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The
Popular Heresy of Universal Salvation and Why We Should Not Hope For It
.
Universal
Salvation teaches all men will be saved through Jesus, unrepentant sinner and
repentant believer, atheist, Satanist, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian alike. We
must guard our hearts against false philosophies which sound attractive on the
surface but place man's wisdom above God's wisdom. Universal Salvation teaches
that through Christ all men will be saved whether they repent and turn to Him
or not. The current popularity of Universal Salvation has been fueled by The
Shack’s message that God forgives all men and saves all men regardless of their
beliefs.
Gail
Burton Purath
Universal Salvation (1) – the belief that
Christ will save all men regardless of their beliefs - is a hot topic lately.
This is largely due to the popularity of The
Shack.(2)
As Christians, it should be our heart's
desire to share Christ so men and women will come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
But hoping God will save unrepentant men who
reject Christ means hoping God is lying about salvation in His Word. We should
never hope for that (Titus
1:1-3).
If we can't trust what God says about hell,
how can we trust what He says about heaven or anything else? (3)
When confronted with
clear Biblical principles, I sometimes hear Christians say, "Well that
depends on how you interpret Scripture."
Christians interpret a number of
non-essential doctrines differently.
But we agree on the essential doctrines of
faith in Christ which are clearly presented in Scripture, and hell is one of
those doctrines.
1. God is not vague
about the existence of hell and the punishment of the unrepentant.
When we suggest that a good God would not
send men to hell, we are really saying that we know more about goodness than
God does.
Matthew 25:46: "Then
they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal
life."
2 Thessalonians 1:9: “They
will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of his might”
Jude 1:7: “In a
similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to
sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer
the punishment of eternal fire.”
There are many passages about hell in
Scripture. Here's a few more: Matthew 5:29; Matthew 7:13; Matthew 10:28;
Matthew 23:33; Luke 12:5; Luke 16:19-31.
2. Not only does the
Bible teach there is a place of eternal punishment called hell, it teaches that
only those who commit their lives to Christ will be saved from that second
death.
Romans 10:9: “If
you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Matthew 10:32: "Whoever
acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in
heaven."
1 John 5:12: “Whoever
has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
3. We need to be like
the Bereans - those in Acts who checked everything against Scripture:
Acts 17:11: “Now
the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for
they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures
every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
Universal Salvation teaches all men will be
saved through Jesus, unrepentant sinner and repentant believer, atheist,
Satanist, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian alike.
While ignoring or
"reinterpreting" clear descriptions about eternal punishment in
Scripture, they make their case with passages like 1 Timothy 4:10: “…the
living God, who is the Savior of all people.”
Context is so
important. The complete passage reads “the living God, who is the Savior of
all people and especially of those who believe.”
If 1 Timothy 4:10 were the only passage about
salvation in Scripture, I think there would be a case for Universal Salvation.
We would still need
to explain what "especially of those who believe" means, but
it could be done.
But adding 1 Timothy 4:10 to the scores of
other passages about salvation gives us the true meaning.
Like 1 Timothy 4:10, John 3:16 says God so loved the world (all the world) but it makes the "especially those who believe" part clearer by saying that "whosoever believes" has eternal life.
The need to know all that Scripture teaches
about a subject is made especially clear in this example using Scriptures about
prayer: Pieces Parts
Dear Christians, we must guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23) against false philosophies which sound attractive on the surface but place man's wisdom above God's wisdom (Colossians 2:8).
Footnotes:
(1) Universal
Salvation is different from Universalism. Universalism teaches that many paths
lead to God. Universal Salvation teaches that through Christ all men will be
saved whether they repent and turn to Him or not.
(2) The current
popularity of Universal Salvation has been fueled by The Shack’s message that
God forgives all men and saves all men regardless of their beliefs. Please see:
5 Errors About God in
"The Shack"
5 Errors About
Salvation in "The Shack"
(3) Former mega pastor Rob Bell suggested in his 2011 book Love Wins that it was "fitting and proper" for Christians to long for Universal Salvation. It should be no surprise that Bell no longer sees the Bible as God's Word (Source).
Hi!
I'm Gail--a wife to my best friend since 1970, a mother since 1973 and a
grandmother 2003.
Born in Colorado but raised all over the U.S., I've been an Army wife (22
years) and a missionary to Budapest, Hungary (5 years). But the title I'm
most proud to have is "follower-of-Jesus" (40+ years).
I started Bite Size Bible Study as a supplement to Bible Love Notes, my site
that features 1-Minute devotions every weekday.
Bite Size studies are designed for busy people who don't want to "bite off
more than they can chew" but still want to do a quick Bible study each
week.
The full text of all Scripture verses are included and there are usually no
more than 3 questions. The studies are designed to do quickly in perhaps 5
minutes or less. But they also lend themselves to further study and journaling
if you have the time.
I have a Masters Degree from Columbia Biblical Seminary, but most of what I've
learned about the Bible has been "on the job training" during my 60+
years of life. I've always loved studying the Bible, and I started writing
Bible studies for my personal use over 25 years ago.
I need to be challenged, encouraged, corrected and comforted by God's Word, so
I study it and write what God is teaching me.
I hope you'll enjoy these Bible studies. Subscribe and have them sent to your
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