciate righteousness because we knew sin.
We understand strength because we experienced weakness.
We appreciate immortality because we experienced mortality.
And we know God in a way we never could have without experiencing what existence was like before He became our All.

That’s a much greater love than:

“I loved you so much that I let you reject Me forever.”

God’s love says:

“I knew you before you knew yourself. I formed you. I know your heart. I know every influence. I control the circumstances. I know exactly what is necessary to bring you from darkness into light—and I will not fail.”

That is sovereignty.

And God’s sovereignty isn’t the enemy of love.

His sovereignty is what guarantees that His love ultimately accomplishes everything it intends.

Introduction

God makes people a certain way, places them in circumstances He controls, and then judges them for what they do. How could a loving and just God do this? Because judgment is something very different from what religion has taught us. It is not God reacting in anger to creatures who acted independently of Him; judgment is part of the very process by which God forms, corrects, teaches, and ultimately perfects His creation.

Christians claim to know God, yet often fail to recognize Him as God. Religion teaches that man acts independently, makes the decisive choice, and then God reacts by rewarding or punishing him. Scripture presents the opposite: God is the Potter; we are the clay. He forms the vessel, directs its path, works through its experiences, and even uses judgment as part of creating that person into exactly what He intends them to become.

God Judges the Very People He Makes: Judgment as Part of the Creation Process

One of A. E. Knoch’s most penetrating observations in The Problem of Evil, in his discussion of responsibility, exposes a problem at the heart of traditional Christianity. Christians often insist that human beings must possess ultimate responsibility for their condition because, without that responsibility, their doctrines of judgment become morally indefensible.

If God determines the circumstances, limitations, desires, experiences, and ultimately the course of His creatures, how can He then judge those same creatures?

Knoch writes:

“The reason is that they are still self-centered, and imagine that they should be given a chance to display themselves, rather than be helpless vessels for the revelation of God.”

This completely changes the question. Scripture is not primarily the story of humanity proving what humanity can do. It is the story of God revealing Who He is through humanity.

And remarkably, Romans itself raises the objection that immediately follows from this truth.

If God Uses Our Unrighteousness, How Can He Judge Us?

Paul asks:

“But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?”

Romans 3:5

That is an extraordinary question.

If human unrighteousness actually serves as the backdrop against which God’s righteousness is revealed, how can God judge the person whose unrighteousness contributed to that revelation?

Paul answers:

“God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?”

Romans 3:6

Notice what Paul does not do.

He does not solve the objection by saying, “God didn’t cause anything. Man possesses an independent free will and therefore everything is ultimately man’s responsibility.”

Instead, Paul continues throughout Romans to progressively remove human boasting and independence.

By Romans 9, God is presented as the Potter and humanity as the clay.

“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”

Romans 9:21

The vessel does not make itself.

The Potter makes the vessel.

That means God can form one person for one purpose and another person for another purpose. Their differences ultimately originate in the Potter rather than the clay.

Yet God still judges.

Why?

Because judgment itself is part of what the Potter is doing with the clay.

God Doesn’t Judge Because He Has Lost Control

Traditional theology frequently views judgment as God’s reaction to something that went wrong.

God supposedly wanted one outcome.

The creature independently chose another.

God therefore punishes the creature for frustrating His intention.

But Paul’s conclusion in Romans is almost the exact opposite.

“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”

Romans 11:32

Who shuts them up together in unbelief?

God does.

Why?

That He might have mercy upon all.

The unbelief and the mercy are not two unrelated events. They are parts of the same divine process.

God brings humanity into an experience of failure so humanity can eventually experience something it otherwise could never comprehend to the same depth:

mercy.

And only four verses later Paul tells us why this is possible:

“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.”

Romans 11:36

Of Him.

God is the Source.

Through Him.

God is the Operator.

To Him.

God is the Goal.

That leaves no room for an independent creature operating outside God’s ultimate purpose.

Even humanity’s failure exists within the great movement of creation:

OF God → THROUGH God → TO God.

God Makes the Vessel—and Then Judges the Vessel

This is where the doctrine becomes uncomfortable if judgment is misunderstood.

God forms the individual.

God determines when and where that individual is born.

God determines the person’s limitations.

God surrounds that person with circumstances he did not choose.

God gives faith to some while others remain in unbelief.

God makes vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.

And then God judges His creatures.

If judgment were endless torture, this would make God monstrous.

If judgment ended in permanent annihilation, the problem would remain. God would create a vessel according to His purpose, place it into circumstances He controls, use its failure within His plan, judge it for that failure, and finally destroy it forever.

The Calvinist system comes particularly close to acknowledging God’s sovereignty, but when combined with eternal conscious torment it produces a horrifying conclusion: God sovereignly creates and governs creatures whose final destiny is endless misery.

This is precisely why human religion desperately needs “free will.”

Free will becomes the theological escape hatch.

God didn’t really determine it.

God didn’t want this.

God tried to save them.

They did it to themselves.

Responsibility must therefore be pushed entirely onto the creature because otherwise eternal hell makes the character of God almost impossible to defend.

