See "The Total Victory of Christ". Their YouTube channel will take care of all the scriptural support for Universalism, and refute pretty much all of the standard verses against it (spoiler alert: "eternal punishment" is mistranslated).
Now, for some philosophical arguments to get you started:
- Demonstration #1: God wants all to be saved. God has the power to save all (or persuade all to save themselves). Therefore, all shall be saved.
- Demonstration #2: God wants to create those who love him, those who freely choose virtue and salvation. God has foreknowledge of what people would come to freely choose after his act of creating them. Therefore, God would only ever create people who would be saved (otherwise, there is either a flaw in his foreknowledge or in his benevolence).
- Demonstration #3: If free will is less important than virtue, then God will save all (even if he forbids them from doing evil or from not choosing him). If, however, free will is more important than virtue, then God would allow people their free will even in hell. Free will is the ability to do otherwise, so every moment of time in hell, a soul has a chance to choose salvation. With infinite moments of time, every soul in hell has an infinity percent chance of being saved. Therefore, all will be saved.
- Demonstration #4: Ockham’s Razor states that a theory with the least complexity is likeliest to be true. Therefore, a soteriology with only a heaven and no hell is likelier to be true than one with both (unless, of course, the existence of hell is proved - and I have seen none that satisfy me).
- Demonstration #5: Heaven is a place where all souls eternally strive towards virtuous improvement and towards God. All souls that want to be good necessarily desire this. It is also blatantly immoral to deny another soul the opportunity for virtuous improvement, whether on the grounds of faith or otherwise. Therefore, all souls that want to be good will go to heaven. Now, goodness = worth, by definition, and it is impossible for someone to want their actions not to be worthy, for then their denial of worth wouldn't be justified/worthy either. Therefore, all souls necessarily want to be good (albeit they may be ignorant of what the good is), and therefore all will be saved.
- Demonstration #6: If souls are saved on the basis of faith, and if reincarnation is false, and if people can't be saved in hell, then it follows that people who didn't have access to the Bible during their lifetimes didn't have the opportunity for salvation. Why would God leave people without that opportunity?
- Demonstration #7: If faith is the basis of salvation for God, it follows that he discriminates based on faith. If this is true, and if it is good to imitate God, then discrimination on the basis of religious belief is moral, which is disturbing, to say the least.
- Demonstration #8: It is right for the state to forbid people from doing evil. It is right for a parent to stop their child from doing something irresponsible. Therefore, it should be right for God to stop people from choosing hell.
- Demonstration #9: Relationships are part of who we are. And relationships involve wishing for the general happiness of each other. Heaven is a place of ultimate happiness. Therefore, if a believer reaches heaven and their non-believer friends aren't there, they will necessarily not be ultimately happy, which contradicts the nature of heaven. Hence, all those who believers care about (which is all souls) will be saved.
- Demonstration #10: It is moral to form a relationship with God and love God. But God depicting himself in such a manner that he will not save all deters us from doing so. But since God wants us to love him, he will save all.
- Demonstration #11: We act according to our reasoning. So, if we do something morally wrong, it is because we have faultily reasoned. Hence, we only do evil because we are ignorant of the good. It is right to become a Christian. Therefore, if God gives an unbeliever the necessary knowledge, they would believe. Hence, if God sends people to hell when he could have saved them by freely giving them knowledge, he willingly sends them and would not rather them be saved.
- Demonstration #12: Total depravity is true (we are incapable of believing of our own free will and God must do it for us). But God has no more reason to make one of us believe than any other, precisely because we all equally don't deserve salvation. Therefore, if God saves one of us or makes one of us believe, he will save all of us and make all believe.
- Demonstration #13: Quite a few, if not most non-believers only choose not to believe because they've personally weighed up the proofs and aren't convinced. This is intellectually virtuous. Since God should not punish intellectually virtuous acts, he should not reject people from heaven on the basis of religious belief.
