Universalism

Have completed reading a detailed refutation of Universalism, titled "All dogs go to Heaven, don't they?" by Maurice Smith. Am very thankful for all the hard scholarly work that our brother did, delving into Universalism- the idea that everyone ends up in eternal bliss with God (Heaven), and its many variants, including its first cousin, Annihilationism, the idea that people's existence comes to an end, either at the point of physical death, or thereafter. Aside from the practical issues of why the NT places so much emphasis on preaching the gospel if everyone is going to get "saved" anyway, and the inevitable moral anarchy that results if people can get away with their sin, the big problem for Universalists is that there are so many Bible references to eternal conscious punishment, many from Jesus himself. A brief sampling includes Isa. 66:22-24, Daniel 12:2, Matt. 7:13-14, cf. Luke 13:22-30, Matt 24:41ff, Luke 16:19-31, 2 Thess 1:6-10, Jude 7, and Rev. 20:10-15.
In other news, spent time with my friend Russ on Tuesday evening. Thanks for the nice dinner and the fellowship, bro. Thursday met with the bi-weekly brothers group. Thankful to God for their perseverance and the seriousness of their faith through severe trials.
Am praying about returning to full time employment in order to purchase a property to use as a base of operations for outreach to the community. May God's will be done.