Christian Universalism

Christian Universalism is the belief that all human beings will eventually achieve salvation. Christian Universalists believe that God is a God of Love and God as a loving parent will not allow any of His children to suffer eternally in Hell. No decent human parent would cause or allow such suffering for any of his or her children if it is possible to prevent it. In Christian Universalist opinion God will even less allow eternal suffering. God is Omniscient. If God foreknows that a soul would never be reconciled to Him God does not create that soul.

My name is Eric Stetson, and I'm the founder and executive director of The Christian Universalist Association. I would like to share with you the Good News that ALL people are God's children and NO ONE will be left behind! There is NO burning hell of torture where billions of souls who "sinned too much" or "chose the wrong religion" will suffer forever. Contrary to what most Christians today believe, such a horrible idea was not taught by Jesus and is not found anywhere in the original Hebrew Old Testament or Greek New Testament. Christian Universalism: God's Good News For All People.

Biblical origins

Christian Universalists argue that Jesus taught Universalist principles including universal reconciliation and the divine origin and destiny of all people, and that these teachings were further developed by Saint Paul, Saint Peter, and Saint John the Apostle. They also argue that some Universalist principles were taught or foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

Christian Universalists often point to the following Biblical teachings as evidence of Universalism:

• Jesus' Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-14, Luke 15:1-7)
  
• Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31)
  
• Jesus' prophecy that he will "draw all men" to himself (John 12:32)
  
• Jesus' teaching that God is "Our Father in heaven" (Matthew 6:9)
  
• Jesus' teaching that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40)
• Jesus' statement that human beings are "gods" (John 10:34, quoting Psalm 82:6)
  
• Paul's teaching that human beings are God's "offspring" (Acts 17:28)
  
• Paul's teaching that there is "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:6)
• Paul's teaching that "from [God] and through him and to him are all things" (Romans 11:36)
  
• Paul's teaching that Jesus is the "firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29)
  
• Paul's prophecy that "as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22)
  
• Paul's teaching that "just as the result of one trespass [by Adam] was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness [by Christ] was justification that brings life for all men. ... through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:18-19)
  
• Paul's teaching that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19)
  
• Paul's prophecy that "every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11)
  
• Peter's teaching that Jesus "died for sins once for all" and "went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago" (1 Peter 3:18-20), so that they may "live according to God in regard to the spirit" (1 Peter 4:6)
  
• John's teaching that "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16)
  
• John's teaching that "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5)
  
• John's teaching that "[Jesus Christ] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2)
• Old Testament teaching that men and women are created "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27)
• Old Testament teaching that "[God's] anger lasts only a moment" (Psalm 30:5)
  
• Old Testament teaching that "[God] is good; his love endures forever" (Psalm 106:1, 107:1)

Non-Universalist Christians interpret these Biblical teachings in ways that do not imply Universalism, or point to other verses in the Bible which seemingly contradict Universalist beliefs. Christian Universalists contend that some key words in the original Greek and Hebrew text of the Bible have been mistranslated to strengthen the traditional argument for eternal hell.

External links

• Universalist Church of America
• Universal reconciliation
• The Jerome Conspiracy
• Unitarian-Universalist Encyclopedia I've only just discovered this wiki. I'm not sure if it's exclusively Christian.

Reference

• Christian Universalism