JESUS and UNIVERSALISM
Did the Son of God give us any reason to believe that all will be saved?
3. Jesus and Universalism? The sermon on the mount
The subject: Universalism.
One of the most brilliant lights that shines out of Scripture, once one begins to look for it, is the division between the righteous and the unrighteous. Perhaps this will be a good starting point for us as we begin to page through New Covenant Scripture to see if it suggests eternal punishment or an ultimate reconciliation. There is a "we" and there is a "they" in Scripture. Everywhere.
It starts as early as the Sermon on the Mount. They, some un-named evil people, will persecute the righteous. They did the same thing to the prophets of old, whoever they are.
Then there is talk of a kingdom of heaven. True, many will go there. Some will be called great. Some will be least. But there is a third category: those whose righteousness is so phony that they will not even enter the kingdom at all. I see no time restriction here. They simply will not enter. Period.
In this same classic message, the very fires of hell are offered to those who live in anger (Matthew 5:22), proving they have never had an experience with God.
This same gentle loving Jesus in the same sermon suggests, nay, states, that a person who is unwilling to be drastic against sin in his life shall be cast into hell.
Pretty awesome start. I've only covered one chapter and already the case for an eternity separated from God in a lake of fire looms as a very real possibility. The theme will be developed...
As the sermon continues, Jesus tells us that those who do not forgive will not be forgiven. Another blanket statement. Can the un-forgiven go to Jesus' heaven?
He then speaks of a narrow way and a broad way, returning to the we-they division. Very few people, relatively speaking, will find the way to life.
To a group of people who want to be reconciled in the day of judgment, based on the fact that they had been in the signs and wonders crowd, Jesus makes the awful pronouncement, "I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." (Matthew 7:23)
Depart from Me. Sounds pretty final.
And lawlessness, another theme that strikes at the heart of many universalists: The idea that law is still among us, when they are crying out "grace." But lawless grace is no grace at all. The grace of God appears to make us repent from breaking the laws of God. The grace of God enters our beings and causes us to keep the laws of God. Lawless people know no grace at all, and in the end will be rejected.
We do not rejoice in this, but we must speak where Jesus has spoken.
So in His most famous message, our Jesus takes a hard line against sin and sinners. He sets the bar high, and opens the door wide to punishment after death. He divides the righteous from the unrighteous, and has all of us craving for His mercy and forgiveness. Or else.
No universalism here. No hidden promise that I could find, that somehow it will all turn out okay in the end. No reconciliation. No inclusion.
4. Jesus and Universalism? (2.) Of outer darkness, the gnashing of teeth, and the valley of Hinnom.
In all four Gospels, in at least twenty distinct passages, Jesus makes it clear that He believes in judgment, and in a class of people that will bear that judgment. The whole idea of hell and torment surfaces as a major theme of the Son of God. Obviously He wants us to know about this, and follow His example in warning others. Never did He try to soften the blow or ignore the subject.
Many of the punishment passages are in multiple Gospels. I will be following the Matthew account when there is a duplication, then add those few teachings that are unique to Mark, Luke, and John.
Are you ready? Let's continue our walk-through of the New Testament. We'll cover the first three passages this time around.
Matthew 8:11-12. Jesus has just healed the centurion's servant. He compares the faith of a Roman soldier to that of His people in the flesh, Israel. Israel comes up short in the comparison.
He then announces the tragic results of unbelief. Gentiles will actually enter the Kingdom of God while those for whom it was originally prepared will be thrown into an unspecified location in "outer darkness" where will be not only weeping, but the gnashing of teeth that can only happen when torment is horribly intense. Some have therefore surmised that the eternal destiny of the lost is on another planet. In this way a lake of fire is no contradiction to outer darkness. Regardless of where this takes place, the fact that it takes place at all should give pause to Universalist talk.
Matthew 10:28. Jesus, unimaginably to some, teaches the fear of God. And here He makes a clear distinction between purely physical punishment and punishment of the soul. No annihilation will take place. Death will come to all men because of sin, even the Christians, but physical death is not the final judgment of Christ-deniers. Soul and body, the resurrected body promised even to the damned, is envisioned here.
