After a recent conversation with a friend on the topic I decide to blog out some quick thoughts on Universalism. Honestly I would love Universalism to be true, but given critical thought it doesn’t hold water, here’s why…
1. Universalism diminishes the Cross.
I suppose a Universalist may claim that it actually magnifies the cross, suggesting that the more people that are saved, the better. However, the cross isn’t valuable based on its reach, but on its cost. It cost Jesus his life, and this makes it a treasure without equal. The cross is free, but not freely applied to all. If it we’re freely applied to all its value, or more specifically, it’s cost, is nothing more than a nice display or a kind act. In this view, the cross is more akin to a party favor, sure it may be a very nice favor, and maybe your name is engraved on it, but the fact that everyone has one makes it worthless.
2. Universalism does not free us from our love of self and thus our sin.
Going back to the free, and valuable gift of salvation. Salvation does not only save us from the penalty of hell, but from ourselves. By giving us new hearts and desires, salvation removes us from the center of all of our motives, and places Jesus in the center as savior. If Universalism is true, then there is no need for the work of salvation to take place in the hearts of people. We can go on being completely full of ourselves, and unaware of God’s glory and holiness, and somehow, in the end, all will be saved regardless. The only way that Universalism can be true is if sin is not a damming, and damaging, as God, in the bible, makes it out to be. Sin is a big deal. On that note…
3. Universalism diminishes sin.
There is something in US that sees sin as merely making a mistake. So when we contemplate the idea that God would send someone to hell for a lie, we are rightly upset. The punishment, in our view, does not match the severity of the offense. The problem is a misunderstanding. The severity is not simply in the offense, but who it is against, that determines the scope of the offense. So I may lie to my children, and they don’t hold much sway or authority over me, they may be upset, and maybe I need to make amends, but not much else. However if we move up in relational authority to my wife, I lie to her, and she may see fit to divorce me. I lie to my employer and I may be fired. The offense is measured against who the offense was against, not the act itself. So maybe I work in the government and I lie, and by lying betray my country, well I may be hung for treason. So I lie against God, and I’ve committed more than just mere treason, but severe cosmic treason against the one who has all authority and power. Jesus did not die to cover our mistakes, but to restore us from our place as traitors and enemies, to sons and daughters. Sin is serious, Universalism makes sin small, and by making sin small, the cross small, and by the cross, the saviour small.
So let’s go back to my wife. I confess to you that I lied to my wife, and you think “No big deal, even the best people of us lie to our spouses a little.” Then I begin to describe my wife’s character. I explain that she has never lied to anyone before, not even me, in fact she has never done me wrong she has only ever served me and sought good for me. When I fail she is kind and forgiving, and never holds my past failures against me. I never have to ask for anything because it’s like she knows what I need and already has it prepared for me, but she allows me to ask anyway because she knows how much I benefit from talking with her.
Well, all of the sudden my lie does seem a little worse. Then if the bible is true, and God is like my wife in this analogy, I didn’t just lie, I cheated, and cheated, and broke promise, and failed to keep my oaths, and cheated repeatedly.
4. Universalism diminishes biblical teaching, specifically the teachings of Jesus himself.
To make Universalism work you have to isolate parts of scripture and extract them, from the whole in order to make them seem to say what Universalism says. You are going to have to prostitute the bible to make it appear to promote universalism. And not some vague teachings, but the actual teachings of Jesus himself, who taught and spoke more of hell than anyone else.
5. Universalism undermines God’s role as judge and destroys justice.
The bible is clear, that in some form, God will judge, and his judgements are perfect. Without a judge we are without hope, it through God’s righteous judgements that we know what needs to be redeemed, and that he plans to do something about it. If unviversalism is true then all of God’s judgement are not the establishment of truth, by merely angry ranting that we aren’t doing things His way. Universalism is a weak view of God’s perfect character. Why make decrees and precepts if ultimately your plan is to overlook them? And if God is a judge who overlooks his own law, he then is, by definition an unjust judge.
These are not the only reasons, but they are the first five that ran through my mind, there are many more. I want to end with two points from a pastor friend of mine.
1) If God himself is actually a universalist, then we have no idea who God actually is. We can know God because he has revealed himself to us in Scripture. With all the sin, judgment, and hell talk in the OT and NT, Scripture is pretty clear that God ISN’T a universalist. Universalists at best have to pit God’s words against one another, and at worst end up disregarding the Bible as in large part / as a whole. Without any reliable self-disclosure from God himself about who he is or what he’s like, all we’re left with is our own shoddy, individual guesswork.
2.) If we believe that life and God matter, then we won’t be universalists. Universalism means that all people are currently / eventually acceptable before God and his presence. This turns what we say, do, think, and feel into something cheap because it treats God’s holiness, glory, word, etc. as something cheap. “It doesn’t really matter what I’ve said or who I am or how you live your life; all that’s required of you to enjoy my presence is to die.”
Even if he would believe (like Rob Bell does, I think) that sin is punished after death but that the punishment isn’t eternal, it still leaves the sinner unchanged. Our hearts would still be unregenerate, bent towards self instead of God. Thus, sin really isn’t dealt with, God seems relatively ineffective, and heaven / eternity sounds way less appealing.
Theist the Bearded 