A great quote I have recently read is this ‘While the ecclesial schisms that have characterized much of Christianity’s history over matters of Christology, Triadology, and the like are at least comprehensible on a primal level, it is utterly unfathomable the many more recent schisms that have compounded as a result of squabbles over events that have not yet even occurred!’ by Andrew P. Klager.
So we have to be careful in being dogmatic beyond that as the creed say ‘the Lord is coming to judge the living and the dead’ and that as promised death will be defeated and all raised and creation freed from futility and decay and completed and transfigured. So other questions might be asked in return, what do you mean by ultra-universalist vs purgatorial universalist, as if either these were so clearly defined boundaries or that they had a singular meaning for what one person might mean to another. Some envision deprivation or experiencing purification and purging that might involve pain or experiencing hurt they did to others to restore, others that it is the reaction to the being in, raised in and suffused with Love and Life Himself, and experiencing sorrow and grief at not responding to that love and life, of seeing themselves in Him and in the unity of humanity around them as they should be, and that being a place which opens them in that healing event to be able to choose to respond again to His love and enter life in this process. And also, what kind of time do we think on this process, it could take a period of time, or it could happen in the blink of an eye, during the resurrection itself, and while Paul is referring to the testing of works to see their worth and some escaping out from fire (as out of a burning house) because of the straw aspects of their life when that is healed and renewed, is primarily to current Christians that doesn’t restrict it to not having an ultimate application to all humanity. The Church is the microcosm for all humanity in which we are linked to and are all linked together in the Messiah, we are saved together until all humanity and cosmos are restored and completed, and humanity is fully joined and reflecting the life and nature of God and is therefore fully human (being truly in the image and likeness of God and in the glory of God and not short of it, renewed in the image of the truly Human One who is the Image of the invisible God), and are citizens of heaven bringing the nature and life of heaven into the dark places of the world as Roman citizens were intended to bring imperial culture into the provinces with their coloniae. What happens engages that reality now, and brings it into people’s lives now, as we all share the effects of death and are all responsible for dehumanizing acts and failing to be human and full being but manifest and embrace habits of death that we call sins, we are all interconnected and again a personhood only in relation to each other, and the Church is there in the centre of this, connected in Christ to all already. So this application could well intend ultimately to all humanity, and therefore that change, and awareness and orientation could be the resurrection itself, and none know that experience yet, and it will not just be personal but personal among and with the unity and communion of the Church and humanity, and into all creation as it will be liberated when the sons of God are revealed. And one’s experience of that event, of that love in themselves and the experience of internal bliss, or grief and repentance and healing could will be far different from another, what is a blink of an eye to one, might be an age of seeing, knowing, and embracing and the love of God in Christ by the Spirit working through and in all humanity and all and to all creation.
So it could be instant in a way, and yet also within that moment give all the time needed, which brings also all the growth and development of the whole life, of the extent they already have responded to His love, in ways we externally are not able or qualified to judge (particularly as we are all shaped by environments, experiences, neurology, culture and influences and our own differing insights and talents and their opportunities and the massive complexities of interactions from present, past and so many different things, there is no such thing as some objective point to contemplate and know the call of Christ’s love and it’s truth, and as long as death is here we have the darkness of self-deception to hid in from the light in so many different ways, often even while thinking we are following Him, only at His appearing will there be perfect clarity), what some acts and habits they did that we so small and meaningless to us, yet were vast for the personhood that will be completed there.
God is pure love, and loves all rational creatures alike, and though much is a mystery of the fine details, as it hasn’t occurred yet and what we have are signposts not detailed diagrams, the event and encounter with Christ that will be fully seen then that is already now, will work to heal and restore all humanity and all creation, in full freedom without any coercion or compulsions, that I believe we can be confident on.
In all seriousness, atheists and theists alike have said those words to me for my beliefs. My response is that if there are countless eloquent and intelligent arguments for everything, then do we even know truth? If some genius mind can compose an argument against gravity (which they probably can’t, I don’t know) would we still believe in it? I’m not saying that I know better than them, I’m just saying that they can’t all be right.
you can find it online here, I really good piece I thought, as part of the collected papers in the book Compassionate Eschatology: the Future as Friend edited by Ted Grumsrud :