Christian Universalism

In my post about hell, I quickly assumed that no Christian seriously believed that everyone will end up in heaven. I stand corrected. I heard about a movement called Christian Universalism. It is an incredibly interesting worldview. Here is a website where you can learn a lot about it: http://www.epochalypsis.org/christian-universalism-treatise. These people seem like perfectly fine Christians who simply believe differently than the "normal" on one issue, namely that all Christians will go to heaven.

Before I respond to this, though, I'd like to point out that I'm not sure which translation some of their verses come from. As one example, their translation of Matthew 14:42 says "And (they) shall cast them into a furnace of purifying, refining fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." My version (NIV) says simply "the fiery furnace", while the NKJ says "the furnace of fire". In fact, every translation I could find (including ESV, ASV, and both NLT's), said "fiery furnace", "blazing furnace", or something like that. Nowhere could I find a reference to the "purifying, refining fire", which is a serious point in their debate. I'm inclined to take the verses on this site with a grain of salt and to look up the actual verses in a translation I trust.

That being said, I think it is interesting that these people do not shy away from the concept of hell. They rather embrace it, saying that it is here that we are refined and cleansed of our sin, and we are then fit to be in God's presence. In this sense, it is very similar to the Catholic concept of purgatory.

The idea of universalism is interesting in itself. They really just took a different path with respect to the sovereignty of God. Fundamentalist Christians believe that God has predestined some people for heaven and some for hell. Christian Universalists believe that God predestined all of us for heaven, using verses like 1 Timothy 2:3-4 and John 3:17. They believe that if God's will is for all people to know Him and be saved, then the sovereignty of God tells us that all people will know Him and be saved.

To the evangelical Christians who emphasize man's choice and free will, they say that even a choice on our part means that we are the ones who did something to get to heaven. To admit even this is to say that something other than God's grace was the factor in our admittal to heaven.

This is certainly an appealing approach. To say everyone will get to heaven makes our God seem like a very loving God. There are only a couple problems I have with this, but they are big when considered.

First, God is forcing all of us to love Him. The website says that God's love is irresistable. If this is the case, than we are forced to love Him eventually whether we want to or not. To think that God will eventually brainwash everyone in a refining fire is not pleasant or comforting, nor is it in line with a loving God. Love is not self centered. This view of God's love is entirely self centered.

Second, this directly undermines the importance of our choice. Does our choice make it an action on our part? No. Making the correct choice may seem like earning our way to heaven in the same way as answering correctly on an important test earns us a better grade. In this way, I agree that to believe that only those who choose Christianity in this life will be the ones to go to heaven is to put altogether too much emphasis on the action of the choice. The poor people who never get the chance to hear about the gospel, who are scarred by bad experiences with "rogue christians", or who cannot reconcile religion with rational thought are all left in the dark, even if they have a heart after God. However, to say that we have no choice in the matter is to take an unnecessarily shallow view of our choice. It is not the act of thinking or saying "God, please enter my life" that will save us. Rather, it is the moral decision of letting Him lead us and the attitude of repentence and humility.

If there is no choice in the matter, can we ever truly love God? How can love be defined outside the context of a relationship, and how can a loving relationship exist without the willing consent of both parties?

Jesus said narrow is the path to heaven, and few will choose it. Christian Universalism is an interesting idea, but ultimately I think unbiblical and trivializes the importance of our choices and actions. However, I believe those in Christian Universalism are not as far off the Truth as some people are bound to think.