Although Nelson’s body has lots of problems, there’s nothing wrong with his mind. In this entry he puzzles over why there would be a growing interest in universalism.

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September 13, 2022

I’ve been reading Psalms and Romans lately. Romans strikes me as complex, and the Psalms as more simple. Jesus said we come to him like a child or not at all. Some people I know are entertaining the idea of universalism, which nearly blows me away.

They talk about the Greek and how the text is really written and how we have changed the words of Christ to make them sound different than they really were meant to be. I can hardly believe my ears.

I have to ask myself, “What would change if I thought that every person would be ‘saved’ in the end, that there would be no one in hell but the devil and his demons, that somehow God would save everyone?” I honestly don’t know.

I probably wouldn’t try so hard or pray so much. I would worry less about my salvation. I’m not sure I would do anything involving religion, like church or small group, because what does any of that stuff matter then? Why waste your life agonizing about living right or leading people somewhere they’re all going to end up anyway?

It would be better probably to take more of an, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die” mentality, wouldn’t it? If we have an instant to live the life we have here compared to eternity where we all will spend forever, does it really make sense to agonize all the time here about how we live and what we do? I can’t see that really working.

To me, universalism leads to hedonism. Tozer said, “What you believe about God is the most important thing about you.” And I think if you believe that everyone spends eternity with God in eternal bliss and all actions on earth are simply wiped away in an instant, then what’s the point of the Bible?

What’s the point in learning anything about God? In fact, it doesn’t really even matter if you ever heard one thing about the gospel or Jesus, the cross, or life after death. Maybe your prayers would help steer things here and now in some theoretical way, but is it really worth all the trouble?

We might as well pursue earth for all earth has, and then after deal with heaven and God when we get there. I’m not the smartest man in the world, but that’s just my junior way of thinking about it.

Maybe for a really “good” person, universalism calms them about a relative who rebels against God, and they don’t like the idea that this rebellion means eternal separation from God by personal choice.

Possible? I think.

Maybe it’s the strong desire to have things be “fair” by some humanistic standard. Why would God send people to hell? I don’t know. Maybe because lots of us want to go there? We want to rule our own lives and get what we deserve, and that’s exactly what we’ll get.

Universalism seems to erase the Bible, or most of its meaning, and the cross of its power. My dumb ramblings are probably full of holes, but I thought in the dark of this morning, I’d jot them down. Maybe God will shed light on this for me in some way some day.

Lord, how can a man pray with a pure heart? How can a man go into his prayer closet alone and not come out all deceived by his own desires to make things go well for him and the people he knows?

How can any of us really receive anything from you, if it’s unpleasant or not what we want to hear? Certainly your dealings with us here on earth are not what we want lots of the time? Wouldn’t it follow that your dealings with us prayer-wise would be the same?

I don’t know, and that’s the only thing I’m sure of.

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Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)