Does Jesus' usage of "destroy" in reference to the soul imply that eventually the soul ceases to exist? Not necessarily. The destruction of the body, death, does not mean that the body is gone forever. And Mark's clear description of an undying life form (see Mark 9 below) lets us know that soul-destruction can simply mean a rendering powerless of all soulish functions.
"Hell" in this passage is gehenna, named after the valley of Hinnom, an awful place in Jesus' day where refuse was always being burned. It was the perfect picture of the punishment Jesus had in mind, a picture perfected later by the apostle John in his book of Revelation.
Another important point to make here: Not every verse tells the whole story. Proof-texting won't work with this or any major doctrine of the Bible. It is the whole counsel of God we seek. Put it all together, step back, look at it all. This is how Universalism falls on its face. To use my humble yard again, an individual weed might look a lot like a blade of grass. A collection of weeds in a grass yard stands out
Matthew 10:33-39. Here is a collection of verses that emphasize the distinctiveness of the two classes of people in the world, the saved and the unsaved. They are called the confessors and the non-confessors, the lovers and the non-lovers, the cross-bearers and the non-cross-bearers, the life-grabbers and the life-losers. But it is all the same. In every case, there is no hint of a time when the ones who did not confess, will one day confess. No time when those who did not love Jesus enough will suddenly love Jesus. No day will arrive when those who were not willing to bear Jesus' cross will have a different frame of mind. No time after death when self-centered people will be turned around. These divisions are final. This life is the time when all these decisions are made.
5. Jesus and Universalism? (3) Unforgiven, condemned, progressively worse
In our search for the universalist's theories in the words of Jesus, we will once more come up short as we examine Matthew 12. Bleak is the word for the future of the godless.
Matthew 12:31-32 . Jesus says here that some sin will simply not be forgiven. And here He actually divides the ages. Earlier translations spoke of the division of the worlds. But whether we are talking of times or places (and we will discuss the Greek word involved much later in this study), this unforgiveness extends from the present world/time into the next world/time, that is, the time after Jesus comes. This would also be the time after the death of all the saints, for they will now begin living in resurrection bodies.
However, the non-believers will not be raised until after the 1,000 year-reign. This potentially introduces a third "age" that Jesus could be talking about? But do you think they will suddenly be forgiven then? I don't, based on th book of Revelation, which we will cover. In the absence of more thoughts from God, we must use the thoughts/words that He gave us. "No forgiveness" leads to no resurrection with the saints which in turn leads to the final public judgment of Revelation.
Serious business, this. I will not delve deeply into the centuries-old speculation about what this blasphemy could be, but since we know that rejection of Christ is not forgivable, could these two be one? How does one know of Jesus in our day except by the wooing of the Spirit? If that Spirit is "spoken against", i.e. blasphemed, and one's heart is hardened against Jesus...
For our purposes of course, the point is that universalism falsely claims that there will be a point somewhere down the road where forgiveness will "kick in", though the Scripture is silent about such a phenomenon. Surely Jesus would have made that crystal clear in passages like this. But He didn't. "No forgiveness" stands.
Matthew 12:36-37. Here again is the affirmation that there are two classes of people, in this case called the justified and the condemned. And how do they arrive in those categories? By their words, Jesus says. It is, on the surface, true that even for Christians there is a way to be in or out of God's momentary favor based on the careless words proceeding out of our mouths, but the bigger picture here seems to be that those who use their mouths to confess Christ before men will be, or already are, righteous in God's sight. Those who use those same mouths to deny Him will be condemned with that same eternal condemnation of which Jesus speaks in John 3 and 5 (later).
Matthew 12:45. Far from an upward evolutionary trend toward more and more favor from God, the case is made by Jesus here that things can actually get worse and worse for the Christ-rejector, the one who has opened his life to demons.
In the passage, a man is delivered, but cares so little about His soul and eternity that He immediately fills his life with the vanities of this world, making no room for the Spirit's presence. The enemy who has been cast out now returns with company, and that man's house is chosen for a party.
