Stephen Jones — Doctrine of God
b1 — Creation’s Jubilee
Attributes of God — God as Fire and Light (Purifying)
Passage 1 — God as refiner’s fire:
“God’s judgments arise with healing in His wings, not to roast us to death, but to heal us of all ills, the greatest of which is the sin-sick soul. Until we know this side of God’s nature, we do not really know Him very well at all.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, chapter 2 (“The Sun of Righteousness, or the Fire of God”).
Interpretation: Jones asserts that ignorance of God’s healing character implies incomplete knowledge of God. The attribute ‘fire’ is characterized as purifying rather than destructive.
Passage 2 — Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215) cited by Jones:
“Fire is conceived of as a beneficent and strong power, destroying what is base, preserving what is good; therefore this fire is called ‘wise’ by the Prophets … We say that the fire purifies not the flesh but sinful souls, not an all-devouring vulgar [earthly, natural] fire, but the ‘wise fire’ as we call it, the fire that ‘pierceth the soul’ which passes through it.” (Stromata VII, 2:5-12)
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2 — citing Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VII, 2:5-12.
Interpretation: Jones uses Clement as an early-church witness to the view that God’s fire purifies, not destroys.
Passage 3 — Clement on healing judgments:
“In another place Clement again describes these fiery judgments of God as being ‘saving and disciplinary, leading to conversion’” (Stromata VI, 6).
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2 — citing Clement, Stromata VI, 6.
Justice of God — Corrective versus Punitive
Passage 4 — Isaiah 26:9 as programmatic text:
“Isaiah 26:9 says: ‘For when the earth experiences Thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.’ The judgments of the law are corrective and remedial. They are designed to bring about true forgiveness, not a perpetual state of unforgiveness.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2 (Isa. 26:9 cited).
Interpretation: The core of Jones’ doctrine of justice: judgment is pedagogical in nature and aimed at conversion, not eternal retribution.
Passage 5 — God’s justice vs. human penal systems:
“The justice of God’s law demands restitution and correction. All sin is reckoned as a debt to be paid to the victims of injustice, and the judgments are always in direct proportion to the magnitude of the crime (sin).”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2.
Passage 6 — Theodore of Mopsuestia (392–428 AD) cited:
“The wicked, who have committed evil the whole period of their lives, shall be punished till they learn that, by continuing in sin, they only continue in misery. And when, by this means, they shall have been brought to fear God, and to regard Him with good will, they shall obtain the enjoyment of grace.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 2 — citing Theodore of Mopsuestia.
Passage 7 — Deuteronomy 25:1-3 as limit on God’s judgment:
“God prohibits beatings of more than 40 stripes. Why? […] ‘He may beat him forty times but no more, lest he beat him with many more stripes than these, and your brother be degraded in your eyes.’ God’s judgments are carefully measured in order to prevent us from being ‘degraded.’ They correct us, rather than destroy us.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4.
Aionian Judgments — Meaning of aion/olam
Passage 8 — Olam as limited time period:
“Psalm 45:6 […] shows that there is time AFTER olam. This proves beyond doubt that olam itself cannot refer to eternity, because when the Psalmist wished to express eternity, he had to say ‘olam va ad,’ or ‘the age and beyond.‘”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4.
Passage 9 — Aion as age in Matthew 13:
“In order to show the contrast between aion and kosmos […] ‘the harvest is the end of the age [aion].’ The King James Version says ‘the end of the WORLD,’ but most reference Bibles have a marginal reference to explain that verses 39 and 40 should read ‘AGE,’ rather than ‘world.’ […] It is a reference to a limited period of TIME.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4.
Passage 10 — God as King of the Ages (1 Tim. 1:17):
“Paul is bringing out another aspect of God’s character and position. He is the ‘King of the Ages’ and shall rule in the final glorious ages of the earth.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4 (1 Tim. 1:17 cited: “Now to the King eternal [ton aionion, ‘of the ages’], immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever [aionas ton aionon, ‘ages of the ages’]. Amen.“)
Interpretation: Jones corrects the translation “eternal” (King James) to “of the ages” — which provides the epistemological basis for his view of aionian (age-bounded, not eternal) judgments.
