Slaying the Hydra... at night!

i don't really have much to say about this one.  So we'll just lop off a few more heads on the Hydra of universalism and encourage those who know they have been chosen by the Spirit that resides in them and the love that is changing them so we may, as the Psalmist says, "lift up our hands in the sanctuary and bless Yahweh."

"“Yahweh loved you and chose you not because of your great number exceeding all other peoples, for you are fewer than all of the peoples, but because of the love of Yahweh for you and because of his keeping of the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So know that Yahweh your God, he is God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his covenant and his loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations, but repaying those who hate him in their own person to destroy them; he is not slow with those who hate him in their own person; he repays them." Deut 7

"And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as though slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. And he came and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one of whom had a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they were singing a new song, saying,

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slaughtered,
    and bought people for God by your blood
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they will reign on the earth.”" 

Rev 5

Say to those who are hasty of heart,

“Be strong; you must not fear!
    Look! your God will come with vengeance,
with divine retribution.
    He is the one who will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf shall be opened.
Then the lame shall leap like the deer,
    and the tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy,
for waters shall break forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Her resting place is in a settlement of jackals;
    the grass shall become like reeds and rushes.
And a highway shall be there, and a way,
    and it shall be called the way of holiness.
The unclean shall not travel through it,
    but it is for them, he who walks on the way;
    and fools shall not wander about.
No lion shall be there,
    and no ferocious wild beast shall go up it.
It shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return,
    and they shall come to Zion with rejoicing.
And everlasting joy shall be on their head;
    joy and gladness shall overtake them,
        and sorrow and sighing shall flee." 

Is 35