Jesus says that the increased evil in this man's life is typical of the men of this generation, who are getting worse and worse as time progresses. By what logic or statement from God can it be suggested that at the death of men like this, all is turned around and God is happy with this one with whom He has been angry all His days?
I mean, the Psalmist (7:11) did say, did he not, that God is angry with the wicked every day? Does the sinner's death change that? If so, why does Ezekiel (18:23) say that God does not delight in the death of the wicked? You would think that if He had happy plans for evil men, He'd be joyfully anticipating their death so He could fellowship with them now, forever?
Do you see the strange paths we are forced to travel when false teaching has its way?
6. Jesus and Universalism? (4)Into the fire, into hell.
Matthew 13:41-43, 49-50. The tragic consequences of offending God and His program, and of living a life outside the grace-inspired law of God, are outlined in these electrifying verses. A posse of angels will be sent far and wide to arrest evil men wherever they are found. This is no parable, by the way. Rather, it is the explanation of the parable of the weeds, told earlier in the chapter.
The arrested, convicted criminals will be thrown into fire, a picture consistent with all that Scripture teaches about the final destination of the wicked. Wailing. Grimacing in pain. They rejected God's payment of righteousness in Christ and now must pay the penalty themselves. And how long must one suffer to pay a penalty to an eternal God, that God Himself paid with the dearness of His own Son? Think about it... Oh we have not yet fathomed the absolute holiness of our God.
But neither have we fathomed His grace. For that other group in the parable, the guys on the white horses, because of the grace shown at Calvary, received by them, will shine forever.
Do you see a hint of a future reconciliation here? I do not.
Matthew 22:13-14. Here is the classic story of a man who came to a wedding feast improperly clothed. His punishment is to be not only ejected from the wedding, but taken to a place of outer darkness where unutterable suffering will take place. A parable it is, but the characters don't seem to behave as characters we know. It is an earthly story, but the heavenly meaning escapes some of us.
Here indeed the Universalist has a serious problem with the severity of the reaction. You wear jeans to a wedding and you must writhe in pain while being placed in solitary confinement? This is our cavalier approach to the holy character of our God. The sinfulness of sin has not sunk in. But, write it down, there is no "little" sin when a man knowingly raises his will in defiance of the Almighty's.
This is not a parable that deals with repentance and God's grace. This parable is directed to a nation upon whom the grace of God had been poured super-abundantly, yet in generation after generation was blinded to the nature of that grace and their unworthiness to receive it. Here the grace is withdrawn.
It's a fact all Gentile persons must learn to accept too. The day of grace will end, the justice of God will prevail, His enemies will be destroyed in a lake of fire. And God will owe no man an apology.
Matthew 23:13, 33. Jesus' feelings toward the Pharisees and their hypocrisy is no secret in the Scriptures. Chapter 23 is a no-holds-barred out and out condemnation from the lips of one who told us never to judge another man. But men shall be judged. By this Man.
The Pharisees actually had it in their power to admit or exclude persons from the Kingdom. Proving that there is a Kingdom. Proving that many will not be a part of it. It seems tedious to have to say things such as these, but the argument against us is that eventually we are all one big happy family.
That concept is never stated by Jesus. No, some, such as these unrepentant Pharisees, will be condemned to hell. And the Word of Jesus is an unchanging Word. As His grace, so His justice. Once it goes out of His mouth it does not return.
7. Depart from me. Forever.
We close out Matthew's version of Jesus' eternity comments with some of the most serious words Jesus ever said. Oh how He wants us to know these things!
Matthew 24:31. I am not what you would call a Calvinist. But believers all must deal with the term elect, as it is used so many times in God's Word. Elect. Chosen. Called out. Why, the very name church is simply the participle form of the Greek kaleo, to call. Hence, the "called". Put whatever spin you must on John Calvin, Augustine, and all the rest, but the fact still remains that there are some who will be caught up to Jesus when he comes, and some who will not.
The haves here are called "the elect." So be it.
