CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JUDGEMENT AND REDEMPTION OF CHILDREN OF GOD
Judgment of
the Angels
The very fact
that angels can sin indicates that they have freedom of will.
Unless they have freedom to choose, they are not responsible for
their actions. Thus evidently the robotic angels are not
susceptible to fall as they have no ability to violate the
Commandment of the creator which is encoded within them, So all the
Sons of God fall into the category of being capable of choice and
therefore are subject to judgment.
Some of them
are already in prison awaiting judgment as the following verses
indicate.
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"For if God did
not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting
them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment..." (2 Peter
2:4)
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"And the angels
who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their
own home - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting
chains for judgment on the great Day." (Jude 6)
There are still
others who are still in fallen nature doing the evil things in all
the worlds of God. We have a few mentioned by Paul.
Rom 8:38-39
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eph 6:12-13For our
wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the
principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
We have traced the four levels of
existence of the totality of cosmos with its infinite dimensions
and infinite number of sentients in them as part of the body of Adam
Kadamon, the Primal Man, the manifestation of Ein Sof and his
contraction and creation. Thus we look at the whole problem of sin
as a result of failing to act within the body function by turning
into a cancer. For human cancer we have one solution to kill the
cancer and eliminate the dead cells from the body to outside. But
we have a problem in this case of cancer within Adam Kadamon. That
is because there is nothing outside of Adam Kadamon. Hence every
living part must be redeemed. The prison is meant as a restoration
period. God is immanent in all cosmos and also transcendent of it.
So annihilation is not really a solution. There is no hell really
because there is no space in the cosmos where God is not - he is
immanent even in hell. The whole point is therefore that with one
being malfunctioning the whole Adam Kadamon is in pain. So it is
imperative that God has to bring all things into its original
newness. The cosmic body suffers even when one being malfunction
and God provides for the reinstatement. The malfunctioning is
always due to the sin of the living beings – the sons of God – the
sentient beings. One should also
distinguish the two main forms of universal salvation. One form,
classically associated with the term apokatastasis, argues that God
will over-ride free-will and save everyone, whether they want to be
saved or not. This kind of universal salvation was naturally
condemned.
But the other form of universal salvation where God will be patient
as his body goes through the pain so that human-free will remain
intact and through his love redeem all creation.
This is the idea that the orthodox
scholars have always suggested. Since God is dealing with the sons
who have freedom of will, the process of redemption does not
complete in this age. Until even the last Son is restored and
reconciled and reinstated God will not be able to rest. Every one
will hold the free will and can at all times will to hell. But love
conquers all and reason of the intellect will lead children back to
the Father who is always waiting.
. “ In the
first five or six centuries of Christianity there were six
theological schools, of which four (Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea,
and Edessa, or Nisibis) were Universalist; one (Ephesus) accepted
conditional mortality; one (Carthage or Rome) taught endless
punishment of the wicked.”
The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 12, p.
96;
“God
forbid that I should limit the time for acquiring faith to the
present life. In the depths of the divine mercy there may be
opportunity to win it in the future state.” – Martin Luther,
Letter to Hansen von Rechenberg, 1523. (Luther's Briefe, ii. 454.)
”Christ, Redeemer of
man, now for ever ‘clad in a robe dipped in blood’ (Apoc, 19,13),
the everlasting, invincible guarantee of universal salvation. “
(Message of John Paul II to the Abbess General of the Order of the
Most Holy Saviour of St Bridget)
"When, over long
periods of time, evil has been removed and those now lying in sin
have been restored to their original state, all creation will join
in united thanksgiving, both those whose purification has involved
punishment and those who never needed purification at all" (Gregory
of Nyssa, Catechetical Oration 26).
“That in the
dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things
in Christ,
both which are in heavens
and
which are on earth;
even in him.”
Ephesians 1:10