But there is another solution.

Perhaps Christianity has misunderstood judgment.

Judgment Is Part of Making the Creature What God Intends It to Become

If God is truly sovereign and God is truly love, judgment cannot exist merely to satisfy vengeance against creatures God Himself formed.

Judgment must accomplish something.

It must be corrective, revelatory and ultimately beneficial to the person experiencing it.

God does not merely make a person and then judge him.

God uses both the person’s experience and the judgment of that experience to complete His work in that individual.

Failure teaches something.

Consequences teach something.

Judgment teaches something.

Mercy teaches something.

Reconciliation teaches something.

And eventually the person understands God in a depth that innocence alone could never have produced.

This is why Romans 11:32 is so profound:

God shuts all up in unbelief so that He may have mercy upon all.

Unbelief isn’t the destination.

Mercy is.

Judgment isn’t the destination.

Restoration is.

Death isn’t the destination.

Life is.

Judgment Is for the Good of the Judged

Knoch takes the argument even further:

“Even the Deity cannot display Himself at the expense of His creatures and at their loss, for He is love, and such a revelation would be an exhibition of hate.”

That principle is enormously important.

Suppose God creates billions of people to demonstrate His holiness, justice, wrath, sovereignty, or power—but those creatures suffer eternal loss in the process.

God receives His demonstration.

The creatures receive endless misery.

What has actually been revealed?

According to Knoch, such an outcome could hardly be called a revelation of love.

He continues:

“It is only as we see that all the suffering which comes to the creature will be fully compensated by God, nay, will become a vital factor in his future bliss, that we are able to see why responsibility is practically absent from the Scriptures, yet so important a part of human religion.”

This is the missing piece.

The suffering isn’t merely compensated.

It ultimately contributes to the creature’s future joy.

The person who has known darkness understands light differently.

The person who has experienced guilt understands forgiveness differently.

The person who has experienced judgment understands mercy differently.

The mortal understands immortality.

The sinner understands grace.

The failure receives justification.

The estranged creature understands reconciliation.

God is not merely repairing damage.

He is creating understanding.

The Cross Is the Supreme Example

Nothing demonstrates this principle more powerfully than the crucifixion.

Human beings committed the greatest sin imaginable: they murdered the Son of God.

Yet Acts says Christ was delivered:

“by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.”

Acts 2:23

Their actions were evil.

Yet their evil did not escape God’s purpose.

God used humanity’s greatest crime to produce humanity’s greatest blessing.

Through the cross humanity learns things about God that an untouched creation could never have known in the same way:

His grace.

His mercy.

His patience.

His forgiveness.

His love toward enemies.

His ability to bring life out of death.

And His power to overcome evil with good.

The very people whose sins reveal the need for grace will eventually become recipients of that grace.

That is not God displaying Himself at their expense.

It is God revealing Himself for their eventual benefit.

Human Religion Makes Man the Operator

Knoch summarizes the contrast beautifully:

“In holy writ, God operates the universe. Outside, man is the master of his fate.”

That may be one of the clearest summaries of the entire free-will problem.

Religion says:

Man determines his destiny.

Scripture says:

God works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Religion says:

Man creates himself through his choices.

Scripture says:

God is the Potter; man is the clay.

Religion says:

Human unbelief can eternally defeat God’s desire to save.

Scripture says:

God shuts all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all.

Religion says:

Everything ultimately depends upon man.

Paul concludes:

“Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.”

God Is Creating Something Through the Entire Process

This gives judgment an entirely different meaning.

Imagine a person standing before God in judgment.

For the first time, every illusion disappears.

He sees himself accurately.

He understands the consequences of what he has done.

He understands the pain his actions caused others.

He experiences God’s righteous judgment.

But then he also learns something infinitely greater.

He discovers the God Who knew all of this before He ever created him.

The God Who formed him knew his failures.

The God Who placed him into mortality knew his weakness.

The God Who subjected creation to vanity already knew the destination.

And the God Who judges him is the same God Who intends ultimately to reconcile him through Christ.

The judgment therefore becomes part of his creation, not his destruction.

God is making something out of him.

His ignorance, failure, suffering, judgment, correction, mercy and eventual reconciliation all contribute to the person he will ultimately become.

And imagine the joy when such a person finally understands.

The sinner discovers grace.

The enemy discovers reconciliation.

The unbeliever discovers faith.

The dying creature receives immortality.

The person who once misunderstood God finally understands His heart.

What seemed like disconnected experiences are finally seen as parts of one enormous purpose.

This Is Why God Can Be Absolutely Sovereign and Absolutely Good

Remove universal reconciliation and God’s sovereignty becomes terrifying.

If eternal torment is true, sovereignty makes God responsible for creating an endless chamber of suffering.

If annihilation is true, sovereignty means God knowingly creates countless people whose existence ultimately ends in permanent destruction.

The usual theological solution is therefore to diminish God’s sovereignty and magnify human responsibility.

But Scripture offers a far greater resolution:

God is sovereign.

God judges.

God corrects.

God saves.

And every stage ultimately contributes to the creature’s good.

