UNIVERSALISM – THE CULTURALLY CONGRUENT FAITH

 

 

UNIVERSALISM is the belief that all will be saved.  This belief has become so popular that even “evangelicals” have embraced it, but to Christianize it, they have added the stipulation that all will be saved after they suffer for a while to pay for their sins. Therefore, it denies the sufficiency of the death of Jesus to pay the price for all the sins of the world.

 

Universalism also represents the undermining of the importance of every Biblical teaching. For example, if all will be saved, there is no compelling reason to evangelize, to believe and follow Jesus, to pray, to meditate on the Bible, or even to be obedient in any way. Consequently, considerations of justice, righteousness, and devotion to the truth can easily be scorned and rejected. Universalists will never be willing to pay the price of following Jesus and to endure persecution.

 

Here are just a few verses that demonstrate the Biblical impossibility of universalism:

 

·       “but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned.”(Hebrews 6:8)

 

·       “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.”

·       (Jude 1:7)

 

·       “wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever.”

·       (Jude 1:13)

 

·       “and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.”(Revelation 22:19)

 

·       “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”(Daniel 12:2)

 

·       “And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)

 

·       “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.”(Matthew 12:32)

 

·       "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)

 

·       “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”(Matthew 7:21-23)

 

·       “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”(Matthew 5:20)

 

All of the verses cited by the Universalist can be understood in a way that coincides with the above verses.

HOW BAD THEOLOGY CAN UNDERMINE THE FAITH

Paul had warned that bad theology undermines faith:

·       See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8; ESV)

Bad theology can take us captive. Sometimes, it can even look benign:

·       Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1-5)

Paul argued that even the smallest morsel of bad doctrine can undermine the entirety of our faith:

·       You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Galatians 5:7-9)

A little bit of bad teaching can contaminate everything. I know that this sounds unbelievable, but just think about a computer virus. It’s just a small bit of information, but it can destroy your computer. The same seems to pertain to our faith.

Let’s take a couple of examples. Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved in the end. They argue that, since God is love, He would never condemn His creations to an endless hell. However, this one simple belief contradicts the entire Bible.

Why should any bother to read the Bible if they are going to be saved anyway. The Christian life is not easy. We are called to suffer (2 Cor. 4:10-11). Why then live for Christ? Why be obedient if all will be saved?

The same goes for prayer, confession, repentance, and certainly evangelism. I would be ashamed to tell anyone that they need to come to Christ if they are going to heaven regardless. In fact, if all are to be saved, nothing in the Bible is of any real consequence. Better to eat, drink, and be merry!

Many other heresies will also undermine the entirety of the faith. Mysticism is becoming fantastically popular. Mysticism is the belief that we can enjoy the love and blessings of God without certain beliefs and doctrines. All that is necessary is the practice of certain mindless techniques/exercises like meditation to clear the mind, visualizations, repetitions of a single word, or imaginations.

If we can experience the love of God through the various mystical exercises, who needs the Bible, confession, repentance, faith, and obedience. Mysticism makes them all irrelevant. However, their various techniques are entering the Church like a tsunami.

Why? Progressives are coming to believe that experience, rather than our opposing beliefs, will bring world unity. Sociologist Tony Campolo wrote:

·       A theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God…I do not know what to make of the Muslim mystics, especially those who have come to be known as the Sufis. What do they experience in their mystical experiences? Could they have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism. (Roger Oakland, Faith Undone, 108)

According to Campolo, we can plug into God through mystical techniques and experiences, and this common experience can become the basis of “common ground” among the various religions. He claims that he has been able to achieve “intimacy with Christ” through “centering prayer” (113). For him, this involves the repetition of the name of Jesus. However, he suggests that Muslims – and probably others – may also be able to achieve this same “intimacy with Christ” through the use of similar mystical techniques. If this is so, then theology and doctrine are no longer important. Instead, they build walls and present obstacles.

