In the first part of this Q&A, we ascertained that the fundamental idea of Christian universalism is that ALL human beings will eventually receive salvation. We looked at a number of biblical references which refute this assertion, and we will now continue to show from the pages of the Bible, that this belief is void of any Scriptural approval.
Universalism seems to ignore the fact that some will commit the unpardonable sin. In our free booklet “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?” we find this information:
“What is the Unpardonable Sin?
“From other Scriptures we know that there are at least two ways in which the unpardonable sin can be committed.
“Jesus warns us in Mark 3:28–29, not to ‘blaspheme’ the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether we are converted or not. If we do, we reject the only power that can convert and change us. And if we continue with that course of action of resisting God and refusing to repent, then we might reach a point when it will become impossible for us to repent. We will then have made the final, irrevocable decision never to repent and to change. Such an attitude will lead to actual hate and resentment for God and His way. You see, if we don’t want to repent, God will not grant us repentance. And without repentance, there can be no forgiveness. That is why a sin which we refuse to repent of, will not be forgiven.
“In addition, converted people who have received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, can commit the unpardonable sin, if and when they later fall away and irrevocably reject God’s way of life (cp. Hebrews 6:4–6; Hebrews 10:26–29).”
We have already seen how wrong this “Universalist” concept is and how it can lead on to, or incorporate, other false ideas which we will now address.
The mainstream Christian teaching of going to heaven and hell is mentioned in the context of universalism. In our Q&A entitled, “Do the Wicked Go to Hell?”, the first paragraph states that: “The concept that the wicked go to an ever-burning hell after their death is nowhere taught in Scripture. In fact, the Bible does not even teach the existence of an ever-burning hell, torturing wicked souls of departed ones for their evil deeds.”
In a further Q&A, “Would you please explain Revelation 14:11? Does this Scripture teach that the wicked will be forever tormented in hell fire?,” we read the following:
“The unrepentant wicked will ultimately be burned up. That will happen after the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment. However, the passage in Revelation 14:11 does not address that time period. It merely serves as a forerunner and a warning. Most people who will worship the false political and religious system of Babylon, as well as its human representatives, won’t fully comprehend what they will be doing — they will not commit the unpardonable sin leading to the second death, from which there will be no resurrection (Revelation 20:14-15; 21:8). Rather, God will bring them back to life in a Second Resurrection, when the gravity of their wrong conduct will be revealed to them, and when they will be given an opportunity to repent and accept God’s Way of Life.”
In another Q&A, entitled “What are the biblical proofs that we do not go to heaven when we die?”, we read:
“The idea that we will go to heaven after death is an entirely unbiblical concept. It is derived from paganism.
“The biblical understanding is not complicated, but pure and simple, and very easy to comprehend: When a man dies, he is dead, but he will live again through the resurrection from the dead. Until then, he will sleep a dreamless sleep, without any consciousness. He will not go to heaven when he dies, nor will he suffer in a purgatory or ‘hell.’ Rather, he is asleep, until Christ awakes him out of his sleep. And He will, because as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).”
Now let us briefly address the Lake of Fire. In our Q&A, “Will There Be Punishment in the Third Resurrection? (Part 1)”, we read:
“Sadly, there are those who have had their opportunity. They have committed the ‘unpardonable sin.’ They knew and understood perfectly well that they had to submit to Christ, but they refused to do so. They became bitter, hateful, resentful and malicious. They made the unchangeable decision NEVER to repent. If a person has reached that stage that he CANNOT repent, because he has made the final decision NOT to WANT to repent, then God will not force repentance on such a person. God grants repentance, but a person must want to receive it. A person, though, who maliciously rejects Christ would only continue to live in misery and pain–and that is why God will save such a person from eternal misery, by DESTROYING him or her in a lake of fire.
