We have the Holy Spirit of Truth in us and with us as our guide. We have Jesus, the way, truth and life, in us and with us to disciple us. We have our loving Father in us and with us to Father us into sonship. Agape love should be what we use to measure and test everything against. The 4 streams of thought that are converging into one mighty river are: Mystic sonship, Realized eschatology, Universal reconciliation, Energy frequency healing.
Realized eschatology inevitably leads to universal reconciliation because all Jesus prophesied about Gehenna was fulfilled in AD70, not a distant future. Realized eschatology leads to universal restoration.
Apokatastasis is the early church Greek term for the restoration of all things.
Christian Universalism (CU) is the belief in the restoration of all things. The essence, nature and characteristic of God (who is Father, Son and Spirit) as love is the backdrop to all our discussion about creation’s beginning and end. Creation’s beginning and consummation is totally connected to Jesus being the Alpha and Omega.
Col 1:16 … all things have been created through Him (Jesus) and for Him… 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.
Eph 1:10 the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him.
1 Cor 15:28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Col 3:11 but Christ is all, and in all.
Creation from beginning to consummation is Jesus or Christ-centered, or Christocentric. So, restoration must be Christocentric. Jesus is at the center of God’s purposes, and we are in Him as God’s sons.
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
What is Christian Universalism?
Even though I do not want to be labelled, it is useful to know what it is and what it is not. There is a stigma attached to the word ‘universalism’ that causes great offence to evangelical streams of thought.
Christian universalism is the belief that in the end all people will participate in the salvation achieved for them by Jesus.
What Christian Universalism (CU) is not: · The belief that all roads lead to God (all religions or none), only Jesus leads us to the Father · The belief that there is no punishment after death. The belief that the Bible is wrong. I use the Bible a lot – but conformationally biased views may be wrong. The belief that sin is not a big deal. Sin as lost identity leading to damaging behaviors is obviously important. The belief that it does not matter how we live. There are clear consequences of how we live. We reap what we sow. The belief that God is loving but not just. There is no contradiction in love, holiness and justice. The belief that we do not need to evangelize. God saves through the good news, the gospel, on either side of death. How do people come to CU position? Through scripture, tradition, experience and reflection of how this relates to who God is. My encounters led me to see that CU best reflects the nature and characteristic of God as Father; and the Bible truth, when interpreted through the lens of love. The Bible plays a key role in most people’s journey towards a CU or a universal restoration perspective. Traditional Christian views align with CU when not biasedly interpreted. We are made in God’s image, God loves everyone, Jesus died for everyone. It keeps inevitably leading people to this truth. Personal experience and testimony of encountering God as love through face-to-face engagements. I have testimony after testimony of heavenly experiences of the heart of God and actually going into the fire, as do others. There are good testimonies of people’s journeys: many were mystics: Jane Ward Lead, Julian of Norwich. CU is a simple concept that is consistent with many different views. Atonement views that encompass PSA, or hates it Free will and sovereignty: both views are held by CU adherents Sacraments, Catholics, Orthodox, Quakers Inclusivism or Exclusivism: saved but do not know it explicitly, or only by faith Great diversity amongst CU adherents. Many current controversy and issues of debate and disagreement. Debate over specific texts about ‘hell’ or ECT, annihilism, sheep and goats, Scriptural paradoxes, Calvinism and Arminianism. Study of the early church fathers opens the debate to CU. Origins of apokatastasis, restoration of all things, where did it come from? Some say it is a gnostic infection, but I believe there are clear Christian roots, Biblical roots and traditional roots.
There are accounts of the early church praying for people to be freed from the Lake of Fire. There are questions that are raised. The nature of divine justice as retributive or restorative If there is free will, how could God ensure all will be restored? Can we thwart God’s purposes? Divine love and its implication regarding the atonement: PSA, CV, limited or full, Jesus’ death cannot be in vain… Election, predestination: only some elected, or some elected to salvation and some to damnation. No election of individuals but of Christ; but all are sharing in that election by their inclusion in Christ. In CU discussions there are many different points of view and positions.
What questions do we need to ask that frame the discussion?
1. Is it God’s redemptive purpose for the world (and therefore His will) to reconcile all sinners to Himself?
2. Is it within God’s power to achieve His redemptive purpose for the world?
3. Will some sinners never be reconciled to God, and will God condemn them to ‘hell’ for ever?
You can find some support from the Bible for each statement, but they cannot all be true. Calvinists say 1 is wrong but 2 and 3 are correct. Arminians say 1 is correct and 3 is correct but 2 is rejected. CU accepts 1 and 2 but rejects 3. Everyone can find agreement or problems in their interpretation of the Bible. There seem to be contradictions or paradoxes: that is why we need direct revelation. There are 2 threads that run throughout the Bible that seem paradoxical: Judgment, condemnation. Punishment for some/many/most. Salvation for all How do they relate together? Respect that there are different views, with genuine reasons for those beliefs, and honor people in our differences.
