Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Universalist Story is Not a Realistic Story (Annihilationism vs. Universalism)




This post can be read on its own, but it also is the second in a series on What’s Wrong with the Universalist Story. In the first post, I showed that the Universalist story goes wrong because it has the wrong ultimate goal. In this post, I seek to explain how and why the Universalist story in not realistic.

Redemption plays an important part in many of the stories we love. Take the Star Wars saga for example. Darth Vader is saved in the end and turns back to the light.  That resonates with us because redemption is a part of the true story, God’s story, that we are all a part of.  But what if not only Darth Vader, but the evil Emperor, and every storm trooper, and all the other bad guys, turned good at the end.  The movie would have flopped! It’s not realistic.

But is universal redemption not being realistic just our human opinion and feelings, or is there a Biblical basis for thinking that a story where every single person is redeemed in the end does not align with reality? The Bible confirms our intuition that not everyone will be redeemed.

The Bible shows that some people will rebel against God no matter how much revelation He gives them.

The Bible reveals that some will choose rebellion against God no matter what.  Here are some examples:

* In Moses’ day, the Israelites saw numerous amazing signs and wonders in Egypt and in the wilderness.  Huge, public miracles were a regular part of their lives.  But most of them still rebelled and died in the desert.

* When Jesus walked the earth, He did many astounding miracles in public. Dead coming back to life, blind people seeing, people crippled from birth dancing, and more, were all seen by many. He preached and practiced love and mercy.  Many repented and followed Him.  But others, seeing the same miracles, plotted to kill Jesus.

* In Revelation we read about the thousand year reign.  However you interpret it, in the vision John sees the devil is locked away during this thousand years.  Jesus reigns over the earth with justice and blessings for all.  Yet, even after a thousand years of this glorious reign of Christ, huge numbers of people choose to rebel against Jesus when the thousand years are up.

* More amazing still, Adam and Eve started off in a perfect paradise.  The devil could lie to them, but there is no evidence he could harm them.  They chose to listen to the serpent and disobey God.

* Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the devil started off as a good angel living in a perfect Heaven in the bright light of God’s truth and love.  Without any source of evil in his world, the devil chose to rebel.  He took many of the angels with him.

The point is simply this:  in the Bible’s grand story, we see time and time again that some of God’s creatures will choose to rebel against Him if they are allowed to.  This rebellion has brought massive suffering and loss to this current earth.  And if these people were allowed to live in the New Earth, there is no reason to believe they would not ruin it as well.

The Universalist responds to all this by suggesting that if they were given enough time, everyone would eventually repent and accept God’s grace. In this sense, Universalists are a bit like those who believe in unguided evolution.  They hope that a lot of time can make something happen that usually doesn’t happen. But based on biblical principles, we can see why more time, even eternal time, will not help the unrighteous come to God. In fact, more time only makes things worse.

The Bible teaches that over time sinners get worse, their minds become darker, and their hearts become harder.

The Universalist imagines a situation where God patiently continues working with the unrighteous for however long it takes for them to be saved.  Some Universalists specifically imagine this happening after the unrighteous have died and been consigned to the lake of fire.  But does the Bible indicate that God will put up with and contend with the unrighteous for however long it takes?  Actually, no.

NIV Genesis 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years."

Genesis chapter 5 reports people living for seven, eight, and even nine hundred years. God, in His perfect wisdom and righteousness, decided that was too long a time for Him to work with people, so He announced that our life spans would be reduced to a hundred and twenty years.  This does not fit very well with the Universalist narrative.

But why would God do that? I’m sure it’s not due to any defect or lack on God’s part.  I think a more likely explanation is that waiting longer than about 120 years for someone to respond to God in the right way is not effective.  God designed us so that the decisions we make not only change the environment around us, but also change our hearts and our minds.  This good design enables us to learn and grow in Christ when we are following God.  However, when people sin, their thinking becomes increasingly futile and their hearts become increasingly hard.

Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

Those who do evil tend to get worse, not better, over time:

NIV 2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

It may very well be that God limited his efforts to win people to 120 years because by that point (and for many people, sooner) they have become so foolish, hardened, and deceived that there is no hope of their freely choosing to love Him.  They have become fools as described in Proverbs:

NIV Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

NIV Proverbs 13:19 A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools detest turning from evil.

NIV Proverbs 27:22 Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.