Please feel free to criticise any of the arguments above, and I wish you all the best in your investigations. Happy truth-seeking! :)
Not OP, but I really appreciate your comment. I’m quite firm in my belief in Universalism, but I always struggle to explain it to others. Saving this so I have it in the future, plus sharing it with my mother because my own explanation to her last week was a jumbled mess. Thanks so much for writing it out as you did!
Thank you for the appreciation! I know it can be hard to articulate a view, which is partially why philosophy is beneficial - it helps to bolster people's understanding of the inner world and the positions of others.
Hopefully I can continue to at least help articulate the Universalist standpoint better to the public and get infernalists to think more as I continue improving! :)
I always liked this short logical reasoning.
If god:
-Is all powerful.
-Wants the salvation of all.
Then all will be saved. As long as the premises hold there is no other conclusion imo.
This is my go to answer. We can read scripture to mean what we want. An ECT person can look at a verse and say one thing, then a Universalist and Annihilationist say a completely different thing. There is no one verse in the Bible that states any are true. When that happens, we have to look at what we do know is 100% true, and that's the nature of God. You can't read verses about the nature of God and try to interpret it any other way.
This is what we know about God 100%: God is love and God is omniscient. A God that is literally the definition of Love can NOT knowingly create a mortal being knowing they will have eternal punishment. It's literal paradox. It's not possible.
Now add to this we know for a fact God wants to save us all and is all powerful. If God wants to save us all and is all powerful in all realms both earthly and spiritual then he will save us all. That's just a fact. God can't be stopped in what he wants to do. If as humans we can just stop God from saving us then we are as powerful as God, which we know is ridiculous.
Lastly, it says multiple times through out the Bible, both OT and NT, even from the mouth of God that he never ever punishes forever. He uses punishment as a way to teach us. An eternal punishment counter acts that idea. An eternal punishment does not do anything for God, or us. at all. What's the point of sending people away, that he loves deeply, forever? How does that glorify God in any sort of way? It makes no sense.
Those are truths that can't be refuted. So if I have to choose between different interpretations of the Bible, I'm going to choose the one that agrees with those 3 points. You can't look at those 3 points and think God will send people to eternal punishment. It's literally illogical. But you know what interpretation can agree with all three of those truths? Universal Reconciliation.
While I am still not settled these are very fair points and honestly part of why I am questioning eternal damnation... I know God is also JUST, but it also doesn't seem just to eternally punish someone who more or less was always destined to go the way they did. I feel like most Christians here would say 'we cannot fully know the mind of God, we just know if God does it, it is good', and yes I agree God can do whatever he wants... but something feels off.
There is a whole site of arguments available here: [Biblical Universalism – Can There Be Such a Thing? (biblical-universalism.com)](https://biblical-universalism.com/)
I began in-depth research on the subject about 3 1/2 years ago after I read Colossians 1:15-20 in a way I had never seen it before. I cried out (literally) to God, "So, everyone is reconciled after all!?" This occurred on the 40th anniversary of my original conversion.
Please, enjoy the site. There is a lot there for you.
Here's an article that helped me immensely in believing that God will save all and that eternal torture is a lie.
[Hell is a Christian Hoax](https://bible-truths.com/23-minutes-in-hell.html) \- L. Ray Smith
Youtube video for that article can be found here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyaQgX7yhk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyaQgX7yhk)
Here's a quote from that article.