Passage 11 — Augustine’s argument assessed:
“Augustine’s argument that aionian life and aionian judgment must both be equal is absolutely correct. The problem arises when he tries to show that both are unending, when, in fact, both pertain to an age.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4.
Passage 12 — Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and the double-meaning problem:
“The blind spot of the Latin Christians was their belief that in order to maintain law and order, it was necessary to threaten men with the worst possible tortures in the afterlife. This obsession with maintaining law and order appears to have been a motivating force behind the Latin idea of God’s eternal retribution upon sinners.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 4.
Sovereignty of God — Boulema versus Thelema
Passage 13 — Distinction between thelema (desire) and boulema (plan):
“The Greek words to describe each in the New Testament are thelema (‘will’) and boulema (‘plan’). […] It goes beyond a mere desire. It denotes the actual plan, the intention, or the outworking of the will.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 11.
Passage 14 — Pharaoh as example of God’s boulema:
“Pharaoh was able to resist God’s thelema will, or desire. The story of Pharaoh makes that obvious. But there was a boulema plan, or intention, that Pharaoh knew nothing about, and this he could not resist, for this was in the mind of God, not in the will of man.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 11.
Passage 15 — Sovereignty vs. authority:
“We must recognize that sovereignty, the ultimate dunamis, belongs to God in heaven, while authority, exousia, belongs to man here on earth. Both are operative; both are real; yet they are realities of a different plane of existence.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 11.
Passage 16 — God’s liability as consequence of sovereignty:
“God holds himself ultimately responsible and liable for the actions and salvation of His creation. That is one reason why He came to pay the penalty for sin Himself.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 11.
Passage 17 — God’s intelligence and sovereignty over the will:
“God is the ultimate Intelligence, having ultimate power to bring creation to its intended end. God could easily have converted all men to Himself immediately, if He had chosen to do so.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 11.
Universalism as Consequence of Sovereignty
Passage 18 — Colossians 1:19-20 as programmatic statement:
“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things [ta panta, ‘the all’] to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5 (Col. 1:19-20 cited).
Interpretation: Jones emphasizes that the reconciliation of “ta panta” (“the all”) is the explicit good pleasure (eudokia) of the Father.
Passage 19 — 1 Corinthians 15:22 as Adam–Christ parallel:
“It is evident that all mankind died in Adam-with no exceptions. In the same manner also shall all be made alive in Christ-with no exceptions.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5.
Passage 20 — Jesus’ statement in John 12:32:
“Jesus said, ‘If I am crucified, I will draw ALL MEN unto Myself.’ Was Jesus ‘lifted up’ on the cross? Of course He was. Then He will indeed draw ALL MEN unto Himself. He died for the salvation of the whole world, not just a few, and His blood has never lost its power.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5.
Passage 21 — God as ‘Savior of all men’ (1 Tim. 4:10-11):
“God is the Savior of ALL MEN. No doubt Timothy and others like him did indeed teach this in Asia Minor, for the early Church leaders in the next centuries were faithful to teach these things, as their writings prove.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5 (1 Tim. 4:10-11 cited).
Passage 22 — God “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28):
“God will be ‘all in all.’ That is, the fullness of the Holy Spirit will be in all men, NOT some in all, or all in some, but all in all.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5.
Alexandrian Line (Clement / Origen)
Passage 23 — Clement’s summary cited by Jones:
“Clement of Alexandria summarized it all 1800 years ago (Stromata VII, 2:5-12) by saying: ‘All things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the King and God of the universe.‘” [cited by Jones in ch. 5]
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5 — citing Clement, Stromata VII.
Passage 24 — Clement’s commentary on 1 John 2:2:
“And not only for our sins, that is, for those of the faithful, is the Lord the Propitiator does he say, but also for the whole world. He, indeed, saves all; but some He saves converting them by punishments; others, however, who follow voluntarily He saves with dignity of honour; so that every knee should bow to Him.”
Source: Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, ch. 5 — citing Clement, Commentary on 1 John.