I wasa asked recently about the BIble stating in Romans that people can only become Christian/Saved when the Gospel is preached to them. How can I answer that person coming from a Universalist background. Please help me in this. Thanks
Everyone will at some point have the gospel preached to them. Perhaps it will not be during their earthly life, but all will hear the good news, and eventually receive it.
Sonia
Thank you. What happened was thta I was listening to Bob Ross, the theologian, in youtube teaching against the Primitive Baptists and their beliefs aking to universalism. The thing is that they say that people do not need the Gospel preached to them to be saved. Someone came with that same argument to me, while watching that movie. At the time I could not answer, the question got me off guard.
I guess that the answer is that, even though everyone goes to heaven they will encounter God’s loving fire through Jesus Himself who will preach the Gospel to all who have not heard. Thus their sins and unbelief will be burned through God’s loving fire through Jesus. Jesus is the Gospel and all will see Him when they are before Him.
Objectively everyone is already already reconciled to God whether they believe or not.
Subjectively, however, we need to hear the gospel so we can learn what God has done for us.
The Holy Spirit regenerates us and brings us to faith through the Good News.
I would bring up Acts Chapter 10… Many people who have never had access to a bible or the Gospel are fact following Christ . This is because every person has available to them the light of Christ
“And Peter opened his mouth and said: Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons,
But in every nation he who venerates and has a reverential fear for God, treating Him with worshipful obedience and living uprightly, is acceptable to Him and sure of being received and welcomed [by Him].”
~Acts 10:34-35
The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.
Of course, not everyone will hear this gospel preached by the creation itself, but I wonder whether it might be sufficient for those who do hear it and respond to God.
I have become familiar enough with Christian or Evangelical Universalism on this site to realize that I am in agreement with the premise that the triune God of the Bible loves every individual that ever existed: sending the person of His own Son to atone for every one of them (us) thus saving them (us) whether we know it or not. Therefore, as an Evangelical, it is not the Gospel of salvation from sin by faith that I should preach but the Gospel of reconciliation by believing and receiving the Love and complete unconditional forgiveness that already exists in Christ for every individual. Rom 1:5 by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:
As a way to make this idea clear for me, especially in end-time theology, this means for me that every name (past, present and future) is already written in the Book of Life because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Having your name written in the Book of Life is a given based on Jesus’s Faith (not on the strength of your faith). In this sense, every name is predestined by the I AM God of the Bible to salvation from their sins by the blood of Jesus at the cross, there are none left out – not one.
I think this is “Good News” and worthy of sharing freely.
i’m pretty sure Paul says something about those who don’t hear the gospel being judged according to their own laws.
if eternal conscious torment was an option, wouldn’t it be pointless to preach to people who may very well be alright on their own just so long as they didn’t hear the gospel? if they don’t hear it, they’re probably fine…if they do, then they would definitely be damned if they reject it.
however if the gospel is intended to be a liberating force in the world, not to push people into either damnation or salvation, but just to free them at whatever pace works for them, then preaching the gospel only really makes sense from a universalist and perhaps Arminian perspective (if that interpretation of Paul’s thought is flawed and people ARE damned without hearing and accepting the Christian message).
it most definitely doesn’t make sense from a Calvinist perspective. i’ve no idea at all why Calvinists bother to preach.
for me, the point of preaching is to liberate the world - not to swell church ranks, save people from a permanent hell, or spread our “empire” of Christendom, or make people conform to OUR notions of morality. Christ brings freedom from sins and the world system. so regardless of all people being saved eventually, the sooner we can enact God’s nonviolent kingdom of love and freedom on this world the better. i think that might possibly hasten the Lord’s return!
edit: by Wendy’s quote above, it might be Peter i was thinking of! that is a more explicit message. urging people to righteousness and “converting” people are two totally different things…i think God might put more emphasis on the former than we do…but i haven’t totally fleshed out my thought on that yet, so could be wrong or incomplete