However, Campolo’s hope that people of different religions are experiencing our God lovingly and savingly is biblically absurd. Without having been reconciled to God through His Son, we cannot enter into His presence; nor would we want to. Israel had been so terrified by the manifestations of God on Mt. Sinai that they thought they would die (Deut. 5:25).

The Temple stood as a constant reminder that anyone not authorized to approach God would be struck dead. Even the authorized could only approach after lengthy preparations.

Jesus reiterated that fact that, naturally speaking, we hate the light of the presence of God:

·       And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Jesus, therefore, is the last One the unredeemed would want to encounter. What then are they encountering when they claim to have an encounter with God through exercising their techniques? Paul had warned:

·       For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

Where then can we find safety from demonic deception and demonic encounters? Only through Christ and through His Word!

WAS JESUS ANTI-NATIONALISTIC?

Progressive Christians regard Jesus as one of their own, a citizen of a borderless world:

* Progressive Christians have long held the conviction that the whole Christian-America-thing is actually anti-Christian. Christianity has an implicit anti-nationalist bent. Jesus actively resisted the nationalist aspirations of his followers, which made him a disappointment to them — and ultimately cost him his life (initially!). https://www.onfaith.co/…/4-ways-christian-fundamental…/33537

Was Jesus an anti-nationalist? Admittedly, He was inclusive of all who would come to Him (John 6:37). However, He did not initiate them into a borderless existence but into the Kingdom of God.

This Kingdom is a Kingdom set apart from the rest of the world. It is exclusive but inclusive of any who will come. It is also a Kingdom with stringent requirements and boundaries:

* “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Nor is this Kingdom universal but particular, for a particular people who would enter it:

* "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)

Consistent with the particularism of His Kingdom, Jesus only prayed for a particular group of people:

* “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:” (John 17:9 ASV)

However, the Progressive will respond:

* Jesus was teaching about a spiritual kingdom not a physical nation with physical borders.

However, Jesus consistently affirmed the particularism of the Old Testament against progressive universalism. Likewise, He did not teach that we have equal responsibility for all parents but affirmed our overriding responsibility for our own parents (Matthew 15), children, and family (Matthew 24:43).

This was a particularism reaffirmed by Jesus' authoritative commentators, the Apostles:

* But if any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

Let's return to the particularity of nations and nationalism. We are not saying "God and Nation," as Progressive Christians allege. God and nation are clearly not equals. Instead, everything is under God - family, friends, and patriotism.

However, there is a Biblical place for patriotism, at least for Christ-honoring expressions of patriotic concern.

If we are to have an overriding love and concern for our wives, children, and even our block association or neighborhood, it is certainly not illegitimate to have an overriding and particular concern for our nation.

This does not mean that we shouldn't have a love and concern for other families and nations. However, if love does not start at home, it is not love. It is something inhumane and unnatural, and therefore, had to be sustained by threat and even genocide, as we have seen in every communistic, universalistic experiment.

Besides, if we fail to show a particularistic love for our own wives and children, jealousy and bitterness will arise. Consequently, the best way to love our communities is to start by loving our own families. By doing this, we will create an army of love-emissaries.

Likewise, the Church has, in so many ways, proved to be a vehicle of mercy to its community. How? By loving first on the inside and then those on the outside.

Jesus had opposed an ungodly form of nationalism, one which self-righteously looked down on the other peoples. However, He never spoke against nationalism per se.

EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALISTS (EUs) AND THE FINALITY OF ETERNAL JUDGMENT

EUs believe that, eventually, everyone will go to heaven, even if they have to suffer for a while in purgatory. Why do they believe in such a counter-Scriptural teaching? Because EUs believe that the teaching of “eternal judgment” is not consistent with the love of God. If God loves the entire world, then His love requires that He should save all.

