2. SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS and QUESTIONS ABOUT UNIVERSALISM
Why don't we do the hard part first, and then end with the pure statements of Scripture. Here are the questions that come immediately. And do I have all the answers? Please!
1. Why did God make a platypus?
So you think I'm being facetious? That I'm taking too lightly these ultra-serious matters? No, don't judge me that way. I imagine that the person who can answer this question about platypuses, (or is it platypi?) properly, is well on the way to understanding the heart of God.
Well, you've had time to think about it. Was this particular creation made because he knew that one day it would confound evolutionists?
Not a bad guess. But more to the point of our current discussion, my speculative answer is: Because He could. Because He wanted to. Because of purposes that I don't need to know.
Don't mean to cut you off or be cold here, but the fact is, there will be quite a few times in the coming discussions when we will throw up our hands and say just this.
Remember that, next time you see a platypus.
2. What about everyone's favorite verse, John 3:16?
You may be surprised to know that the seeming sentiments of this verse are not found all that often in the Scriptures. We have assumed that when Jesus said to Nicodemus that His Father loved the world, He meant every single member of the human race, past, present, future.
But by the time Jesus spoke these words, millions of people had already gone to their eternal destiny, justly, the abode of the damned, for having defied this God.
So not everyone.
The vast majority of the inhabited world of that time did not know of the coming of a Messiah who would take away sin. Huge amounts of people in every generation since Christ and even today do not have the opportunity of hearing of a Saviour. Though one day this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world, surely this is not the case today.
Have we considered this fact?
Is it not more sensible to assume that Jesus did not mean everyone here? Then whom?
Nicodemus was a Jew. When these words were spoken to him by another Jew, One Who claimed to be a teacher in Israel, it must have sounded strange. Since when is the God of Israel in love with an entire planet?
Nevertheless, so it was. Not only at the Day of Pentecost, (Acts 2) but in the Last Day (Revelation 5:8-10), every nation, tribe and people are represented in the Kingdom of God.
God so loved the world because He had chosen an uncountable (to us, not to Him!) number of Gentiles from it, a sweet smelling savour. Here He would live amongst His people forever.
God sent Jesus into the world to save the world, to set it straight, to make atonement for His friends, the ones who would believe in Him.
Isn't that what the text says?
In verses 14-15, we find that Jesus is going to be crucified, that believers will be saved. In 16, God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus to die, and believers will be saved. In 17-18, we learn that He is not sent to the world to condemn it: it was already condemned! He was sent to save believers (called elsewhere, the elect).
The Father gave Jesus that those who believe will be saved. Then the "world", the whole world, will be saved too, when all the wicked are removed.
Let me ask, where else does it say that God loved the whole world?
I can help you with that: John, the writer of the Gospel, also wrote a letter. His message has not changed in those 60 plus years since Jesus has gone. In I John 4:9, John says again: In this the love of God was manifested toward us , that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
Not every member of the human race is suggested here, but every member of the elect race, the peculiar chosen people of God...
God loved the world (Greek "cosmos") . Did he love it in the sense that he wanted to make it right? He told us , also through John, not to love the cosmos but to love the brothers. Creation is awaiting the finished work of God's love on the cosmos. It's not exactly lovable now, but is the source of much of our grief and temptation. John emphasizes in several other places that the "world" is enemy territory, as in I John 5:19:
"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. " Now, while we were yet sinners in this system, Christ died for us. He chose His own out of the world, John 15:19, and 17:6,9. But nowhere is it stated that Jesus died for everyone in the entire cosmos.
To be consistent, we would also have to look at I John 2:2 in the same way. "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." This salvation is international. Just a couple chapters later, John interprets himself (4:10): "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
And John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." One day there will be no sin in the world. And it will be because of Jesus. First He will give His life for His people, then he will come back in judgment on all unbelief. In these two steps, sins will be dealt a fatal blow.