Romans 11 does not end with humanity escaping God’s control.

It ends with humanity completely enclosed within God’s purpose:

“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”

And then:

“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.”

That is the answer to the apparent contradiction.

God can form the vessel and then judge the vessel because judgment is one of the instruments by which the Potter finishes His work.

He does not create imperfect creatures, judge them, and discard them.

He creates them through the entire experience.

He uses weakness.

He uses failure.

He uses consequences.

He uses judgment.

He uses mercy.

And ultimately He uses Christ to bring the entire process to its intended conclusion.

The creature does not emerge eternally ruined by God’s sovereignty.

The creature emerges perfected through it.

And when the purpose of the ages is finally complete, no creature will look backward and discover that God gained glory at his expense.

Every tear, every failure, every correction and every judgment will finally be understood within the immeasurable good God was accomplishing through it all.

Then God’s sovereignty will no longer appear frightening.

It will become the greatest reason creation can have for confidence.

Because the One operating the universe is not merely sovereign.

He is love.

The Greatest Sin Became the Basis for the Justification of All Sin

A.E. Knoch made a powerful argument concerning sin and the sovereignty of God:

“We are sure, then, that sin, or failure, never had any place in God Himself. But we can only maintain this position so long as we acknowledge that it has a place in His purpose… If God wills the salvation of all, and, because of forces outside Himself, is unable to accomplish the desire of His heart… it would demonstrate to the whole universe that He had come short of the goal He had set for Himself.”

End comment.

Knoch’s point is simple but profound:

Sin is failure. God cannot ultimately fail.

Therefore, sin cannot be an accident that entered God’s creation and permanently destroyed what He intended to accomplish. Sin is evil, but God is powerful enough to use even evil within His purpose and ultimately eliminate it.

The greatest demonstration of this is the cross.

Humanity’s Greatest Sin Accomplished God’s Greatest Purpose

What greater sin could humanity commit than murdering the Son of God?

Christ was betrayed, falsely accused, tortured and crucified.

Yet Scripture says:

“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

Acts 2:23

Notice both truths.

Wicked hands crucified Christ.

Yet it occurred according to God’s “determinate counsel.”

Acts 4:27–28 goes even further. Herod, Pilate, Israel and the nations gathered against Christ:

“For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”

The cross was evil from humanity’s perspective, but it was never outside God’s purpose.

And here is the astonishing result:

Humanity’s greatest sin became the means through which God deals with all sin.

The murder of Christ became the sacrifice of Christ.

Human rejection became the occasion for reconciliation.

Death became the pathway to resurrection.

God took the darkest act humanity ever committed and turned it toward the greatest good creation will ever experience.

Joseph Shows the Same Principle

Joseph’s story gives a smaller picture of the same truth.

His brothers hated him, threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery.

Years later Joseph told them:

“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good… to save much people alive.”

Genesis 50:20

This doesn’t say God merely repaired what Joseph’s brothers ruined.

The brothers meant evil.

God meant good.

Even more remarkable, their evil became part of the process through which they themselves were eventually saved from famine.

Joseph told them:

“Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.”

Genesis 45:5

They sold Joseph.

God sent Joseph.

Their sin eventually contributed to their own deliverance.

That points directly toward Christ.

What About Judas?

Judas’s betrayal was unquestionably evil.

Yet his betrayal was also part of the events leading to Christ’s crucifixion.

Judas intended betrayal.

God was accomplishing salvation.

And if Christ’s sacrifice ultimately reconciles all things, then even Judas’s terrible act cannot permanently defeat God’s purpose for Judas.

That doesn’t justify Judas’s motives or call his betrayal good.

It demonstrates something far greater:

Christ’s accomplishment is greater than Judas’s failure.

One day Judas will have nothing in which to boast. If he is ultimately reconciled to the Christ he betrayed, his salvation will become an extraordinary demonstration that grace truly is greater than sin.

The Cross Transforms the Meaning of the Problem of Evil

This is where Knoch’s argument becomes so important.

God doesn’t need evil to become good before He can use it.

He can take something genuinely evil and bring from it an outcome completely contrary to what the evil intended.

The cross proves it.

Humanity produces hatred.

God reveals love.

Humanity produces condemnation.

God produces justification.

Humanity produces death.

God produces resurrection.

Paul writes:

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”

2 Corinthians 5:19

At the very moment humanity demonstrated its hostility toward God, God was accomplishing reconciliation through Christ.

Adam Cannot Ultimately Be Greater Than Christ

Paul makes the contrast explicit:

“As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

Romans 5:18

If Adam’s failure successfully reaches all humanity but Christ’s righteousness does not, Adam’s act ultimately has the greater effect.

But Paul’s argument is the opposite.

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

Romans 5:20

Sin abounds.

Grace superabounds.

Adam brings death.

Christ brings life.

This reaches its conclusion in 1 Corinthians 15:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

1 Corinthians 15:22

And finally:

“That God may be all in all.”

1 Corinthians 15:28

God doesn’t merely contain the damage caused by sin.

He completely overcomes it.

