“CHRISTIAN” UNIVERSALISM AND ITS COMFORTING HOPE

The idea of a God who will eventually save everyone is very appealing. It eventually makes everyone our spiritual brothers, removing distinctions and even the offense of the Cross. This is why this doctrine is becoming increasingly fashionable. However, it is also utterly unbiblical.

There is just so much in Scripture that argues in favor of eternal judgment, although it might ultimately be self-chosen, as it is in this life (John 3:17-20).  I’ve just chosen a small sampling of these verses:

·       Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

JESUS AFFIRMS ETERNAL, NEVER-ENDING PUNISHMENT:

·       Matthew 3:12  “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

·       Matthew 25:41, 46  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’…And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

·       Mark 3:28-29 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”

·       John 5:28-29 “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

THE EPISTLES:

·       Hebrews 10:26-29  For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

·       Revelation 14:10-11  he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

·       Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

·       Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?... 21  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

·       Romans 8:13  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

·       Romans 9:22  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

·       Romans 11:22-23 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

·       1 Corinthians 5:5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

·       1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

·       2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

·       Galatians 5:21 I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

·       Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

·       Ephesians 5:5-6  For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

·       Philippians 3:18-20  For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.

·       2 Thessalonians 1:9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

·       2 Peter 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

·       2 Peter 2:12  But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction.

·       1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

·       Jude 1:13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

Although the doctrine of universal salvation is appealing and comforting, it is offering a false comfort to those who instead need to be warned of the consequences. It also tends to undermine or devalue all of the doctrines of the Bible: Faith, Obedience, Confession, Repentance, Faithfulness….

We cannot serve the God of our own creation and liking. To do so is to despise God:

·       Jeremiah 23:16-19 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

A Logical Problem of Universalism

If God is love, then He will eventually save all, according Christian Universalist (CU) Gregory MacDonald. He explains it this way:

“1. God, being omnipotent, could cause all people to freely accept Christ.

2. God, being omniscient, would know how to cause all people to freely accept Christ.

3. God, being omnibenevolent, would want to cause all people to freely accept Christ.

Now 1–3 entail: 4. God will cause all people to freely accept Christ. From which it follows that:

5. All people will freely accept Christ.” (The Evangelical Universalist, Introduction)

MacDonald is claiming that if God is all-loving and all-powerful (omnipotent), He will save all. If He has both the will and ability to save all, there is no reason why He won’t save all.

While Scripture warns us of the reality of eternal judgment, I want to demonstrate that the concept of “omnibenevolence” (Premise #3) is somewhat incoherent. What does it mean to say that God is all-loving?

This concept is not easy to define. Let me try to demonstrate. What if we define “all-loving” as the provision of maximum of love to the maximum number of people? This would suggest that if God saved ten billion, then He wouldn’t be all-loving, because He should have instead saved 100 billion. And if He saved 100 billion, why not a trillion, ad infinitum! From this, it would seem that even God cannot be maximally all-loving, since it would require a violation of logic.

Understandably, the CU will respond:

• When we speak of “omnibenevolence,” we are not envisioning God saving an infinite number of people, but rather saving all that He has created.

But what does this entail? If it is not a matter of saving the maximum number of potential people, then would “love” require God to save all humans for the maximum amount of time – eternity? For instance, what would be wrong with God’s love if He only saved some for a thousand years and then annihilate them? If He is not bound to save the maximum number of individuals, why should love require Him to save for the maximum number of years – for all eternity? It shouldn’t!

Therefore, if God annihilated individuals after granting them a good life, would this violate the doctrine that God is love? Does this doctrine or attribute require God to maximally love each person? Scripture seems to uniformly assert that, while God loves all His creation, this will not prevent Him from also revoking His love. (Or perhaps hell is self-chosen by those who retain an intense aversion to the light – John 3:17-20. Is God required to transform these into different people?)

The CU will counter:

• God is omnipotent (Premise #1). He therefore has the power to change rebellion into faithfulness. Therefore, there is no reason for God to revoke or limit His love.

Perhaps we have a mistaken understanding of God’s omnipotence. There are many things that God cannot do:

1.     He cannot sin.

2.     He cannot violate His Word or His promises.

3.     He cannot violate His nature. (This might also include violating logic.) For instance, God must punish sin. Therefore, He cannot forgive without the atonement of Christ.

Perhaps there are hidden reasons why He does not or cannot save all. Perhaps the CU presumes too much when he concludes that is no reason for God to revoke or limit His love.

But perhaps God will be more gracious than what He has indicated in His Word. Perhaps there are some loopholes in His promise of eternal judgment of which Scripture is not explicit. This might be the case. We are limited in our understanding. Scripture informs us that God has His secret things.

Nevertheless, we are bound to speak when Scripture speaks and to remain hesitant when Scripture is silent or obscure. Our faithfulness before God depends on this. God has been explicit about eternal judgment, and so must we.

Christian Universalism and the Apostle Paul

Several Pauline Epistle verses (Rom. 11:32; Col. 1:19-20; Phil 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:22; Eph. 1:7-10) are used in support of “Christian Universalism” – the belief that all will eventually be saved. Perhaps the most challenging one comes from Romans:

• Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. (Rom. 5:18; All the verses are in the ESV)

This verse parallels all dying in Adam with all living through Christ (1 Cor. 15:22). However, many other Pauline verses are emphatic about an eternal judgment. (I’ll only take a look at the verses in the Book of Romans.) For instance:

• We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.  Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. (Rom. 2:2-5)

Clearly, Paul writes of the final, decisive judgment. If the punishment were just a matter of a few days, it would hardly be worth mentioning. Paul contrasts this judgment with the gift of eternal life, unambiguously showing that not all will receive eternal life:

• But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:22-23)

A life characterized by sin without repentance would not lead to eternal life. This leaves little room for universalism. According to Paul, eternal life would not extend to all:

• For if you live according to the flesh you will die [not just physically. We all die physically], but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live [eternally]… and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:13, 17)

We will only be “glorified with Him” if we live for Him! Paul declares that we even know this:

• Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die [eternally], they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Rom. 1:32)

Paul therefore lamented:

• For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my [Israelite] kinsmen according to the flesh. (Rom. 9:3)

Wishing himself accursed for the sake of his brethren can only make sense if it is understand that their fate was absolutely horrid. However, if all are to be saved, Paul was mistakenly perturbed over nothing. Instead, Paul asserted that only those who cry out for the Lord’s mercy will be saved (Rom. 10:13), and not the “vessels of wrath” (Rom. 9:22).

Paul cites God’s Old Testament assurance that “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay” (Rom. 12:19). However, many do not receive their punishment in this life. Only if there is a future judgment, can we hold to this assurance. Paul refers to the “judgment seat of God” before which we must all appear (Rom. 14:10) as a warning. However, this warning is of little consequence if we will all be saved.

In light of all this, how should we interpret Romans 5:18 that “all” find life and righteousness in Christ? Here is a suggestion that would harmonize this verse with Paul’s many assertions about eternal judgment:

• Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men [who believe]. (Rom. 5:18) 

This must have been Paul’s intended meaning.