Trinitarian Universalism

Trinitarian Universalism is a formulation of Universalism, the belief that every person will be saved, that holds the Christian belief in Trinitarianism as opposed to Unitarian Universalism.
Trinitarian Universalism is a conservative type of Christian Universalism and is also known as Evangelical Universalism or Biblical Universalism.MacDonald, Gregory (a pseudonym). The Evangelical Universalist. 2006. ISBN 1-59752-365-8 It is rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and most Protestant denominations. 
==History==
The doctrine of Universalism is usually traced back to the teachings of Origen of Alexandria (c.185-284), an influential early Church Father and writer. He believed in apocatastasis, the ultimate salvation and reconciliation with God of all moral beings, including Satan and his demons. He also believed in the pre-existence of souls and that glorified Man may have to go through cycles of sin and redemption before reaching perfection. The teachings of Origen were declared anathema at the Ecumenical Council of 553, centuries after his death, and Universalism fell out of favour even though it was not anathematized and other Universalists like Gregory of Nyssa were commended as Orthodox defenders of the faith by the same Council. Despite Origen's and Universalism's fall from grace, some theologians and teachers continued to believe and teach universal salvation over the next millennia. Some of the more well-known Universalists were Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815-877), and Amalric of Bena (c. 1200). 
During the Protestant Reformation, all doctrines and practices of the Catholic (Universal) Church were re-examined and numerous sects formed. Jane Leade (1623-1704), a mystic who claimed to have seen heaven and hell, started a Universalist congregation, the Philadelphians, in England. It was the first Universalist church and over the next two centuries, Universalism became more accepted and Universalist congregations grew.Universal Salvation?: The Current Debate. editors: Robin A. Parry & Christopher H. Partridge. 2003. ISBN 0-8028-2764-0. 'Universalism in the History of Christianity'. by Morwena Ludlow. Chapt. 10 AnabaptistsThere is an overemphasis of the influence of Hans Denck on the early Anabaptists. Hans Denck was accused by his critics of being a Universalist because his theology admitted the possibility that all people will be saved.
*
*, Moravian Brethren, and Christadelphians were just some of the churches who taught Universalism.CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Apocatastasis
 
John Murray (1741-1815), who had to leave the Methodist Church because of his Universalism, came to New England in 1770 and is credited with being the Father of Universalism in North America.Universalism: General Information by D.B. Eller, retrieved September 20, 2006 Although Murray was a Trinitarian (as was his mentor, James Relly), his successor, Hosea Ballou (1771-1852) was a strong Unitarian who opposed Trinitarianism, Calvinism, and legalism. During his tenure, Universalism became linked with liberal theology as well as Unitarianism.http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/hoseaballou.html Biography of Hosea Ballou from UUA, retrieved Dec. 23, 2006
A century later, Karl Barth (1886-1968) re-invigorated the doctrine of the Trinity amongst Universalists, and Thomas Torrance (1913-2007) furthered the cause with his seminal work, The Trinitarian Faith. It is their teaching on the universality of the atonement (a belief also known as Unlimited Atonement), in addition to an Arminian interpretation of the biblical doctrine of God's Omnibenevolence and an incorporation of John Calvin's theological exposition of the sovereignty of God that has led to the recent rise of Trinitarian Universalism, though neither Barth nor Torrance claimed to be universalists and never used the phrase "Trinitarian Universalist".
==Philosophy==
Thomas Talbott, a philosophy professor at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, offers three propositions which are biblically based but cannot all be true at the same time.
#God is omnipotent and exercises sovereign control over all aspects of human life and history.
#God is omni-benevolent, is ontologically Love, and desires the salvation of all people.
#Some (a lot) of people will experience everlasting, conscious torment in a place of (either literal or metaphorical) fire.Talbott, Thomas. The Inescapable Love of God.1999.ISBN 1-58112-831-2.
Traditionally, Calvinists resolved this by disagreeing with the Arminian interpretation of #2. According to the Calvinist doctrine of limited atonement, God's special love and grace are shown in his sovereign election of some to be saved, whereas his common love and common grace is shown to all humanity, including the non-elect, thus maintaining the doctrine of God's omnibenevolence. Arminians resolve this by disagreeing with the Calvinist interpretation of #1 by proposing what is commonly referred to as Synergistic Regeneration, which teaches that man has a free will to either choose or reject God's love (as exhibited in salvation). Universalists disagree with #3.Talbott's views are most completely delineated in his book The Inescapable Love of God. A book entitled Universal Salvation?: The Current Debate has recently come to print, in which multiple authors from various fields (Theology, Philosophy, Church History, etc.) build arguments to either support or deny his Universalist tenets. See also: *http://www.thomastalbott.com/
*http://www.willamette.edu/~ttalbott/
 
Since traditional interpretations of multiple biblical verses seem to be about people experiencing eternal conscious torment in hell, many Christians hold that Universalists must either refute or reinterprete these verses. There are many verses of scripture supporting universal salvation with which supporters of eternal damnation must contend, including (but not limited to): Matthew 18:14, Luke 3:6, John 3:17, John 12:32, John 12:47, John 15:16, Romans 8:38-9, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, and 1 Timothy 4:9-10. There is also general agreement among historians that many in the early church, including some of the most prominent Church Fathers, especially those of the Catechetical School of Alexandria such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Clement of Alexandria, believed in and taught universal salvation as church doctrine.