Judgment Still Has a Purpose

None of this makes sin insignificant or eliminates judgment.

Joseph’s brothers eventually had to confront what they had done.

Likewise, God’s judgments expose, correct and set right what sin has produced.

But judgment cannot become an eternal monument to God’s inability to accomplish His purpose.

If God’s purpose is reconciliation, judgment must ultimately serve that purpose.

Paul says that through Christ God will:

“reconcile all things unto himself… whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”

Colossians 1:20

And what accomplishes this?

“The blood of his cross.”

Once again, the greatest human crime becomes the instrument of reconciliation.

The Greatest Sin Shows Why God Cannot Be Defeated by Sin

This may be the deepest lesson of the cross.

If God can take the murder of His Son and turn it into the means of reconciliation, what sin could possibly be greater than His ability to overcome?

Joseph’s brothers meant evil.

God meant good.

Judas betrayed Christ.

God accomplished salvation.

Humanity murdered Christ.

God reconciled the world through His death.

Death swallowed Christ.

Christ emerged victorious.

And ultimately:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:26

Sin is real.

Evil is real.

Judgment is real.

But none of them are eternal.

God does not fail because His creatures fail.

The greatest sin humanity ever committed became the very means through which God will ultimately deal with all sin.

That is the triumph of the cross.

Sin does not get the final word.

God does.

Why Must Humanity Experience Life Without God?

The Problem of Evil May Be Part of the Answer

A.E. Knoch made a profound statement in the preface to The Problem of Evil:

“All of mankind must learn to realize what God is to them by an actual experience of what it means to be without Him. Then they will be able to give Him the unforced outflow of their hearts. Then they will appreciate it when His judgments permanently right all wrongs and eliminate all evil, through the suffering sacrifice He has provided.”

End comment.

Think deeply about what Knoch is saying.

What if humanity’s experience of evil is not evidence that God’s plan has failed?

What if it is part of the very process through which creation will eventually understand God?

What if God allows humanity to experience darkness so that humanity can finally comprehend light?

What if death teaches the value of life?

What if hatred teaches the value of love?

What if loneliness teaches the value of fellowship?

What if suffering teaches the value of peace?

And what if God’s apparent absence teaches creation what it actually means to have God become all in all?

That completely changes the problem of evil.

---

How Can Humanity Appreciate God Without Knowing His Opposite?

People frequently ask:

Why would a loving God allow suffering?

It is one of the greatest questions humanity has ever asked.

Why cancer?

Why war?

Why betrayal?

Why poverty?

Why depression?

Why children suffering?

Why broken families?

Why natural disasters?

Why death?

Religion frequently responds by blaming humanity.

God wanted everything perfect, the argument goes, but humanity’s free will ruined God’s plan.

Now God is desperately trying to rescue whoever will allow Him.

But that explanation creates an even larger problem.

If God knew everything before creation, then He knew exactly what would happen.

If God created humanity knowing billions would suffer, then suffering cannot simply be an unexpected accident that entered His universe.

Scripture presents God as far greater than that.

Paul says God:

“worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

Ephesians 1:11

Not some things.

All things.

That means history is going somewhere.

Even the darkness has a destination.

---

Humanity Is Learning Something It Could Never Learn From a Definition

Imagine trying to explain warmth to someone who had never experienced cold.

You could define warmth.

You could write books about warmth.

You could explain the molecular movement involved.

But put that person outside during a freezing winter night and then bring him into a warm house.

Suddenly warmth means something.

It has been experienced through contrast.

The same principle appears throughout human life.

A person often appreciates health differently after being sick.

Food means something different after hunger.

Rest means something different after exhaustion.

Peace means something different after conflict.

Reconciliation means something different after estrangement.

Home means something different after being lost.

Life means something different after confronting death.

Perhaps humanity could never fully understand what God is without experiencing what existence appears to be like without Him.

That is the power of Knoch’s statement.

Humanity is not merely being told what God is.

Humanity is experiencing the contrast.

We Experience the Depths So We Can Understand the Heights

Perhaps this is ultimately why humanity must experience evil so deeply.

Scripture speaks of “the depths of Satan” in Revelation 2:24. Human history has certainly revealed just how deep darkness can go. War, murder, hatred, disease, betrayal, cruelty, suffering, corruption, and death show humanity what existence becomes when evil is allowed to run its course.

We look at some of the horrors of this world and ask, “How could God possibly allow this?”

But perhaps the answer cannot be completely understood until the story is finished.

Humanity is experiencing the depths before experiencing the heights.

We learn what hatred is so that we can understand love.

We experience injustice so that we can appreciate perfect righteousness.

We experience weakness so that we can understand power.

We experience loneliness so that we can appreciate perfect fellowship.

We experience corruption so that we can understand incorruption.

We experience death so that we can understand immortality.

And we experience what appears to be God’s absence so that one day we can understand the unimaginable fullness of God being all in all.

The depths are terrible precisely because they reveal what God ultimately intends to remove.

This does not make evil good. Satan is not good. Suffering is not good. Death is not good. Scripture calls death an enemy. But an all-powerful God can use an enemy temporarily and then destroy it permanently when its purpose has been fulfilled.