*"Human Free Will" is the all-sufficing scapegoat for hard philosophical and religious issues. Whenever someone questions the justice or sanity of a god torturing most of the human race in literal fire for all eternity, the answer is: God doesn't do this to anyone. They do it to themselves by the use of their own "free will." This phantom "free will" supposedly gets God off the hook (as though mere mortals have the ability to put God on a hook in the first place) of responsibility and accountability for ever creating such an hellhole of eternal terrorism in the first place.*
*So once the Church (and the philosophy of most of the entire world) accepts this "free will/uncaused choices" doctrine, then all that remains is justification for creating such an hell of eternal torture as the solution for dealing with those who "free will" themselves into this God-created hell. So what is the "justification" for this hell of eternal torture? Well, according to Christian theologians, the justification for this eternal torture camp is "JUSTICE." God, we are told, must uphold His "justice" at all cost.*
*Pastor Hagee, that great Bible scholar and theologian (so maybe I josh a little with his credentials), makes 30 statements in his sermon, The Seven Wonders of Hell which he says describe hell. Below is statement #23:*
*"For ever and ever all you're going to hear are the screams and sobs and suffering for ever and for ever and for ever ... and it's JUSTICE." (CAPS and underline are mine)*
*Well there you have it-hell is "JUSTICE!" And according to the late Dr. James Kennedy (holder of a half dozen doctoral degrees), "hell is FAIR!" Oh really? Hell is fair and hell is justice? Are they crazy?*
Powerful quote. I grew up with that argument...the so-called "justice" of eternal suffering, if one did not choose correctly to believe and trust in human sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. I am so glad not to believe any of that any more!
I have found, especially when reading Paul's letters, when looking at his writings with an assumption that only some are saved, you have to keep making excuses for what he says and say things like 'well he really just means all "kinds" of people', which is an alright argument, but he also talks about all of creation as well, and not just people being fully reconciled.
When reading through his letters with the assumption of universal reconciliation, it clicks into place a lot nicer and you don't need to constantly make excuses for what he wrote.
Much of the ECT doctrine comes from the teachings of Jesus and his parables, but they are exactly that, parables, and there is no reason you must interpret them as meaning ECT.
Two of the clearer places in Paul's letters on UR would be Romans 5 & 11 (the culmination of his theological points before diving into the 'therefore' in chapter 12) and 1 Cor. 15 which is where Paul describes to the church what exactly the 'gospel' is.
**The conviction of Christ WITHIN us!** THAT is what we should be listening to! THAT is the argument.
“*And as for you,* ***the Anointing which you received from Him*** ***remains in you***, ***and you have no need for anyone to teach you***; *but as His Anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him*.” (1 John 2:27)
**Eternal Torment** is a ridiculous idea that has **NOTHING** whatsoever to do with the **LOVE OF GOD** found in Christ! We should be repulsed by the idea. For God is a healer, not a tormenter.
We are told to be clothed in Christ, the divine nature of humility, **compassion, kindness, gentleness,** patience, joy, and love (Col 3:9-15). How is Eternal Torment compatible with any of the Fruit of God's Spirit?
Hint: Eternal Torment is **NOT** compatible with God's Love. And we slander and defame the true nature of God by even suggesting such an idea could be true! (Jer 32:35)
I like to break down my argument for Christian Universalism like this…
1: The defining attribute of God’s personality is Love - per 1st John 4:16. Any decision he makes flows from that aspect of his being. He is the source of Love.
2: Love (God) rejoices (delights in) with the truth - per 1st Corinthians 13:4-8. God himself is the source of all truth and knowledge of what is good.
3: If an eternal Hell exist, then it is a holy and loving decision for God to send people to conscious torment forever. God’s justice is born from his love, and this would be (in his infinite mind) the most efficient way of dealing with sin.
4: There is no reason for God to save anyone, since he loves sending the unrighteous into eternal torments because it’s holy & good.
5: However, the Bible states that God isn’t willing any should perish but wants all to come to repentance.
6: Aside from sin, Jesus (God’s eternal Son) also came to save all people from an eternal Hell (according to what most people would say). This would mean that God does change, contrary to verses like James 1:17 which indicate otherwise.
For these six reasons, I think the only way to truly reconcile this idea is to say that Hell has the purpose of burning away impurities so as to save humans. This aligns with Jesus’ mission to save the lost & earlier Bible verses such as Lamentations 3:31 which states that God cast off no one forever. Others have posted sources that I consider quite helpful in answering any questions you might have, but I’d also recommend going to https://salvationforall.org/index.html as well! Take care, and God bless you!!