==Core Trinitarian doctrine==
*God is Trinity
:God is One Being and Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who indwell each other in a perichoretic communion of love.Torrance, T. F. The Trinitarian Faith. 1995 ISBN 0-567-29219-3
*God is Love
:God is ontologically love ( 1 John 4:8), and everything that He is and does reflect His being love. His holiness is an aspect of His love and can be thought of as one thing: Holylovingkindness. 
 
*Reconciliation is through Christ Jesus
:Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity and he is both fully God and fully Man. Because he created everything and everything inheres in him, all of creation was crucified and resurrected with him. ( John 1:3-4), ( Col. 1:15-20) Because divinity and humanity meets in him, mankind are now participants in the perichoresis or the divine dance of love within the Trinity.Kruger, C. Baxter. The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited.
*Universal atonement of sins
:Jesus Christ's death on the cross paid the price for the sins of the world ( Rom. 5:15-19) and all men are reconciled to God ( 2 Cor. 5:19). No human being is alienated from God as He is their only source of life ( John 1:3-4) and in Him they live and move and have their being. ( Acts 17:28) Kruger, C. Baxter. Jesus and the Undoing of Adam. ISBN 0-9645465-5-8
:Because all sins have been paid for, all sins are forgiven. Divine forgiveness precedes human response and this forgiveness is both love and judgment because to say, "I forgive you" is to say "I love you" and "You have sinned against me". Man can respond by agreeing with the judgment (repentance) and receive both the love and forgiveness or he can deny the judgment and refuse God's love and forgiveness.Torrance, James B. Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace. ISBN 0830818952
==Universalist doctrine==
*Salvation is an objective reality and a subjective reality
:A personal response of faith is required before the objective saving act of God is made subjectively real in the individual's life. The response is transformative and changes with knowledge and experience. What has been accomplished for all mankind must be accomplished in each person's life which requires the individual's cooperation with the Holy Spirit. God is love and man is loved but he must be in relationship with Him to know that love. It is the difference between being and knowing.
*Hell, as described in the Bible, exists
:It is partially here as the Kingdom of Darkness that all men are born into. 
:It will be fully present for those who persist in rejecting God's gift of salvation. However, God's grace and gift of faith reaches everyone while they are dead in their sins ( Eph. 2:1, Col. 2:13) and there is no biblical text that says His mercy and gift of salvation will end when one dies physically.The Harrowing of Hell Jesus Christ is proclaimed to be the Lord of the dead and the living ( Rom. 14:9).
*Hell is not retribution but rehabilitation
:The suffering in hell is the anguish of a soul persisting in rebellion against God, or the shame of a soul when it realizes how much it has sinned against a holy God as well as profound regret for what might have been.MacDonald, Gregory. The Evangelical Universalist. 2006. ISBN 1-59752-365-8. Chapt 1.
*The Good News is about the Kingdom of God
:The mission is not just to save people from hell but to bring them out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of Light. All moral law can be summed up by the two Great Commandments: Love God and Love Others ( Rom. 13:8-10) and these two commands are not distinct and exclusive. To love God is to love others and to love others is to love God.
*The Kingdom of God is here and yet not fully here
:Trinitarian Universalists live in that dialetic tension and in the hope of the future Kingdom. (1 Cor. 13:12) 
*Wrath and judgment is another face of Love
:God's love is passionate and people can grieve Him ( Eph. 4:30) by thwarting His love and His good intentions toward them. If man hurts himself or others, he will experience that divine love as wrath. Judgment accompanies wrath and judgment is salvific. It is a fire that purifies and refines, not one that destroys. ( Mal. 3:2) If man is not judged and if he does not feel God's wrath, he will not be aware that he has sinned. Judgment and wrath encourages a man to stop what he is doing and repent (turn around). Then he will know forgiveness and feel God's love turn from wrath to warmth.McLaren, Brian. A Generous Orthodoxy. 2004. ISBN 0-310-25747-6. pp. 93-97
* True justice is restoration and reconciliation
:Justice is not fully met by punishing wrongdoers. True justice is
:*restoration of what was stolen or destroyed
:*repentance and reformation of the sinner
:*reconciliation between the sinner and God and the person(s) sinned against
* The final word God speaks to Mankind is always reconciliation and redemption
:Sodom is portrayed as a very wicked place that was judged by God and destroyed by burning sulfur ( Gen. 19:1-29). Jude writes that they "suffered the punishment of eternal fire" ( Jude 1:7). But Jesus knew what circumstances would have brought the people of Sodom to repentance and acknowledgement of God ( Matt. 11:23). The last word God speaks over Sodom is restoration in an eschatological prophecy by Ezekiel ( Ezk. 16:53-55).