Humanity could be told that God is good, but experiencing evil teaches what goodness means by contrast.

Humanity could be told that God is love, but experiencing hatred teaches the value of love.

Humanity could be told that God is life, but experiencing death reveals how utterly dependent creation is upon Him for existence itself.

This may help explain why the horrors of this world are sometimes almost beyond comprehension. Humanity is not receiving a shallow education in evil. Creation is learning just how far existence can descend when confronted with everything that is contrary to God’s ultimate purpose.

But the depths of Satan are not the destination.

The height of God is.

Imagine resurrection after having known death.

Imagine perfect love after having known hatred.

Imagine incorruption after watching bodies decay.

Imagine perfect justice after witnessing centuries of injustice.

Imagine peace after humanity has exhausted itself through war.

Imagine God filling every creature after humanity has spent its entire history wondering why He seemed so far away.

Only then will the contrast be complete.

And perhaps only then will humanity understand why God permitted creation to travel through such darkness before bringing it permanently into light.

Paul tells us where everything is heading:

“That God may be all in all.”
—1 Corinthians 15:28

That is the destination.

Not Satan all in some.

Not evil existing alongside God forever.

Not death preserved somewhere eternally.

Not billions of God’s creatures permanently separated from Him.

God all in all.

The depths of evil will have been experienced.

Judgment will have corrected what was wrong.

Christ will have reconciled what was estranged.

Death will have been abolished.

And evil will have exhausted its purpose and disappeared.

Then humanity will possess something it could never have possessed at the beginning: the knowledge of God through contrast and experience.

Creation will know what darkness was because it lived through it.

Creation will know what death was because it experienced mortality.

Creation will know what God’s apparent absence felt like because it endured it.

And when God finally becomes all in all, humanity will understand the difference.

The creature will not merely know that God is good.

It will know how good.

It will not merely know that God is life.

It will understand what life means because it knew death.

It will not merely know that God is everything.

It will understand what having everything means because it experienced what seemed like having Him absent.

Perhaps that is when the suffering sacrifice of Christ, the judgments of God, the temporary reign of evil, and the long painful history of humanity will finally be understood from the perspective of the finished story.

We have experienced the depths.

So that one day, when God is all in all, creation can finally comprehend the heights.

Why Didn’t Paul Heal Timothy?

One of the Strongest Evidences That Paul’s Letters Are Authentic

One of the most overlooked arguments for the authenticity of Paul’s letters is not found in archaeology or church tradition. It is found in something far simpler:

Paul heals people throughout Acts… then later he doesn’t.

If someone were inventing a religious hero, this is not how they would write the story.

Instead, it is exactly what real history looks like.

---

During Acts, Paul Performed Extraordinary Miracles

The book of Acts records miracle after miracle through Paul’s ministry.

He struck Elymas blind.

“Immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness…”
Acts 13:11

He healed a man crippled from birth.

“Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.”
Acts 14:10

He cast out evil spirits.

Acts 16:18

God performed extraordinary miracles through Paul.

“God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them.”
Acts 19:11–12

He restored Eutychus after his fatal fall.

Acts 20:9–12

He healed Publius’ father and many others on Malta.

Acts 28:8–9

No honest reader can deny that Paul possessed remarkable miraculous gifts during this period.

---

Then Something Changes

If these stories were invented to glorify Paul, what would you expect to happen next?

Probably even bigger miracles.

More healings.

Greater victories.

Instead, the exact opposite happens.

---

Timothy Was Sick

Paul writes:

“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”

1 Timothy 5:23

Why tell Timothy to use wine?

Why not simply heal him?

If Paul still possessed and exercised the same healing ministry described in Acts, this verse becomes very difficult to explain.

---

Trophimus Was Left Sick

Paul says:

“Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

2 Timothy 4:20

Read that again.

He didn’t heal him.

He left him sick.

A fictional writer trying to convince readers of Paul’s greatness would never include a statement like this.

---

Epaphroditus Nearly Died

Paul writes:

“Indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him.”

Philippians 2:27

Again, Paul does not describe himself healing Epaphroditus.

He simply thanks God for His mercy.

---

Paul Himself Was Not Healed

Paul prayed repeatedly concerning his own affliction.

“For this thing I besought the Lord thrice…”

2 Corinthians 12:8–9

God did not remove it.

Instead, He answered:

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

That is not the ending a fictional religious hero receives.

---

This Is Exactly What Real History Looks Like

One of the strongest marks of truthful writing is that it includes details that seem awkward.

Invented stories smooth out the rough edges.

Real history leaves them in.

Paul’s letters do exactly that.

They do not attempt to make Paul appear unstoppable.

They record weakness.

Illness.

Disappointments.

Friends who leave.

Churches with problems.

Shipwrecks.

Imprisonments.

Physical suffering.

And eventually…

his own execution.

Nothing about this resembles religious propaganda.

---

Paul Never Tried to Protect His Image

Throughout his letters Paul repeatedly admits things that make him appear weak.