“The Third Resurrection describes those sinners who have made the final and irrevocable decision to rebel against God. They have refused to ever obey God, and they have developed a hostile attitude towards Him, filled with hatred and contempt, which prevents them from ever repenting of their terrible sinful conduct and nature. They will be raised to physical life to be burned up and destroyed in the lake of fire.”
It is impossible to refute Revelation 21:8 which reads: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” The wicked will be destroyed.
We say in our Q&A, “Do the wicked go to hell?”
“It is true that the New Testament speaks about a fiery place, which is translated in some English Bibles as, ‘hell.’ The Greek word for this place is ‘gehenna.’ It does not, however, describe an ever-burning hell, as commonly understood by many… Please note the following excerpts from our free booklet, “Do You Have an Immortal Soul?”, addressing the concept of a fiery hell:
“The word ‘gehenna’ and the very concept of it are derived from the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem in which the corpses of dead people, mainly criminals, would be burned up. It is another expression for the ‘lake of fire’ in Revelation 20:15, in which all who have acted wickedly, and who have refused to repent, will be thrown into, to be burned up or ‘devoured.’ (Remember that Hebrews 10:27… tells us that the wicked wait for God’s fiery indignation that will ‘devour’ them.). That is the ‘hell’ or the ‘gehenna’ fire that Christ is talking about…-‘the second death’ from which there will be no resurrection.
“Those who sin deliberately, willfully and maliciously, God will resurrect to physical life [please note that they were dead — not in heaven, hell, limbo or purgatory — and that they had to be brought back from death to physical life] to throw them-their physical body and their soul or their ‘life’-into ‘gehenna’ or the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-15; 21:8). They won’t burn there forever-rather, they will be burned up. They are the ‘chaff,’ that will be ‘burned up’ with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12)-that is, no human can quench it. Notice that this fire will ultimately even burn up or bring to dissolution ‘heaven and earth,’ so that a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ can be created by God (2 Peter 3:10-13).
“The wicked, such as the rich man in Christ’s parable in Luke 16, will not burn forever and ever, for all eternity, in an everlasting hell fire, but they will be ‘burned up’ (cp. again Matthew 3:12). The Greek word for ‘burned up’ is ‘katakaio’-conveying the meaning that nothing of what is burned up will remain. We read in Revelation 18:8 that modern Babylon ‘shall be utterly burned with fire.’ The word for ‘utterly burned’ is, again, ‘katakaio’ in the Greek. And we are told that ‘that great city Babylon [will] be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.’ (Revelation 18:21).
“In the same way, the wicked, such as the rich man in Luke 16, that are [brought back to life from the dead and then] thrown into ‘gehenna’ or the lake of fire [called the SECOND death!], will be ‘burnt up’-they ‘shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up… that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.’ (Malachi 4:1). They will become ashes under the feet of the righteous (Malachi 4:3); it will be as if they had never existed (Obadiah 16).”
In Romans 11:26-27 we read the following: “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
If all of Israel, every last one, was going to be saved, all of the Scriptures that we’ve looked at would be null and void and that cannot be so, as the Scripture cannot be broken or contain contradictions (John 10:35).
The statement that “all Israel” will be saved must not be misunderstood. We say the following in our Q&A, “I have heard it said that the Biblical terms “all” or “every” [such as, “every person” or “every thing”] do not necessarily have to mean, “without any exception.” Is this correct?”:
“… the concept that Christ is the Savior of ALL men does not rule out the fact that some will NOT be saved. Here, the word ‘ALL’ is NOT used in an all-inclusive sense. Some WILL commit the unpardonable sin and be destroyed and burned up in the lake of fire (Hebrews 6:4-8; Revelation 20:13-15). Still, we read that ‘ALL Israel will be saved’ (Romans 11:26). As stated, this might give the impression that every last Israelite will inherit salvation. But this is not true, as there will be some who will reject salvation. For instance, Christ warned the Pharisees that they were walking on very thin ice, heading towards committing the unpardonable sin (compare Mark 3:28-30 and Matthew 9:34).