It’s not that God has stopped loving them.  It’s just that they reach a point where they despise instruction, detest turning from evil, and resist all efforts to remove evil from them so strongly that they can no longer be saved.  Of course, God could override their wills, but if He wants them to love Him freely then that option is off the table.  The kindest thing He can do for them is to utterly destroy them.  Allowing them to live on in misery and darkness is unthinkable.

This would certainly explain why God assigned a mighty angel to guard the tree of life after expelling Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.  Giving sinners many thousands of years of life, or worse, eternal life, would only result in greater misery.

In this post I have tried to explain why the Universalist idea that everyone could be saved if they were given a combination of the right evidence and enough time is unrealistic.  Being unrealistic is only one of many problems which plague the Universalist metanarrative.  A more fundamental problem is that the unsaved cannot repent in Hell, because in Hell they perish, die, are destroyed in body and soul, and are burned to ashes.  Lord willing, I’ll discuss this more in another post.




Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

What’s Wrong with the Universalist Story? (Universalism vs. Annihilationism)




Universalist arguments, books, and talks, are filled with discussions about “plot lines”, “the story”, and above all “metanarrative”.[1] It would not be fair to say that Universalists completely ignore exegesis, but in a chapter where one would normally expect exegesis, Universalist author Robin Parry admits that he does not emphasize exegesis of individual texts:

“The reader needs to understand that what I am doing in this chapter is not a straightforward exegesis of hell texts.”[2]

If I was trying to make a case for Universalism, I probably would not emphasize the details of individual verses and passages.  Exegesis does not support Universalism.  But, to be fair, we should examine the Bible at many levels when seeking to understand God’s Word, including:

1. Word studies and grammatical details.
2.  Analysis of each sentence/verse.
3.  Studying verses in their immediate context by reading and considering verses which come before and after them.
4.  Observing the themes and structure of each book of the Bible.
5.  Looking at the Bible as a whole in terms of systematic theology, and yes, the grand biblical story, sometimes called the “metanarrative”.

These different levels are not isolated.  They all interact with each other. This interaction is sometimes called the “hermeneutical circle” because we understand the whole better by understanding the parts, and we understand the parts better by understanding the whole. Perhaps it would better be called “an upward hermeneutical spiral”, because if done correctly we are not merely going in circles, but constantly growing in our understanding of God and His truth.

Since Universalists tend to focus on “the whole” (the big story, the metanarrative), and then use this to explain (or, in my opinion, explain away) “the parts” (individual texts), I want to focus on the Universalist story in this series of blog posts.  By the “Universalist story”, I mean the way that Universalists understand the metanarrative and major theological themes of the Bible. If they understand the story correctly, and if they apply this understanding correctly, then they have a strong case.  I’m convinced they don’t have a strong case, at least not when compared to annihilationism (also called Conditional Immortality).

So, what’s wrong with the Universalist story?  A lot!  Too much to fit in one blog post of reasonable length.  So, I’ll begin with one problem and then, Lord willing, discuss other problems in future posts.  The first problem I want to explore is that the Universalist story has the wrong ultimate goal.

The Wrong Ultimate Goal

One of the most repeated and most passionate arguments I’ve heard from Universalists basically says that Universalism must be the end of the story because it is the only ending where God truly wins. Before I explain what’s wrong with this argument, let me acknowledge a few things that are right about it:

1.  The Bible’s story does involve a cosmic, worldwide, history-long, conflict between God and forces of evil.
2.  God loves all people, and wants all people to love Him.
3.  There is no doubt that God will win this conflict.  The two sides are not even.  God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and super incredibly smart, wise, and intelligent.  He is also entirely good. Thus, there is no doubt that God will ultimately win.

In addition to the three points above, the Universalist will argue that since God loves all people, if any person is not saved in the end, it means that God has not won.  This is where the Universalist has gone wrong. God Himself defines His goal (what counts as “victory”) in the very first chapter of the Bible, and then in the last book of the Bible we see that He has magnificently achieved His goal, although it came at a high cost.

In the very first chapter of the Bible we read of God’s goal for humanity:

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

There are two major parts to God’s goal.  First, He wants people to be like Him, made in His image. Second, He wants these people who are like Him to fill up the whole earth.  In other words, God’s goal is to create an entire world filled with people who are as loving, faithful, truthful, kind, pure, courageous, selfless, and good as Jesus!  What a magnificent goal!  What a wonderful plan![3]

Does God achieve His goal?  He sure does!