“We were pressed out of measure, above strength…”
2 Corinthians 1:8

“We are fools for Christ’s sake…”
1 Corinthians 4:10

“I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”
1 Corinthians 2:3

False teachers build themselves up.

Paul continually points away from himself.

---

His Message Is Even More Remarkable

The miracles are impressive.

The message is astonishing.

Paul teaches things that run completely against human nature.

Every religion eventually says:

You must become worthy.

You must earn God’s favor.

You must improve yourself.

You must perform.

Paul says the opposite.

“By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8–9

He removes every reason for human pride.

---

He Says Humanity Is Helpless

Paul doesn’t flatter mankind.

He says:

“There is none righteous, no, not one.”

Romans 3:10

“There is none that seeketh after God.”

Romans 3:11

That is not a popular message.

It never has been.

---

He Gives God All the Credit

Paul teaches that salvation belongs to God from beginning to end.

God chooses.

God calls.

God gives faith.

God justifies.

God reconciles.

God completes salvation.

Humanity contributes nothing except its need.

That message attacks the very thing every religion appeals to:

human pride.

---

His Gospel Solves Humanity’s Greatest Problem

Every human being shares one problem.

Death.

Everyone dies.

Every family experiences it.

Every civilization has searched for an answer.

Paul doesn’t merely promise a better life or improved behavior.

He promises the destruction of death itself.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:26

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

1 Corinthians 15:22

Notice the comparison.

Adam’s act brought death to everyone.

Christ’s act brings life to everyone.

That is the center of Paul’s gospel.

---

The Evidence Is Found Inside the Letters

People often ask for proof.

Sometimes the greatest evidence isn’t outside the Bible.

It is inside it.

The consistency.

The honesty.

The awkward details.

The admissions of weakness.

The unresolved suffering.

The shift from miraculous healings during Acts to practical medical advice later.

No propagandist writes that way.

No inventor of religious legends creates a hero who cannot heal his closest coworkers, tells one of them to take medicine for chronic illness, leaves another sick in another city, and continues preaching God’s faithfulness anyway.

That is exactly how real people write about real events.

And through it all, Paul’s message never changes.

Christ accomplished what humanity never could.

Death will not have the final word.

The cross is sufficient.

God will finish what He began.

That is not merely good advice.

It is the announcement of a completed accomplishment.

Faith That Doesn’t Need the Outcome

Trusting God, Not Results

Many people think faith means believing God will give them what they want.

“God will heal me.”

“God will save my marriage.”

“God will give me the job.”

But what happens when those things don’t happen?

Did God fail?

Or have we misunderstood biblical faith?

True faith is not trusting an outcome. It is trusting God, even when we don’t understand the outcome.

Faith Trusts God

Job lost his children, his wealth, and his health. Yet he said,

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15)

Job didn’t know how his story would end. He simply trusted God.

Abraham also obeyed God “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). If he had known every detail, faith wouldn’t have been necessary.

Faith exists because we don’t know the future—but God does.

Faith Doesn’t Rest in Ourselves

Many people quietly place their confidence in their own faith.

“If I believe enough…”

“If I obey enough…”

“If I don’t doubt…”

But Scripture says,

“By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Even faith is God’s gift.

Paul also writes,

“It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

Our confidence rests in God’s work, not ours.

Faith Rests in Christ’s Finished Work

The gospel is wonderfully simple.

“Christ died for our sins… He was buried… He was raised the third day.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

Our standing before God is based on what Christ accomplished, not on our ability to perform.

God Is Working Even When We Can’t See It

Joseph spent years as a slave and in prison before he could say,

“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20)

Paul says,

“All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

Not because all things are good, but because God is able to use even suffering to accomplish His purpose.

We see one page of the story.

God sees the entire book.

Faith Clings to God

Real faith says,

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t know why.”

“But I trust God.”

Whether life brings success or failure, health or sickness, answered prayer or silence, God’s character never changes.

One day His purpose will be complete, and what cannot be understood now will become clear.

Until then, faith does not cling to outcomes.

Faith clings to God.

Is It Unloving to Call Out the Doctrine of Eternal Hell?

One of the most common criticisms I receive is this:

“Even if you believe eternal hell is false, shouldn’t you stop criticizing Christians who believe it? Shouldn’t you just love them, pray for them, and remember we’re all one body in Christ?”

At first, that sounds compassionate.

But it assumes something that simply isn’t true.

It assumes that criticizing a doctrine is the same thing as hating the people who believe it.

Those are two entirely different things.

I Don’t Hate Christians Who Believe in Eternal Hell

I have family members.

I have close friends.

Many of them believe in eternal conscious torment.

I love them deeply.

We’ve had passionate discussions about this doctrine.

We’ve challenged one another.

We’ve disagreed strongly.

Then we’ve gone out to dinner, shared a beer, laughed together, and enjoyed each other’s company.

Disagreeing about doctrine isn’t hatred.

It’s what people who care about truth do.

The question isn’t whether I love them.

The question is whether I love God enough to defend His character when I believe it is being misrepresented.

