I don’t know if this article has been noted yet on the forum, but Gerald McDermott as published an article on universalism in the July 1013 issue of Themelios: “Will All Be Saved?”
He starts his article with a logical fallacy. He states:
“Will everyone one day be saved? Is hell only temporary, if it exists at all? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, the historic Christian commitment to the conversion of the world to Christ would appear to be somewhat silly.”
What is the name of the logical fallacy of this statement?
He assumes a couple of things,
- “historic Christianity” is correct and, (appeal to antiquity/tradition)
- evangelism is rooted solely in the fear of Hell. (straw-man fallacy or maybe it’s a hasty generalization).
Just because something is traditional does not mean it’s true. And the fear of hell is certainly not the only reason for evangelism.
Hey Al,
It was discussed quite a bit here: [Article on The Gospel Coalition website discussing EU)
In fact, quite a few of our members posted in the comments, as well as Tom Talbott and Robin Parry. (The link to the article in the thread above allows opportunity for comments.)
Caleb
That’s actually a very silly thing for him to say. We are entirely committed to the conversion of the world to Christ, and entirely committed to actually achieving that mission. That’s what it means for everyone to be saved, and that’s the only way that hell could be “temporary.”
Sonia
In his first section entitled “A Brief History of Universalism”, I had to smile at the following statement:
Please read the following quotes from Origen, and tell me whether you think his universalist teachings were rudimentary.
Thanks, Caleb, for the link to the earlier discussion. I guess I should have done a search of the forum first before posting the link to the article.