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Notice that achieving this goal does not require that every person be saved, only that many people from all around the world be saved.

Now, at this point, the Universalist may argue that it would be even better if every single person was saved.  They might also point out that God wants every single person to be saved.  And I agree with them that God does want every person to be saved.  So how do I explain this?

All who study the Bible (Calvinists and Arminians; Traditionalists, Universalists, and Annihilationists) can agree that in some limited ways God does not always get what He wants. Does God want anything evil to happen?  At one level, the answer is “No, of course not”.  Yet, evil things do happen.  Why is this? Here I will offer my best attempt at a brief explanation, recognizing that other sincere Christians have offered different explanations.

There are some things God wants more than other things. All of us can relate to this.  I want my daughter to be home with us because I love having her around.  But, more than that, I want my daughter to have as full, meaningful, and God-glorifying life as possible, and for now that means supporting her being away at college most of the time. It’s a price I’m willing to pay.

I’ve already defined basically what I believe the Bible tells us God wants most:  a world full of people who are like Jesus. Now I need to add a few details.

Being like Jesus means we must be able to love with the type of agape-love which Jesus has.  I’m convinced that this type of love requires free will.[4] God also wants people who will rule the earth with Him, yet remain in joyful submission to Him. He gave us a strong desire to rule which fits this destiny.  But creating people with free will and such strong desires, while necessary for God’s glorious goal, also meant that people might turn against Him. In fact, God knew this would happen. Achieving His ultimate goal would come at a very high cost.

The highest cost God pays is sending Jesus to bear our sins and die on a cross.  That cost is so high, we simply stand in awe and bow in worship at such great love.

Yet, there is another very significant cost.  Many people reject God’s offer of salvation.  Without overriding their free will (and thus removing their ability to express agape-love), God cannot prevent this.  God truly wants everyone to be saved.  But He is willing to see many perish, although it pains Him deeply, in order to gain His eternal Bride.  His Bride consists of a world full of people who have accepted His salvation and who have been remade into the image of Jesus.

Now, for those who believe in eternal conscious torment, it is very hard to explain how having many billions of people in perpetual torment is a fair price to pay for a world full of other billions who are in joy.  But for those of us who have seen that the Bible teaches Conditional Immortality (which includes annihilationism) this problem melts away.

Perhaps if we only considered the first thousand years of eternal life with God, someone may question if the joy of the saved would outweigh the temporary suffering followed by eternal destruction of so many who are lost.  But when we consider the first trillion, and the next trillion, and the next . . ., well I have no doubt that God knows what He’s doing. It will be worth it, for Him and for us.  And remember, God is not being unjust to those who reject Him. The punishment they receive is right and just. Also, in a very real way, not granting eternal life to sinful rebels is the most loving thing God can do for them, since they would be eternally miserable.

I’m aware that there’s a lot more to discuss.  For this opening post on this topic, I want to close by comparing God’s story with many of the most loved manmade stories.  Many of the most enduring tales and stories that move us and stick with us have two elements interwoven together. They are simultaneously love stories and war stories.  They involve a hero seeking to win the love of a beautiful bride, but having to face terrible opposition, suffer, and make great sacrifices, to rescue his bride and win her love. These stories end with a glorious wedding. I’m convinced that these stories speak to our hearts so deeply because they are echoes of the biblical story.  The true story.  Our story. God’s story.




[1] Robin Parry (under the penname Gregory MacDonald), The Evangelical Universalist, 2nd Ed. (Cascade Books, 2012).
Parry’s book (which is perhaps the best attempt at an evangelical defense of universalism) is full of this type of language.  Here are a some of the many examples:  “the whole biblical story” (xix), “the gospel story” (xx), “a grand theological narrative with a universalist ending” (7), “this grand theological story” (7), “biblical metanarrative” (7), “the biblical metanarrative” (36), “theological grids, or stories” (39), “a broad theological grid” (40), “this metanarrative” (53), and so on throughout his book.
[2] Robin Parry, 133.
[3] I wrote more about this, and how it’s related to the Great Commission, in a previous blog post:  The Great Commission and Genesis Chapter 1.
[4] I explain the biblical basis for love requiring free will in another post, Does Love Require Free Will?




Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .