Dear Friends in Faith,
     It is always interesting to see the lengths people will go to in order to try to prove God will not accomplish the wonderful things He has planned for all humanity. Just recently, on a message board on the internet a person sought to disprove God saving all mankind by claiming the Greek word aionion means “eternal.” He tried to show that, if this was not so, the believer would only get a “temporary life.” Here is what he thinks we are saying: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have a temporary life.”
     He went on to say: “ ‘shall not perish’ and ‘a temporary (aion) life’ doesn’t make any sense.” He also wrote: “Then there is no assurance for any of us. While we may make it through this ‘eon,’ there may be a thousand others for which we have no guarantee of salvation. If that’s the case, ‘shall not perish,’ means very little.” To which I replied:
     I am a little confused by what you wrote. If Jesus said that those who believe in Him get eonian life which is life for the eons, why then is there no assurance in that? It is not that believers are to have a ‘temporary life’ but that they are to be blessed with having ‘life eonian’ which is life pertaining to the oncoming eons. The ones who do not believe do not get that blessing of living for the duration of the next two eons. Those who are promised they shall never perish shall never perish. When we put on immortality we cannot perish, even though this includes an eonian life that unbelievers will not have. When the eons end we keep on living. We don’t keep on living because, by some special hocus pocus one has been able to make ‘eonian’ mean ‘eternal.’ We keep on living due to receiving immortality when we are made alive in Christ (1 Cor.15:22-28).
     The Willard, Ohio conference hosted by J.P. was a time of good teaching and fellowship. Those of you who could not attend are able to get videos of the conference by contacting Jean Douglas at: P.O. Box 221, Oakwood, GA 30566.
     The fellowship in Grand Rapids, Michigan is July 14-16, hosted by Orville Hunt (1046 Lumina Dr., Jenison, MI 494328); Phone: 616-457-2213, (orvilleshunt@talkamerica.net). Speakers include R. F., T.M., Phil Scranton and Dan Van Dyke, besides ourselves. Harry Watts and Ray Clausen will give brief “personal affirmations.” The double theme is: Respecting Pauline Authority, (Rom.1:13), Grasping Pauline Revelation, (Eph.3:18).
     A new publication (May 2006) supporting the truth of universal salvation is: The Evangelical Universalist, by Gregory MacDonald. It is published by Cascade Books (ISBN: 1597523658, 201 pages, $24.00).
     It is encouraging to read the following e-mail message:
     “This Truth has really given me great peace. After literally hundreds of hours studying these last couple of months, I can finally say that I ‘get it.’ It does come with a price though, and is fairly burdensome because of opposition in my family.”

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