If Someone Lied About Your Father…

Imagine someone told your neighbors that your father kidnapped children and tortured them for pleasure.

Would remaining silent be loving?

Would saying,

“Well… let’s just agree to disagree,”

be the loving response?

Of course not.

You would immediately defend your father.

Not because you hate the person making the accusation.

Because you love your father.

Now consider what many Christians sincerely believe about God.

They believe God will keep billions of people alive forever for one purpose:

To consciously torture them without end.

No hope.

No restoration.

No reconciliation.

No victory over death.

No end.

Forever.

If I truly believe Scripture teaches something radically different, why would I remain silent?

The Character of God Matters

Every doctrine teaches us something about God.

The doctrine of eternal torment teaches that God’s final victory is an eternal universe divided between endless bliss and endless suffering.

It teaches that Christ never actually succeeds in reconciling all things.

It teaches that death never truly loses.

It teaches that sin produces an everlasting kingdom of misery existing alongside God’s kingdom forever.

That isn’t a minor disagreement.

That changes the entire story of Scripture.

Paul says Christ came to reconcile all things to Himself (Colossians 1:20).

He says the last enemy to be abolished is death (1 Corinthians 15:26).

He says God becomes all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

If those passages are true, then the picture of God presented by eternal torment cannot also be true.

Jesus Didn’t Remain Silent

Some people act as though confronting false teaching is somehow unloving.

The New Testament says the opposite.

Jesus openly confronted the religious leaders.

He warned about false teachers.

He called out hypocrisy.

Not because He hated people.

Because truth mattered.

Paul did the same.

He publicly corrected Peter when the truth of the gospel was at stake (Galatians 2:11–14).

He warned believers about those teaching “another gospel” (Galatians 1:6–9).

He instructed Timothy to correct those in error with patience so that God might grant them repentance (2 Timothy 2:24–26).

Notice the balance.

Firm toward false teaching.

Patient toward people.

The apostles never treated those as opposites.

Love Doesn’t Ignore Serious Error

Imagine a doctor discovering that another physician is prescribing poison instead of medicine.

Would love remain silent?

Would kindness require pretending everything is fine?

Of course not.

The more dangerous the error, the more necessary the correction.

The doctrine of eternal torment isn’t just another opinion about prophecy or church government.

It concerns the very character of God.

It shapes how millions of people view the Father.

If I truly believe that doctrine presents God as something He is not, then remaining silent isn’t love.

It’s surrender.

Speaking the Truth Is Part of Loving

Paul writes,

“Speaking the truth in love…” (Ephesians 4:15)

Notice he doesn’t say,

“Choose between truth and love.”

He joins them together.

Truth without love becomes harsh.

Love without truth becomes sentimental.

Biblical love speaks the truth because it seeks another person’s good.

If I believe someone has misunderstood who God is, then love compels me to speak.

Not to win an argument.

Not to embarrass them.

But because I want them to know the Father as He truly is.

I Pray—and I Speak

Some have suggested that instead of criticizing the doctrine, I should simply pray that God opens people’s eyes.

I agree.

I do pray.

I pray for my family.

I pray for my friends.

I pray for those who disagree with me.

But prayer and speaking the truth are not enemies.

The apostles prayed.

Then they preached.

Jesus prayed.

Then He taught.

Paul prayed constantly for believers.

Then he wrote letters correcting serious theological error.

Prayer never replaced truth.

It accompanied it.

Loving People Doesn’t Mean Loving Every Doctrine

I refuse to confuse the two.

I will continue loving people who believe in eternal torment.

I will continue treating them with kindness and respect.

I will continue enjoying fellowship with them whenever possible.

But I will also continue opposing the doctrine itself.

Because I believe it misrepresents the Father revealed in Jesus Christ.

Those commitments don’t contradict each other.

They belong together.

In fact, I would argue they require one another.

If I truly love people, I want them to know the truth.

If I truly love God, I want His character defended.

And if I sincerely believe that eternal torment presents a picture of God fundamentally different from the One revealed in Christ, then remaining silent would not be an act of love.

It would be an act of indifference.

Love doesn’t require us to stop speaking.

Love requires us to speak the truth—with conviction, with humility, and with genuine care for the people listening.

The Transition They Keep Missing

The common thread running through both the Acts 28 position and the “Jews Only” position is that they see where God’s plan began, but they fail to see the point at which God intentionally opened that plan to all who believe.

They recognize that God chose Israel.

They recognize that God gave Israel the Law.

They recognize that the prophets were sent to Israel.

They recognize that the Messiah came through Israel.

All of that is true.

But then they stop the story there.

They assume that because Israel was the starting point, everything that follows must continue to belong exclusively to Israel.

Paul teaches exactly the opposite.

Israel Was the Beginning, Not the End

God’s purpose was never simply to bless one nation.

From the very beginning, Israel was chosen so that God could ultimately bless the entire world.

God told Abraham:

“In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

(Genesis 12:3)

Later Paul explains that this promise anticipated something far greater than Israel alone.

“The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham…”

(Galatians 3:8)

Even Abraham’s calling pointed beyond Israel.

It pointed toward faith.