Matthew 24:50-51. Another story of Jesus, the characters of which act in drastic ways. Jesus says that the master of a particular house [that would be God/Jesus] is going to come one day to unsuspecting, unfaithful, disobedient servants, cut them in two, and throw them into a place where the now-familiar weeping and gnashing of teeth will take place. Such graphic description of horror. Without apology. And without suggestion of reversal.
All saved, you say? All reconciled? Why, here are persons whose very bodies will need reconciliation!
Matthew 25:30. Are you still there? This is tedious work, is it not, trekking through all the words Jesus ever said about eternity? Yet there is no other way to arrive at and maintain the truth but this. All the other words on this subject are the words of men, and why should we ask men about God's purposes, when God Himself has told us what they are?
Here is yet another parable. You've no doubt heard of the "talents" story. Remember how it ends? The servant who hid the master's wealth, and gave him no chance of increase was cast into outer darkness. Yes, weeping. Yes, gnashing of teeth. How many times does Jesus have to say it? There are saved, and there are unsaved. The fate of the unsaved is certain and more terrible than words can tell.
Matthew 25:41-46. If possible, this final word from Matthew is worse than all the others. Some truly shocked individuals and/or nations stand before the Son of God, Judge of all the earth. This is no parable. Look for this to happen.
They are shocked because they did not understand that the evil deeds they had done were taken personally by Jesus Christ, who really did rise from the dead after all, and lived in His people. By hurting His people they had hurt Him.
The One Who in His mercy died for these very men and women, now has become their Judge. At any time in their life if they had called upon the name of the Lord, they would have been saved. But not now. Not ever.
Hear the words of Jesus, you lying spirits who see Him as a pushover, able to be insulted by humans forever. Listen to the very words of His mouth, you who minimize sin and underestimate the holiness of our God. Listen!
"Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Oh yes, originally the lake of fire was for the enemy. But there's plenty of room in there, folks. Plenty of room for all those who did despite to the Spirit of grace.
"And these will go away into everlasting punishment..."
Yes, I have heard that now the false prophets have latched on to the word "everlasting" and are trying to tell us that it does not mean "everlasting" really. What else can they do? This verse and others like it expose their doctrine as a sham. They must use the oldest trick in the book, "Eve, did God really say that?"
We will study that Greek word, aion, later. For now, Bible believers need not fear that the meaning the church has had from the first century is now subject to change at the will of man.
8. Unquenchable fire, undying worm, unchanging word
Matthew offers us the greatest variety of insights on our subject, but both Mark and Luke add important pieces.
Mark 9:42-48. A startling recollection that Mark has here of a word given by Jesus. He reports how Jesus took a child and used him as an example of what we are all to be. Jesus then encourages his followers to receive children in His name, and follows up with some of his harshest thoughts.
Jesus tells us that to cause a child - we presume the same kind of child he has been speaking of, but we cannot rule out a "child" in the faith - to be offended is to bring such judgment upon oneself as to make one prefer suicide. Then He immediately begins talking about radical struggle against sin. He says that if we lose that fight we will end up in a place of unquenchable fire. Three times he says this, and three times He illustrates it with the picture of a worm that does not die.
You'll hear various ideas about what that "worm" is. Some say it is that creature that preys on all dead bodies. But if the body cannot die (per Revelation), and the worm decaying it cannot die, you have an eternal torment. Oh, too awful to consider.
And that is what Jesus wants us to know. The fight against sin is worth all the effort.
As I said earlier, we will study the word for everlasting and eternal. But Mark doesn't need such a word. Unquenchable and an un-dying worm tell us all we need to know.
Mark 16:16. Very simply put here: You don't believe? You'll be damned. How can we miss what He is saying?
Luke 12:9. When one denies Jesus, Jesus will in turn make a public proclamation, with angels as witnesses, that He denies that person. Does it seem likely that such a statement will be later changed by the Christ whose word is eternal and unchanging?
Luke 12:47-48. In this parable is offered the possibility of degrees of punishment. Beatings are commanded for two sets of servants. One group knew what they were supposed to do and did not prepare themselves accordingly. Irresponsible servants. The other group, who will receive a lesser sentence, simply did not know what they were supposed to do. Ignorant servants.
