A Biblical Case for Universalism

When discussing religion, and specifically Christianity, there are two major meanings for the term “universalism”. The first is the idea that certain ideas or teachings have universal application, essentially the belief that some things transcend individual traditions. I have addressed, and will continue to address, this topic through my discussions on perennialism. The second meaning for “universalism” is the belief that all beings will eventually find salvation in God. Today, I am discussing the latter definition.

There have been numerous understandings of salvation throughout Christian history. The most common view today is that some will be saved and some will be damned. However, even that view has permutations. For example, some believe in eternal conscious torment while other believe in annihilationism, which states that the souls of the damn will be entirely destroyed by God after the final judgement. And within annihilationism there are those who believe in immediate annihilation and those who believed in a postponed annihilation which will take place after a period of punishment. There are also those who believe that there is no such thing as a separate place for the damned and that their suffering is instead a result of the blinding presence of God being felt as a consuming fire by the wicked. And I suppose there are those who believe this feeling of consuming fire lasts forever and those who believe it eventually subsides.

Regardless, there is a view opposed to all of these ideas: Universalism. However, I do want to oversimply this concept either. Within universalism there are also differences. There those who believe in immediate reconciliation of all souls and those who believe in eventual reconciliation. The latter are known as Purgatorial Universalists and typically believe that there is a period of punishment that must be undergone by the wicked before they can be reconciled to God.

Importantly, universalism has also been denounced as a heresy since the Council of Constantinople (543 C.E.). The reason for this is that universalism teaches all people will be ultimately saved, thus contradicting the core Christian claim that salvation belongs to those who have faith in Jesus Christ. If all are saved, then even those who rejected Christ in their lives, whether through action or deed, will still achieve salvation. Admittedly, that does feel like it undercuts the message. However, I feel this is a weakness is traditional (lower-case) “orthodox” Christianity. Good news that is only good for some is no Good News at all.

But, on to the Biblical case for universalism.

To begin, I will start with the Hebrew Bible, specifically Isaiah 56:7, a verse that is also cited by Jesus in Matthew 21:13 and Mark 11:17.

Even those I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

In this verse, we see God speaking of all nations. He declares his desire to bring all people together under one roof and make his house and house of prayer for all of them. I see this as an early hint towards the character of God as someone who does not want to let any of the people of the world go. Another hint comes at the end of Jonah’s story. Here, Jonah has been sent to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire and an enemy state to the Israelites, to preach repentance. Surely enough, the people repent and God shows mercy. Jonah, however, does not like this. Jonah chapter 4 reveals:

But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

The Lord then makes a plant to grow over Jonah and provide him shade. However, the next day, God causes the plant to wither and die. Again, Jonah is incensed.

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

In this chapter, we see a God who is “gracious and compassionate…slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” We also see that God cares for the people of Nineveh just as he does the Israelites because, as it is alluded, he tends them and makes them grow just as he did the plant. They are his concern and he loves them. And what of the exodus, the defining story of Jewish identity? Did God every provide for other nations in the same way?

Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?

Amos 9:7 sure seems to think so. And Deuteronomy 2:9 explicitly states that God gave other nations lands as inheritances:

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.

Even throughout the Hebrew Bible God is assisting other nations in their struggles, obviously caring for those even outside of the Nation of Israel. Of course, there is also plenty of violence ordered against these other nations, but I think that’s part of the beautiful tension of the Bible - the constant interplay between a God clearing shown to be deeply loving and universally caring, and a tribal society who is sure he is primarily on their side.

Either way, let’s put the Hebrew Bible to the side and turn our attention to the Christian scriptures. My first verse comes to us from the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant found in Matthew 8:21-35. In this parable we hear of a slave who is forgiven a debt to his master after pleading for mercy. However, that same slave, when being asked for mercy on a debt owed to him, does not bestow forgiveness. He is then arrested and his master says:

‘Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

The story ends with this reminder from Jesus:

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

This verse points to a version of purgatorial universalism. Yes, there is punishment, but it is specifically for the unmerciful and lasts only for the length of their “debt”. Of course, one could make the argument that the debt itself is somehow eternal, but I don’t believe that is really hinted at in this passage. It seems the clear reading is that the slave will, in fact, be freed eventually.

Earlier in Matthew, we also get an teaching from Jesus that…

Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

This verse (Matthew 5:19) seems to point to the notion that those who break the commandments and lead others astray - something I think many modern Christians would point to as a damnable offense - leads not to eternal separation from God, but rather to a lower status in heaven (Which really opens its own can of worms, if you think about it. There are levels of honor in heaven?"). The verse doesn’t say that these people won’t see the Kingdom of God, just that they will be called least in that kingdom.

And what does Paul say?

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 is discussing salvation. Paul tells us that we build on the foundation provided to us by Christ and that what we built is tested by God. However, he points out that even if these works are displeasing and therefore consumed by the testing flame, the builders themselves will survive. Maybe there will be pain, but there will ultimately be survival and reconciliation. In Philippians 2:10-11, Paul will also tell us…

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

And what of the Christian Bible’s most famous verse, John 3:16?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

These two verses together give me a lens for universal theology. If every knee shall bow and every tongue confess then it stands to reason that every person shall come to believe in Christ. And if every person believes in Christ, and Christ lays the foundation upon which those who believe in him build their works, and even those whose works are destroyed shall survive the fire so that in the end all “shall not perish but have eternal life”, then it seems to me that the New Testament as a collective points to a judgement that ultimately ends in all people being reconciled to God. Or, in other words, all will be saved.

However, I must also point out that the Gospel of Matthew also contains verse 25:46 which says:

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

And there are, of course, other verses pointing to unquenchable fire. While I would argue that a fire could be unquenchable despite the people being thrown into it not enduring it forever (either by being saved from it eventually or by being ultimately destroyed), I do have to concede that the Bible actually is not clear on this point. You can make an argument for an all-loving God who could not possibly torture people for eternity, but you can also make a case for a deeply justice-oriented God who must punish people for eternity.

This points to one of the biggest issues with Biblical interpretation. As much as people want to insist that the “Bible is clear” on whatever topic they are discussing, it very rarely is. And even at it’s most clear that seeming clarity can be quite deceptive. This is so much the case that even the Talmud, the Rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah (Oral Torah), contains Sanhedrin 17(a) which states:

None is to be given a seat on the Sanhedrin unless he is able to prove the cleanness of a sheretz (a creeping creature that is ritually impure).

What this rabbi is saying is that a truly proficient Biblical thinker could even find plausible proof to declare the unclean clean or vice versa. The Jews have always understood that the Bible is a collection of competing religious ideas and theologies. There is no single interpretation of the Bible and no single correct answer to any question. Even their ancient name reflects this. Israel means something akin to “one who wrestles with God”, and the Jews have always embraced that role. Their entire tradition is about wrestling with what it means to be God’s people. And Christians, as the “New Israel”, are meant to take up that mantle. And yet it is so often tossed it aside in favor of hardline creeds and dogmatic rigidity.

So, yes, I can make a brief biblical case for universal salvation, but I also fully recognize that my reading is only one of many, and not even close to being the only plausible one. Ultimately, however, my argument rests on one simple idea: God is love. And I simply can’t imagine a loving God ever creating a hell.