Modern Universalism Exposed
By Parsons Cooke (1834)
"IT IS NOT CALLED THE GOSPEL "EVERLASTINGLY PREACHED", "BUT THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL." . . . IF IN EVERY SENSE OF PERISHING IT WERE ALREADY PAST IN THE MOMENT OF BELIEVING, AND THERE WERE NO ESCAPE FROM A DEATH YET TO COME UPON THE UNBELIEVING. AND WHEN PAUL TO TIMOTHY SAYS FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH, LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE, HE WAS GUILTY OF OF AN ABSURDITY ON (MR. HYPER PRETERIST) HYPOTHESIS. FOR TIMOTHY MUST HAVE ALREADY GOT HOLD OF ETERNAL LIFE, IN SUCH SENSE THAT IT COULD NOT BE REGARDED AS A THING YET TO BE TAKEN HOLD OF BY HIM. For in the very verse next preceding, Paul calls him a man of God. If he where then a man of God, he had spiritual life, and could with no propriety be exhorted to lay hold of what he already had. He then proceed to direct Timothy to charge them that are rich to do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life. HERE ETERNAL LIFE IS SPOKEN OF AS WHAT IS TO BE PROVIDED FOR BY GOOD WORKS, LAID IN AS A PROVISION FOR THE FUTURE, A THING NOT NOW IN COMPLETE POSSESSION, BUT TO BE SECURED AGAINST THE TIME TO COME."
(Luke 20:35, " But they which shall be ACCOUNTED WORTHY to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage." Instead of good works..."being found in Christ at the judgment seat". Here's the irony.. they are making the downpayment the full payment...and saying that what the apostles had in part we now have in full and yet, we the miraculous powers ceased when the fullness was supposed to come! We have LESS now, yet it is more full???! As soon as a hyper-preterist can raise the dead, then I'll believe them that we have the fullness of the downpayment now)
"But here the Universalist (Hyper-Preterism) says that the phrase "this world" means only "this age," before the destruction of Jerusalem. Then the passage reads- He that surrenders life in this period, before the destruction of Jerusalem, shall have eternal life BY LIVING THROUGH THAT DESTRUCTION. That is, by suffering himself to be killed before, he shall escape being killed then. . . this interpretation then is miserably lame in every limb and joint."
"And then, what meaning has the word eternal as qualifying spiritual life, IF THAT LIFE BE CONFINED TO THIS WORLD. . . Our author (Mr. Hyper-Preterist) repeatedly, and with an air of triumph, remarks that the exact phrase, eternal death, is not used in the Bible. But if it had been, and had been used in forty instances, what would it avail with such an interpreter? Forty instances of the use of eternal life in every variety of forms, cannot convince him that the writers meant eternal life; and no more would as many repetitions of the phrase eternal death, satisfy him that eternal death was meant. THE ONE COULD AS EASILY BE MADE TO EVAPORATE IN THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AS THE OTHER."