These verses taken in isolation seem to indicate that though all will be punished, still they are servants and will eventually be in favor with the master.
Forgotten is that third category of servants in the verses above (45-46). These men are so willfully evil that they are "cut in two" and placed in the unbelievers' place of punishment. We saw this picture in Matthew, but here it is connected to the section that allows for the salvation of some very imperfect believers.
All in all the parable is a perfect picture of the various grades of evil. But the line is clear. Believers live with Jesus forever, forever His servants. Unbelievers do not.
Luke 12:51-53. Here is Jesus' discussion of division. Jesus did not come to unite us all into one big family. He came to divide us from one another. Evil cannot live with good. Not here, not there. The Universalists have in common with the Romanists and the ecumenists of all ages that they hold to the "mixture".
But God calls His people out. Separation. Holiness. We are not the same as the world.
Luke 13:1-5. Twice in this passage Jesus says that unless we repent we shall suffer a horrible death.
Or does He? Actually, first He says that dying a horrible death is not to be considered a sign that the dead were more evil than those who were spared. All unrepentant, He says, will suffer such a catastrophe eventually.
But, we all know of godly people who also died awful deaths, for example at the hands of persecutors. And we know of ungodly who have died in their sleep. That tells us that Jesus is not talking about physical death here.
No, you who continue in your sins will face the horrors of eternal judgment. What spectacular endings you saw of these lives here, are only previews of how horrible it will be when you are thrown into the pit of hell.
9. Who then shall be saved?
How does the false teaching called Universalism survive, given the so very clear statements of Jesus, like these recorded by Brother Luke in his Gospel?
Luke 13:23-30. How many will ultimately be saved? A few? Many? All depends on whether you are talking actual numbers or percentages. Sounds like percentages in this passage. Many will not enter. Many will demand entrance into the Kingdom on the basis of their personal/physical knowledge of Jesus from His days on earth. They will think that they have celebrity status because they had once walked in a crowd where Jesus walked, once witnessed a healing that Jesus did, once ate some loaves and fishes miraculously provided.
It won't work. Jesus will say to them what He will say to so many others. "I don't know you. You never repented of your sins. Leave Me." Sad, sad, words that will produce eternal frustration. To be so close to Heaven, and yet miss It.
Luke 14:16-24. The Great Supper story. Many, many invited. All give inexcusable excuses. All find that their excuses have cost them their place at the table. Universalism would have it this way: This man invites people to his home to eat. They make excuses. They don't come. The host covers all their food, freezes it, and tells them, "Hey, whenever you're ready, it's here. You decide, I'll be waiting."
Is that Biblical grace? Is that mercy? Or is that man's idea of who God is? Is this not the God that man has created in his own image? Why, we say, I'd not put demands on a person like that. I'd let him come any time he wants.
Maybe. But eventually your freezer gets full and your patience runs out. Or the electricity goes off. Or the house burns down. Even gracious you cannot guarantee that the food will be around forever.
The God Who is holy and true has given an unequaled invitation of mercy already. Dogs like us are invited to a royal feast of unparalleled value. God has ordained that if we refuse this feast, He'll eat without us.
That's just how it is.
Luke 15:4-7. Using this parable, it's become fashionable to add 99 to 1 and get 100, percent that is, and announce to the people of God that 100% of mankind will be saved. The story of Jesus here says that the shepherd had 99 sheep that were not lost and only one that was. When he found that one, everybody was now accounted for. Bingo! Universal salvation.
Not so fast, not so fast. 99 to 1 is certainly not the ratio of believers to unbelievers in the world today. Never has been. We've already established in Luke that there are few who will come to Christ, percentage wise. Jesus came out and said that there are few that find the narrow way.
This is not a parable about who gets to be saved, but about the compassion and priorities of the Father, a compassion He wants us to share.
But in the context, and that word is the most overlooked of all by Bible readers, the context seems to say He is comparing the proud Pharisees to men who know their needs. Does it not seem strange to you to hear Him talk of a group of people "who need no repentance" ? Is there such a group?
