This statement evangelicalsforsocialaction. … 0Salvation provides a case for universalism from the site of Ron Sider’s "Evangelicals for Social Action by Joshua Walters. It is titled, “Full Savation: Toward a Biblical Approach to Soteriology and Evangelism.” I was stunned by how open it was in arguing a more universalist position, especially placing the case in the context of our mandate to evangelize. I’d be interested in you reactions.
Bob,
That’s got to be one of the best articles I’ve ever read. Thanks for linking it! He pulls together very cohesively so many of the things I have believed and thought and said or tried to say. I’ll try to read it again later with a more critical mind, and see if I can find anything in it to critique – but on a first quick read-through nothing negative jumped out at me.
Here’s some of my favorite bits from the paper:
And the final paragraph of his conclusion:
I really like his term “Full Salvation.”
Sonia
Excellent, definitely one to bookmark for when someone tries to tell me EUs don’t care about evangelism and social action!
Unable to open or find this link…
Help anyone??
TotalVictory
Bobx3
I just fixed the link, so give it another try. 
Sonia
Thanks for the link. A superb essay which challenges us to change some of our terminology and definitions. He uses the terms “exclusivism” and “full salvation” in a novel way which may turn out to be helpful in moving the dialogue forward. Does anyone know anything about the writer?
Haven’t checked it out yet, but I’m going to. I’ve often thought that our motivation for evangelism fits even better under the UR or Full Salvation (FS)! model, so I’m glad someone has connected the two; particularly so in light of the common criticism that universalism pulls the rug out from under mission/ evangelism work.
Haven’t finished the full article, but thought this section was particularly awesome:
Here we see that election means not God’s giving of salvation as a kind of reward, but as an invitation to participate in God’s salvific mission. God’s desire is to form a community that outnumbers the stars! However, God desires to do this through Abraham and his people. Upon closer examination we may see why God chose Abraham to be the patriarch of Israel (the first evangelist!).
In Genesis 18, the Lord approaches Abraham about Sodom, a city of great sinners (Gen. 13:13). After the Lord pronounces judgment upon Sodom we are told that Abraham intercedes on their behalf. Instead of accepting that God can do whatever God pleases or that Sodom’s sin deserves punishment, Abraham pleas with the Lord for their salvation. This is why God chose Abraham! “By asking for the salvation not only of the righteous but of the entire city, Abraham does exactly what God wants.” This is further evidenced in the story of Jacob. Like Sodom, Jacob’s brother Esau has been traditionally branded as an example of God’s double election. Yet the story of Jacob beautifully displays the reality that God intends the salvation of those who are considered un-elect. We see that Jacob was at first pictured as the one who wanted God’s blessing at the expense of his brother. But the story posits that God’s blessing comes only when Jacob includes his brother. Indeed, Jacob becomes Israel – a blessing to the nations – only when he understands his true mission.
This theme of intercession for and inclusion of the “un-elect” is found throughout Scripture in the person of Moses (Exod. 32), the prophets (Isa. 56, Jer. 14, Ezek. 16) and the Apostle Paul (Rom. 9-11). The theme concerns us here because it is indicative of God’s ultimate purpose to save all of creation and our role as bearers of this good news. Nowhere is this more explicit than in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
I believe that faith is a much more powerful and lasting motivator than fear. UR evangelism is based in faith that God will accomplish what He has set out to do. Traditional evangelism is based in fear that if we don’t do evangelism/mission work then some will not make it into heaven. Traditional evagelism is also very guilt driven. As a child I remember the hymn, “You never mentioned Him to me” - what a guilt trip. I must tell everyone about Jesus because If I don’t and they go to Hell, then I’m the one who is at fault even though I’m going to heaven.
Apparently, the author got some backlash from site readers. Ironically, they accused him of doing the very thing he was speaking against!
Apparently, you still can’t put new wine in old wineskins…
I look forward to the day when people who speak the truth are listened to, rather than opposed.
“You make the word of God of no effect for the sake of your tradition.” Indeed.
Hello sisters and brothers! My name is Josh Walters and I am the author of this article that ran in ESA’s ePistle a couple year’s back. THANK YOU for your supportive comments; it means a lot to find support from unforeseen sources.
I wanted to let you and/or anyone know that I am going to be running a huge 15 day blog series on my blog all about Universalism and hell. If you want to check it out or point people to it as a resource, please do so!
Blog: videoaudiodisco.blogspot.com
Much peace to you all.
josh
Hey, thanks Josh. And welcome 
Awesome article, by the way…
sadly i can’t seem to access the article now
sounds really good
welcome, Josh!
gotta say i’ve felt more passionate about evangelism and social justice since i embraced universal reconciliation (full salvation is a great term too!). not sure i ACTUALLY do any more, but my desire to do more has grown, which is a start.
Er, I think I may have saved the text of the article into a word document. If someone can tell me how to attach a word document to a post (and if I can find it), I can put it on here; with Josh’s permission, of course.
I did find the article copy that I saved!
When I click on the link, I get the error message “Forbidden”. If I search for website and go to it, I cannot find the article.
Mel,
Step 1.) Down below the composition window for replies, on the left, you should immediately see two tabs, “options” and “upload attachment”. Options is typically chosen by default, so you may have to click the “upload attachment” tab.
Step 2.) Doing so will bring up a pretty standard upload form. It’s probably best to “browse” your computer until you find the file, and then choose the file from your computer’s standard window thereby.
Step 3.) Afterward, click “add the file”. (You can add a “file comment” which will be printed below the file, either now before adding the file or afterward.)
Step 4.) Once the file has been uploaded to the system, you should see a new row below the composition window saying “posted attachments”. You can add the file comment now if you want, or at any time later by editing your post.
Two buttons reading “place inline” and “delete file” will be below the file you uploaded. “Delete file” is obvious; “place inline” will generate code for this particular file, which the system will then paste into your reply wherever your cursor happens to be at the moment.
But you can cut-paste that code wherever you want afterward if you prefer.
If you do nothing, the attachment will show up at the end of the post.
Step 5.) Repeat the process to add more attachments to your post. (I don’t know what the limit is.) This will generate a set of rows below your reply composition window in the “posted attachment” row, each sub-row for an attachment, which you can then place inline wherever you want and add subtitle comments to. They’ll be listed in order of most recent attachment first, even though how they’re presented in your comment will vary depending on where you placed things inline. So my “Step 5” jpg appears last in this comment (because I didn’t put it inline, so it automatically appears at the bottom below the comment text), but in my “posted attachments” list it appears first.
Ok; yeah, the article is apparently no longer accessible online. I haven’t heard from Josh, but I’m assuming he’d want us to be able to view and appreciate his article; so here we go:
Thanks for the detailed instructions, Jason!
Full Salvation and Evangelism.doc (72.5 KB)
That’s so wonderful to hear. I too become more and more excited to share the gospel of God’s love in Christ when I contemplate the beauty of universalism. I pray for a kind of revival b/c of this. Not a shallow “non-gospel,” but one that compels the conversion of hearts to follow Jesus and live His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
- JMW
p.s. YEAH - feel free to share! Nothing is copyrighted if it’s for the kingdom 
It’s good to have you here, Josh!
Sonia