So this is where theologians like Calvin and others have discovered the idea of "limited atonement." We all believe that Jesus' sacrifice will only eventually save those who believe. All that the "limited atonement" folks have done is take the "eventually" out. For them, Jesus' blood was shed for you and me, not for those who defy the living God.
3. That leads to yet another question.
Did Jesus pay for Judas' sin? If so, why is Judas now paying for it? Or anyone in Hell right now...
Atonement is payment for sin. If sins are paid for, then all get into Heaven free. This is universalism, and it is why the Reformers were so strongly against it.
True, Arminians say that everyone is "potentially" saved. But the Scriptural support for such a position is lacking in comparison to the verses that tend the other way.
4. Is John 3:16 the only event in Jesus' life where He seemed to be all-inclusive in His invitation and statement?
This is actually more difficult than the previous question. I want to be as honest as possible and say that there are some situations of Jesus' life that still cause me thought in this regard.
For example, His blanket forgiveness of those who crucified Him. Had God chosen them?
Then there is His unique love for the one we call the rich young ruler. Was he in fact an elect believer who came back to Jesus later? Things like that happen, you know. Consider John Mark's turn-around in Acts 15.
And what about His reputation as "friend of publicans and sinners"?
Those who object on the basis of the fact that Jesus had an elect in mind may be forced into the position of saying that Jesus' knowledge while here was limited. Did He not seem to be a bit surprised when it was revealed to Him that Judas was to be the traitor? Does it not seem more likely that He would not have chosen a traitor on purpose, but rather chose whom the Father had chosen, without knowing all the details until it was necessary to know them?
This concept would explain all His dealings with men who would one day be lost forever. It is also an explanation and model for our own dealings with mankind. We have no clue who is and who is not chosen of God. Therefore we freely evangelize all. God takes care of the rest. We are looking for those whom God has called, but we must not be selective in our search.
5. Are you still there? Is this too much? Try this one. Maybe you should pray first:
Does the Bible say that God loves everyone? I'm not talking about John 3:16, just generally. Is it your conception that God loves all equally?
When did He start loving the world? At creation, when He said that all was good? Genesis one?
Then why, just a few chapters later, is all destroyed? Why did He change His mind? Did He love them as they were being destroyed? Drowning? Or did he only love His own, Noah, and the family, and the ones who would come from them?
But the world is slated for destruction again. Does God love this unregenerate part of the world that has defied His every move and in many cases hates Him viciously?
I know you want to scream at me, OF COURSE HE DOES! What if I could show you only one person that He hated, and that one is not the Devil?
Remember, Malachi 1:2? "Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated."
But "hate" here doesn't mean "hate." Oh? Why has no translator picked up on your novel idea?
Hate means hate. It means hate in Psalm 5, too. "You hate all workers of iniquity." Oh my, now what have I done?
I've quoted Scripture, that's all. Can we deal with it? The Bible as it really is? A God who is identified as love that can also hate?
We love to say, "Hate the sin, love the sinner." We assume God says that too. But He doesn't. That's not a Bible verse. He hates the sinner, too. That makes your salvation something wonderful, doesn't it?
Besides, what is there in a sinner but sin?
It would not be appropriate to leave this answer without speaking of verses like Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11:
"As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?"
God is love. God hates sinners. God does not rejoice when a sinner is damned. Yet in Revelation a great multitude in Heaven rejoices as God destroys, with no more mercy, the entire system - which includes multitudes of people - of Babylon.
Because He could. Because He is. Because He does what He wants. We throw up the hands in total confusion and also in praise, admitting that no one has known the mind of the Lord. John Calvin did not know it, nor did Jacob Arminius. No Puritan ever saw it, nor any Wesleyan. I don't get it, and you don't either.
But we keep seeking and finding and rejoicing in what we find.
6. What other Scriptures would cause trouble for a Calvinist?
II Peter 3:9. "The Lord is... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
That's a bit of an unfair quoting. That's the part you hear all the time, but it's not the whole verse, and it's definitely not the whole context.
