Although John Wesley is not on record as a universalist, he was greatly influenced by the Moravians, many of whom were universalists. He quoted from Sixteen Discourses (Moravian Literature), the following statement, “By his (Christ’s) name, all can and shall obtain life and salvation.” One of Wesley’s intimate friends, Peter Bohler wrote: “All the damned souls shall yet be brought up out of hell.” (Bohler was made the Bishop of American Moravians, next in rank to Zinzendorf).
Actually, the Entire Sanctification soteriology of John Wesley was basically a Westernized explanation of the ancient doctrine of Theosis, preserved in the Orthodox churches, which Wesley studied (I expect Wesley initially came into contact with it via the Moravians, who were not merely the oldest Protestant denomination, but were also a denomination that specifically came into being because of the extreme dissatisfaction of Bohemian Christians, who had historically been Eastern Orthodox, at having Latin Rite Catholicism imposed on them; Jan Hus and his followers, who eventually became Moravian, were basically seeking a restoration of those things which Eastern Orthodoxy gave and Roman Catholicism took away, namely, communion in both species, and a vernacular liturgy). Indeed, Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague were recently glorified (canonized) as saints in the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
It should be stressed very strongly that neither the Moravians, nor the Methodists, nor the Eastern Orthodox, are Universalist, indeed, the recent outbreak of universalism in Eastern Orthodoxy is patently absurd when one reads various EO texts on the ascetic life, on temptation and on spiritual delusion, and also when one contemplates certain Eastern Orthodox icons such as the Ladder of Divine Ascent. So the unfortunate embrace of universalism by the likes of David Bentley Hart is utterly baffling.
The Reformer Martin Luther had hope for all. In his letter to Hanseu Von Rechenberg in 1522, Luther wrote: "God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to the present life. In the depth of the Divine mercy there may be opportunity to win it in the future." Bengel's book, Gnomon, quotes Luther's exposition of Hosea as accepting the idea that Christ appeared to souls of some who in the time of Noah had been unbelieving, that they might recognize that their sins were forgiven through His sacrifice.
It should be stressed that hope for all is not the same as universalism. I myself hope everyone repents. However, based on scripture, I also have to acknowledge, as Martin Luther and John Wesley did, that this is extremely unlikely, because there are some people who despise God and, consumed by that hate, set themselves against him eternally, so that the consuming fire of God’s infinite love is experienced by them as agonizing torture (God, being pure love, does not seek to inflict pain; rather, it is the self-originated evil nature of reprobates who, having chosen to hate God rather than embrace His transformative and salvific love, which causes them to be tortured). The words of CS Lewis, who most definitely was not a Universalist, seem apt here: “The gates of Hell are locked on the inside.”
... Since 1800 this situation has entirely changed, and no traditional doctrine has been so widely abandoned as that of eternal punishment.
That is inaccurate. The majority of serious contemporary theologians across the different denominations, including N.T. Wright*, Pope Benedict XVI (during his career as a scholar and as Cardinal Prefect of the Holy Office, during which time he published many books before being elected Pope in 2005), Karl Barth**, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia, Dr. Albert Mohler, and a great many others, reject the idea of universal salvation.
Conversely, a believe that apokatasis was absolutely inevitable was held by several early church fathers, such as Origen, and to a much lesser extent, St. Gregory of Nyssa. This belief was also at one time prevalent in the Church of the East, sometimes erroneously called the Nestorian Church, being articulated in the writings of St. Isaac the Syrian (who is venerated not just by the Church of the East, but also by the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox and the Roman Catholics, among others) and in the
Book of the Bee, a summarized history of creation, the Church and eschatology, by the bishop Mar Solomon Akhlat Bassora.
Its advocates among theologians today must be fewer than ever before.... Among the less conservative, universal salvation, either as hope or as dogma, is now so widely accepted that many theologians assume it virtually without argument." --Richard J. Bauckham, lecturer in the history of Christian thought at the University of Manchester
Among the minority of ultra-liberal, neo-Gnostic “theologians” like Elaine Pagels or Karen King, perhaps, but not among the mainstream theologians whose work actually matters to Christians outaide of the tiny, fast-shrinking bubble of the dying mainline denominations.
Dr. J.I. Packer has noted that Universalism "has in this century quietly become part of the orthodoxy of many Christian thinkers and groups."
There is nothing “orthodox” about Universalism.
I know of only one “denomination”, and I use the term loosely, that officially embraces universalism, and that is the apostate Unitarian Universalist Association. The UUs are a non-Christian cult which took over many of the oldest Congregational churches in New England in the 18th century, initially adhering to a heretical (contrary to the Nicene Creed, the CF.com statement of faith) Unitarian Christology, before degenerating into transcendentalism under the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson (who was a Unitarian minister before quitting in protest over it being too Christian for his rarefied tastes...seriously, you can’t make this stuff up) and then merging with the Universalist Church, which prior to its merger with the Unitarians had been nominally Christian, but this is no longer really the case. While there are some remaining heterodox Unitarian Christian parishes in the UUA, like King’s Chapel in Boston, I am not aware of a single parish in the UUA which has a normal Nicene Christology. On the other hand, a great many are seriously into neo-Paganism, Wicca and other occult practices, and many others have atheist “reverends.”
Unofficially, one will find a number of universalists in the “mainline” denominations, however, even the United Church of Christ has not formally dogmatized universalism.
D. B. Eller asserts in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology that it is clear that "Universalism, in a variety of forms, continues to have appeal for contemporary faith, in both liberal and conservative circles."
The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology not withstanding, within the evangelical movement universalism is definitely not a mainstream movement. Indeed, one of the central messages and motivations for the evangelical movement, which is reflected throughout the movement, underpinning the sermons of the late Rev. Billy Graham (Requiescat in Pace), and motivating the piety of the lay faithful, is a desire to spread the Gospel so as to save sinners through faith in Jesus Christ, so that they might be spared eternal damnation.
"We have not an impotent Father, or a disappointed Christ, or a defeated Holy Ghost, as is so commonly preached; but an omnipotent Father, and all-victorious Christ, and an almighty Holy Spirit, able to break the hardest of heart and subdue the stoutest will." Dr. E.W. Bullinger, The Companion Bible
Dr. E.W. Bullinger was perhaps the strangest and most eccentric man ever to serve as a priest in the Church of England. His strange beliefs included both astrology and numerology, and he was also a Flat Earther. He is not at present regarded as a particularly important, credible or relevant theologian.
Outside of the realm of Eastern Orthodoxy, where there is a problem with some intellectuals like Dr. David Bentley Hart and some otherwise insignificant priests defying the hierarchy and Holy Tradition as defined by the ecumenical councils and doctrinal definitions relied on by the Orthodox churches, none of which has recognized universalism as being anything other than a heresy, a far more common and pressing concern, in terms of departures from traditional, normative eschatological orthodoxy is annihilationism, which, alas, has become increasingly common in some Restorationist denominations, for example, the SDAs, but which cannot be correlated to the
consensus patrum of the early church.
