In the last few months I have been busy with my blog on christianpost.com (blogs.christianpost.com/ambassador-of-reconciliation/), which I started before I learned about the EU Forum. My hope was to be able to dialog about ultimate restoration and get thoughtful feedback in order to correct and refine my ideas, but it hasn’t exactly worked out that way. A few people have actually engaged with the ideas and I believe others are listening in on the conversation, so I continue to post there, but I wanted to come here to the Forum in order to get some real wisdom and encouragement (and I know that I won’t get burned at the stake here!)
With all the talk lately about the Higgs boson, I thought it might be a good time to post my “unified field theory” series. Although scientists haven’t quite managed to pull it all together in the physical world, I believe that the doctrine of ultimate redemption is like a unified field theory of the spiritual world. I would love to hear readers’ thoughts about different angles on this idea or how I might improve this series. Here is Part 1 of 3.
For decades scientists have been searching for a “unified field theory”—an explanation of all the fundamental forces in the universe within a single theoretical framework. Albert Einstein coined the term and spent much of his life trying to formulate such a theory, but neither he nor anyone else has been successful so far. With respect to spiritual truths, I believe that the doctrine of ultimate restoration is as close as we have come to a unified field theory of the spiritual universe. It harmonizes many apparently contradictory or competing truths and resolves many dilemmas that have confounded theologians and lay people alike (and often caused deep divisions and enmity and even war). Each part of this series examines how different truths can be integrated within this framework.
In Ephesians 1, Paul reveals God’s ultimate purpose for the universe: “And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (vv. 9¬−10). In Colossians 1, Paul presents the framework for God’s work from eternity past to eternity future, as I laid out in a previous blog (“Reconciliation: The Heart of God’s Grand Plan for the Universe” [Reconciliation: The Heart of God's Grand Plan for Creation)):
From eternity past, Christ is before all things (v. 17).
At the beginning of time, Christ created all things (v. 16).
In the present, Christ holds all things together (v. 17).
In the future, God in Christ will reconcile all things to Himself (v. 20).
The idea of ultimate restoration, or ultimate reconciliation—that God will reconcile everything and everybody to Himself in full harmony—constitutes what I believe is the most unified understanding of God’s overall purposes and work. It would be rather presumptuous for me to think that I have come up with such a grand theory, but I have not come up with it at all; it comes straight out of the Bible. I believe that Scripture presents a unified picture of God’s universe and His purposes for it. We are called not to fashion our own understanding of how the world ought to be, but to believe God’s revealed truths. Our God-given reason is not to be used to come up with our own theories but to enable us to grasp the beauty of God’s plan. This paper is an attempt to explore the beauty and harmony of God’s purposes for His creation. Here I will try to show that His revealed plan makes sense of the world and is extremely coherent and satisfying.
One conflict that vanishes immediately is the one between Calvinists and Arminians. In the ultimate restoration framework, the Arminian belief is right in that God loves all people and wills that *all *should come to repentance and knowledge of the truth. Calvinists are right in that God is fully able to accomplish all His holy will and to save all those He has chosen to save. The harmonization is that God *wills *the salvation of all, and He *accomplishes *the salvation of all. [See “Pick Two (Who Got It Right: Calvinists or Arminians?)” [url]Pick Two (Who Got It Right: Calvinists or Arminians?)]
The relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will remains a complex one, but not absolutely contradictory. God gives us a great deal of autonomy and free will, but ultimately our will cannot prevail against His will. Yet God does not force His will upon us or coerce us to love Him. Rather, He draws us so powerfully—by His kindness shown both in blessings and in discipline—that ultimately every human being will bow the knee willingly and choose to love Him freely.
One of the most incongruous ideas in Calvinism is the concept of “limited atonement.” How can anyone speak of the work of Christ on the cross and say “limited” in the same breath? How could the Son of God, the Savior of the world (John 4:42), lay down His life for the sake of His creatures, and yet somehow His sacrifice is not good enough for all of His creatures? Is God’s master plan of salvation only for a fraction of His creation? Does He wish “to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20) but find Himself unable to pull it off? No! He desires full reconciliation and He will make it happen.
