Who will be saved?

Next topic up in Religion - will everyone be saved?

It goes without saying that I believe some people will be saved from eternal damnation by placing their faith in Jesus Christ. This is taught in scripture, and is actually the basic belief of most of the Christian denominations, as well as Catholicism, Mormonism, and a number of other belief systems. The question is, will everybody be saved sooner or later?

Great question. Unlike many other bloggers, I will actually answer this one - instead of departing on a path of bunny-trails (ironic, given my nickname, I know), and then failing to address the question at all when all is said. Some authors give in to personal emotion on topics. To an extent, that would be a natural response. I prefer, however, to go to the Bible, and use logic to arrive at any and all conclusions.

The motivation for this post comes about through a conversation I had on the job with a man some time ago. He confirmed to me that he believed in God. He firmly believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save him from his sins. His faith in Jesus, based on that statement, seems to be solid, and in my opinion, would cause him to be headed toward Heaven upon physical death.

However, he said that he felt that an all-knowing, all-loving God wouldn't punish the rest. That He would extend salvation to them. Indeed, there are certain small segments that believe like this man believes. These types point out, correctly so, that God is Love. However, the counter-argument is that even though God loves us all, He still will punish sin. This mindset is scriptural.


The broad term for those that believe that all people will be saved is "Universalism." Unlike this author, I intend to make a decision on whether this doctrine is scriptural before this blog post is over.

I firmly believe that the fellow I talked to will be in Heaven one day. Similarly, I believe most Calvinists will probably be there too, even though they are obviously spouting false religion. The essence here is in the salvation itself. Salvation is so fundamental, basic, and such a Perfect Plan, that even mankind has a hard time messing it up. You can get almost everything else about scripture wrong, accept Christ by asking His forgiveness, and still find yourself in Heaven because the sacrifice was so Perfect.

But is Universalism a false teaching?
(Like Calvinism, Lutheranism, as well as Arminianism)

Let's talk about the main points:

1. God Wills for all to be saved. 
This stems from quotes of 1 Timothy 2:4 which states:

"[God] who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. "

Let's put this one to rest immediately, Salvation was designed that everyone could take part in it. Just because a person could does not mean they would or did. Nowhere in the New Testament is there scripture that says that a person will be saved without putting their faith in Christ.
In other words: God wants everyone to accept Him, but not everyone will choose to do so. 

Some quote 1 Corinthians 15:22:

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."

Yet again, this scripture, just like 1 Timothy 2:4, must be twisted to make it seem as if all will be saved. The key part is "in Christ" - but it does not talk about those not in Christ. To find that out, one must read the entire passage, in which Paul continually uses the word "we" which clearly is used to mean Christians - those who have accepted Christ.

2. Free Will
Since we have already established that God gave man free will - to choose God or to turn from Him - and that choice is man's alone, not irresistible, not predestined, and not made by anyone other than the person himself (or herself); we must ask the question:

If all will be saved regardless, then why give mankind free will - specifically, why indicate mankind has the ability to reject God?

Free will to reject God is nullified if God plans that everyone will go to Heaven anyways. This removes entirely the concept of free will as is taught numerous times in scripture. 

Look at it this way, in the same vein that Calvinists erroneously believe that those who will be saved were predestined by God, and had no real choice in the matter, so too, would Universalists believe that all will go to Heaven regardless of their wishes.

3. Why sin?
Why are there so many verses in the Bible warning of the wages of sin, the penalty? If God intended to save all, then why even allow sin in the first place? Why set it up as sin? Why do we even have an insatiable desire to understand right and wrong? Why would we even have laws?

These questions cannot be answered in Universalism.

4. Why the Sacrifice?
Since Universalism would remove the concept of sin by the default of there being no punishment - why would God send Christ Jesus to die for those sins? Why would he be the Sacrifice?

5. Why the mention of punishment?
Hell
Damnation
Punishment
Penalty

Since all of these are mentioned numerous times in the Bible, multiple times, and are unambiguous, we must conclude that God did set up the concept of right and wrong, and the consequences of both.

Summary
I mention Calvinism several times in this post, because it has many similarities to Universalism:

Calvinists believe that God predestined some to go to Heaven, and some to go to Hell.
Universalists believe that God predestined all to go to Heaven.

In neither line of thinking is free will of the individual (which is mentioned numerous times, directly, and even more often, by default) ever taken into account.

Both sects believe God is sitting up in Heaven, playing with His dolls, so to speak.

Both sects are small minorities, and certainly not mainstream thinking... though there is more of a trend toward Universalism these days.
Both sects contain many (probably a majority) of legitimately saved individuals.
Both sects are false teachings. To teach them, since they are false, is by definition, heresy. One who would teach either is, by definition, a false prophet.

Fortunately, God's plan of Salvation works for all sins, including those of a false prophet and heresy itself. He knew we would screw things up... even His basic, perfect plan of Salvation.

Therefore: In absence of scripture to the contrary, I conclude that Universalism is false. Christ died for all, but whether we (mankind) accept that gift is based on our own free will.

Anything else would be intellectually dishonest at best.  

In a side note: Every Universalist I've ever met has had a problem with pride. They choose Universalist teachings because those teachings serve that person's own means with such a belief: often hoping that a dead loved one will be in Heaven when sadly, that is not the case. Wanting to believe in a God that serves their own purposes, instead of them serving His purposes.

This is pride. It is no different than the pride I mention of Calvinists. The names have only changed to protect the [not-so] innocent.

Funny thing here is the Universalists will agree with me on the heresy of Calvinism. And the Calvinists will agree with me on the heresy of Universalism. Neither will see how similar they are to the other, though.



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