What Advantage is there to believing in Universal Salvation?
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By Gary Amirault
I was asked the above question by someone looking into the scriptural teaching of universal salvation, that is, that Jesus Christ will ultimately save everyone. Here's my answer:
Gary : Good question. You become what you eat. You become what you worship. If you worship an idol, you will manifest the foolishness of idolatry. The bible speaks of "works prepared from the foundation of the world" for us to walk in. If we are speaking to an idol, we are not speaking to the ONE who has prepared these wondrous works to walk in. We are not lining up with His walk for us, we are lining up with a false image of God and will produce works in line with a lie.
If the image of my god is a failure, then how can I become anything greater? To sin is to miss the mark. If the mark of Jesus is to be the savior of the world and He missed the mark, then He's a failure and you will become like him. This will have a profound impact on how you look at yourself, the world, your Maker and your future and the futures of those around you. Most Christians can excuse their rotten behavior because they are acting just like the god they worship. Their god is a hypocrite who tells others to overcome their enemies with love yet He has purposed to torture all of His. So they discount the love part and major on the vengeance part. Therefore they don't REALLY have to overcome their enemies with love because they know their god can't. Nice excuse. And most Christians love living this lie. Look at the warlike nature of Western evangelicalism. They've become like their god. They trust in their weapons, their nationalism, their gods are patriotism, the nation of Israel , racism, etc.
Well, the bible calls me to find a way of overcoming my enemies with love. I don't understand often how to do that and I fail much of the time, but I can't fall back on an excuse that I don't really have to try very hard because my god doesn't try very hard either. Gee, for most Christians, god gives heathen one chance, if they heard the gospel once from some double-talking hypocrite who hands them a turn or burn tract, that's it, off to the barbeque pit for you. I gave you your chance. Now you "deserve" to go to hell.
Know why most Christians can't evangelize? They are embarrassed by their gospel and their image of god. He is such a wimp, such a hypocrite and they have become like their idol, not much to boast about. And as soon as the sincere questions come about, they get embarrassed at their inability to give a reasonable answer so very quickly they give up and hire professional hit men to do the evangelizing for them. They are called "evangelists."
The Bible has much to say about the nature and character of God AND His plan of salvation. It is VITAL that we read the Bible through His nature and character because that will determine what we see. If we have been programmed through false doctrines to see certain things, then we will make an idol in our hearts and see the scriptures falsely. Most Christians, when they read the word "judgment", for example, their minds automatically go to a great white throne with millions upon millions being thrown into eternal flames. Yet the word judgment is quite neutral in the Bible, often not negative at all. "When God's judgments are in the earth, it will LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS." Sounds good to me. Yet because they have been brain washed a certain way through movies, Sunday school, diabolical books like "Late Great Planet Earth" etc, they twist plain scriptures to their own destruction. They can't see what is plainly written, "God WILL have all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." Oh, it can't possibly mean that! The word WILL really means "desires." God "desires" all to be saved but he can't really do it. Yet the Bible makes it quite plain God's will AND His desires WILL ultimately be fulfilled whether we are able to presently see it or not. Some have faith to see, many don't.
You become what you worship. The teaching of Hell, mischaracterizes the very heart of God and turns the incorruptible image of the perfect God into a very corruptible image of the heart of fallen man. Worshipping an image of a savior who is really no savior at all is idolatry. Go look up what God thinks about idolatry. Take it to heart. Take it seriously. Don't justify yourself. It's a serious matter! Nothing to be flippant about, yet when I bring the seriousness of the issue right into their faces, they run, they throw out nasty names, they do not want to look at the nakedness and emptiness of their idols because they are a reflection of what is really in their hearts....nothing of eternal substance. They've squandered all their time into dead religious works. They have become blind, dumb and naked while thinking they were rich, well clothed and in need of nothing.
In summary, believing in a savior that loses most of mankind is plain old idolatry and here is your outcome. At least I have chance, with a correct view of God, to get a little closer to the "mark" than one whose god is an utter failure and hypocrite:
1 John 5:21 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Ezekiel 22:1-3 KJV Ezekiel 22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations. 3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
Note that these idols are in the HEARTS of man. There is where true idolatry lies:
Ezekiel 14:1-5 KJV Ezekiel 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
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