==Biblical passages cited in support of Universalism==
*Romans 5:12-20
*1 Corinthians 15:20-28 
*2 Corinthians 5:18-21
*Colossians 1:15-23 
*Philippians 2:9-11 
*1 Timothy 2:3-6 
==Universalism and Heresy==
Heresy is "adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma".Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Because dogma varies among denominations, what is considered heresy by one denominatrion or congregation may be accepted as doctrine or opinion by another. 
There are three generally accepted understandings of hell:
# A literal place of fire where the damned suffer eternal conscious torment
# A metaphorical hell where the suffering is real but is not literally fire and brimstone. The pain may be physical, emotional or spiritual.
# Conditional where souls are punished until justice is met and then they are annihilated Four Views on Hell. William Crockett, editor. ISBN 0-310-21268-5
There is also the doctrine of Purgatory, a wholly separate place from Hell, where imperfect souls are cleansed and made ready for heaven. It may be a place of rehabilitation, correction or retribution.
The majority of Universalists believe that hell will eventually empty as people respond to God's offer of grace, mercy, forgiveness and salvation. This view is similar to [Purgatory], which is only orthodox for the Roman Catholics (and, incidentally, Jews). However, Universalists believe that every person will be saved and Roman Catholics believe only those who died in God's grace will find purgation for their venial sins in purgatory.New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Purgatory A minority of Universalists do not believe in the existence of hell in the afterlife but that every human is glorified and sanctified upon death.
There are four theories of salvation
# Exclusivism: salvation only found in Christianity. Anyone who is not a Christian will go to hell.
# Inclusivism: some adherents of other religions may find salvation but it is still Jesus Christ who saves them.
# Pluralism: one's own religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, hence may be found in principle in any religion, though not necessarily.
# Universalism: all people will be saved Vlach, Michael J., PhD. What Are Pluralism, Inclusivism, and Exclusivism? Theologicalstudies.org. retrieved Dec. 12, 2006 
Denominations and churches will generally profess one of the above to be true and the others as error, however they are not all mutually exclusive. For example, some who hold to #4 "Universalism" also hold to #1 "Exclusivism." For these, anyone who is not a Christian will go to hell, but ultimately everyone will become a Christian and therefore be saved. Others may be #2 "Inclusivists" and #3 "Pluralists." For those who might hold to these, because God may use the tools of any particular religion or culture to reveal his grace in Christ (Inclusivism), other religions therefore, potentially exhibiting the effects of this work, may in fact hold valuable insights to truth for theology (Pluralism), consequently calling the members of a particular congregation/denomination/religion to be open to that possibility.
==Objections==
===Hell needed as a deterrent===
This anecdote by Rev. Elizabeth Strong, a Unitarian Universalist, sums up the issue:
:Hosea Ballou was riding the circuit in the New Hampshire hills with a Baptist minister one day, arguing theology as they traveled. At one point, the Baptist looked over and said, "Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and feared not the fires of hell, I could hit you over the head, steal your horse and saddle, and ride away, and I'd still go to heaven." 
:Ballou looked over at him and said, "If you were a Universalist, the idea would never occur to you." 
===Bible teaches eternity of hell===
The following are problematic verses for Trinitarian Universalists and their resolutions which are of variable success. 
;Parables of Jesus
:Luke 16:31 The Rich Man and Lazarus
:This ancient Near East story is retold by Jesus with a surprise twist ending. There was a belief among the Pharisees that the good are blessed by God and the bad are cursed so the listeners would have started out believing the Rich Man must have been a godly man while the beggar must have been a great sinner. Jesus' parable turns that concept upside down. This is not a teaching about hell.
:Matthew 25:14-30 The Sheep and the Goats
:Jesus is teaching a principle of Kingdom living: small acts of kindness have eternal value. This is not a teaching about what merits salvation and what merits damnation and it is definitely not a teaching about the eternity of hell. Also, the Greek word 'aion' can be interpreted as "a long time" as well as "eternal". Finally, this passage may not be dealing with personal eschatology at all, but rather with the judgement of Christ on nations based on how they treat his children. On this view, the passage teaches that nations that abuse Christians will be subject to enduring chastisement while those who protect Christians will enjoy enduring life.
