SALVATION-UNIVERSALISM
Universalism
has never been widely accepted by those who take the Scriptures seriously.
Obviously if this teaching were true, there would be no pressing reason to
fulfill the Great Commission or to urge unbelievers to accept Christ in this
life.
Erwin Lutzer
Taken from One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer,
Moody Publishers, 1997, p. 101.
No
evangelical, I think, need hesitate to admit that in his heart of hearts he
would like universalism to be true. Who can take pleasure in the thought of
people being eternally lost? If you want to see folk damned, there is something
wrong with you! Universalism is thus a comfortable doctrine in a way that
alternatives are not. But wishful thinking, based on a craving for comfort and
a reluctance to believe that some of God’s truth might be tragic, is no sure
index of reality.
J.I.
Packer
Cited in: Evangelical Affirmations by Kenneth
Kantzer and Carl F.H. Henry, Zondervan, 1990, p.
107-108, www.zondervan.com.
Evangelicals
know that the power behind the eighteenth century revivals and the great
nineteenth century missionary movement was prayer, and that the prayer was made
out of hearts agonizing over the prospect of all who leave this world without
Christ being lost. Was such prayer misconceived? uninstructed?
foolish? wrong-headed? An
evangelical who values his heritage must ponder that question, recognizing that
if universalism is true all that missionary passion and praying was founded on
a monstrous mistake.
J.I Packer
Cited in: Evangelical Affirmations by Kenneth Kantzer and Carl F.H. Henry, Zondervan, 1990, p. 107-108, www.zondervan.com.
Universalism originated in the Garden of Eden when Satan
brushed aside God’s warning and assured Eve, “You will not surely die” (Gen.
3:4)… All the ways to hell are one-way streets. The idea that those who go
there will eventually be released to join the rest of humanity in heaven has
not a shred of biblical evidence to support it. Children are sometimes told
fictional adventure stories with the delightful ending: “And they all lived
happily ever after.” We call that kind of story a fairy tale. Universalism is
exactly that.
John Blanchard
Whatever
Happened to Hell? Evangelical Press, 1993, p. 204, 208.
Used by Permission.
[Universalism teaches] if God really
loves the whole world and desires everyone to be saved, it follows logically
that everyone must have access to salvation. Those who do not have sufficient
access in this life will have it in the next. And if they then reject God’s
grace, their fate is extermination, not eternal condemnation.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p.11. Used by permission.
Although we
can sympathize with the desires of universalists that
all be saved, we must label universalism a false teaching. In fact,
universalism flies in the face of Scripture and deliberately avoids much of the
biblical evidence.
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p.156. Used by permission.
Jesus
underscores the fact that death seals one’s fate, when He says to the
Pharisees, “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed
die in your sins” (John 8:24). Hebrews 9:27 agrees: “Man is destined to die
once, and after that to face judgment.”
Robert
A. Peterson
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal
Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p.150. Used by permission.