It pointed toward Christ.

It pointed toward the nations.

Israel Prepared the Way

Everything God did with Israel was preparing for Christ.

The Law exposed sin.

The sacrifices pictured atonement.

The priesthood pointed to a greater High Priest.

The Passover pointed to the Lamb of God.

David pointed to the coming King.

The prophets announced the coming Messiah.

None of those things were ends in themselves.

They were preparation.

Paul says:

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ…”

(Galatians 3:24)

The Law was never the destination.

Christ was.

The Great Transition

This is the transition the Acts 28 and “Jews Only” position consistently misses.

They focus on everything God was doing before Christ accomplished redemption, but they fail to recognize the point at which Paul says God’s blessings are now received.

That point is not nationality.

It is not circumcision.

It is not becoming Israel.

It is faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul repeatedly shifts the focus from Israel’s unique role in history to the universal invitation that now comes through Christ.

Notice how often Paul’s language changes.

He begins saying things like:

“To everyone that believeth…”

“Being justified by faith…”

“The righteousness of God…unto all…that believe.”

“There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.”

“For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

This is not accidental.

Paul is marking the transition.

Everything that prepared for Christ now gives way to Christ Himself.

Everything that prepared for faith now gives way to faith.

Everything that prepared through Israel now opens to all who believe.

That is precisely where believers today enter God’s story.

They Stay Before the Doorway

Imagine visiting a beautiful cathedral.

For years architects planned it.

Workers poured foundations.

Stone masons built walls.

Carpenters installed doors.

Electricians wired the building.

Finally the front doors were opened to the public.

Now imagine someone standing outside saying,

“This building belongs only to the construction workers because they were here first.”

That completely misses the purpose of everything that came before.

The workers were preparing the building for those who would eventually enter.

Israel’s history functions the same way.

God called Abraham.

He formed Israel.

He gave the Law.

He sent the prophets.

He brought forth the Messiah.

All of those events were preparing for the moment when salvation would be proclaimed through faith in Jesus Christ.

The preparation belonged uniquely to Israel.

The invitation belongs to all who believe.

Paul Shows Exactly Where the Transition Happens

Romans is filled with this transition.

Paul begins by proving that both Jews and Gentiles stand guilty before God.

Then comes the turning point.

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested…”

(Romans 3:21)

Notice those words.

But now.

History has reached its climax.

Then Paul continues:

“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.”

(Romans 3:22)

That is the transition.

Paul does not say,

“Unto all Jews.”

He says,

“…unto all…that believe.”

Then he explains why:

“For there is no difference.”

The dividing line has changed.

The issue is no longer ethnic identity.

The issue is faith.

Ephesians Explains the Result

Ephesians does not return believers to Israel.

It explains what Christ accomplished through His cross.

Paul reminds his readers:

“Ye were Gentiles…”

“Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel…”

“Strangers from the covenants…”

Then he announces the transition:

“But now in Christ Jesus…”

(Ephesians 2:13)

Again…

But now.

Everything changes because of Christ.

Those who were once far away are brought near—not by becoming Jews—but:

“…by the blood of Christ.”

Paul continues:

“For He is our peace, who hath made both one…”

(Ephesians 2:14)

Both who?

Jews and Gentiles.

Then he explains why:

“…to make in Himself of twain one new man…”

(Ephesians 2:15)

This is not Israel replacing the nations.

Nor is it Gentiles becoming Israel.

It is believing Jews and believing Gentiles united in Christ through faith.

They Mistake the Foundation for the Whole Building

The Acts 28 position looks at the foundation and assumes the entire building belongs only to those laying the foundation.

But foundations exist to support the building that follows.

Israel was chosen.

Israel received the Law.

Israel received the promises.

Israel brought forth the Messiah.

But all of that was moving history toward Christ.

Once Christ accomplished redemption, Paul announces the great transition.

The blessings prepared through Israel are now proclaimed to all who believe.

The common mistake made by the Acts 28 and “Jews Only” position is that they never fully cross that bridge. They remain focused on the preparation and fail to follow Paul’s own transition into the fulfillment. They rightly see that Israel was central to God’s historical work, but they wrongly conclude that the blessings revealed through Christ remain confined to Israel.

Paul refuses to make that conclusion. Instead, he repeatedly moves from Israel’s unique calling to God’s universal invitation. The story begins with Israel because that is how God chose to bring the Savior into the world. It reaches its turning point at the cross and resurrection. From there, Paul’s gospel announces that the defining characteristic is no longer nationality but faith in Jesus Christ.

That is where believers today enter the story. We do not step into God’s plan at Sinai. We do not enter through circumcision or the Law. We enter at the very point Paul emphasizes over and over again: through faith in the risen Christ. Everything before that point prepared the way. Everything after that point explains the blessings that belong to those who believe. Israel was the instrument God used to bring salvation into history, but Paul declares that the blessings of that salvation now belong to all who believe, because “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him” (Romans 10:12). That transition—from preparation in Israel to fulfillment through faith—is the thread that ties the entire Bible together, and it is the thread these systems consistently overlook.