I was reading over the testimonies and noticed that I haven’t shared mine on this thread. I happen to have started a book on my reasons for believing in Christ for the salvation of all, and the following is part of the introduction. So here we go…
I was first exposed to Christian Universalism (otherwise called Universal Reconciliation Evangelical Universalism, the Greater Hope, and Apokatastasis) a few years ago in a short article that I ran across while preparing to teach a class for a small Bible College where I served as the Accademic Dean on “Knowing God”. The article mentioned a few scriptures like Rom. 5.18, Col. 1:20, and 1 Tim. 4:10 that, if taken literally and at “face value” (prima facie), seemingly affirm that Jesus ultimately reconciles, restores into right relationship with God ALL of humanity. It was an intriguing article but Universal Reconciliation was not the picture that I believed scripture painted and certainly was not something anyone I knew and respected believed. And though I found the article intriquing, I was not able to invest any time to even briefly study the subject to refute it; so I mentally filed it until another season when “if” it came up again at a more opportune time I would study it.
I rarely thought of Universal Reconciliation until a few years later when someone asked me what I thought about Carlton Pearson, him loosing his church, being expelled from the Board of Directors of Oral Roberts University, and being renounced by other ministries that he was associated with because he had embraced Universalism. I had briefly perused his web site once when I first heard of what was happening to him, but I had not read nearly enough of his material explaining his change in beliefs to have developed an informed opinion; and before I form a strong conviction concerning a doctrine, I do my best to review the various beliefs and weigh the evidence for or against each as unbiasedly as I can. I am especially reserved in forming strong negative opinions of people prefering to give people the benefit of the doubt and hope the best of and for them. Thus I decided to read Pearson’s book “The Gospel of Inclusion”.
Frankly, I found Pearson’s book to be uninteresting. I had hoped that it would be somewhat of an academic explanation of the reasons for his change in beliefs; but it seemed to me to be more of a vent for his frustration and anger over the rejection he had experienced as a result of openly confessing that he had come to have faith in Christ for the salvation of all humanity. I ended up only reading about half of the book. Maybe the second half of the book contained more information; and maybe someday I’ll get back to it, but probably not. However, he did briefly reference several scriptures that at “face value” seem to strongly affirm Universal Reconciliation.
As I prayerfully meditated upon and studied the few scriptures Pearson mentioned in his book, I was surprised to find these scriptures, based on their literary context, to strongly affirm that in the end Christ triumphs and actually does save all of humanity. This not only surprised me, it was very disconcerting; the more I studied these passages in their literary context, the more strongly they seemed to affirm Universal Reconciliation. Thus in order to counter this apparent biblical evididence supporting Christian Universalism, I decided to study what scripture says concerning judgement and Hell. I assumed that such a study would surely and effectively counter the concept of Universal Reconciliation and reaffirm my traditional belief in the certainty of damnation for some, if not most, of humanity.
The doctrine of Hell was for me an assumed “fact” though I had never personally did an indepth study of it in scripture, or thought through the logical issues associated with it, or studied its development in Church history and tradition. It was for me a core belief, a lense through which I viewed the rest of scripture. I had always assumed that “all” in these universalistic passages simply could “not” really mean “all” because of the certainty of damnation for at least “some” of humanity. All could not be saved because some are certainly damned.
The certainty of damnation for some (most) of humanity was such an ingrained belief for me that in 40 years of studying the Bible I had never seriously considered the possibility that “all” really means “ALL” in the many passages of scripture that seem to affirm Universal Reconciliation. In fact, I never even noticed the many scriptures affirming UR and would instead just read right over them. Thus I fully expected my study of scripture concerning the judgment of sin and Hell to only reinforce my long-held beliefs and confirm that though these universalistic passages might seem to affirm the salvation of all humanity, they can not really mean that based on their literary context and remain consistant with the doctrine of Hell that I assumed was established so firmly and clearly in scripture.
Looking back on it now, I recall that I also approached the study of Christian Universalism assuming that many people who have embraced Christian Universalism did so because they could not logically justify the concept of God being Omnibenevolent (God is love) with the concept of Hell (Endless Conscious Torment - ECT). I had no such qualms. I accepted in “faith”, apart from reason, that God is love and that Hell was somehow the just and righteous deserts of humanity because of the sin of Adam and our personal sins; and Hell even somehow fit within the reality of God being love.
I also assumed that many people reject the concept of Hell and some have embraced Christian Universalism because emotionally they just cannot imagine God torturing or allowing humans to be tortured endlessly. I did not share that issue either, assuming that ECT was just and even somehow merciful, that maybe the presence of God would be worse for these people than torment in Hell.
I also assumed that some people cannot accept the concept of Hell because of their love for others who have died having never evidenced faith in Christ. And I assumed that others have been emotionally overwhelmed with the fear of Hell because of believing that either they are not the elect, they have committed some unpardonable sin, or because they have chosen an evil life-style and do not desire to repent. I assumed that such people have strong emotional reasons to not believe in the existance of Hell regardless of what is so evident (so I assumed) in scripture.
