An idea rejected for most of Church history is seeing a resurgence today. Universalism: the doctrine that all human beings will receive salvation and so spend eternity with God in heaven regardless of their belief in or love for Jesus. But what does that mean, exactly? More importantly, is it Biblical? That’s the question I explore in this week’s episode of Ask.
If this is an area of interest to you, I highly recommend the recent two volume publication, The Devil’s Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism, by Michael McClymond. The two volumes are very dense, but represent an immensely important contribution on the subject (unmatched in my opinion).
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G’day everyone, Dave Deane here, and our question for the week is: What is universalism and is it Biblical?
Well, what a question – in 5 minutes! Let’s not waste any time.
First, what is universalism?
Universalism is the belief that all human beings will be saved. It comes in a few different varieties, but that is essentially the place that all universalists arrive at in one way or another.
In other words, Universalism is a doctrinal belief concerning the extent of salvation; that is, the availability and applicability of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the lives of human beings. And if we think about the main views of salvation on a spectrum, we see that Universalism is one of three predominant views.
On the one end there is the belief that salvation in Jesus is only available and applicable to a specific people God has chosen.
In contrast to this is the belief that salvation in Jesus is available to all people, but only applicable to those who accept it.
And then on the other end of the spectrum we have Universalism – a term derived from the Greek word app po ko tars tar sis (apokatastasis) found in Acts 3:21, which translated in English as “restoration.” So Universalism is the belief in universal restoration by reconciliation. In other words, salvation in Jesus is available and applicable to all people, regardless of their beliefs or commitments or relationship with or love for Jesus. All will be saved.
Now, while there’s three views here, there’s really only two categories: the first two are particularist views of salvation in that they maintain only Christian believers will be saved through the particular mediation of an active relationship with God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. By contrast, Universalism is not particular, it’s, well ‘universal,’ maintaining that all people will be saved, unilaterally, by divine fiat, apart from any particular relationship with Jesus; there may be a concession that it is ‘only by Jesus’ that people are saved, but there is no emphasis on the centrality of a relationship with Jesus as a prerequisite for receiving salvation.
Now, Universalism, is not new or novel; we find it back as far as some of the early church fathers with people like Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century, and Gregory of Nis sa (Nyssa) in the 4th century. More recently, it’s been advocated by the late philosopher of religion, John Hick, and the contemporary philosopher-theologian, David Bentley Hart. And there are many different reasons these thinkers have put forward in support of Universalism; some are textual arguments from the Bible, others are theologically inferred, and more often than not, there are a number of highly technical philosophical frameworks that arrive at this conclusion ‘all will, by necessity, be saved.’
And worth nothing is that, often if not in every presentation of Universalism there is a corresponding criticism of the particularist view that some people will be eternally separated from God. Now, universalism isn’t the only way of dealing with the discomfort of that notion, but that’s a question for another day.
What’s important here is the second part:
Is Universalism Biblical?
There are some NT verses that speak about God having mercy on all, an all being made alive in Christ, and every tongue confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and so on. But to my reading, not a single one of these texts taken in their immediate context or, indeed, the broader context of the NT and Biblical canon as a whole, support anything like Universalism. That’s a strong claim and it would need a case by case demonstration and defence which I’d welcome, but not in these few minutes.
For now, let me simply say that whatever potentially vague passages there may be hinting at something like Universalism, there are clear passages which speak against it. Jesus himself says in Matthew 25:46 “Then they [the unsaved] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” The distinction is clear: eternal punishment is just as sure as eternal life. We can discuss what constitutes that eternal punishment and that eternal life, but that there is a distinction is difficult if not impossible to avoid without a remarkable degree of exegetical gymnastics.
Again, there’s a lot more we could say, and many more arguments that Universalists have put forward appealing to the nature of God as Creator and the fulfilment of ourselves as creatures in His image, and so on, but with all of that weighed, I just want to close with this final thought.
I may be more comfortable if Universalism were true, but the particularity of salvation cannot be ignored by Christians who wish to remain true to scripture and really love their fellow men.
Universalism not only dismisses the core relational dimension of salvation in Jesus, it goes further in destroying the very notion of ‘relationship’ altogether insofar as it presents a deterministic paradigm wherein God is like a doctor forcing a cure on patients without their consent. But the relational heart of Christianity is its uniqueness; it is the impetus of those first evangelistic words of Jesus when he appealed “repent and believe, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
In order to make an appeal like that there is the assumption of at least two terms or two entities: the one making the appeal and the one who responds to it. It’s like that with relationships. In a determined world without distinctions there may be mechanical connections, but there is no dynamism of giving and receiving, of exhausting and sheltering, of being in relationship. By offering salvation in Jesus to all people, God dignifies human individuality and personal identity, and salvation in Christ doesn’t rob that, it redeems that in us.
So, in that sense, Universalism kind of looks at the issue of salvation the wrong way ‘round. The wonder of salvation is not found in the destinies of those who aren’t saved; it’s not even in the destinies of those who are saved… the wonder of salvation is found in the Saviour: Jesus Christ. Our theology of salvation should be understood, not from the doom of the unsaved, but the delight of the Saviour. That God would make salvation possible in Himself for us is praiseworthy and uniquely Christian. It’s the affirmation of Christ himself when asked “How can we know the way?” Jesus replied: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.”
