Prominent (and hilarious) Christian blogger, Matther Paul Turner, the man behind the mask of Jesus Needs New PR started a brief conversation on his Facebook today, asking whether an evangelical can be a universalist and linking to an article.
The article is worth the read, but I think the conversation that ensued was more interesting.
Matthew brought up a good point about how most evangelicals actually are universalists in a limited sense; most of us believe that children too young to be held accountable are given special grace by God and will end up in heaven. It’s a good point, and one that I think is worth considering, but I think the conversation came to a head when Matthew, in response to another commenter, said that the idea that God would send people to hell is
“…the opposite of mercy…There’s nothing fair about creating a being, a being that you love, and sending that being to eternal torment. That’s not love on any level. It’s effed up.”
I think this is a common theme among young(er) Christians, particularly those who tend to identify with the Emergent church. Of course, Rob Bell’s Love Wins is a popular example of this. For many, the idea of a so-called loving God sending his so-called beloved creation to eternal torment seems barbaric and…wrong. That God seems a monster.
I see their point.
But it’s only one way to look at the situation. The other way – and the one I would argue is the more biblical and right way (I won’t go into all the verses that support this, simply because I think most people have their mind made up on the matter) – is that God extended mercy to those who deserved anything but. While we were still his enemies he paid the price for our sins against him, asking only that we believe it to be true and accept the free gift of salvation.
Is God evil for sending anyone to hell or is he good for saving anyone from it?
Each of us must decide which is the God Scripture describes. We don’t have the option to fashion the God of our liking, based on what we find to be loving, or fair, or merciful. Even more, if God is actually God (and you and me actually not), and if we find our senses offended at his actions, we start by assuming it is we who are wrong. I don’t say this in an attempt to force others into blind faith – not at all. I’m appealing to simple logic: if there is a being out there who is infinitely higher than us, whose perspective is eternal, and he does something that seems wrong to us, we can either reject him or we can submit to the fact that he is indeed higher than us and trust him despite our not being able to understand.
Some would call that faith.
So the question is: which is the God of Scripture? Is it the God who wouldn’t do anything to offend the senses of his creation? Or is it the one who invites us to trust he is good, even when his actions might seem offensive to our feeble minds?
“Can An Evangelical be a Universalist?” is a good question.
“Can God Not Be a Universalist and Still Be Good?” is a better one.
How would you answer?
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Bible, Christianity, Eschatology, God, Heaven, hell, Jesus, Matthew Paul Turner, Theology
God doesn’t send us…we have free choice and WE CHOOSE where we will spend eternity…plain and simple!!
I like your thinking, Jesse. It seems a fairly common misconception today to see God as the one who sends people to hell rather than the one who lovingly and sacrificially rescues us from the inevitable destruction of turning our back on Him.
Psychologically, this would be called an attribution error of self-serving bias. People tend to attribute positive, fundamentally good, and even “God-fearing” internal attributes to those being “sent to hell” and unfair, injudicious, and impossible standards to a “wrathful” God. Could it be that even this distortion is part of our sin nature; that we really can’t (or won’t) see ourselves or God clearly. Since the human heart is deceitful and sick (Jer 17:9), maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that many would attribute human characteristics to God and Godly characteristics to humans.
I think you’re exactly right, Steve. Our sin nature distorts the reality of the matter, causing us to see the hell-bound as basically good, and the just judge exceedingly wicked. Great insight!