{"id":619,"date":"2008-09-19T16:34:56","date_gmt":"2008-09-19T20:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/2008\/09\/19\/what-if-universalism-is-wrong\/"},"modified":"2008-09-19T16:34:56","modified_gmt":"2008-09-19T20:34:56","slug":"what-if-universalism-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=619","title":{"rendered":"What If Universalism Is Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

But what if I am wrong in thinking that God will save everyone?\u00c2\u00a0 I said right at the start that I am a hopeful dogmatic universalist.\u00c2\u00a0 That is to say that, although, according to my theological system, God will save all people, I am not 100% certain that my system is correct.\u00c2\u00a0 So what if I am wrong?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, if I am wrong, then I will have inspired some false hope in the hearts of some people; but I do not think that I will have done any serious damage.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not produced a theology with a diminished view of God nor one that will lead people not to worship God.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not sidestepped the centrality of God’s work in Christ, so the cross and resurrection remain at the heart of the gospel.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not reduced the importance of faith in Christ nor the missionary calling of the church.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not undermined the authority of the Bible.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not “gone soft” on God’s wrath nor got rid of hell.\u00c2\u00a0 I have not tinkered with any key doctrines of orthodox Christianity.\u00c2\u00a0 If I am wrong, then anyone who mistakenly comes to think that I am right will love and worship the triune God, study and follow the Scriptures, proclaim Christ to the lost, and seek to walk in holiness, just like any non-universalist evangelical.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully, neither they nor those around them will be adversely harmed by their mistaken universalist beliefs.\u00c2\u00a0 I have made a provisional case for accepting universalism, but in the end one must make a wager and take a position.\u00c2\u00a0 Here I stand, and I can do no other.\u00c2\u00a0 I realize that most of my Christian family do not stand with me in the extent of my hope for the future, and I certainlly do not think that true Christian faith requires agreement with my views!\u00c2\u00a0 Belief in universalism is most certainly not <\/em>a requirement for Christian orthodoxy, but neither does it amount to an exclusion from orthodoxy even if it is wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em>I hope that this book may persuade some at least to tolerate evangelical universalism as a legitimate Christian position — a view that is true to the message of the gospel — even if they themselves feel unable to accept it.<\/p>\n

— Gregory MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist, <\/em>p. 176<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But what if I am wrong in thinking that God will save everyone?\u00c2\u00a0 I said right at the start that I am a hopeful dogmatic universalist.\u00c2\u00a0 That is to say that, although, according to my theological system, God will save all people, I am not 100% certain that my system is correct.\u00c2\u00a0 So what if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}