The Cult of Christian Universalism

In his sermon on The Shack Dr. Michael Youssef noted that the author, William P. (Paul) Young had told a professor in the seminary that he attended that he had converted to Christian Universalism. I went to the Christian Universalism site and found the following:

“Christian Universalism is different from Unitarian Universalism. Unlike Unitarian Universalism, Christian Universalism is the belief in universal salvation through Jesus Christ, the incarnate Lord. Christian Universalists are both Christian and Universalist. And we believe that is how Christianity as a whole should be understood. The Christian Universalist belief is that God manifested Himself in human form as a man named Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who was the perfect moral and spiritual teacher for all mankind, for all time. Jesus Christ came to earth to teach people about the unconditional love of our Heavenly Father, and to encourage us to forgive one another for our sins, as God forgives us. Jesus taught his followers to be merciful, peaceful, charitable, and full of love and compassion for all human beings.

Though we may recognize goodness and value in some other religions besides Christianity, Christian Universalists believe that following the way of Jesus is the best way — indeed the only way — of truly walking in the path of God. But it is not any creed, confession, or religious label that saves us; it is the way of Jesus itself, our trust in the Almighty, and our own attempt to live according to the simple yet profound principles taught by Jesus. Some people who call themselves “Christian” but do not have the love of Christ in their heart may actually be less Christian in Jesus’ eyes than some people who do not profess Christianity at all, but who practice the way of Christ in their everyday life.

Universal salvation is the main belief that distinguishes the Christian Universalist faith from traditional, fundamentalist forms of Christianity. Universalist Christian believers accept the authority of the Bible, but we disagree with the way most churches and Christians have interpreted certain Biblical passages about hell and salvation. Yes, there is such a thing as hell for some souls after death, but in the original, untranslated text of the Bible there is not a single verse of scripture that teaches that hell is eternal. In fact, there are many verses in the Bible that strongly suggest that every soul God has ever created will someday escape hell and be reconciled to their Creator.

Christian Universalism, therefore, is Biblical Universalism, the belief that the Bible itself teaches the universal reconciliation of all souls to God at the end of time. The Bible says that this will happen because of the power of Jesus Christ to save souls from hell. There is no “point of no return,” such as committing an “unpardonable sin” or dying without accepting Christ, that could ever cause a soul to be lost forever. No one is beyond hope, because Jesus Christ has absolute power and as much time as he needs to bring God’s goal of universal salvation to fruition. Hell is a redeeming, cleansing, purifying fire that destroys the satanic ego and reforms the human personality in the image of Christ — not an eternal vindictive torture by an angry and sadistic god.

Popular Bible translations pervert the meaning of important verses about hell. This has been done because of misguided religious tradition, in an attempt to support a pagan concept of eternal torment that was not part of original Biblical Christianity, but came to be accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and also continues to be taught in most Protestant churches. The Bible uses colorful language to describe the punishment of the wicked, but this is within the context of ancient Jewish apocalyptic parables and visionary literature and was never intended to be taken literally. Furthermore, every verse in common versions of the Bible (such as the King James or NIV) that speaks of “eternal” or “everlasting” damnation is a blatant mistranslation of the original Greek or Hebrew, neither of which uses a word referring to eternity in the Bible, but only a limited or unspecified period of time.

According to the Biblical Gospel, as affirmed by Christian Universalism, Christianity is not supposed to be a harsh and pessimistic religion that condemns billions of people to an eternity of pain, just because they didn’t happen to profess the correct religious doctrines while they were alive on earth. No, true Christianity is a hopeful and optimistic faith, a faith that announces the good news for all the world — the positive and uplifting message that through Jesus Christ, all souls can someday be saved! That is the belief of Christian Universalism, and Christian Universalists hope that eventually, all Christians will understand that the universalist interpretation of Christianity is what Jesus intended. Jesus came to earth to tell people about universal salvation, not eternal damnation.”

The emphasis by red-lettering is mine. The heretical implications are: (1) Salvation is “by following the way of Jesus” which God will enable all of us to do; the atonement is not a factor. (2) The interpretation of hell is patently unbiblical, as can be seen easily by an examination of the pertinent New Testament scriptures, either in good translations or the original Greek. (3) Although it is not stated overtly, belief in the full deity of Christ is implicitly denied. (4) All persons can or will be saved; the Bible teaches exactly the opposite. (5) The definition of God’s sovereignty is not biblical.

In short, Christian Universalism is a Christian cult.

If you have read The Shack carefully, you should be able to spot the underlying beliefs of Christian Universalism. I would encourage you to go to the Christian Universalism site and investigate for yourself. ~JB