06 – Universalism

Galatians 1:8-9 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
This time we’re looking at the gospel of universalism–another gospel as Paul warned of.
Universalism is a doctrine that teaches all people will be saved. Other names for this doctrine are universal restoration, universal reconciliation, universal restitution, and universal salvation.
Universalism first began to appear somewhere around the early 1800’s, though a couple of the early church fathers danced around the edges of it.
Before the appearance of Universalism came along, a movement called the Unitarians began in the early 1,600’s, and eventually combined with universalism to become the Unitarian Universalism denomination.
As of 2023 there were 343,473 members, comprising 261,621 adults and 82,852 children with 1603 congregations and 2279 leaders.
UU’s don’t believe in the Trinity, holding that Jesus was the Savior of the world but was not God. They also don’t believe in original sin. So they are anything but orthodox!
But the main and perhaps most egregious error the UU’s embrace is that all will be saved. This primary universalist heresy is false on several fronts. Here’s a few that come to mind:
1. It allows man to continue on in his sin, since he knows that eventually all will be saved.
2. It nullifies the command for us to call all to repentance.
3. It denies the sinfulness of sin, suggesting that God should not judge it so severely.
4. It suggests that God is unjust to allow men to have an eternity without Christ. This sort of suffering is over the top.
5. It denies clear Scriptures that talk of eternal punishment, thus calling into question the inspiration of Scriptures.
6. It depends on the sayings of selected church fathers and even apocryphal writings to prop it up. The sufficiency of Scripture is thus also questioned.
7. It heavily leans on that most unworthy of supports, human reasoning and logic.
8. It draws no clear lines between righteous and unrighteous.
9. The entire missions program of the church, begun by the Great Commission of Jesus, is rendered irrelevant. All will be saved. Why go?
10. It applies faulty hermeneutics to writings of Paul, Peter, and John where there are sentiments that seem to support universalism.
11. It joins forces with all the major cults and the deepest feelings of carnal men all over the world. No one likes to be punished.
12. It assumes that if Jesus takes punishment for sin, man must never suffer consequences.
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In the past several years, along with the growing UU denomination, universalism has seen a resurgence. Many adherents prefer different names for it–inclusion, the greater faith, or the larger hope. Tentmaker.org calls it The Victorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was first made aware of universalism when a number of years ago a very well known and gifted preacher, particularly in charismatic and pentecostal circles, came out and claimed that when asking God how He could send people to hell who were already suffering on earth, God said to Him,
“Is that what you think we’re doing?”
To which the man replied, “God, I can’t save the whole world!”
To which God replied back, “Precisely. That’s what we did.”
From that moment, he believed that God had saved everyone through the work of Christ on the cross and it didn’t matter if they accepted him as their Savior, professed faith, or believed. It didn’t matter if they were Christians. There was, he concluded, no hell.
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And then more recently the well known actor and outspoken Christian, Kirk Cameron, rocked the christian world when on his podcast he seemed to argue that an eternal hell is not what Scripture teaches.
Instead, he threw out the possibility of annihilationism–the belief that when a sinner dies their soul is simply annihilated–ceases to exist.
Or that the time of punishment for rejecting Christ was limited, not eternal. Sort of a purgatory idea.
So Universalism has once again been thrust onto the front burner of church controversy.
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Now, the main argument for universalism is that a good and loving God would not condemn people to eternal torment in hell. Some universalists believe that after a certain cleansing period, God will free the inhabitants of hell and reconcile them to himself.
Others say that after death, people will have another opportunity to choose God. Or for some who adhere to universalism, the doctrine also implies that there are many ways to get into heaven.
Universalism uses passages like Colossian 1:19-20 to make their case:
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
They claim this means that God intends to restore all things–all people–to their original state of purity through Jesus Christ. Hence, all will be saved.
Another favorite verse of universalists is Romans 5:18,
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.”
One more verse they use is Hebrews 2:9,
“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
So the phrases “all people” “all things” “everyone” are the hinge upon which universalism swings.
But is this true? Is it the whole message of Scripture?
Remember the crucial principle of sound Biblical interpretation, “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.”
Meaning, Scripture MUST be taken in context with, not just what comes before and after a verse, but what the entire Bible says about the same subject!
When we honor this principle with the favorite verses of universalists, their whole case falls apart.
The view that everyone is automatically saved by Christ’s death on the Cross runs counter to the teaching of the Bible that “all who call upon the name of the Lord” will be united to Christ and eternally saved, not all people in general.
The first word out of Jesus’s mouth was ‘repent!’ The same for John the Baptist.
The Apostle Paul made if very clear, “For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.”–1 Tim 4:10
Jesus taught that those who reject him as Savior will spend eternity in hell after they die:
John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
Paul told the Athenian philosophers:
“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.”–Acts 17:30
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Now, in order to come to their conclusion, Universalists choose to ignore God’s Justice.
Universalism focuses exclusively on God’s love and mercy and ignores his holiness, justice, and wrath.
The Psalms speak repeatedly of God’s justice.
Without hell, what justice would there be for murderers of millions, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao?
Universalists say Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross met all the demands for God’s justice, but would it be justice for the wicked to enjoy the same rewards as those who were martyred for Christ?
James Fowler, president of “Christ in you ministries”, notes that one reason for the resurgence of universalism is the current attitude that we should not be judgmental of any religion, idea, or person.
By refusing to call anything right or wrong, universalists not only cancel the need for Christ’s redeeming sacrifice but also ignore the consequences of unrepentant sin.
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Another argument made by universalists is that Christian Bibles are Wrong.
Much of universalism relies on the premise that Bible translations are wrong in their uses of the terms Hell, Gehenna, everlasting, and other words that claim eternal punishment.
Despite the fact that recent translations such as the New International Version and English Standard Version were the efforts of large teams of knowledgeable Bible scholars, universalists say the Greek term “aion,” which means “age,” has been consistently mistranslated across the centuries, leading to false doctrine about the length of hell. In other words, ‘age’ refers to a limited time period, not eternal.
But Jesus disagreed:
MATTHEW 25:46 “Then they (the lost) will go away to eternal punishment (κόλασιν αἰώνιον–punishment eternal), but the righteous to eternal life.”
Is Jesus talking about forever? Clearly, yes.
And consider this: The rest of the verse says, “but the righteous to eternal (αἰώνιον) life” using the same Greek word αἰώνιον.
So if we say that αἰώνιον is speaking of a temporary time period in hell, how can you turn around and say the same word (αἰώνιον) means forever in heaven?
Hence, critics of universalism rightly state that the identical Greek term “aionas ton aionon,” (ages of the ages) is used in the Bible to describe both eternity in heaven and the eternal fire of hell. Universalists are picking and choosing when aionas ton aionon means “limited.”
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Universalists reply that to correct the “errors” in translation, they are in the process of producing their own translation of the Bible. However, one of the pillars of Christianity is that the Bible, as the Word of God, is inerrant. When the Bible must be rewritten to accommodate a doctrine, it is the doctrine that is wrong, not the Bible.
One more big problem with Universalism is that it imposes human judgment upon God, saying that, logically, he cannot be perfect love while punishing sinners in hell. However, God himself warns against attributing human standards to him:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9 NIV)
So in closing, Universalism and the Bible cannot both be true. Scripture is clear that two options await every human being–eternity in heaven, or eternity in a place called hell. I would much rather trust the word of God over my own emotions or reasoning!