I understand reason, tradtion, and experience to be viable sources of faith, but I have always, since childhood, sought to make my faith based primarily on scripture. Thus believing scripture to affirm the future reality of Hell as being the unending abode of the damned, I have never given much weight to rational arguments or emotional appeals against Hell. And I certainly did not start the study of scripture concerning UR and Hell with a desire to change my traditional beliefs. In short, I was theologically, emotionally, and traditionally prejudiced against Universal Reconciliation and resistant to giving it a fair hearing.
You can thus imagine my great surprise when the more that I studied scripture concerning the judgment and penalty of sin and Hell, the more I saw my assumed solid scriptural evidence in support of Hell crumbling before me, and the more scriptural evidence that I found supporting the concept that judgment and punishment of sin by God are rehabilitative and not retributive, merciful and not vengeful, having eduring positive effects and not being endless torture.
Frankly, I am more surprised than anyone where my research and study of scripture has led me. I certainly had no desire or need to change my beliefs on this doctrine. I have compassion for the lost and regularly share my faith in and love for Christ in the hopes that such might encourage others to put their faith in Christ; but I am not, nor have ever been, overwhelmed with despair concerning anyone’s salvation, even close relatives. I am just being forthright here, maybe I should have been despairing for the lost, especially loved ones, but I have never been that way. I love people, but I am just not that loving so as to be consumed with fear over the fate of others.
I have trusted in the Lord for my salvation from childhood and the fear of Hell is not and never has been a personal concern because of faith in Christ. From childhood, especially since my early 20’s I have had a strong passion to see people come to know the Lord, not because I fear them going to Hell but because they are missing out on the goodness of God, perishing, their lives and families being destroyed because of their bondage to sin. To my knowledge I had no reason, emotionally or philosophically based, to change my traditional beliefs concerning Hell. Since childhood, I have believed that Jesus is the answer to all of this world’s problems; I just didn’t know the How! So I have devoted my life to studying scripture in search of a clearer understanding of how to apply its truth to our daily lives and thus embrace the abundant life of Christ!
Realizing how radical of a departure Universal Reconciliation is from the traditional beliefs of the Church, from my traditional beliefs, I was extremely hesitant, even resistant to embrace such even though I was finding the scriptural evidence to be compelling. Looking back on it now, I recognize that I was also fearful, fearful of being wrong and especially reluctant to face the conflict with loved ones, exclusion from fellowship, and even persecution that I assumed would come if I did come to have faith in Christ for the salvation of all humanity. Though I started the study of Universal Reconciliation assuming that my studies would only confirm my traditional beliefs, I had uncovered a significant amount of information to cause me to question my traditional beliefs. And when I am not completely at peace with my beliefs, I pray, research, meditate, study Scripture, and discuss the topic with other believers until I come to a personal conviction on that topic. This was an itch that just had to be scratched!
For me another important part of processing and growing in my beliefs is discussing scripture and doctrine with other people. I value highly the body of Christ and listen for God to speak through people, especially those whom I love and respect. So I contacted several people who I knew would pray for me and shared with them some of what I was uncovering in scripture. As I shared with them, I was careful to listen for the Holy Spirit to raise any solid scriptural or logical arguments against either Universal Reconciliation or the concept of Remedial Punishment in the afterlife. Many said that what I had uncovered was interesting, but of course it did not line up with what they believed; and they evidenced no desire to consider or discuss the subject further. A couple were open to the information and even enjoyed discussing it and studying it with me, though they were as reserved as I was in considering the possibility of Universal Reconciliation.
Sadly, some, instead of accepting that this was simply an honest inquiry on my part, when they, as I, could not quickly dismiss the information that I had uncovered and get me back on the “straight and narrow” of tradition, instead turned to personal attacks, falsely accusing me of negative motives and even spiritual deception. I was surprised by the groundless and irrational ferociousness of these personal attacks. People who otherwise respected and loved me unjustly accused me of some terrible things and even denounced me to others, even trying to influence my wife and children to dismiss anything I share with them. These actions however did not have their desired effect of motivating me to set aside my studies and blindly accept the traditional doctrine. Rather, such irrational negative personal attacks only pressed me to pray about and study the subject further, with greater intensity. And the more I have prayed and studied scripture and related material on the doctrine of Universal Reconciliation, the Greater Hope, the stronger my convictions have become concerning it; until now, I openly share that I am a convinced Christian Universalist! From the beginning of my studies on the subject, until coming to be convinced took about a year, though I had actually come to believe in my heart that UR was true several months before I would even admit it to myself.
Since then, about a year ago now, I’ve continued to study, and I’ve continued to run into oppossition at every hand; but the more I’ve studied, prayed, fasted, debated, studied anti-universalist material, etc., the more convinced I’ve become.
I enjoyed reading your experience. Sure wish there wasn’t so much resistance to UR.