The context is as follows:
a. We were warned that in the last days people would laugh at the whole notion of a second coming, since it has been so long a time.
b. These people who laugh have forgotten that this world was already judged once. Another judgment is definitely not out of order, and is coming.
c. Though it seems like a long time to us, in the Lord's way of reckoning it is not all that long.
d. This extended period of time has to do with the calling out of His people ("us", v.9). He has a people who are elected, chosen, in every generation. He will not bring the curtain down until all of them have come into the fold.
e. When they have all come in, it will be quitting time. Until then, the Father waits a long time for us, not willing that any of His own should perish but that all would come to repentance.
"All", like "world" above, is a word that lends itself to many meanings in Scripture. David said that "all men are liars." Was he including himself? Then is the statement true? When Paul was told he would be a witness to "all" men (Acts 22:15), was it every single man of all time? Obviously not.
Sometimes "all" includes every class of men, rather than all individuals. Which leads us to I Timothy 2.4-6...
"[God] desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth... Jesus Christ, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time..."
Comparing these words of Paul to those in Titus 2:14 gives us a bit of a different flavor...
"[Jesus Christ]... gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
So who did Jesus give Himself for?
Then there's II Corinthians 5:14-15.
"For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him Who died for them and rose again."
This passage is a little more transparent now, don't you think? Who is the "all"? Is it not the same as the "them" ? And who are "they"? The same as "us" . Jesus died for all of us who believe, and all of us must learn not to live for ourselves because of what He did for us.
One more "all" passage: I Timothy 4:10.
"...God, Who is the Saviour of all men , especially of those who believe."
I don't think any of us believe that Jesus will take all to Heaven. This verse does not even mention the Saviour from sin, but is about "God" who saves and preserves all people for His purposes. His eye is especially on His own people, of course.
Verse 8 talks of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Our living God cares about all men in the life that now is, and in particular will care for His own in the life that is to come.
7. What about the "warning" passages of Hebrews? If Calvin and the others got it right, why is it suggested that we can lose our salvation? And then there's Paul, saying we can be cut off from the "tree". Just how secure is this salvation?
I remind you that I am giving the difficulties first. When I come to the constant flow of passages that talk of our security, you will see just how secure we are!
But since you asked, let's look at the tough words of Hebrews, like in chapter 2...
2:3 "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"
Answer. We won't. If we neglect it, we won't.
But, the elect will not neglect it. And herein is a piece of the puzzle overlooked by most. There is nothing "automatic" about the call of God. He uses what the scholars called "means" to get us from here to there. He places in our hearts all the desire, and in our pathway all the circumstances, and in His Word all the power we need to fulfill His calling. We will make it. We will not neglect it. Because if we would, we would not escape.
Then why is this passage even here? Again, it's here as a part of the plan of God for your holiness and perfection. As the elect, you will read this word and repent of any foolishness that is in your life. Those who are not His own may read right over such a passage or not read it at all. The Word is just one of the "means" He uses to bring you along the way to Heaven.
Hebrews 6 gets a little more intense...
vs 4-6. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance..."
As the man in the parable of the sower, who heard the word, and loved it so much! Tasted of the heavenly gift, that is, read the Word, enjoyed the moving of the Spirit in the meetings, frequented prayer groups. Partakers of the Holy Spirit: "Did we not do many mighty works in your Name?" Saul of old shows us it is possible to have "manifestations" without fruit. Tasted the word of God and the powers of the age to come: Heard the exciting sermons about the coming of Jesus, loved the promises of Heaven.
These people were close, oh so close. But not His own. Not the elect.
See verse 9: "We are confident of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner."
Things that accompany salvation: Christ is Lord of all my life. I abide in the vine every day and bear fruit from the Holy Spirit. I am sanctified, set apart by that Spirit. I do not love this world.
