Part 1 of this series ([Toward a Unified Field Theory of the Spiritual Universe 1)) suggested that the doctrine of ultimate reconciliation—the idea that God will fully accomplish His purpose of reconciling the whole world to Himself—can serve as a kind of “unified field theory” of the spiritual universe, one that makes sense of many truths about God, ourselves, and the meaning of life. In Part 2 we will look at more problems raised by the doctrine of eternal damnation and show how they can be resolved by a paradigm shift to ultimate reconciliation.
Another dilemma that cannot be resolved in the traditional understanding is the question of how we can be completely joyful in heaven knowing that billions of people, including many we love, are simultaneously suffering unbearable pain. We believe that God will wipe away every tear and give us boundless joy, that He will remove all the sources of sorrow and create the conditions that provide untainted joy. Yet what is the cause of our deepest sorrow and our greatest delight? Is it not people—the pain of broken relationships, of seeing others suffer, of watching loved ones reject Christ; and the joy of restored relationships, of relief from suffering, and of watching loved ones come to Christ? When you imagine heaven, what are the primary images that come to mind—golden streets, magnificent mansions, lavish banquets, creature comforts? Those realities are far overshadowed by looking forward to being reunited with loved ones, having all brokenness healed, and experiencing perfect fellowship. Will the source of pain still exist and the joy be limited? The thought of others still suffering is particularly difficult for parents; any good parent understands that it is more painful to see your child suffer than to experience suffering yourself.
Again, the typical answers are unsatisfying (“We’ll be so holy that we’ll share God’s righteous hatred of sin,” “Those who seem like nice people will be revealed as the incorrigible evildoers they really are,” “They stand as a testament to God’s grace—their fate would be that of all mankind were it not for God’s kindness,” “We won’t remember those who set their faces against God,” “We’ll be so blissful that any concern for the lost will fade from our consciousness,” “We don’t understand how it can be that we will experience perfect joy while others are suffering unspeakable pain, but God can make it so”). Unbelievers have no qualms about saying those answers don’t make sense. If they are honest, most Christians admit that the rationale is hard to swallow, but they feel they have to accept it by faith.
Believing in ultimate restoration removes this problem entirely. God will *not *erase our loved ones from our memory. He will not leave us with no hope of ever seeing them again. We will not have to set our faces against them in righteous anger over their sin. We will be able to fully enjoy the blessings of heaven, knowing that every single person we care about will be welcomed with open arms to participate in those blessings with us when they come with repentant hearts and bowed knees. All the relationships that were broken on earth will be healed in heaven. God will *truly *wipe away *every *tear. The greatest rejoicing of all will come as the worst sinners humble themselves, repent, and come into the kingdom.
In fact, the whole question of why God ever allowed sin and suffering in the first place finds its answer in the doctrine of ultimate redemption. In the traditional view, people are born into the world, suffer in this life, and then, if they have not trusted Christ, pass into never-ending suffering in the next life. For all the talk about the value of suffering—to identify us with Christ, refine our character, make us more like Jesus, cause us to long for heaven, give us more compassion for others, etc., etc.—in many cases it does not have these effects at all. People are born, they suffer here, they die, they suffer forever—without ever coming to Christ or becoming more like Him. Suffering certainly can and does produce the positive results the Bible talks about, but often it drives people away from God. And if they end up in everlasting torment, their suffering is strictly punitive, with no hope of having any redemptive value for them. So what’s the point of it all?
In the ultimate redemption view, there is a wonderful point, stated by Paul in Romans 11: “For God has bound all men over to disobedience [and the consequent suffering] so that he may have mercy on them all” (v. 32). In other words, God gave us genuine free will. He allows us to exercise our free will, and we have made a mess of the world. Then He can exercise His mercy toward us (a quality that is part of His character but unnecessary for those who have done nothing wrong). The suffering we experience in this life and the next is designed not just to punish us but to humble us and correct us and draw us into a relationship of love and gratitude toward Him. God longs to have mercy on us all. The glory of our redemption from the depths of sin will be greater than the glory there would have been had we never sinned in the first place. We were once objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3), but He makes us objects of His mercy. As Paul says in Romans 9, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory?”