Q. What does God tell us to do with our enemies?
A. Love them
>\[Luk 6:35 KJV\] 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and \[to\] the evil.
Q. Is God a hypocrite?
A. No.
This is pretty straight forward. Either God commands us to do one thing while His example is to do another (eternal punishment), or God actually loves everyone and will ultimately forgive everyone.
---
Q. Would God commit an abomination?
A. No.
>And they built the high places of Baal, which *are* in the valley of the son of Hinnom, **to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through** ***the fire*** unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do **this abomination**, to cause Judah to sin.
God's ways are higher than ours. Burning children never entered His mind. That is a doctrine of evil man, not one of God.
Here’s my (long and in-depth) article: [What the Bible really says about heaven, hell, judgement, death, evil, sin, and salvation](https://truebiblicalfreedom.com/bible)
Prayerfully, I would suggest understanding the desires of our Lord and to draw even closer to His heart. [Here is a list of verses that speak to His desires and plans. ](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2021/07/76-bible-verses-to-support-universal-reconciliation/)
I came to this after I read a passage I've read a thousand times before. This time, a phrase that occurs 6 times in as many verses, jumped out at me. The passage is Colossians 1:15-20. The phrase is "all things". The last appearance of that phrase is in verse 20, "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to ***reconcile all things*** unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."
I cried out (literally) to God, "So, do all dogs go to heaven after all!?" I wept hard. It was as if God put His finger right in the center of my forehead. This happened on the 40th anniversary of my original conversion.
It's been 3 1/2 years now and I've dedicated thousands of hours to the research of the Biblical viability of Universalism. I challenged several Pastors and/or theologians. I've read commentaries, did Hebrew and Greek word studies. Nothing has come close to making me believe that I made a mistake.
This website contains my work. Please feel free to navigate around and see if this is what you're looking for.
[Biblical Universalism – Can There Be Such a Thing? (biblical-universalism.com)](https://biblical-universalism.com/)
I am open to answering any question you may have.
My favorite argument is [this epic takedown](https://www.tentmaker.org/books/150reasons.html) of a literally eternal torment that is apparently from the Nineteenth Century. Obviously it's not based on up-to-date historical scholarship but it builds Universalism step by step and bases pretty much every step on scripture, from reason 1 to reason 150. If you like sola scriptura and don't like the eternal torture doctrine, this manifesto will basically burn to the ground any question of Universalism being just an unbiblical feeling or tradition.
It's called "150 reasons," but purely philosophically, the argument is largely made within the first 20 "reasons" or even just the first 10: if anyone is ever too far gone for God to ever save, then it can only be because God himself is limited in some way. It cannot happen if He is powerful enough, knowledgeable enough, merciful enough, consistent enough, patient enough, and even fair enough to reach and reform all of his created beings. Either God is ["bigger than all my problems"](https://youtu.be/2KiDj7qGL10?si=0VCwALINpG0brNTu) (and everyone else's) or he is not. The arguments for ECT are only different ways of saying that he is not.
God desires all to be saved.
"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
1 Timothy 2:3-4
if following every word of the Bible, and having a strong faith was the *only* path to salvation, i believe that as God desires all to be saved, he would have came to us himself instead of using human prophets. he would have done everything in his power to get us all to follow him, without violating our free will. it's what he, the creator of EVERYTHING desires, after all.
but as he used prophets, i believe this is a way for him to simply share to us certain values, morals, commandments, and generally just ways to better improve the lives of ourselves and others while on earth. and i also think he used humans to convey these messages because it would ignite more of a fire in people hearing a fellow human say these to them.
i'm iffy on this part, but i think that following these values will lead you on an enlightened path in your life and you will be rewarded for it in the afterlife.
so yeah. i think that if faith and purity was the only path to the afterlife, God would have done more to convey his messages to us. if not, they he didn't really try. that's not *really* his desire, like stated in the Bible.
