[Buggman]

Harley, please tell me that you're not trying to read back five-point Reform theology into Polycarp--or at least tell me that you've got more than one sentence which is pretty much just repeating Ephesians 2:8, and which not the most "Arminian" of us here disagree with in the slightest.

[HarleyD]

Harley, please tell me that you're not trying to read back five-point Reform theology into Polycarp--or at least tell me that you've got more than one sentence which is pretty much just repeating Ephesians 2:8,

I don't wish to get off point here since this is a thread about eschatology and not the 5 points. I will only say this, Polycarp statement is a expansion of Eph 2:8,9-not a quote. Please note the difference:

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

"...though ye saw Him not, ye believe with joy unutterable and full of glory; unto which joy many desire to enter in; forasmuch as ye know that it is by grace ye are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ." - Polycarp

Polycarp's was speaking directly to Christians. His statement that we are saved by the will of God is not quite the same as being "saved by grace" as stated in Eph 2:8-9, although he may be espounding on

Eph 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

In any case, there is no mistaking that Polycarp believed Christians are saved by the "will of God".