ChristianUniversalism.com represents a community of believers who have come to see that everything we had ever dared hope about God is indeed what the Scriptures reveal! We have also come to realize that the Evangelical Church itself has been teaching this in various ways, moving and converging together into one comprehensive view of the God of the universe…
In fact, the Evangelical Church is presently providing the theological foundation for Christian universalism in at least ten areas. All is being taught at the same time …but not yet all in the same place!
The Church is currently proclaiming and teaching us:
1. That God is all-loving and that Christ’s blood was shed for every person who ever lived. That God’s heart is a heart of love and that He desires all men to be saved. (Arminianism)
2. That God is all-powerful and sovereign over His creation and no desire of His can be thwarted. That Christ’s atonement was effectual for everyone for whom He died. (Calvinism/Reformed faith)
3. That the purpose of being chosen or elected by God is not for ourselves but to be a blessing to the world as taught in Gen 12:3. (The missional movement)
4. The belief that every person is made in the image of God which leads us to see that, “we do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God” (Tim Keller). He continues, “The Biblical gospel of Jesus necessarily and powerfully leads to a passion for justice in the world…If God’s character includes a zeal for justice that leads Him to have the tenderest love and closest involvement with the socially weak, then what should God’s people be like?” From Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (the social justice movement)
5. That “restorative justice” ought to replace punitive justice in our prisons leading us to see the nature and goal of true Biblical justice as returning what is wrong to its “right-useness.” While punitive justice (called secondary or rectifying justice) may need to be applied the ultimate end we are told is for repentance, restoration and reconciliation which is God’s primary justice. (the restorative justice movement)
6. The return to the Resurrection as the “lynchpin” of our faith focusing on its centrality and implications for personal holiness, community, evangelism and cultural change. We are being shown how the Resurrection was the preeminent theme of the Early Church and means of power for personal and cultural transformation. (see “The Cross Is Not Enough” by Clifford and Johnson)
7. The Church is being more honest than ever about their desire for Christian Universalism to be true. While they affirm what they believe Scripture to say about an eternal hell they are not holding back from saying that it troubles them greatly and that they “wish it were not true.” God says “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Our collective desire is a huge indicator that God has indeed written it on our hearts!
8. The theme of total restoration is found in more and more worship songs. We are regularly singing about “all things new” and “You make beautiful things out of dust” (Gungor). Mercy Me sings, “All of creation sing with me now…every knee will bow, every tongue will praise the Father, praise the Son and the Spirit in One.” Hillsong’s last album is just brimming with songs of ultimate restoration and, “all of the universe at Your feet.” See many more examples here: God's Love Wins
9. The balance of a Systematic Theology approach with the Story of God as a method for looking at the Bible as a whole. We are being led to see that the Bible is not a bunch of rules with stories throughout but rather One Grand Story with principles sprinkled throughout. This approach reveals more clearly the history and path of God as a missionary God continually pursuing His creation. (Biblical Storying method, see echothestory.com)
10. The Church’s emphasis on a more cosmic redemption involving the entire created order and the belief that Christ’s death was to restore the universe eradicating all evil, sin and decay. This naturally begs the question of where do you place “a world of damned people” (billions) who traditionally we have been taught will be consigned to eternal death in a location in God’s universe called hell? Well, we just don’t talk about it. Listen to a sample of the overriding restoration language of Christianity Today editor, Mark Galli,
“To be holy means to be set apart for divine purposes. God wants nothing less than all creation, which is now subject to decay, futility, and corruption, to become sanctified, alive, and completely dedicated to His purposes.” Jesus Mean and Wild (pg. 44)
Tim Keller is continually weighing in on this theme frequently quoting the line from The Lord of the Rings, “everything sad is going to come untrue.” Hear this quote from The Reason for God:
“How then, will the story of human history end? At the end of the final book of the Bible, we see the very opposite of what other religions predict. We do not see the illusion of the world melt away nor do we see spiritual souls escaping the physical world into heaven. Rather, we see heaven descending into our world to unite with it and purify it of all its brokenness and imperfection. It will be a “new heavens and a new earth.” The prophet Isaiah depicts this as a new Garden of Eden, in which there is again absolute harmony of humanity with nature and the end of all injury, disease, and death.”
Tim Keller, The Reason for God (pg 232)
So there you have it, either you must conclude that every church represents a different God within a different religion or you can let yourself see the big picture: That God is, in His fullness, all of the above. Which aspects would you leave out? All together they form the worldview of “Christian Universalism” or “Ultimate Restoration.”