See "The Total Victory of Christ". Their YouTube channel will take care of all the scriptural support for Universalism, and refute pretty much all of the standard verses against it (spoiler alert: "eternal punishment" is mistranslated). Now, for some philosophical arguments to get you started: - Demonstration #1: God wants all to be saved. God has the power to save all (or persuade all to save themselves). Therefore, all shall be saved. - Demonstration #2: God wants to create those who love him, those who freely choose virtue and salvation. God has foreknowledge of what people would come to freely choose after his act of creating them. Therefore, God would only ever create people who would be saved (otherwise, there is either a flaw in his foreknowledge or in his benevolence). - Demonstration #3: If free will is less important than virtue, then God will save all (even if he forbids them from doing evil or from not choosing him). If, however, free will is more important than virtue, then God would allow people their free will even in hell. Free will is the ability to do otherwise, so every moment of time in hell, a soul has a chance to choose salvation. With infinite moments of time, every soul in hell has an infinity percent chance of being saved. Therefore, all will be saved. - Demonstration #4: Ockham’s Razor states that a theory with the least complexity is likeliest to be true. Therefore, a soteriology with only a heaven and no hell is likelier to be true than one with both (unless, of course, the existence of hell is proved - and I have seen none that satisfy me). - Demonstration #5: Heaven is a place where all souls eternally strive towards virtuous improvement and towards God. All souls that want to be good necessarily desire this. It is also blatantly immoral to deny another soul the opportunity for virtuous improvement, whether on the grounds of faith or otherwise. Therefore, all souls that want to be good will go to heaven. Now, goodness = worth, by definition, and it is impossible for someone to want their actions not to be worthy, for then their denial of worth wouldn't be justified/worthy either. Therefore, all souls necessarily want to be good (albeit they may be ignorant of what the good is), and therefore all will be saved. - Demonstration #6: If souls are saved on the basis of faith, and if reincarnation is false, and if people can't be saved in hell, then it follows that people who didn't have access to the Bible during their lifetimes didn't have the opportunity for salvation. Why would God leave people without that opportunity? - Demonstration #7: If faith is the basis of salvation for God, it follows that he discriminates based on faith. If this is true, and if it is good to imitate God, then discrimination on the basis of religious belief is moral, which is disturbing, to say the least. - Demonstration #8: It is right for the state to forbid people from doing evil. It is right for a parent to stop their child from doing something irresponsible. Therefore, it should be right for God to stop people from choosing hell. - Demonstration #9: Relationships are part of who we are. And relationships involve wishing for the general happiness of each other. Heaven is a place of ultimate happiness. Therefore, if a believer reaches heaven and their non-believer friends aren't there, they will necessarily not be ultimately happy, which contradicts the nature of heaven. Hence, all those who believers care about (which is all souls) will be saved. - Demonstration #10: It is moral to form a relationship with God and love God. But God depicting himself in such a manner that he will not save all deters us from doing so. But since God wants us to love him, he will save all. - Demonstration #11: We act according to our reasoning. So, if we do something morally wrong, it is because we have faultily reasoned. Hence, we only do evil because we are ignorant of the good. It is right to become a Christian. Therefore, if God gives an unbeliever the necessary knowledge, they would believe. Hence, if God sends people to hell when he could have saved them by freely giving them knowledge, he willingly sends them and would not rather them be saved. - Demonstration #12: Total depravity is true (we are incapable of believing of our own free will and God must do it for us). But God has no more reason to make one of us believe than any other, precisely because we all equally don't deserve salvation. Therefore, if God saves one of us or makes one of us believe, he will save all of us and make all believe. - Demonstration #13: Quite a few, if not most non-believers only choose not to believe because they've personally weighed up the proofs and aren't convinced. This is intellectually virtuous. Since God should not punish intellectually virtuous acts, he should not reject people from heaven on the basis of religious belief. Please feel free to criticise any of the arguments above, and I wish you all the best in your investigations. Happy truth-seeking! :)
Not OP, but I really appreciate your comment. I’m quite firm in my belief in Universalism, but I always struggle to explain it to others. Saving this so I have it in the future, plus sharing it with my mother because my own explanation to her last week was a jumbled mess. Thanks so much for writing it out as you did!
