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Hosea Ballou
(1771-1852)
"Father of American Universalism"
&
"Father of Full
Preterism"
Full Preterist: Matthew 24 & 25
Fulfilled in Destruction of Jerusalem ; Resurrection passages refer
to the Same. "It appears evident from the above, that the
Saviour was informing his disciples how it would fare with them and
other professors of Christianity, at the time when Jerusalem should
be destroyed, and the Jews dispersed. The 25th chapter contains
three parables, which evidently relate to events set forth in the
24th chapter." |
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Published The Universalist
Magazine (1819 -- later called The Trumpet), and The Universalist Expositor
(1831 -- later The Universalist Quarterly Review), and wrote about 10,000
sermons as well as many hymns, essays and polemic theological works. He is
best known for Notes on the Parables (1804), A Treatise on Atonement (1805)
and Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution (1834). These works
mark him as the principal American expositor of Universalism.
Preterist Universalism Study Archive
(On the Resurrection)
"The arguments now designed will go to show that the scriptures make use of
words signifying a resurrection, in a figurative sense, when nothing beyond
this mortal state is intended, that the passage under consideration is of
this description ; and that it is proved to be so by comparing it with other
passages which evidently have their application in time, and also by
comparing it with passages which speak of a resurrection into an immortal
state, by observing the difference there is between the two classes. (A
Series of Lecture Sermons, p. 339)
"Will the hearer now say that all
this may be, and that both Daniel and the Saviour were speaking of the
resurrection of mankind to a state of immortal happiness and misery in a
future world ? To this we reply, when Jesus spoke to his disciples of the
destruction of Jerusalem, and of the calamities which should shortly come on
the Jews, he uses the words of Daniel nearly verbatim when he speaks of the
time of trouble. By this circumstance we are instructed that both Daniel and
the Saviour spake of the same time, and of the same events, and that that
time was when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
"The true meaning of the words of Jesus and of the passage in Daniel appears
to be this : those Jews who listened to the mild voice of the gospel,
proclaimed by Christ and his Apostles, came forth from spiritual death to
the life of faith in the new covenant; but those Jews, who rejected the
doctrine of salvation, crucified the Saviour, and persecuted his apostles,
were those who had done evil, and they were roused from the dormant state in
which they lay, as in a covenant of death and a refuge of lies, by the voice
of judgment, and come forth to the resurrection of that condemnation which
is so particularly pointed out in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew ;
and which was illustrated in our lecture on that subject." (ibid., p. 342)
(1804 -
Notes on the
Parables of the New Testament: Scripturally Illustrated and Argumentatively
Defended)
"In Matt 12:31, 32 (neither in this world nor in that which is to come),
"world" means dispensation; "this" world, the legal priestly dispensation;
and "that which is to come," the gospel.”
"Nothing can be more evident than that what Jesus and his
disciples meant by the end of the world was the end of the Jewish polity and
their destruction by the Romans.” (p. 81)
“The wrath to come,’ of which John spake, when he said ‘who hath warned
you..’ is speaking of the destruction of the Jews and their city, he said
‘For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may
be fulfilled.” (p. 17)
(1811 -
A Treatise on the Atonement)
“If Christ is to be understood as he said, if his words explain his meaning,
it is clear, that his coming in his glory.. was some time in the life-time
of those to whom he spake.
"If this be true, which my opponent with his eyes open,
will not dispute, then no objection can be stated, from this parable,
against the final holiness and happiness of all men."
“We are informed, that Christ came once in the end of the
world, to put away sin. The world, of which Christ came in the end, was
undoubtedly the dispensation of the legal priesthood."
(1820 - A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine
Revelation)
"Nor need I speak of Moses who foretold the dealings of God with the house
of Israel as if he had lived now and had written their history. But I must
insist on your paying some nice attention to the prophesies of Christ
concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. This prophesy is recorded very
circumstantially in the 24th of Matt. Be so good, sir, as to compare this
prophesy with the history written by Josephus and let candor decide whether
the author of that prophesy was divinely inspired, or whether he was a poor
deceived enthusiast."
"What you say on the subject of prophecy, does not appear to me,
either to reflect any light on it, or to call up any question of importance.
Your query whether the books of the New Testament were not written after the
destruction of Jerusalem, which would suppose that the prophecy of the
destruction of that city was written after the events took place of which
the prophecy speaks, is an old suggestion in which I am unable to see any
thing very reasonable. And I will remark here, that men who seem to lay an
uncommon claim to reason, ought to make use of it when arguing on such
momentous subjects. What difference would it make whether St. Matthew wrote
his gospel before, or after the destruction of Jerusalem, as it respects the
prophecy which Jesus delivered concerning it? You allow St. Matthew to be an
honest man. You do not doubt then but Jesus did deliver such a prophecy
before his death, which was certainly before the destruction of the city.
Then surely it makes no difference whether the prophecy was committed to
paper before, or after the fulfilment of it. Besides, you seem to urge the
_silence_ of St. John on the subject as unfavourable to the account, because
he wrote his gospel after Jerusalem was destroyed. As to interpolations
which you think might have found their way into the gospels, it appears to
me, sir, that a candid consideration of this subject would issue in this
conclusion; if any important interpolations had been admitted, they would
have produced such a disagreement as to effectually destroy the validity of
the books; for if one heresy could be indulged, it is reasonable to suppose
that another would be, and so on, which in room of allowing us the
scriptures in their present consistent form, would either have destroyed
their existence altogether, or have varied so as to confound their ideas."
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
Wikipedia
"Ballou has been called the "father of American Universalism,"
along with John Murray, who founded the first Universalist church in
America. Ballou, sometimes called an "Ultra Universalist," differed from
Murray in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism, and
opposed legalism and trinitarian views."
MINISTRY OF DESCENDENTS
Aidan Ballou, nephew, describing the standard
Universalism of his day - "the destruction of Jerusalem was the day in which
Christ should appear, and reward every man according to his works.. that
then the new heaven and earth superseded the old." (Epistle General to
Restorationists, From the first issue of the Independent Messenger, 1
January 1831)
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