It seems He was saying to them, I'd much rather share my evening with a group of tax collectors and sinners who are convicted easily of their sin, than a whole month with you who think you need no repentance at all.
The 99 and the 1 are not the point of this message! And the message is confirmed in the rest of Luke 15. Ten coins. Nine of them in no obvious need. One is lost. Two sons. One has never strayed away. One has.
Go after the lost. Care deeply about them, as the Father does. Then deal with the ones who believe they were already found. Maybe they are, maybe not. 99 sheep. 9 coins. And one bitter son, the ending of whose story we are not given.
No one questions here the Father's attempt to love all, but no statement should be assumed from these parables that all indeed will respond properly to that love. God's love is universal. Positive human reaction is not.
10. Condemned already, lost forever.
We finish Luke and also John now, in our quest for some hint from Jesus that He will one day save all men. So far, we have found none.
Luke 16:19-31. Many claim that the story of the rich man and Lazarus is merely that, a story. But others believe that this was a narration of factual material. The fact that at least one of the characters has a name leads us to believe the latter. Whether another parable or indeed someone's history, the elements of it are a very compelling case against the whole notion of down-the-road reconciliation of God and all men.
We will suspend for now the whole discussion of how the rich man arrived at his fate. It's another topic, and an important one, but for now we are looking at his punishment.
In the first place, Jesus unapologetically tells us that the next life involved torment. The torment of flames.
It then becomes obvious that the torment is ongoing. Death did not end the suffering, but only began it.
Next we learn of the great gulf. Between Paradise and the place of torment is some sort of expanse or barrier that keeps residents of one from passing to the other.
Finally we hear that no intervention of any saint on earth will prevail to change the sentence of one confined to this punishment.
In one short and very tragic story Jesus puts to rest all the major heresies involving the next life. Soul sleeping, purgatory, Universalism, annihilation, are all exposed as lies to put to sleep otherwise very attentive humans who would avoid the wrath of God at any cost.
John 3:18, 36. For those expecting relief from an apostle of love, it must be very discouraging to meet instead a son of thunder, in fact, a man who is given the final revelation of judgment and hell and wrath in his famous Apocalypse.
It all starts in everyone's favorite chapter, John 3. Two verses after the hallmark John 3:16 we read that anyone who does not believe is condemned already. Condemnation is the default position of mankind since the fall from God's grace into sin. For all men to be lost eternally, they need to do nothing. They are bound for a well-deserved punishment in a hereafter that they have chosen if they reject Christ's offer.
Eighteen more verses, and the chapter concludes by informing us that the person who does not believe will never see life, but instead God's wrath will abide on him.
That's a permanent abiding, a forever thing.
John 5:28-29. Some day you will hear the voice of God calling you from the grave. That much I know about you and every human being who has ever lived. What I don't know is which resurrection will be yours. There are two. John tells us in the book of Revelation that there are 1,000 years between the two appearances from the dead.
The first resurrection is for God's holy special people. We call it these days "the rapture," and Paul the apostle has a lot to add to that discussion.
But what we are looking for in this series of studies is what Jesus says about that other resurrection. Sure enough, it is for wicked people. It is a resurrection that takes place purely for the purpose of publicly announcing the sentence of condemnation on the unforgiven. It is a resurrection of death, separation from God forever.
John 17:12. Jesus and Judas were friends for three years. The Father had not revealed to the Son from the beginning of their relationship, who this man Judas was to become. Judas did not know who he was, either. Little by little there was a feeling of dissatisfaction, disappointment, disillusionment. Satan did not enter him until the end.
But friend or not, after Judas' Satanic deed, Jesus does not shrink back from saying before the eleven, that one out of only twelve men is lost. He claims to His Father that He had kept, and kept well, eleven men given to Him. But one He did not keep. He is gone. The implication, as in all these verses I share, is that that separation is an eternal one.
Judas. The son of destruction, he is called here. A man foreseen in Scripture. A man doomed to eternity without God. Lost. Oh that God's people would learn the power again of that small word, and let it burn its reality within. Lost. Forever lost.
