More on Universalism

A friendly dialogue has opened on another thread. I cut and paste here my last response regarding Universalism after the double destiny belief had been argued for.

The only unequivocal statement found in the Bible concerning the character of God is "God is Love". Is love. The two are one. Co-eternal. Such attributes as justice can be inferred, but not in the same manner as that God IS Love.

Some would speak of the need for justice and imply the need for some eternal divine harmony of Justice/Mercy that testifies forever to the totality of God.

One thing Jesus told us was that every hair on our heads has been numbered - the pure primacy of the individual. And yet if we speak of some sort of Aesthetic Harmony surely we lose sight of the unique individual, of God's love for each?

And what of the perfection of the Christian saint? The second greatest commandment ("like the first") is to love our neighbours as ourselves. Is the final perfection of the redeemed, the saved, to be able to be in bliss when most of their "neighbours" in this life are in torment? Does God perform some sort of lobotomy to allow the redeemed to rejoice eternally?

Give thought to these things. And remember that Sola Scriptura is "a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice." (Wiki) If we do not subscribe to such a doctrine, such a particular theology then our mind/hearts can open to the Universal Christ witnessed to throughout our whole world's Faith Traditions.

Thank you if you have read this far.....😀

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pipedreams

And finally a few words of the Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart, from his book "That All Shall Be Saved", a book in which he lists 23 New Testament verses/passages that support the Universalist position. Mr Hart has himself translated the New Testament from the original Greek and therefore knows the text in detail.

His words, from the Introduction to his book:-

In truth, the notion of eternal torment is so unquestionably, resplendently warped and irrational that every defense of it ever made, throughout the whole of Christian history, has been a bad one. We may deceive ourselves that we have heard good arguments in its favor, but only because we have already made the existential decision to believe in hell’s eternity no matter what—or, really, because that decision was made for us before we were old enough to think for ourselves. Even many otherwise competent philosophers have, under the impulse of faith, convinced themselves and others of the solvency of arguments that, viewed dispassionately, scarcely rise to the level of pious gibberish. It has always all been a mirage. So, if one can make oneself retract that initial surrender to the abysmally ludicrous, even for only a moment, one will discover that all apologetics for the infernalist orthodoxy consist in claims that no truly rational person should take seriously. Every one of them is an exercise in self-delusion, self-hypnosis, pacification of the conscience, stupefaction of the moral intelligence—and nothing else.

Mr Hart pulls no punches.