What Is "Christian Universalism" & Does Hell Exist?

The Meaning of Christian Universalism and the Claim That Hell Does Not Exist

Hello, in this video we're going to be looking at the subject of Universalism. This is basically the idea that everybody goes to heaven and that no one goes to hell. I'm going to be doing a sermon on this subject this Sunday, Lord willing, here at Morris Corner Church.

But let me just read this article and then I'll comment. The fundamental idea of Christian Universalism is universal reconciliation, that all humans will ultimately receive salvation and be reconciled to God.

They will eventually enter God's kingdom in heaven through the grace and works of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian Universalists hold that an everlasting hell does not exist, though most believe there is a temporary hell of some kind, sort of like a purgatory, something like that.

And they say that unending torment was not what Jesus taught. They point to historical evidence showing that many early fathers of the church were Universalists. Okay, well, first of all, in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus taught about the judgment of where he separates the sheep from the goats.

So the goats, they go away into everlasting torment and the sheep go into everlasting.

Life.

That's what Jesus says in Matthew 25, 46, and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. So the fact is, Jesus taught that there is a hell and that people are going there.

Also, hell in the Bible, people that go there, they are conscious. Jesus taught in Matthew 25, verse 30, that in hell, he calls it outer darkness, he says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, people can argue and kind of split hairs over the definition of words and that Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek, that they have more than one meaning or that Gehenna referred to the garbage dump, or it was based on the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.

None of that matters so much because Jesus and the apostles describe what they mean by these terms. Everlasting punishment is pretty clear. It's punishment that goes on forever. So really, Christian universalism, it's an oxymoron.

This is not what Christ taught. Now, this statement that the universalists make that many of the early church fathers were universalists. Well, were there some men in the second and third century that believed in universalism?

Probably just like there's people today who believe in universalism. That doesn't prove anything. It isn't what Jesus taught. It's not what the apostles taught. Therefore, it's not Christian. So just because a man who lived 300 years after the birth of Jesus believed in universalism, that doesn't prove anything.

Biblical Language About Hell and Eternal Punishment

The article goes on, universalists attribute the origin of the idea of hell as eternal punishment to a mistranslation. They also appeal to many texts of scripture to argue that the concept of eternal hell is not biblically or historically supported either in Judaism or early Christianity.

And again, this is false. The biblical authors define what these Greek and Hebrew words mean. The Hebrew prophet Daniel spoke of everlasting punishment in Daniel chapter 12 verse 2. And hell is described as conscious eternal torment because in Revelation 14 verse 11, it says the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day.

Or night.

You can talk about how a word is mistranslated, you know, in their opinion, but again, the authors of the Bible describe what they mean. Back to the article, universalists cite numerous biblical passages, which reference the salvation of all beings, such as Jesus's words in John 12, 31 and 32, and the apostle Paul's words in Romans 5, 18.

In addition, they argue that an eternal hell is both unjust and contrary to the nature and attributes of a loving God. Of course, that's their opinion. They really have no biblical argument. It's more of an emotional argument, but let's look at these two verses that they cite.

John 12:31-32 and Romans 5:18 in Context

First is John 12, 31 and 32. Jesus said, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. And then Paul makes a similar statement because they're really latching onto the word all like all means everybody universal.

Paul and Romans 5, 18 says, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, which is true except for Jesus, right? There's an exception there, but, uh, cause Jesus was born without original sin.

But, uh, so you can already see that all doesn't actually mean literally every human being because Jesus is the exception, but Romans 5, 18, therefore, as through one man's offense, Adam judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation.

Even so through one man's righteous act, that is Christ. The free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. So it's the same argument for both verses that the word all means all you've probably heard this.

You've maybe you've said that the word all, all means all well, right. The word all does mean all, but you have to take it within its context. So the word all, let me explain. If I say that we're all here, I mean, everyone is here who is coming.

You know, everyone is here who we expected to come. I don't mean when I say we're all here, I don't mean that every human being on earth is here or that literally every human who has ever lived is present here among us.

Nobody would understand it that way. All has to be taken in its context. Also if somebody says I ate all the M &Ms, well, they don't mean that they ate all the M &Ms in the world or all the M &Ms that have ever existed.

They probably mean I ate all the M &Ms like I ate all the M &Ms in the bag. So this is just basic with language and the way we speak. Words need to be taken in their proper context. Also we need to compare scripture with scripture.

Could you look at one or two verses in the Bible that seem to be saying like everybody is saved? I don't even think you can support that, but even if there was a verse that seemed to say that, you have 150 verses over here that say the opposite.

So we need to compare scripture with scripture. The article finished, the beliefs of Christian universalism are generally compatible with the essentials of Christianity. I mean, that's just not true as they do not contradict any of the central affirmation summarized in the Nicene Creed and the Nicene Creed was written in 325.

So hundreds of years after Jesus and the apostles ministered. So that's just not, it's not the standard. More specifically, the article concludes universalists often emphasize the following teachings that God is the loving parent of all people.

Again, that is not what the Bible teaches. John chapter one verses 11 and 12 says that only believers in Christ have the right to be called children of God. To those who believe in his name, universalists say that Jesus Christ reveals the nature and character of God.

That's true. And is the spiritual leader of humankind.

Okay.

But again, we saw in Matthew 25 and many other places, Jesus taught the existence of hell and eternal punishment. As a matter of fact, Jesus is the one who coined the term hellfire. It wasn't Jonathan Edwards or some preacher from the 1800s, you know, hellfire and damnation preachers who made it up and Jesus coined the term.

The Soul, Hellfire, and the Second Death

And then they say humankind is created with an immortal soul, which death cannot end or a mortal soul that should be resurrected and preserved by God, a soul, which God will not wholly destroy. Well, I'll just point out that Matthew 28, 10, 28, Jesus said, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell and hell is described as the second death.

So it's sort of a living death. You know, there's people you can see, they walk the streets today and they're alive and they're walking around, but you can, you can see they're not really living.

Are they there?

They're sort of like the walking dead. And that's the way hell is going to be. People are conscious, they exist, but it's torment. It's a miserable existence that goes on forever and ever and ever. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to this earth.

He died on the cross for our sins. He rose again the third day. Jesus came to save us from this terrible place. So if you've never placed your faith in Christ, I trust that you will do that and be saved from sin, be saved from death, the second death, and be saved from hell.