Let me offer some strafing thoughts on Christian Universalism; always a risky endeavor. As I look out at the unbelieving world it is very hard for me to think that most people I see on TV, Movies, on the Freeways and Bi-ways, etc. so on and so forth are going to end up eternally separated from God. I can see the character of that sort of life all around me all the time. But it really does become a dilemma for me when I contemplate the character of God. God’s Love as Triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit came in Christ for the salvation of the world. He accomplished that as he incarnated and began the atoning process therein; only climaxing that in the cross, burial, resurrection, and ascension. But herein is the hope of humanity; herein is the hope of eternal life for all of humanity; God with us! I want everyone to come to Christ, and experience the power of the living of God; I want everyone to taste and see that God is very Good. But there is so much noise out in the world, trumped up by the minions of satan; that great deceiver and serpent of old. It is nothing but noise and static though; even so, it is a powerful delusion that sucks humanity into its loins and does not want them to see the light of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ. But this breaks my heart! We are all sick, in need of the Great Physician.

As I contemplate the beauty and majesty of the Triune God it is hard for me to imagine a world where all of His creation is not redeemed. It is hard to imagine the souls of the masses eternally burning in the hell fire imaged for us in Holy Scripture. Yes, we can imagine such things when we superimpose a particular version of God that has been promulgated as a classical theism. A version of God where His justice operates in division from who He first is as Son of the Father. A version of God who is Judge and Brute Creator rather than Father of the Son in eternal bond by the Holy Spirit. When I think of God in Christ as the Good Shepherd, or the Bridegroom, it becomes exceedingly difficult to imagine a world where God abandons any human being as an orphan.

Just being honest here. I am not necessarily presenting a view point on this, but instead just reflecting as my heart has been touched once again. It is hard to look out at people, and see how deceived they are, and then conclude that they will be eternally separated from the God who I know as Father. It is hard to imagine this particularly in view of my own sins, and daily unbelief (evinced in momentary actions and thoughts of sin and unholiness). If I have the capacity to look out at people in this world, and have a broken heart for them; I know this capacity does not come from me, but from the living God who loved this world to the point of shedding His own precious blood in the humanity of Christ for the whole-wide world.

People need Christ. The world is on fire, and people don’t even feel its heat; at least not in the right way. The world is broken, and people don’t know how to escape it on their own. The more thoughtful ones attempt to come up with ways and philosophies of overcoming the brokenness they know they live in and see all around them. But all that those attempts do is drive people further and deeper into themselves away from the liberating love of God in Christ. I’m just sad right now. People are broken, and don’t understand the real power of God. They look around at “Christianity” in America, and mostly see piss-poor examples of what the love of Christ is actually all about. This saddens and angers me. I’m just as much at fault as anyone else. But I repent.

I leave us with a quote from TF Torrance that fits well with the spirit of this post:

God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. -T. F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, 94.