Sooner or later, most people who hear the traditional gospel will ask, “How can a loving God allow any of the people He created (never mind *most *of them) to suffer torment endlessly with no hope of relief?” Christians have devised many responses to this question (“God’s ways are higher than our ways,” “God is God and can do as He pleases,” “If people don’t repent they will be separated from God forever.” “We deserve it because of our sin,” “If it weren’t for His grace, *nobody *would be saved,” “People who oppose God in this life will continue to defy Him in the next,” “They wouldn’t want to be in His presence anyway,” etc.), but none are very satisfying.
The restoration answer to this question is that God does *not *act in a way that would be considered monstrous if it were done by a man. He is like any good father; He does not allow His children to get away with anything and He makes sure they face the consequences of their sin, but He does not allow them to suffer permanent, irreparable harm. His goal is not to get back at us for what we do wrong; His purposes are redemptive, not just retributive. We will face judgment for our sin, but we will not be utterly cast out into excruciating torment with absolutely no hope of relief. Our fallible human system of justice forbids cruel and unusual punishment; would God’s allow it?
Our sense of justice is offended not only by the thought that ordinary, bungling sinners spend eternity in hell, but also by the idea that evil monsters guilty of heinous acts can get off scot-free just by asking Jesus into their heart (even at the last minute), or that Christians go right to heaven even if they are guilty of broken relationships, dishonest dealings, and worse. Clearly we can’t begin to comprehend God’s perfect justice, but He created us in His image, and we have an innate sense of right and wrong. We know what’s fair and unfair—we understand that the punishment should fit the crime, and good human justice systems attempt to mete out justice fairly. Isn’t it reasonable that God Himself would exercise justice in a way far superior to—but consistent with—the sense of justice He gave us? That He would judge with perfect knowledge and absolute fairness?
Another objection often raised by unbelievers (and believers too) is the exclusivity of Christianity. In the traditional view, unless a person acknowledges/accepts/trusts/receives/believes in Christ (however that action or process is defined) in this life, he cannot be a Christian and cannot go to heaven. Even though we have attempted to soften this doctrine (“God knows a person’s heart and will find a way to reach him,” “No one will stand before God and say He is unfair,” etc.), it still strikes us as unfair and exclusive, unlike the Jesus who reaches out to all.
Ultimate restoration holds firmly to the belief that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. The *only *means of salvation is through the cross. The only difference is that God will continue to extend His grace after death. Those who have never heard of Jesus, or know only a distorted caricature of Him, will have opportunity to see the real Jesus face to face and to hear the real gospel, undistorted by flawed human vessels.
Predestination (and even more so, double predestination) is an enormous problem in the traditional view. People have built an entire theology around the concept of the sovereignty of God with the idea that God predestines some to go to heaven (and in some systems, that He also predestines the rest to go to hell). For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith says, “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.”[1] These systems maintain that God somehow sovereignly ordains our eternal destiny and yet we are responsible for our sin and He is not unfair. They do mental and exegetical gymnastics to try to justify the idea that it’s OK for God to decree, either directly or by default, that people end up in torment forever.
Yet the term *predestined *occurs in only two passages in the English Bible, and neither one says anything about heaven and hell. Ephesians 1 says we were predestined to be adopted as God’s children: “In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (v. 5). “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (v. 11). Romans 8 says we were predestined to become like Jesus: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (vv. 29–30).
Why do we assume that predestination is about going to heaven or hell, when the Bible never talks about it in that context? There is a simpler and more sensible explanation of predestination that does not require us to go through extreme logical contortions: When the Bible talks about being “elected,” “predestined,” “called,” or “chosen,” it is referring to the fact that some have the privilege of knowing God now, of becoming more like Jesus in this life, of avoiding the judgment that is to come because of sin, and of spreading the gospel to others. As Peter says,
Part 2 will examine several other issues that are very problematic in the traditional paradigm but are neatly resolved when seen through the lens of ultimate restoration.
[1] Chapter III, Article III. Articles VI and VII go on to say, “They who are elected . . . are kept by His power through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as He pleaseth, for the glory of His Sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.”