This was a different class of people altogether. There was a bunch, and still is, who love the externals, but do not want this message to touch and change the heart. The first group is not saved. The second is. But they are all in "church" together, and warnings like this come to the whole assembly to divide sheep from goats, wheat from tares. Perhaps some elect in the first group are stirred by this letter to get to the second group post haste. This would then be another "means" of them getting there.
How about 10:26?
"If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment..."
If there is a person in the assembly who has come close to plunging in, based on the knowledge he has acquired since his beginning with them, but, again as the person in Jesus' parable of the soils, he doesn't go deep enough to be fully one of Christ's, and he is choked out by the cares of this life before any fruit can be born, where shall he go? There is no other sacrifice for sin. He almost was persuaded by Jesus, but no, he turns away and continues in his sin.
We'll discuss Paul's "tree" question when we get to the book of Romans.
8. What about evangelism? If everyone's position is already secured, why bother telling anyone anything?
Remember above our mention of means. What God has decreed, He has decreed to be done by the methods He gave us.
The Spirit and the Bride(the church) say come. The Spirit persuades while men preach . All that the Father gives to the Son will come to the Son. The one who hears agrees, is made willing.
If God truly planned to save all, He could have devised a plan whereby all would hear. In fact all have not heard. Many will not hear in the future. But the Gospel will be preached in all the world, though not to every individual. We are led of the Spirit to preach where God has many people ordained, as was Paul.
God uses means: warnings, Scripture, prayer, circumstances, friends, enemies, all to accomplish His will.
As to method of evangelism, sinners need to hear of God's holiness and wrath first, and their need of a Saviour, not undefined unqualified "love."
We must remember that all are condemned already, have broken God's law, deserve to die. Without an elect race called out, all will perish!
The Gospel is a proclamation. not just a begging invitation. We preach to all because God's elect are scattered everywhere. This is how God divides the world's wheat from its chaff, this is how a restraining power is placed on earth's sins, and this preaching, and men's responses to it, demonstrates the evil hearts of men.
We simply go and preach. Just obey!
9. Is God not a "respecter of persons" if He chooses some and does not choose others? No , He chooses all kinds of people.
3. EVEN HARDER QUESTIONS.
Soon we will go to the Word, cover to cover, table of contents to concordance, and find what we can find of the sovereignty of God, His plan, His secure promises, His decrees. But before we do, let me challenge even my own thinking, lest I become too over-confident that my way is right and there is no more searching to do. Maybe there is a reader or two in this same condition.
Consider these questions, some from Arthur Pink, brilliant scholar of the last century, some from my own curiosity. Do you know the answers?
1. Are God's will and decree dependent on mine?
2. Did God decree first, then foresee?
3. Does foreseen/foreknown imply fore-planned, designed, decreed? Meaning the only way God could know something for sure is if He willed it to be so?
4. Why does God overcome the will of some but not others? Many are called but few are chosen. Are we ever told why? Do we need to be told? Is human merit ever a part of the choice? God shows his anger when Israel is bad, and judges them. Would not His election have anything to do with works?
5. Why did God call Noah and Job? Were they not righteous in their own way? Or did God make them righteous after He called them?
6. If God knew some would be damned, why create them in the first place? (This question applies to Calvinists and Arminians both.)
7. If men are compelled to action by God, how are they responsible? How can a sinner be held responsible for doing what he is unable to do because of total depravity?
8. How can God decree men shall sin, hold them responsible, and then call them guilty because they sin?
9. How is a sinner held responsible to receive Christ, then damned for rejecting Him, when God foreordained him to condemnation?
10. Can men resist the outer words of prophets etc, but not the inner workings of the Spirit?
11. Is "hardening" judical (punishment), or simply based on His will?
In spite of all these difficult scenarios and seemingly incomprehensible ways, the Scriptures I will now share with you cause them all to be asked, regarding the nature of our God. We must not allow our own flawed judgment to interfere. Somehow we must put aside our cultural past, our theological past, and so much more. This is a monumental task, but in Christ it is possible.
