The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Fr. Barron on Universalism

Fr. Barron is a catholic priest with quite a large following, especially among the younger generation. He has a pretty vibrant website with many resources. I especially love his thoughtful video mini-lectures of sorts.

Check out his thought on “is hell crowded or empty” and take a moment to see how much controversy he is stirring up in the comments below the video!

wordonfire.org/WOF-TV/Commen … Empty.aspx

That’s an excellent video, very clear, although I reckon Bell is trying to be closer to Barron’s view then Barron admits. Looking at the comments, it’s great he’s getting people thinking about this too :sunglasses:

C.S. Lewis’ concept that Hell is locked from the inside simply does not make sense to me based on what scripture says. It notes that Jesus has the keys to Death, Hades, and the grave - not man.

I also do not see much in scripture about “human autonomy” (free-will). We are not Free! We are born by the will of God, born into sin and disobedience by the will of God (Rom. 11:32). We are born spiritually dead, having no relationship with God, except those whom God sovereignly elects to have a relationship with from birth, even before birth like John the Baptist. We are born not knowing God, like Isaiah says - a man of unclean lips surrounded by people of unclean lips. In today’s terms - We’re born jacked-up in a cultured that’s jacked-up! We are born slaves of sin, in bondage to the fear of death and even in bondage to demonic forces of darkness. To me, the weakest point of Arminianism is Human Autonomy! Were were NOT born-free; we were born-slaves!

Also, the concept that to Hope that all are saved is ok, but that to have faith that all are saved is not ok, just irritates me. Hope is ok, but faith is not? And the reason that we cannot have such faith is because of human autonomy? Man, give me a break! So we cannot have faith in the Sovereignty of God because of the potentially immovability, unsavability of man? Can the pot say to the Potter, “Man, don’t do such a thing in me!”? Of course not!

If God created us for relationship with Him, who do we think we are to ultimately upose the will of God!

I appreciated his brief review though.