Thread 1 – Eschatological punishment.
Matt 25:46 eternal punishment, Mark 9:47, 2 Thes 1:9 Rev 21:8
Thread 2 – Universal restoration.
Col 1:1-20 reconcile all things of creation.
Rom 5:18-19 justification for all those in Adam.
Phil 2:10-11 every knee will bow heaven, earth and under the earth. Does the Bible teach incompatible views of the future? What do we do with that? Accept it and don’t be bothered? Opt for one thread and reject the other? Try to harmonize the views to make the two fit? Engage God directly about it? In the end, God…
Eschatology is a function of our view of God; it is what must be true if God is the God that I believe in: whether angry or loving. If God is revealed in Jesus, what is the end like from His express image?
From our perspective, there is a choice between life and death; and if you choose death, that will be the result.
Seeing it from God’s perspective, in the end everyone will choose life. The Bible is revealing the 2 realities from 2 different perspectives. Read the universal salvation in the light of ‘hell’ and interpret biasedly to fit your view: “We know what the ‘hell’ passages mean, therefore the ‘universalist’ passages cannot mean what they seem to.” Universalist texts are then reinterpreted to harmonize them with ECT in ‘hell.’
An example: when ‘all’ is used, well ‘all’ must mean all kinds of people rather than all people, because we know some people are in ‘hell.’ Texts that state God wants all saved: ‘but it will not happen, because of free will’. There are those that only look at proof texts for what they believe and ignore everything else.
Views on Hell: Isa 66:22-24, Dan 12:2-3, Matt 18:6-9, 25:31-46, Mark 9:42:48, 2 Thes 1:6-10, Jude 7:13, Rev 3:14:9-11, Rev 20:10, 14-15.
I do not believe they prove ECT at all – and what about the rest of the Bible? Read ‘hell’ in light of universal texts and interpret these in that light and from Biblical themes. Hold biblical teachings together than keep them in balance. Eph 1:9-10, Col 1:19-20, Rev 5:13, Rom 5:18-20. 2 Cor 5:19.
The promises have truth principles that underpin the texts, they are not to be taken in isolation. There are those who say the ‘hell’ passages do not teach everlasting ‘hell’ as the words do not mean everlasting. The literal texts or language do not mean forever. Therefore ‘hell’ is real but only temporary – could be a long time but not compared to eternity.
There are seemingly contradictory statements where you find the language of wrath that threatens punishment but then promises of restoration afterwards.
Jeremiah applies punishment to the Gentiles and Israel as incurable but then cured it. These create tension when we read these paradoxical statements. Ezekiel 16- God destroys Sodom but God then restores Sodom. What is the context of the threat? Can we assume there is not anything else after? There is no real threat if restoration is promised. Jonah pronounced judgment to Nineveh but then God restored them (much to Jonah’s annoyance). The absence of restoration in a judgment text cannot be used to argue from silence. Is a text limited to what the author intended, or can it unfold and expand? Or can revelation be progressive from Old to New Covenant.
Isa 45 and Phil 2 is an example. An invite to the survivors of the nations to be saved – and then it gives an oath to save them all.
Phil 2- Paul applies this to Jesus, that every knee will bow and expands the prophecy to all heaven, earth, under the earth.
Paul expanded the prophecy in Jesus to all, including the dead and everyone.
Revelation of Isa 45 provides the starting point for the expansion to include all, beyond what Isaiah meant, to all that is fulfilled in Jesus.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not explicitly revealed but various biblical thoughts converge in these teachings, come together and meet in the truth of God being Father, Son and Spirit.
Universal salvation brings various truth streams together as a whole. It becomes the natural implication of where the various teachings are heading. Paul (and others) may have not directly answered the questions that we are asking but that is where his teachings lead.
This is the convergence of various thoughts. You cannot limit the issue to only certain texts. Love and justice, sin and the victory of the cross, free will and sovereignty.
Are we open to fresh and progressive revelation? Or is everything a done deal, where we know all we need to know. We need to see that each part is part of a larger metanarrative. Does ECT really fit within the overall story narrative of creation? We must see the individual stories in light of the overall truth, which is not just derived from just one author. We need revelation in light of what is written and said for our day, so we can serve the purpose of God in our generation through who we are and what we say.