“We don’t have it all together but together we have it all.”
In fact, the Evangelical Church is presently providing the theological foundation for Christian universalism in at least ten areas. All is being taught at the same time …but not yet all in the same place!
The Church is currently proclaiming and teaching us:
1. That God is all-loving and that Christ’s blood was shed for every person who ever lived. That God’s heart is a heart of love and that He desires all men to be saved. (Arminianism)
2. That God is all-powerful and sovereign over His creation and no desire of His can be thwarted. That Christ’s atonement was effectual for everyone for whom He died. (Calvinism/Reformed faith)
3. That the purpose of being chosen or elected by God is not for ourselves but to be a blessing to the world as taught in Gen 12:3. (The missional movement)
4. The belief that every person is made in the image of God which leads us to see that, “we do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God” (Tim Keller). He continues, “The Biblical gospel of Jesus necessarily and powerfully leads to a passion for justice in the world…If God’s character includes a zeal for justice that leads Him to have the tenderest love and closest involvement with the socially weak, then what should God’s people be like?” From Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (the social justice movement)
5. That “restorative justice” ought to replace punitive justice in our prisons leading us to see the nature and goal of true Biblical justice as returning what is wrong to its “right-useness.” While punitive justice (called secondary or rectifying justice) may need to be applied the ultimate end we are told is for repentance, restoration and reconciliation which is God’s primary justice. (the restorative justice movement)
6. The return to the Resurrection as the “lynchpin” of our faith focusing on its centrality and implications for personal holiness, community, evangelism and cultural change. We are being shown how the Resurrection was the preeminent theme of the Early Church and means of power for personal and cultural transformation. (see “The Cross Is Not Enough” by Clifford and Johnson)
7. The Church is being more honest than ever about their desire for Christian Universalism to be true. While they affirm what they believe Scripture to say about an eternal hell they are not holding back from saying that it troubles them greatly and that they “wish it were not true.” God says “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Our collective desire is a huge indicator that God has indeed written it on our hearts!
8. The theme of total restoration is found in more and more worship songs. We are regularly singing about “all things new” and “You make beautiful things out of dust” (Gungor). Mercy Me sings, “All of creation sing with me now…every knee will bow, every tongue will praise the Father, praise the Son and the Spirit in One.” Hillsong’s last album is just brimming with songs of ultimate restoration and, “all of the universe at Your feet.” See many more examples here: God's Love Wins
9. The balance of a Systematic Theology approach with the Story of God as a method for looking at the Bible as a whole. We are being led to see that the Bible is not a bunch of rules with stories throughout but rather One Grand Story with principles sprinkled throughout. This approach reveals more clearly the history and path of God as a missionary God continually pursuing His creation. (Biblical Storying method, see echothestory.com)
10. The Church’s emphasis on a more cosmic redemption involving the entire created order and the belief that Christ’s death was to restore the universe eradicating all evil, sin and decay. This naturally begs the question of where do you place “a world of damned people” (billions) who traditionally we have been taught will be consigned to eternal death in a location in God’s universe called hell? Well, we just don’t talk about it. Listen to a sample of the overriding restoration language of Christianity Today editor, Mark Galli,
“To be holy means to be set apart for divine purposes. God wants nothing less than all creation, which is now subject to decay, futility, and corruption, to become sanctified, alive, and completely dedicated to His purposes.” Jesus Mean and Wild (pg. 44)
Tim Keller is continually weighing in on this theme frequently quoting the line from The Lord of the Rings, “everything sad is going to come untrue.” Hear this quote from The Reason for God:
“How then, will the story of human history end? At the end of the final book of the Bible, we see the very opposite of what other religions predict. We do not see the illusion of the world melt away nor do we see spiritual souls escaping the physical world into heaven. Rather, we see heaven descending into our world to unite with it and purify it of all its brokenness and imperfection. It will be a “new heavens and a new earth.” The prophet Isaiah depicts this as a new Garden of Eden, in which there is again absolute harmony of humanity with nature and the end of all injury, disease, and death.”
Tim Keller, The Reason for God (pg 232)
So there you have it, either you must conclude that every church represents a different God within a different religion or you can let yourself see the big picture: That God is, in His fullness, all of the above. Which aspects would you leave out? All together they form the worldview of “Christian Universalism” or “Ultimate Restoration.”
“We don’t have it all together but together we have it all.”
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