"The Fullness of the Gospel and the Eternal Punishments", by E.J.Ekman (1903) (Part 15)
(This is an ongoing translation by me, Lars Larsen, of the Swedish church leader E.J.Ekman's (1842-1915) universalistic book "Evangelii fullhet och de ändlösa straffen. Bibliska studier" ["The Fullness of the Gospel and the Eternal Punishments. Biblical studies"] from 1903. This book I consider to be one of the best books that has ever been published in Sweden. I shall try to translate two pages of the 228 pages long book, every second day, third day or fourth day, spanning over about eight to sixteen months; about 114 posts all in all)
(continuation of this blogpost)
(this post is about God's will and the nature of God's will and God's plans and God's victory over all sinners)
But let us now take a closer look at God's will and man's free will in relation to each other.
"God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2: 4).» These words of the spirit of truth contain a sweet message of joy for Adam's fallen race, an assured promise and a sure guarantee of its salvation from sin and death. God knows what he wants, and he wants only that which is possible and which can and shall be done. His savior will is not an expression of an impotent desire, evoked by a pityful participation in those children of men who are fallen in the lamentation of sin, distress and death, but it is an invincible power of God, which has its never-failing sources in his omnipotence, by virtue of which he is able to do everything he wants and submit to himself everything; in his love, which is strong as death, and whose jealousy is hard as Hades and is like a fireglow; in his wisdom, which is an immeasurable depth of wealth, and in his understanding, for which is not given any limit. However, this will of God does not work according to the laws of brute force in a despotic manner, so that man voluntarily or involuntarily must either bow to the same or be crushed. Were it meant that God would attain victory over his opponents by crushing them, then it would not take long time; then the process would indeed be short. But the victory, which is won in that way, is only apparent, not real, for he who is involuntarily forced into submission, is in fact undefeated. Here namely the battle does not concern the external physical force, but it takes place in and belongs to the purely spiritual sphere and has as its goal the change of the human will and its re-creation, so that she freely and unforcedly conforms to God's. When that has happened, first then is victory real, and only such a victory can be talked about here, since it's a question of God's warfare. A victory of the opposite kind, based on raw strength and physical dominance, where the will of the overcomed is unbroken, one might talk about and then adduce innumerable examples among sinful men, but never when the question is of God—never. Of course events occur in the spiritual battle between God and the sinner, which for our obscure look have such an appearance, but all such acts of judgment on God's side are only more serious moments in the battle that must precede, and which shall lead to and prepare the final complete victory. It is in this area, that God preferably prepares an opportunity to reveal all the riches of his wisdom, love, and power, yea, show himself as the only, above all sinful, low and barbarously infinitely high exalted God, whose praise through the ages shall sound like a roar of many waters. It is clear that this song of jubilation must, to be worthy of God, come from lips and hearts, which through it give air to a deeply known, free and unforced need, in which all the soul's abilities, understanding, will and feeling, are as it were the strings of the tuned harp united in its most beautiful and perfect harmony. It must also in a similar way emanate from everything that has spirit. Not the faintest or most distant murmur of strident wails or demonic curses may or may conceivably have a disruptive effect on this song of victory, which once at the end of time shall flow out without limit of time and space.