What is the metanarrative of the story of salvation that gives a context for ‘hell’ and CU in relation to the beginning of creation and the end of creation?
What is the best end to the story which is in keeping with the overall narrative? Hell or CU, which is most harmonious and which is most discordant? Looking at creation and eschatology in its wider perspective, not just the biblical end Creation is created for something that is related to Jesus: from Him and for Him.
Rom 11:36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen
Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.
God is the destiny of creation; there is no suggestion that creation was made to be separated from God.
Gen 1:26-28 Our coheirship is that we are sons and heirs of creation. Our identity and destiny and responsibility are linked to creation itself (Rom 8:19-21) and its freedom is linked to our freedom.
Gen 1:28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule…”
Rom 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Our destiny is oneness, union with God; that is the goal of creation, beginning and end. Jesus pronounced us gods with a little g.
There is nothing that points to us to the idea that man was created for judgment and ‘hell.’ Human destiny is seen in Jesus as the perfect model of sonship. Jesus is the last Adam.
The first Adam was not the finished article but had ascension to go through. The first Adam was a living soul and sin side-tracked him from being glorified in sonship.
Jesus as the second or last Adam is a life-giving spirit to bring us to resurrection, ascension, glory. Eternal ‘hell’ implies neither: A problem with creation as some must have been created for ‘hell’! The eternal thwarting of God’s purpose in creating Man! God is not powerful enough to fulfil His purposes!
Christian Universalism says God fulfils His purpose in the end and unifies creation’s purpose.
Sin and the fall.
Sin side-tracks people from the course set towards God, the source of life; and turns them towards death, away from God.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is age-enduring life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin affects all people.
Rom 3:23 all have sinned.
Sin is the roadblock between the creation purpose and its fulfilment. Sin is actually the specific definitive of the sin of Adam that has affected us all.
Sin is actually our lost identity as God’s children. We have lost our way and our memory, so we don’t know who we are, what our purpose is.
Is sin bigger than and more powerful than our Father, who created us in His image for relationship with Him? Sin and eternal ‘hell’ are linked, the doctrine of ‘hell’ is built on the premise that human sin is more powerful than God’s solution, Jesus and the cross. Sin wins! No! Love wins, because love has always won.
Therefore, is it human sin that determines the destiny of creation or is it God’s eternal creative purpose? Which is more powerful, sin or God’s desire and purpose? Is the story of the Bible one of overall ultimate victory (Jesus wins) or defeat (sin wins)? Jesus has won, is winning and will win! Will God allow sin to derail God’s purpose for creation forever? What is God’s solution to the sin problem? Is that good enough to deal with the consequences, wages or results of sin? Is what Jesus did through the cross (death, burial, resurrection and ascension) more powerful than, and victorious over, sin? Yes, and amen!
2 Cor 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Col 2:13 … He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The whole metanarrative is the story of Jesus and creation. In creation, God created all things through Christ- Col 1:16.
In redemption, God reconciles all things through Christ Col 1:20.
In eschatology, God will unite all things in Christ Eph 1:10 Col 1:16 … all things have been created through Him (Jesus) and for Him.
Col 1:20 … and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.
Eph 1:10 the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him… The incarnation – Immanuel, God is with us – is the key to understanding who God is. Jesus represents and reveals the invisible God. What kind of God do we see in Jesus? What purposes of God are revealed in Jesus? Jesus demonstrates God as love in healing, forgiving, raising and delivering people. Being the Son of Man, Jesus represents all humanity before God. As our representative, Jesus takes humanity through death, the problem created by sin, and then resurrects mankind to new life. Did Jesus represent all humans or only some people? – All the sins of the whole world at the crucifixion, what Jesus did through His death, was it for all people or some people? – ALL. Jesus represented our broken humanity and lost identity so we can be healed and restored. Jesus died for our sin, bearing the consequence of sin, taking our death into the grave; and went beyond, through the victory of the resurrection over death Jesus was raised from the dead, taking back the keys of death and Sheol or Hades, defeating the wages of sin by overcoming death for all of humanity.
Did Jesus die for all or only some people? The Calvinistic view of limited atonement: it was for only some, elected people. Was Christ’s death for nothing? The Arminian view says yes, because our free will to choose can thwart God’s purposes.
Resurrection and ascension to rule.
In resurrection, is the salvation of all from death achieved or just made possible?
