Last week’s concluding Scripture in this blog posting was Ephesians 2:8, 9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith
, and that (faith is) not of yourselves (not anything you have of your own), it (that faith) is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”.
I interpreted these two verses to be telling us that we can neither muster enough careful obedience, nor scholarly reason, nor even the simple faith to believe the gospel! We cannot even “make a decision for Christ” on our own—until God Himself opens our eyes and gifts us with faith!
I concluded my posting with this statement: “And HE WILL DO SO, in His own time and in His own way! We are all on different paths to the “City With Foundations,” but make no mistake, we will all arrive there! You and I are like Little Children, destined to be a part of God’s Children’s Crusade.”
I did not believe this final statement until I was almost 70. I accurately called myself a Reformed, Charismatic, non-traditional-church Christian, and the small churches I was involved in followed that pattern. I was happy, content, and seemingly successful,, ministry-wise.
UNTIL—God threw a monkey wrench in my plans! He uprooted me and moved me on to a brand new camp-ground where I learned shockingly new truth on my journey to the City with Foundations.
Here’s how He did so. One day, I ran into an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in some 30 years, who gave me a book to read. I reluctantly agreed to do so, planning to skim it, and then return it to my friend with an explanation of why it wasn’t true. After all, the topic of the book was EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALISM, which teaches that Hell is real but not eternal, and ultimately all mankind will be saved!
The problem was that my initial skim of the book yielded no extra-biblical claims I could disprove and there were no Scriptures obviously misapplied. New perspectives, yes, but no obviously false interpretations.
This book, Hope Beyond Hell, by Gerry Beauchemin, ignited a 3-5 year search as I, along with another friend on a similar search, read some eight other books on the topic, “Is Hell everlasting punishment?”
Finally,, very hesitatingly and reluctantly, I had to admit that, yes, I did believe that Hell, while real and just as terrible as the Bible describes, was not God’s final, everlasting, PUNITIVE, PUNISHMENT. Instead, Hell is God’s temporary, loving, REDEMPTIVE DISCIPLINE!
Since this blog is not a format for a detailed study of what I discovered, I would like to offer, free of charge, a PDF copy of my 63 page summary of the evidence that made me a “reluctant Evangelical Universalist (EU).” Simply click here: Limitless Grace – A New Look at Hell (1).pdf
This booklet contains a bibliography of all the books I studied, including the original, Hope Beyond Hell. A new, recent book written by a good friend, Mark Beeksma, Ultimate Reconciliation – God’s Relentless Love for All, is also available through Amazon. This book is particularly good at tracing why and how the majority of the church strayed from the truth concerning Hell in the 5th/6th century.
After my three year investigation, I realized that I had nothing to do with my new belief. I made no decisions, no choices—I made no conscious efforts whatsoever. I was a complete prisoner of what my Heavenly Father was showing me in my heart, and I found myself telling others. I could not remain silent!
Over the last 10 years, I have found myself so satisfied with my full embrace of EU that I never even think about it. I cannot even imagine believing anything else. To think that the God who tells me to “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) would then send His enemies to everlasting torment makes absolutely no sense and I couldn’t believe that if I tried!
As a matter of fact, I now see everyone I meet as a future brother or sister in Christ, who may not yet know what God has already given him. God may use me to wake him or her up: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:14). “Witnessing” is always only an announcement of what has already happened, never an invitation to do something. Only God can wake us up when He decides to do so!
Next week I want to investigate a few Scripture passages that solidify the claims of Evangelical Universalism.