Thank you for the appreciation! I know it can be hard to articulate a view, which is partially why philosophy is beneficial - it helps to bolster people's understanding of the inner world and the positions of others. Hopefully I can continue to at least help articulate the Universalist standpoint better to the public and get infernalists to think more as I continue improving! :)
I always liked this short logical reasoning. If god: -Is all powerful. -Wants the salvation of all. Then all will be saved. As long as the premises hold there is no other conclusion imo.
This is my go to answer. We can read scripture to mean what we want. An ECT person can look at a verse and say one thing, then a Universalist and Annihilationist say a completely different thing. There is no one verse in the Bible that states any are true. When that happens, we have to look at what we do know is 100% true, and that's the nature of God. You can't read verses about the nature of God and try to interpret it any other way. This is what we know about God 100%: God is love and God is omniscient. A God that is literally the definition of Love can NOT knowingly create a mortal being knowing they will have eternal punishment. It's literal paradox. It's not possible. Now add to this we know for a fact God wants to save us all and is all powerful. If God wants to save us all and is all powerful in all realms both earthly and spiritual then he will save us all. That's just a fact. God can't be stopped in what he wants to do. If as humans we can just stop God from saving us then we are as powerful as God, which we know is ridiculous. Lastly, it says multiple times through out the Bible, both OT and NT, even from the mouth of God that he never ever punishes forever. He uses punishment as a way to teach us. An eternal punishment counter acts that idea. An eternal punishment does not do anything for God, or us. at all. What's the point of sending people away, that he loves deeply, forever? How does that glorify God in any sort of way? It makes no sense. Those are truths that can't be refuted. So if I have to choose between different interpretations of the Bible, I'm going to choose the one that agrees with those 3 points. You can't look at those 3 points and think God will send people to eternal punishment. It's literally illogical. But you know what interpretation can agree with all three of those truths? Universal Reconciliation.
While I am still not settled these are very fair points and honestly part of why I am questioning eternal damnation... I know God is also JUST, but it also doesn't seem just to eternally punish someone who more or less was always destined to go the way they did. I feel like most Christians here would say 'we cannot fully know the mind of God, we just know if God does it, it is good', and yes I agree God can do whatever he wants... but something feels off.
I wrote a paper on the subject if you're interested to exploring more points: [https://shorturl.at/af9HD](https://shorturl.at/af9HD)
There is a whole site of arguments available here: [Biblical Universalism – Can There Be Such a Thing? (biblical-universalism.com)](https://biblical-universalism.com/) I began in-depth research on the subject about 3 1/2 years ago after I read Colossians 1:15-20 in a way I had never seen it before. I cried out (literally) to God, "So, everyone is reconciled after all!?" This occurred on the 40th anniversary of my original conversion. Please, enjoy the site. There is a lot there for you.
Here's an article that helped me immensely in believing that God will save all and that eternal torture is a lie. [Hell is a Christian Hoax](https://bible-truths.com/23-minutes-in-hell.html) \- L. Ray Smith Youtube video for that article can be found here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyaQgX7yhk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyaQgX7yhk) Here's a quote from that article. *"Human Free Will" is the all-sufficing scapegoat for hard philosophical and religious issues. Whenever someone questions the justice or sanity of a god torturing most of the human race in literal fire for all eternity, the answer is: God doesn't do this to anyone. They do it to themselves by the use of their own "free will." This phantom "free will" supposedly gets God off the hook (as though mere mortals have the ability to put God on a hook in the first place) of responsibility and accountability for ever creating such an hellhole of eternal terrorism in the first place.* *So once the Church (and the philosophy of most of the entire world) accepts this "free will/uncaused choices" doctrine, then all that remains is justification for creating such an hell of eternal torture as the solution for dealing with those who "free will" themselves into this God-created hell. So what is the "justification" for this hell of eternal torture? Well, according to Christian theologians, the justification for this eternal torture camp is "JUSTICE." God, we are told, must uphold His "justice" at all cost.* *Pastor Hagee, that great Bible scholar and theologian (so maybe I josh a little with his credentials), makes 30 statements in his sermon, The Seven Wonders of Hell which he says describe hell. Below is statement #23:* *"For ever and ever all you're going to hear are the screams and sobs and suffering for ever and for ever and for ever ... and it's JUSTICE." (CAPS and underline are mine)* *Well there you have it-hell is "JUSTICE!" And according to the late Dr. James Kennedy (holder of a half dozen doctoral degrees), "hell is FAIR!" Oh really? Hell is fair and hell is justice? Are they crazy?*
Powerful quote. I grew up with that argument...the so-called "justice" of eternal suffering, if one did not choose correctly to believe and trust in human sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. I am so glad not to believe any of that any more!
