This quote has stuck with me over the past
couple of weeks, maybe because it is not just those who would like the Bible to teach universal salvation that see this type of thinking as the ultimate expression of moral goodness.
“What sort of a heart could approve of eternal death for
some? The doctrine of Universal Salvation teaches that all will have eternal
life, including Satan and the demons. And that one day, all will have the same
nature as God. What sort of a heart could not approve of Universal Salvation,
eternal life for all?”
Explicitly or between the lines, it boils down to this: anyone who wouldn’t grant eternal
bliss, joy, happiness and God-likeness to Satan, Hitler, Stalin and every liar
and murderer in human history that hates and rejects the Son of God is, well ... insufficiently morally developed.
Limitless Leniency
But is it really a given that a “loving” person ought to express limitless leniency and withhold judgment forever, despite being despised and rejected by men, and that such a person should uncritically and passively grant his enemies a blessed eternity even as they continue to spit in his face? Is no argument to the contrary even conceivable?
But is it really a given that a “loving” person ought to express limitless leniency and withhold judgment forever, despite being despised and rejected by men, and that such a person should uncritically and passively grant his enemies a blessed eternity even as they continue to spit in his face? Is no argument to the contrary even conceivable?
How far has our modern concept of “tolerance” been bent?
I think the answer is: Any heart that retains respect for the ancient concept of justice. And if we are to give any sort of serious weight in the discussion to the teaching of the word of God, it should become evident rather quickly that scripture is filled with cries for exactly that:
The Heart of the Cursed Earth
First, the earth itself, which groans under the burden of
the curse, cries out for justice:
“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.”
I’ve never seen a tree sing for joy. I’ve never seen a field
exult. I’m actually looking forward to it. I love the idea of a redeemed
creation.
But look what they’re excited about: They’re excited that
the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to judge the earth. They’re excited that
righteousness will be vindicated, that wickedness will receive its recompense, that
the lies of Satan, in all their grubby cunning, will be exposed and thoroughly
declaimed.
Creation is excited because it has suffered immeasurably in at
least the last seven thousand years because of the sin of Adam, and when Jesus
Christ ascends the throne and judges, all that will be set right.
The Heart of a Faithful Jew
Second, the believing Jew, looking forward to the ultimate
fulfillment of the promises to his forefathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, cries out for justice:
“O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ ”
How much persecution have the people of Israel endured over the
centuries? I mean, really, has there ever been a nation in the history of
humankind to suffer such serial predation and relentless animosity? Can you really blame them for crying out for some kind of
final accounting with respect to the blood shed year after year over the span of millennia?
I can’t.
The word of God sets its imprimatur on this sentiment. The
Psalms ring out with the requirement that God judge those who have persecuted
his chosen people.
The Heart of a Christian Who Loves His Saviour
Really? The heart of a Christian should cry out for judgment
on the wicked? When we have been told to love our enemies? Actually, I think
so. Paul tells the Corinthians:
“If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”
Paul, as much as any follower of Christ, was surely
aware of the injunction to “bless and do not curse”, since he was the one who wrote it.
And yet Paul makes it clear that if one insists on rejecting
the person of the Son of God, one is literally “under a curse”, and rightly so.
In fact, he pronounces it himself. The Lord Jesus and his sacrifice is the
one chance we have to take a pass for all the things we have done in this life
and to avoid standing in the presence of God clothed in the filthy rags of our
own righteousnesses.
For those who reject Christ and decide they’d like to drag
others down with them (or, in the unlikely event we think Paul made a typo the
first time), he repeats it twice in Galatians:
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
That might not seem loving to some, but I’m
with Paul on this one.
The Heart of Christ
The teaching of the Lord Jesus, while clearly in some
instances primarily intended for Jewish ears, echoes both the need for justice
and the inevitability of it:
“And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
Without a doubt the Lord Jesus here anticipates a future judgment with eternal consequences. If he contemplated only temporary, remedial punishment, how could there be distinctions in judgment, such that some results would be more or less “bearable” than others?
The earth cries out for justice. The nation of Israel cries out for justice. The believer in Christ, while compelled to love all, still recognizes judgment as both inevitable and necessary, and the Lord himself confirms the reality of it.
What Sort of Heart?
I used to be terrified of the prospect of judgment as a
child growing up in a Christian home. I have outgrown that terror. Oh, I am
respectfully fearful, in the sense that the prospect of the judgment of the Lord of my service for him governs and guides (most of the time, I hope) my daily actions.
But I have learned as I observe the world around me that judgment is more than inevitable. Judgment is more than necessary. Judgment is actually infinitely desirable and praiseworthy. And there is nobody better, nobody more qualified, nobody more deserving in the entire universe to exercise
judgment than the Lord Jesus Christ.
What sort of heart (other than a materialist, determinist heart convinced that we are all the sum of our meaningless atoms) could
conceive of a story such as ours without an ending, without a moral, without
comeuppance for the villain (or villains); a story, essentially, without any meaning
or purpose at all?
So what sort of heart rejoices at the prospect of judgment?
Any heart even slightly in tune with the word of God.
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