UNIVERSALISM: SALVATION FOR ALL

 

The belief that there is a God and that we can have salvation - that is be with him forever and be a saint - raises the question of what happens to the unsaved.  If salvation were merely the result of human efforts, then no one could attain it.  Why? Because it makes no sense that God would make all things and leave it to your efforts.  All your efforts would be his work anyway so if they do nothing to bring you to him then it is because he won't let them.  He does not personally work to bring you to himself.  And it would be arrogant to think that your works are so good that they make God owe you heaven or anything.  Many universalists seem to imagine that everybody does enough good eventually to deserve to go to Heaven.


The ancient Christian heretic, Origen, declared that all creation, including the Devil, will eventually be saved. This is the doctrine of universalism. If we can disprove it then it follows that everlasting punishing is true for the other option, annihilationism, is also untrue. In other words, if God exists then ceaseless punishing would then be a fact.

The notion of people flitting to and from Heaven and Hell forever must be rejected. If there is a God then there is a Heaven. Heaven is the miracle of being one in intimate fellowship with God, of seeing him and being filled with him. You can’t believe that the saints sin and are put out of Heaven, go to Hell and go back again to the Heavenly City when they repent. God will and can make them so happy that they won’t sin. They have infinite good and so they cannot turn their backs on it. He can only do what we think can make us happy.

The mere fact that the Bible teaches that the saved will never sin again does not mean that there is everlasting punishing. Souls can die in sin and go to Hell until they go to Heaven to be there forever.

If God wants all to be saved what did he let us contract original sin which makes us attracted to sin and unable to resist it for long for?

And what did Jesus came to suffer on the cross for? The suffering of Jesus in atonement implies that there is a cruel everlasting punishment. God is vindictive for even if he would not forgive without atonement it would not be unjust to forgive a sinner who repents and take that sinner to Heaven to love him and serve him forever and make atonement for others. Forgiveness is allowed when it is the only way to save others. God did not choose this way for it is not nasty enough and needs a Hellish death to substitute for something Hellish.



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