Another insuperable problem for the traditional view is how to explain God’s treatment of the Canaanites. Even people with little knowledge of the Bible are aware that God performed or allowed some pretty cruel-sounding actions in the Old Testament, including the annihilation of men, women, and children. We have enough trouble just explaining why it’s OK for Him to allow wholesale slaughter, and if those people go straight to unending torture that is far worse than anything they experienced on earth, then we have no reasonable defense for the goodness of God.
Some of the events of the Bible will never be easy to explain, but there is a far more reasonable explanation than the traditional view can offer. If the killing of masses of unbelieving people is the tragic end of their story—or worse yet, only the beginning of a never-ending tragedy—then we have little hope to offer and are hard-pressed to prove that God is loving. But what if their physical death is only the entrance to another phase of their lives? A phase in which there may be further judgment and correction, but which also offers the hope of knowing God and experiencing eternal life? Such a possibility would put God’s actions in an entirely different light. Instead of being evidence of cruelty and vindictiveness, His allowing their physical death would be the means to lead to greater good, not just in some vague, dubious sense “for God’s glory,” but eternal good for the individuals themselves.
On another front, with an understanding of ultimate restoration, the question of whether a believer can lose his salvation becomes a non-issue. In the traditional view, a person receives salvation and then either possesses it forever (“eternal security”) or else can run the risk of losing it (“falling away”). In the restoration model, “salvation” is not like a ticket to heaven that you either have or don’t have, that you obtain at a point in time and maybe keep forever (despite what you do or don’t do) or maybe lose somewhere along the line. Rather, God takes absolutely everything into account and judges with unlimited knowledge and perfect justice to create a tailor-made destiny for every individual.
The criteria on which salvation is based are very ill-defined in the traditional view. [Watch for a future blog comparing various theories of heaven and hell.] When you have only two possible destinies—heaven or hell—which are diametrically opposed to each other, it is imperative to be able to identify with clarity the way to get into the one and stay out of the other. I have never heard a totally coherent explanation of what constitutes the minimum requirements for getting into heaven and staying out of hell. As soon as you start trying to define the conditions, you run into unanswerable questions. It is impossible to state the conditions clearly without raising a thousand ifs, ands, and buts.
One biblical answer is to say you have to “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” A very honest question is “What about the person who has never heard of Jesus Christ?” Or “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Another biblical answer, but what if you just believe it in your heart and never confess it with your mouth? And what about babies and children? And the mentally retarded? And people who think they believe in Jesus but have been taught wrong doctrine, for example, that Jesus is not fully God? What about people who have received a totally distorted picture of God, as from an abusive father? They may well reject the god they know without rejecting the true God.
Another way to look at this problem of defining the criteria is that if there are two and only two distinct possibilities for our eternal destiny, then there must be a dividing line somewhere between them. Where is the dividing line? How can you be sure that someone at least squeaks over onto the right side? What makes the difference between the lowest person in heaven and the top person in hell? (If you have good answers for these questions, please let me know.) Getting into heaven is the most important question; how far up the ladder you make it (the reward for your good works) is practically irrelevant in comparison to just the fact of getting in.
In contrast, the restoration view eliminates these quandaries and absurdities. In this understanding, there is no problem trying to identify the dividing line—there is no final dividing line. We don’t have to panic about the people who never heard the gospel or didn’t quite get it or even resisted or rejected it. We don’t have to be in torment wondering whether or not our loved ones got their ticket to heaven before they died. Though many will undergo the painful fire of purification as God deals with each one in a very personal way, they will not be forever shut out from the blessings of heaven.
Part 3 will conclude this series with a look at still more problems with the traditional position that can be resolved by viewing the world through the lens of ultimate restoration.