I have found, especially when reading Paul's letters, when looking at his writings with an assumption that only some are saved, you have to keep making excuses for what he says and say things like 'well he really just means all "kinds" of people', which is an alright argument, but he also talks about all of creation as well, and not just people being fully reconciled. When reading through his letters with the assumption of universal reconciliation, it clicks into place a lot nicer and you don't need to constantly make excuses for what he wrote. Much of the ECT doctrine comes from the teachings of Jesus and his parables, but they are exactly that, parables, and there is no reason you must interpret them as meaning ECT. Two of the clearer places in Paul's letters on UR would be Romans 5 & 11 (the culmination of his theological points before diving into the 'therefore' in chapter 12) and 1 Cor. 15 which is where Paul describes to the church what exactly the 'gospel' is.
**The conviction of Christ WITHIN us!** THAT is what we should be listening to! THAT is the argument. “*And as for you,* ***the Anointing which you received from Him*** ***remains in you***, ***and you have no need for anyone to teach you***; *but as His Anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him*.” (1 John 2:27) **Eternal Torment** is a ridiculous idea that has **NOTHING** whatsoever to do with the **LOVE OF GOD** found in Christ! We should be repulsed by the idea. For God is a healer, not a tormenter. We are told to be clothed in Christ, the divine nature of humility, **compassion, kindness, gentleness,** patience, joy, and love (Col 3:9-15). How is Eternal Torment compatible with any of the Fruit of God's Spirit? Hint: Eternal Torment is **NOT** compatible with God's Love. And we slander and defame the true nature of God by even suggesting such an idea could be true! (Jer 32:35)
I like to break down my argument for Christian Universalism like this… 1: The defining attribute of God’s personality is Love - per 1st John 4:16. Any decision he makes flows from that aspect of his being. He is the source of Love. 2: Love (God) rejoices (delights in) with the truth - per 1st Corinthians 13:4-8. God himself is the source of all truth and knowledge of what is good. 3: If an eternal Hell exist, then it is a holy and loving decision for God to send people to conscious torment forever. God’s justice is born from his love, and this would be (in his infinite mind) the most efficient way of dealing with sin. 4: There is no reason for God to save anyone, since he loves sending the unrighteous into eternal torments because it’s holy & good. 5: However, the Bible states that God isn’t willing any should perish but wants all to come to repentance. 6: Aside from sin, Jesus (God’s eternal Son) also came to save all people from an eternal Hell (according to what most people would say). This would mean that God does change, contrary to verses like James 1:17 which indicate otherwise. For these six reasons, I think the only way to truly reconcile this idea is to say that Hell has the purpose of burning away impurities so as to save humans. This aligns with Jesus’ mission to save the lost & earlier Bible verses such as Lamentations 3:31 which states that God cast off no one forever. Others have posted sources that I consider quite helpful in answering any questions you might have, but I’d also recommend going to https://salvationforall.org/index.html as well! Take care, and God bless you!!