Salvation is achieved in the body of Christ; as, in the middle of history, the end of the story or the eternal purpose. In the kingdom of God, the age to come, the new heavens and new earth, the future is here now. The end is revealed in the resurrection and is the promise of what is now for all who are now alive in Christ, born from above. To be confident that God will save all people is because all are made alive in Christ in the resurrection- 1 Cor 15:21-22. What determines the end of the story? Sin, leading to ‘hell’? Jesus, leading to salvation for all? Universal restoration for all things? Salvation is something we have to participate in for it to be realized in our lives. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The Spirit is seeking to unite us in and join us to what Jesus has done: therefore, we have been saved in Christ (He died, we died; he resurrected, we were made alive). This is a done deal. Present. The Spirit is working to transform us to become more like Jesus; therefore, we are being saved in Christ. Salvation being worked out in our maturing in sonship. The Spirit will raise us from the dead if we die physically so we will be saved from death’s sting. We need to participate; so, we are either living in, or living outside of, what Jesus did, but we are all already included in it. To be outside is to remain living in Adam; still affected by sin and death; still living in lost identity and a ‘less than’ kind of life. Is that person currently saved in Christ? The answer is yes and no depending on how you phrase the question. Yes, they are fully included in what Jesus did on the cross as part of humanity No, they are not living in that experience. Will that person one day actively experience that reality of salvation in Christ? Christina Universalism would say ‘Yes’, because that is the harmonious end to the story and is fully in line with the metanarrative of creation from the beginning to the end. What about ‘hell’? The story indicates that there are two roads to follow that have two separate destinations Life and death, heaven or hell. ‘’ The message is clear throughout the story: choose life and avoid death. Is the second death an ultimate or second to last fate? The end of the story for Christian Universalism is that there would be hope beyond death and ‘hell.’ ‘Hell’” is only the second to last fate that is consistent with the story narrative. Many in the early church did not think that eternal destiny was fixed at death. Heb 9:27 Judgment is not punishment, and death is not inevitable, but this does not say that death is the end of choice. The opportunity of choice after death is not denied in the Bible. There is hope beyond ‘hell’ according to many in the early church and that is certainly my experience. Is ‘hell’ everlasting? – NO! It is not clear from the passages, and many are vague about condemnation, death etc., but they do not mention ‘everlasting’. The interpretation of aionios as everlasting is not an accurate reflection of its Greek meaning. The Sheep and goats’ argument in Latin is everlasting life vs everlasting punishment. How long it lasts is not explicit in the words themselves. There is nothing that says that punishment is everlasting. Lake of fire as torment for ever and ever is in the context of those thrown into the fire but still ending up in the New Jerusalem. Nations and kings of the earth are not the church, yet in Rev 21 these nations and kings enter the New Jerusalem and enter through the blood of the Lamb. The image of ‘hell’ as eternal conscious torment is not present within the narrative.
What does Christian Universalism believe? All those created by God will be brought to the destiny that God created them for. All those that God desires to save and that Jesus came to save will be saved: all things that He created Jesus, not sin, will determine the future of creation. Everlasting ‘hell’ is not evangelical in that it thwarts God’s purpose in creation and salvation and is incompatible with the God of the gospel story The God who is wholly love (not just love or holy, but is in essence love) will have His way eventually, through kindness, tolerance and patience. “It will be all right in the end; and if it is not all right, it is not the end.” In the end, God will be all in all; and if He is not, then it is not yet the end of the story. Christian Universalism gives us hope of God’s ultimate triumph over evil. Christian Universalism gives us joy that Jesus brings all sons to glory. Christian Universalism gives us the hope of glory in the face of suffering and tribulations; that there will be ultimate victory in time as well as eternity. If God has given us free will to choose, then why would he take away our free will to choose Him after we die? It is difficult to comfort those facing death or who are mourning someone who has died without the hope of heaven. Christian Universalism gives hope because God is love and love wins.
Rest is the key to restoration and revelation. Start to focus on your breathing, slowing it down. And start thinking of the name of God, YHVH. Breathe in deeply and exhale slowly: Yod- Breathe in: Hei- breathe out. Vav breathe in. Hei-breathe out. Repeat. Be still and know that I am God, I am love, I am joy, I am peace. Invite love, joy and peace to flow in you and through you to create an atmosphere of rest around you. You are in a safe place. Start to think of an open heaven and set your desire upon it. Steps like Jacob’s ladder leading up to heaven. Hear the invitation to come up here. Shift focus of our mind. Walk up those steps to the door. Now step through the veil into the kingdom realm. Jesus is standing in the doorway. Present yourself to Jesus, your High Priest, as a living sacrifice. Let Him take you by the hand. Ask Him to take you to the altar, to the fire stones, to the fiery place of His consuming, loving presence. Jesus, please take each person and show them what they need to receive the revelation about restoration. Reveal the nature of your love, the nature of the fire. Go wherever He takes you.