However, it is also inconsistent with love to preach a false and unbiblical hope. Instead, there are many of verses that indicate that punishment is eternal. Here are just a few:

·       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. (Daniel 12:2)

·       “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.” (Matthew 25:41, 46)

·       “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.” (John 5:28-29)

·       For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

·       “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 14:11)

·       “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." (Revelation 20:10 )

·       “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.” (Jude 13; 2 Peter 2:17)

These verses instruct us that hell is just as eternal as is heaven. If heaven is everlasting; so too is hell. They give us no hope that those who go there will have an opportunity to subsequently emerge into eternal heavenly life.

There are also many verses that equate hell with “destruction.” (I will not try to decide whether “destruction” simply means complete annihilation – non-existence – or merely the destruction of everything good. For now, it is enough to demonstrate that eternal judgment entails a terrible fate.):

·       “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:19 )

·       and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. (Philippians 1:28)

·       But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:7)

These verses are associated with the “end” and the “day of judgment” and are contrasted with salvation, indicating that in the end, the ungodly will be destroyed. This has the sound of finality. There remove any hope of blessedness.

If universal salvation was a fact, most of the Bible would become irrelevant. Take John's letter, which he wrote to assure Christians that they are saved (1 John 5:13) by giving them ways to test themselves. If all are saved, any test become needless:

·       “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives FOREVER... As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life.” (1 John 2:17, 24-25 )

If all are saved, none of these tests matter at all. Instead, John wrote that "eternal life" is something that is promised only to believers - "us." It is only those who are obedient - and obedience is a sign of saving faith - who will "live forever."

·       “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12)

EUs will add that we do not have life yet, at least not until we complete out purgatory. However, nowhere in Scripture do we read anything like: "Well, they might not have life in this life, but in the next life, they will have life."

Instead, Scripture offers no such hope for those who reject Jesus in this life. No evidence of post-death salvation! To preach otherwise is to go beyond Scripture. Instead, His Word continually warns that there are explicit and eternal consequences for the unrepentant:

·       “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

·       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. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

These two sets of verses are especially damning. Why? Because they explicitly claim that the unrepentant “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” No chance!

However, the EC claims that the love of God would never condemn His creation to eternal torment. In fact, the belief that all will be saved has become fantastically popular. Why?

1.    It has become highly distasteful, in the West especially, to believe in a God who judges. It is far more comfortable to believe in a God of love rather than One of justice also.

2.    This doctrine has also become scorned, and those who hold to the doctrine of an eternal punishment are made to feel embarrassed.

3.    In the West, we have become too comfortable, too safe. We do not face daily victimization, which makes us yearn for eternal justice and to value such a God.

More importantly, the EU’s understanding of “love” is inconsistent with the Bible’s teachings on this subject. Rather, it seems that it is possible to eventually place ourselves outside of the parameters of God’s love:

·       “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:31-32)

Eventually, God gives us over to our hearts’ desires (Romans 1:24-28). He allows us to go our own way and even to choose our own eternal fate (John 3:17-20). If we hate the light in this life, we will most certainly detest and flee from it in the next.

Who then is at fault? Not God, but us!

IS GOD JUST IN JUDGING THOSE WHO NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL?

What is the Gospel and salvation? To accept the gift that Christ has obtained for us! Therefore, there is only one way:

“No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23 ESV)

Admittedly, this is an offensive message. It excludes all who do not believe in Jesus. It also seems to be unjust. After all, who can blame those who have never heard the Gospel for their disbelief in Christ?

However, Scripture informs us that all have the light and reject it, making them guilty:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

Consequently, all of us are "without excuse" for rejecting the one true God. We all have the evidence but we reject it. This makes us all guilty and condemned (Romans 6:23). Therefore, if God is to act justly, we are all damned. This means that we all require Christ's free gift.

Because He is merciful, is God required to save all? Certainly not! Mercy is freely given to whomever He wants among those who deserve damnation. God is not bound to save all. Instead, He says, "I will have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy."

We might not like this, but if this represents reality, then we have to adjust to it, as we must by breathing the air.