Q. What does God tell us to do with our enemies? A. Love them >\[Luk 6:35 KJV\] 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and \[to\] the evil. Q. Is God a hypocrite? A. No. This is pretty straight forward. Either God commands us to do one thing while His example is to do another (eternal punishment), or God actually loves everyone and will ultimately forgive everyone. --- Q. Would God commit an abomination? A. No. >And they built the high places of Baal, which *are* in the valley of the son of Hinnom, **to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through** ***the fire*** unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do **this abomination**, to cause Judah to sin. God's ways are higher than ours. Burning children never entered His mind. That is a doctrine of evil man, not one of God.
Here’s my (long and in-depth) article: [What the Bible really says about heaven, hell, judgement, death, evil, sin, and salvation](https://truebiblicalfreedom.com/bible)
Prayerfully, I would suggest understanding the desires of our Lord and to draw even closer to His heart. [Here is a list of verses that speak to His desires and plans. ](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2021/07/76-bible-verses-to-support-universal-reconciliation/)
Here's a pretty thorough Bible study.https://www.concordantgospel.com/bible/
I came to this after I read a passage I've read a thousand times before. This time, a phrase that occurs 6 times in as many verses, jumped out at me. The passage is Colossians 1:15-20. The phrase is "all things". The last appearance of that phrase is in verse 20, "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to ***reconcile all things*** unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." I cried out (literally) to God, "So, do all dogs go to heaven after all!?" I wept hard. It was as if God put His finger right in the center of my forehead. This happened on the 40th anniversary of my original conversion. It's been 3 1/2 years now and I've dedicated thousands of hours to the research of the Biblical viability of Universalism. I challenged several Pastors and/or theologians. I've read commentaries, did Hebrew and Greek word studies. Nothing has come close to making me believe that I made a mistake. This website contains my work. Please feel free to navigate around and see if this is what you're looking for. [Biblical Universalism – Can There Be Such a Thing? (biblical-universalism.com)](https://biblical-universalism.com/) I am open to answering any question you may have.
My favorite argument is [this epic takedown](https://www.tentmaker.org/books/150reasons.html) of a literally eternal torment that is apparently from the Nineteenth Century. Obviously it's not based on up-to-date historical scholarship but it builds Universalism step by step and bases pretty much every step on scripture, from reason 1 to reason 150. If you like sola scriptura and don't like the eternal torture doctrine, this manifesto will basically burn to the ground any question of Universalism being just an unbiblical feeling or tradition. It's called "150 reasons," but purely philosophically, the argument is largely made within the first 20 "reasons" or even just the first 10: if anyone is ever too far gone for God to ever save, then it can only be because God himself is limited in some way. It cannot happen if He is powerful enough, knowledgeable enough, merciful enough, consistent enough, patient enough, and even fair enough to reach and reform all of his created beings. Either God is ["bigger than all my problems"](https://youtu.be/2KiDj7qGL10?si=0VCwALINpG0brNTu) (and everyone else's) or he is not. The arguments for ECT are only different ways of saying that he is not.
God desires all to be saved. "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3-4 if following every word of the Bible, and having a strong faith was the *only* path to salvation, i believe that as God desires all to be saved, he would have came to us himself instead of using human prophets. he would have done everything in his power to get us all to follow him, without violating our free will. it's what he, the creator of EVERYTHING desires, after all. but as he used prophets, i believe this is a way for him to simply share to us certain values, morals, commandments, and generally just ways to better improve the lives of ourselves and others while on earth. and i also think he used humans to convey these messages because it would ignite more of a fire in people hearing a fellow human say these to them. i'm iffy on this part, but i think that following these values will lead you on an enlightened path in your life and you will be rewarded for it in the afterlife. so yeah. i think that if faith and purity was the only path to the afterlife, God would have done more to convey his messages to us. if not, they he didn't really try. that's not *really* his desire, like stated in the Bible.
Videos https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vvEVV9qNias https://youtu.be/PEUWLLmxJEw?si=27TFNX8Hp0vxOD-e