Who’s Sovereign in Salvation? – Part 2 – Universalism Continued

In Part 1 we learned what Universalism was, and we considered the Scriptures pressed into service on its behalf. Here in Part 2 we’ll consider another argument given by Universalists, one that is particularly popular in our culture: that a loving God would never eternally punish people for their sins.

There are two problems with this view: first, the Scriptures expressly teach that God DOES judge people for their sins (Heb. 9:2 7, Ecc. 11:9, Acts 17:31, Rev. 20:11-15, 2 Pet. 2:9, Mat. 23:33, Prov. 11:2 1; Mark 9:43-46).

Second, Universalists pit God’s love against His justice. The Scriptures teach that God is both loving (1 John 4:8) and just (Rom. 3:26). However, God would not be loving if he allowed injustice to triumph, nor would He be just if He allowed sin to go unpunished or inadequately punished.

Here’s an example: Let’s say that someone kills your family. Later, in the name of love, the court releases the perpetrator. Would you be satisfied? Of course not. You would demand justice—and you should have it. For it would be unjust, and also unloving, for the man not have a penalty commensurate with his crime.

People are prone not to think about this. But God’s judgment exists and will be dreadful, terrible, and eternally destructive of everything that is not good.

John Owen (1616 - 1683)

Conclusion

As we saw in Part 1, the Scriptures put forth do not teach Universalism. We now see that Universalism is inconsistent with both God’s love and his just character. Therefore, all men are not saved, and God never intended on saving all men.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where we’ll take a look at the Five Points of Arminianism.

--The Catechizer