(From 7-25-11 with amendments)
Christianity has a horridly deadly great problem. It is not some intramural snit concerning worship practices. It is not Calvinist vs. Armenians. It is not about spiritual gifts or women in ministry. The problem is that the church has a cancer in it called Universalism, or the belief that salvation will happen for all people, no sins need forgiven, no judgement, no Hell. Sometimes this is just implied by good meaning Christians that just do not like to think about people in hell and are scared to share that we need "to flee the wrath to come" as told by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7. Often Universalism comes from somewhat honest liberal "Christians" who then wonder why a gospel that does not save (or apparently does not even need to save)is so poorly responded to. The wrath of God is the bad news that unrepentant sinners receive. The Good News is that through the love of Christ, sinners will flee from the wrath of God, be forgiven, be saved from God's wrath by God through Jesus Christ crucified, have peace with God and become citizens of Heaven. Universalist of all kinds refute and trash the Christian's "Great Commission" of Matthew 28:16-20. Therefore, the cross of Jesus Christ is even called by some Universalist as "divine child abuse" as it served no purpose. So their so called good news is that this is really as good as it gets.
People are then left in their filth and destruction by these religious people.
When we look at the church, "The Body of Christ", "The Kingdom", "The House of God", "The Family of God", we must love her because God declared her, and us, to be worthy
for Jesus Christ to die and shed His blood for us. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man took the wrath of God intended for us sinners on the cross. We who were drawn to Him by Him, receive the righteousness of Christ by the merits of Christ perfect life and position. This great salvation is why we worship. Salvation is why we do good works in missions and ministry. Salvation is why we participate in evangelism. Salvation is why we have the church. We have a message - salvation through the gospel, A book-the Bible (66 books about man's salvation through Christ), a body -the church, a voice to the world- evangelism.
We must believe in Christ alone for salvation, forgiveness of sins and peace with God
How have we as "The Body" let our message be distorted and let sickness in our church? Why have we compromised and turned it into outright rebellion against the Word of God?
Compromise of our message leads to-
Universalism (The belief God will save everyone eventually). Why because the so called Christian who practices a Universalist view of salvation hates or does not believe the biblical gospel. So, is that baptized person a Christian by association with a religious institution?
This cancer or universalism is put forth both actively and passively by people representing the very church Christ died for to redeem.
Jesus was not a Universalised, but claimed Himself as the only way to the Father!
John 14:6-7
English Standard Version (ESV)
"6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus Christ believed in conversion in Himself alone, and that the wrath (Hell) of God would be poured onto unregenerate sinners in judgement
John 3:36
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
The Apostle Paul was not a Universalist.
He pointed all to Christ alone for salvation.
Acts 4:11-13
English Standard Version (ESV)
"11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Saint Augustine was not a Universalist.
Saint Augustine [354-430 A.D.] believed in Christ alone for salvation and the doom of the unregenerate. He trusted the Scriptures for his view of salvation and judgement and the doom of unregenerate sinners.
From St. Augustine's The City Of God Book XXI, Of The End Reserved For The City Of The Devil, Namely, The Eternal Punishment Of The Damned; And Of The Arguments Which Unbelief Brings Against It.
Chapter Nine: Of Hell, And The Nature Of Eternal Punishments.
"So then what God by His prophet has said of the everlasting punishment of the damned shall come to pass—shall without fail come to pass,—"their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." Isaiah 66:24 In order to impress this upon us most forcibly, the Lord Jesus Himself, when ordering us to cut off our members, meaning thereby those persons whom a man loves as the most useful members of his body, says, "It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched." Similarly of the foot: "It is better for you to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched." So, too, of the eye: "It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:43-48 He did not shrink from using the same words three times over in one passage. And who is not terrified by this repetition, and by the threat of that punishment uttered so vehemently by the lips of the Lord Himself?"
C.H. Spurgeon was not a Universalist.
The great London Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon [1834-1892 A.D] believed in
Christ Alone for salvation, and the doom of unregenerate sinners.
"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob these deep thinkers cannot endure, but if you say that God is angry with the wicked every day, these modern god-makers tell you that he is too loving for that,—that he cannot possibly be angry, but loves all, has redeemed all, and will in the long run save all, including Satan himself." C.H. Spurgeon
And
"There has been spreading, in this country, and in other lands also, the idea of universal salvation; and, mark you, wherever that doctrine spreads, vice must and will spread as the natural and inevitable consequence. When men are taught to believe in ultimate universal salvation, their immediate and legitimate inference is, “Then we may live as we like, and all will come right in the end;” and they will live as they like, but all will not come right in the end!" C.H. Spurgeon
Universalism is opposed through out Scripture. The early church fought it in Augustine's time. C.H. Spurgeon fought it in the 1800's in Europe. We are fighting the cancer today sent forth from who? People claiming to be in the church.
All sorts of people say God is love, which is true. God is love.
(John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:8). God is also Truth.
(Psalm 31:5; John 14:6; John 17:3; Titus 1:1-2) God is of course Holy, separated from sin and imperfection. (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15) God also describes Himself this way in Deuteronomy 4:24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."
God can not abide sin. Sin kills us, yet Universalists in a very perverse and often intellectual way want to tether humanity to death. God dealt with sin. God can not abide the unholy. This is why God decreed Substitutions Atonement with His Son's death on the cross to deal with the Christian's sin. Christ took our sin and and appeased the wrath of a holy God in agony on the cross receiving our punishment. God sees us as righteous as we receive the riches of Christ.
My first week in seminary I confided to a new acquaintance that I was disturbed by
the pretty well yet still understated view of Universalism in several professor's
teaching. My acquaintance became offended, "Who are you to say who is in Heaven or Hell?"
I hope I made it clear that there is a Holy God who decrees exactly that, and that there is sin, a Savior, a judgement and an eternal destiny set aside for believers and unbelievers. Twice I heard from two professors the same zinger that "I believe there is a hell but it is empty." So now the church is just an ecclesiastical service club. The Body of Christ is regulated to just being a good deeds club, a holy Jaycees, Rotary or Kiwanis club. If a few of my Master of Divinity teachers were right then we were all wrong for going into gospel ministry.
The Apostle Paul nailed it in answering our faith in Christ matters for salvation and hope in Heaven matters.
1 Corinthians 15:18-20 (ESV)
"18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep."
Still passively some in church ask what about those who have never heard.
God is described as "Faithful and True" and justice will be in the King of Glory's judgement. So how can these people be saved? Romans describes how even nature shouts out about Him in creation
Romans 1:20
English Standard Version (ESV)
"20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."
The Universalist "Christian" changes their theology of Salvation rather than evangelize the lost.
Hindus, Muslims and Jews all say kind things about Jesus the man being a great moral
teacher. The must know that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man has declared himself God and the only way to salvation. Yet the Universalist block this ultimate love and confuse it for hate and Christian elitism.
But yet we know there are those who claim membership in the body who refute the truthful voice of God in Scripture. Is this their call to evangelize? No. They change their theology. They then say things like "A loving God would never send anyone to Hell....". They abuse theology and trample what the Word says is the very nature of God. They passively or at times boldly minimize His stated Holiness. The Universalism's good news is not one of the evangelist. The Universalist becomes a dealer in death.
Share the Biblical gospel.
Jesus Christ died for sinners for eternal life and peace with God. If you love people do not leave people in their filth and ultimately death.
Share the historical gospel.
1 Timothy 1:15(ESV)
"15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost."
In Christ Alone!
Fletcher Law
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