February 1999

Dear Friends in Faith,

Many of you are probably wondering how Dean Hough is doing these days. We have received many cards and letters from you and these have all been passed on to Dean. He is recovering well and has been very encouraged by all of your concerns and support through prayer.
     On the internet I sometimes post on a Christian bulletin board the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, how that “Even as in Adam all are dying, thus also in Christ shall all be vivified . . . that God may be all in all.” Then I set out to show, as did Paul, that in Christ absolutely all mankind will be vivified. A common protest to this has been: “But they have to be in Christ so this is only talking about believers since only believers will be in Christ.” How can this objection be rationally answered?
     If we go to Ephesians 1:10,11 we have this:
     “to have an administration of the complement of the eras, to head up all in the Christ–both that in the heavens and that on the earth–in Him in Whom our lot was cast also.” A more literal rendering of the verse would be “to head up the all in the Christ–both the [all] in the heavens and the [all] on the earth.” The verse shows that the believers are involved in heading up all . . . “all” what? All believers? No! It is the unbelievers and estranged, who now must be headed up in the Christ. So we see that since all unbelievers will eventually be headed up in Christ, 1 Cor.15:22 rings true for “in Christ shall all [humans] be vivified . . . that God may be All in all [humans].” God loves all humanity and has planned a wonderful outcome for them which will be to His glory and for the sake of Christ. Glory to God for the eons of the eons!
     Paul told Timothy to “Attend to yourself and to the teaching. Be persisting in them, for in doing this you will save yourself as well as those hearing you” (1 Tim.4:16). A practical application of this verse comes to us from Don and Edna Beadle of Baldwin, Michigan. They wrote that their relative's house burned to the ground. He is confined to a wheelchair but thankfully was not home at the time of the fire. She wrote that even though she cannot understand why this had to happen, she realized that God is working all together for good as Romans 8:28 says. So because of people like Timothy who persist in the teaching, Don and Edna are saved from the harmful effect which unbelief may have caused had they not known the truth as it relates to this tragedy.
     In the Bible, God has deemed it wise to give us His revelation of His plan for humanity by means of words. If the words He gave us are misunderstood, then it goes without saying that His revelation will be greatly misunderstood as well. A good example of a word which God has given to us and which is much misunderstood is the word eonian which in Greek is aionion. Many theologians and scholars understand this word to mean eternal. But is this the case? Can it be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it, in fact does not mean eternal? I believe it can. If you would like a study on this matter, ask for the paper entitled The Poisonous Fruit of Vine or you can read it here.