Barna Group on Universalism…

[TotalVictory]

I found this interesting…
read the whole thing.

barna.org/faith-spirituality/484-what-americans-believe-about-universalism-and-pluralism

Universalism
Broadly defined, universalism is the belief that all human beings will be saved after death. On balance, Americans leaned toward exclusive rather than inclusive views. For example, 43% agreed and 54% disagreed with the statement, “It doesn’t matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons.”

Similar splits in public opinion emerged for the statements, “All people will experience the same outcome after death, regardless of their religious beliefs” (40% agreed, 55% disagreed) and the sentiment, “All people are eventually saved or accepted by God, no matter what they do, because he loves all people he has created” (40% versus 50%).

However, even as millions of Americans believe God saves everyone, most still place strong responsibility on human effort and choice regarding their ultimate destiny. Nearly seven out of 10 adults agreed with the idea “in life you either side with God or you side with the devil; there is no in-between position” (69% versus 27%). And about half of adults concurred that “if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others, they will earn a place in heaven” (48% agreed, while 44% disagreed).

TotalVictory
Bobx3

[Alex_Smith]

Fascinating and I managed to read it all too

The Barna Group

"]Interestingly, younger born again Christians stand in stark contrast to their peers, being much less open to inclusive or universalist views of eternity.This might prove a challenge for us, although it might simply indicate that they take the warnings of impending Judgement seriously, which is a good thing.

[Melchizedek]

I think it’s interesting that Americans tend to lean toward exclusive views. I have a strong suspicion that this is largely due to our cultural bias, and you can definitely find its influence in our largely culturally based form of Christianity. I generally find people in other parts of the world tend to be more open to inclusivist views.

[BartBurk]

How many Americans would believe that everyone would through Christ would eventually be saved, but those who didn’t have faith in Christ in this life would have to go through a period of correction and would have to accept Christ before they are saved? That question wasn’t asked. Perhaps a more interesting question would be to ask if people believed there was still an opportunity for salvation after death.

[Melchizedek]

Well, yes. I think even the way the question was worded shows the biased belief that universalism = anything goes.