“Paul continues in Romans 11:32 that God, in His dealings with Israel, ‘has committed them ALL to disobedience, that He might have mercy on ALL.’ In both cases, the word ‘all’ is not used to teach all-inclusiveness, without any exceptions. Not every last Israelite will repent, and not every Israelite–even at the time of Paul–was disobedient. The early Church of God consisted at first exclusively of Israelites who had become obedient to the faith.
“We also read in Romans 14:11 that ‘EVERY tongue shall confess’ to God. But again, this does not include every last person, as some will not confess to God, but instead, they will be destroyed in the lake of fire–they will die the second death–in utter rebellion to God.
“There are additional examples where the words ‘all’ or ‘every’ are not to be understood in an all-inclusive sense…
“In Matthew 23:3, Christ told the Jews to ‘obey ALL’ (Authorized Version) what the scribes and Pharisees commanded them to do. In Ephesians 5:24, Paul says that women are to be submissive to their husbands in EVERYTHING. And Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13 that we are to submit ourselves to EVERY ordinance of man. However, these passages are not all-inclusive and allow–yes, DEMAND–an exception. This exception is found in Acts 5:27-32, where Peter makes it clear that we must obey God rather than man, and that we must DISOBEY man if we would otherwise disobey God.
“We also read that the gospel of the Kingdom of God will be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). This does not mean that every last person on earth will hear the gospel just prior to Christ’s return. There will be those alive at the beginning of the Millennium who never heard Christ’s gospel message (compare Isaiah 66:19). This is why Matthew 24:14 must be read together with Scriptures such as Mark 13:10 and Luke 24:47, stating that the gospel will be preached “among” all nations…
“In Luke 6:30, Christ tells us that we are to give to EVERYONE who asks of us and wants to borrow from us. Again, this is not an all-inclusive command, as Paul says, for example, that we must work to make a living, and if we are unwilling to work, we should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). So, Christ was not telling us that we must give to just EVERYONE who wants to eat, even though he is unwilling to work…
“Finally, we read in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 that ‘EVERY creature of God’ is good for food. Some use this passage to claim that we are therefore no longer obligated to refrain from eating UNCLEAN meat. However, we also read in Genesis 9:3 that ‘EVERY moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ALL things, even as the green herbs.’ It goes without saying that we must not eat POISONOUS green herbs–even though ‘all things’ were given to us for food–and we therefore must not eat meat which was not created for food (Compare again 1 Timothy 4:4, stating that those who believe and know the truth of God’s Word, as revealed in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, understand WHICH animals God has created FOR FOOD). We see, therefore, that these passages are not all-inclusive, but must be understood in context.
When Paul speaks about the concept that “all Israel shall be saved,” he does not mean, every last one of the Israelites. Matthew Poole’s Commentary agrees, stating: “all Israel is not meant every individual Israelite, but many, or (it may be) the greatest part of them. So ‘all’ is to be taken in Scripture: see John 6:45; 1 Timothy 2:6, and elsewhere.”
In conclusion, the belief in universalism is not taught in the Bible. We have looked at the fact that our behavior now does matter for those who have been called and chosen by God. We have reviewed the unpardonable sin and have also looked very briefly at the fact that people don’t go to heaven or hell when they die and why the Lake of Fire is necessary.
There are also many Scriptures about not staying with our calling until the end and that we have to be careful that no one takes our crown. Matthew 24:13 quite simply states: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”
None of the information given in this Q&A gives even the slightest impression that universalism – that of all people being eventually saved – is an accurate statement that the Bible teaches. Quite the reverse, and this teaching should be completely rejected. And the further danger is that it can lead to further incorrect biblical understanding.
The apostle Paul wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Finally, we read in James 1:12: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Universalism is yet another deceptive offshoot of mainstream Christianity and runs contrary to the teachings of the Word of God!
Lead Writers: Brian Gale (United Kingdom) and Norbert Link