Hey fellas and ladies. I wrote a brief case for EU for a friend, and had a debate with an agnostic on such issues while doing so. I’m not entirely convinced by what I wrote, moreso because of the spelling/grammatical errors I know are there, but I figured I’d give it a shot and post it here for the. . .um. . . heck of it.
Let me know your thoughts.
**A Brief Biblical Case for (tentative) Evangelical Universalism
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***Christ as Victor.
Christ’s death at Golgotha is the centerpiece of all creation. Specifically, as Christians our sins are atoned for, but not only ours but the sins of the entire world or cosmos. Christ’s death does not give us any assumption about the lack of hell or damnation or punishment. Instead, it insists that he bore for us (humanity or “Adam”) the very sins we ourselves commit. His death was a descent into the very hell created for the devil and his angels, but according to Revelation 1:18, only he holds the keys to death and Hades.
So, not only was he killed, but He is alive. He was made alive in his resurrection, the pinnacle of God’s revelation to Adam. The point of Christendom is not the cross, it is the empty tomb. For death itself is the utter payment of sins upon this earth (Rom 6:23 and others), but Christ himself, the God-Man, having died in the place of Adam, holds the very soul of death and Hades in his broken hands, and only he controls them. It assumes and demands that Christ is KING over death and the hell created for sinners, of which I am king.
Christ is King over Death and of Hades.
***Christ as Creator.
I will contend that I desire to provoke no hatred amongst my fellow Christians, but I must display some disgust over our current systems. I contend that the Augustinians are correct in the vast scope of God’s sovereign nature, but cheapen his vast love as a result of contrarian ideologues brought about by Augustine himself. Eternal life demands a contrast in order for God to be fully glorified. But this assumes too little of God, that God could be fully glorified only in the suffering of specks of earth. Indeed, God is fully glorified with or without the existence of Adam, and yet chose to create from himself, breathing the breath of life into Adam, shaping us in his image (Gen 1:26-27, 2:7).
We are all in the image of God, and it grieves him to see a murky reflection that blurs all things that are good and pure.
Christ is Creator King, Builder of LIfe.
***Christ as Love.
Romans 5 shows a world of death, of which it is total and complete. Death itself is all that man knows of in this present age. Death is sovereign on this plane of existence, and we are assured of it. Adam is depraved beyond being worthy of salvation. But, as the gift of God that cannot be measured, we are given a new call beyond what we ourselves are capable of knowing.
Galatians 2:20 speaks of being crucified with Christ, and of death that comes with sin, but also of the victorious nature of Christ’s resurrection. Deuteronomy 7:9 speaks of the patriarchs, spoken of in Romans 11:1 and 11:28, references to ancient men as Abraham, who through him the human race would be blessed. The nations would be blessed.
We see the divine connection through the lineage of Adam. Adam, through one man, brought sin to all of humanity. Abraham bore the fruits of the human race, as one man, bringing in the nations. Christ, as a result, is the slender thread that ties the human race together. For as in one all men die, so shall in Christ all be made alive (Romans 5:18). One fall brings forth death, so shall the complete surrender to death bring forth life for all.
Christ is love, as he was willing to die and go to hell for all men. As God is love, so must everything he does be considered as an act of holy sovereign love. God knows no favoritism, and for if his grace should result in the condemnation of some, then his grace could hardly be said to be total.
Grace, manifested in divine holy love, must be complete. To be anything less results in Christ’s death on the cross being good enough for some, but not others. Thus, Christ’s death is insufficient.
Christ is Love personified, in that he has suffered the penalty of sin and of death for the entire cosmos.
***Christ as Alive.
Christ’s grace, defined above, must be victorious. There cannot be such a remnant that remains on the new heaven and the new earth, where we are reconciled to the Father. Colossians 1 rejoices that all things will be made new through Christ’s reconciliation. His power over death and hell is made glorified by the complete and total revival of Adam. For from him and through him and to him are all things. His glory shall be forever.
In all things alive, there cannot be room for sin and death. This is where divine punishment is granted, to purify the murderers and the liars and the adulterous and the blasphemous. There is no room for sin in the kingdom of all things, and Adam must be reborn in God’s image, and this requires the complete abandonment of his own depravity and the utter surrender to Christ.
Christ, having acted in pure love towards those who did not know him, was willing to descend into hell to save the saints and sinners of old times, and if everything he does is an act of holy love, then eternal punishment of everlasting torment is unnecessary, for if he has died for the souls of all men, then all men shall be saved.
Thus, Christ must either consume the flesh of Adam, or He must destroy him. I contend that either option is certain, but as Christ is King over death and hades, this begs the question of Christ’s sovereignty over the souls of every human being.
For those that have seen God in his Shekhinah glory have been reduced to terror, it is the chief of sinners, a murderer, a dog of a man who was able to change his heart through God’s intervention. Our Apostle Paul. How moreso will all the souls in the world who have never seen Almighty Father in essence fall upon their faces and beg for life?
Who can stand in his presence, and not weep? Who can wear a crown of gold and not cast it back to the Creator, of whom he is not worthy to be in his presence? This man, this Father, who played with the children of Israel, who dined with sinners, who ate with people who caught a glimpse of the shadow of his being, is nothing short of the perfection that demands correction.
Christ will be all in all, and he will and has reconciled the entire cosmos to the Father, He has descended into hell, He has left the flock to pursue the one sheep, and He alone is eternally divine.
*The Victorious King.
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*The Living God.
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*The Creator Savior.
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*The Father of whom we can only love.
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If Christ is truly manifested in the life of us, then we must be willing to submit ourselves instead to every ounce of furious terror that befalls the wicked. No greater love than this that we must desire the infliction of eternal punishment and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, to be forever cast from his presence so that the remnant may catch but a glimpse of their true Father. But praise be to the Father, we do not have to experience what the God-Man did.
For only He died. And in the end of all things, all shall be well. God does not forsake any of His children, His election is universal, and His desire is for all to be saved.
Jesus Christ holds the keys of death in his blood-soaked hands, and the last enemy that exists anywhere in all of God’s creation is death itself, and those who are put to shame will indeed be shown the beauty of their failure, for in heaven, the victim will be reconciled with the murderer and the murderer with the victim.
*And all shall be well. Of this, I believe and I hope. In truth alone.
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–DS
ps my subsequent discussion with my agnostic friend went well. I answered his questions as a Universalist, which is a first for me. This might be true after all. We parted ways as friends. Which is always a bit of a perk.
