Dear Friends in Faith,
Dean writes:
     I have long felt that White's book is one of the best early studies in English on the subject of universal salvation. He focused on God's love as it is revealed in Scripture and commended to us there in Christ's death for sinners. As such he was what might be called Calvinistic (he was a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell) and Evangelical, apart from his belief in universal salvation. Indeed, his conviction that God cannot and will not fail in achieving His purpose, and that He does so by means of the death and resurrection of Christ is the very basis of his conviction that God will truly become All in all.
     In the recently published book entitled, Universal Salvation? The Current Debate, edited by Robin Parry and Christopher Partridge (Eerdmans, 2004), Morwenna Ludlow writes concerning White’s book: “White believes that God’s love demands that all punishment will be reformative . . . . Perhaps most interesting is the fact that he attempts to square a doctrine of universal salvation with a doctrine of double predestination, by asserting that the division of elect and reprobate is a temporary measure for the purposes of illustrating the divine grace. He consequently puts less emphasis than [other universalist writers of his day] on human free will. White’s book is peppered throughout with scriptural quotations and there are several passages of extended exegesis” (pp.202,203).

Tony writes:
     It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to in order to try to fit in their idea that God will not save all mankind. Recently I have been explaining that in Paul’s Revelation of 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, very specific things must occur before Christ quits reigning. For instance, Paul saw that the cessation of Christ’s reigning is contingent upon all sovereignty, all authority and power being nullified and all enemies such as death being abolished. Then and only then, according to Paul, will Christ cease to reign and then God will be All in all. In John’s Revelation Christ is still reigning even on the new earth. There are still kings on the new earth and nations. Yet in desperately wanting John to have the last word when he speaks of the second death and new earth, a brother recently wrote: “The kings were once kings during the thousand years but are not kings on the new earth. Death was abolished when cast into the lake of fire (Rev.20:14) and all sovereignty, authority and power were destroyed during the 1,000 year reign of Christ, so Christ can’t be reigning on the new earth.” This in spite of the fact that God, Christ and His slaves are reigning even on the new earth (see Revelation 22:3-5). May we ever be praying that God would give us that very special “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the realization of Him” (Eph.1:17)!

     We plan to attend the meetings in Willard, Ohio, on June 11-13 and are looking forward to this opportunity to rejoice with others in the truth that the living God is the Saviour of all mankind, and especially of believers.
     We have a new printing of Jeremiah White's book, The Restoration of All Things, written in the late 17th Century. This is a reprint of the “first American edition“ of 1844, with notebook size pages and small print and is priced at $8.00.

Yours in God’s grace and peace,
Dean Hough and Tony Nungesser