;Pauline writings
:2 Thessalonians 1:9
:The phrase "everlasting destruction" could be translated as "destruction of the coming age" which makes it a reference to eschatological judgment. The phrase "and shut out" should be translated as "that comes from". Therefore the verse should be read as: "They will be punished with destruction of the coming age that comes from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." The imagery is that of the holiness of God burning away forever the sinful nature of unrepentant man.Bonda, Jan. The One Purpose of God: An Answer to the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment. 1993. ISBN 0-8028-4186-4. pp 211-212
;Eschaton in Revelation
:Revelation 14:11
:In view of the overwhelming evidence for Universalism in the Bible, especially in the writings of Paul, this description is hyperbole. Revelation images are metaphorical and no one knows what they really mean.
:Revelation 19:3
:This refers to the whore of Babylon which is a metaphor for corrupt political systems and/or economic policies. It is not a reference to the eternal suffering of people.
:In Revelation, the kings of the earth are depicted as in league with the Whore of Babylon, which is probably symbolic of corrupt political and/or socioeconomic systems, and they are drunk on the maddening wine of her adulteries. They weep and mourn when she is finally thrown into the Lake of Fire. Then they gather on the plains of Megiddo with the Beast to fight the "King of kings and Lord of lords" and the armies of heaven in the final battle, Armaggedon. They are defeated and the Beast and his False Prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire. Those who followed them are slain with "the sword that came out of the mouth" of the Word of God which is probably symbolic of the Gospel or Truth. But in the last scene in New Jerusalem, where the gates are ever open, where the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations, the kings of the earth are expected to enter, bringing their splendour with them.
===Calvinist objections===
Romans 9, according to Calvinism, teaches that some people are natural objects of God's wrath, created and prepared for the purpose of being destroyed. Judas was predestined to be the Son of Perdition, the one prophesied to betray Jesus. It is written that "It would be better for him if he had not been born" (despite the fact that, without Judas' betrayal there would have been no crucifixion, no resurrection and therefore no salvation). God foreknew all those He would save and that some people are destined for eternal damnation. Also, according to Calvinism, justice requires that sins against an infinite, holy God merit eternal punishment, especially for those who reject His gift of salvation. God is love but He is also Holy. Thirdly, Calvinists would contend that nowhere in the bible does it even hint at the possibility of post-mortem salvation. After death comes judgment.
Trinitarian Universalism would answer that, if all are created totally lost in sin, it would therefore not be logical or (more importantly) just for God, the Epitome of Justice Himself, to hold them accountable for their actions or liable for their state of being without providing them a way to find redemption, and this could be said even of a being that is not All-Merciful and All-Loving, as God is. Romans 9 deals with God's hidden will to choose some to salvation in this life (the elect) and pass others, called reprobates, by in this life. That is not the final word God speaks to those individuals he passes by. Jesus said, as he was dying on the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." He also promised "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw (or, literally, "drag" in the Greek) all men unto me." Surely these global statements cover all of humanity. 
F.W. Farrar offers this possible interpretation to Jesus' remarks regarding Judas. When Jesus said, "it would be better for him if he had not been born," the "him" was referring to the Son of Man (Jesus) and the "he" to Judas. Thus he meant that it would have been better for the Son of Man if Judas had not been born. Another view is that although everyone else is to be saved, perhaps Judas will be punished and then annihilated. At any rate the passage does not disprove universalism and certainly does not prove eternal torment.
Pointing to God's eternality is not a satisfactory explanation as to why a temporal sin logically entails unending punishment, though it may be for that reason eternally grave. God's attributes can never conflict with one another, lest God be an imperfect being who is subject to internal strife. God's mercy can never violate His Justice, as if God's Love pushes Him in one direction whereas His Holiness pushes him in another. Universalism brings all his attributes into harmony by pointing out the way in which they describe the one single will of God. The early twentieth century theologian Paul Tillich described this relationship between God's justice and mercy as "creative justice" and as "the strange work of love" in Love, Power, and Justice. Creative justice refers to justice under the principle of agape, or unambiguous and unconditional love. Because it drives towards the reunion of the separated (eros) unconditionally (agape), it makes amends with s/he whom is separated by severing from their personal center that which entrenches the separation (i.e. "the strange work"). This ultimately entails being faced with the Law, or the unconditionality of the moral imperative, and recognizing the need for reconciliation and forgiveness. This "destructive" work of love is always for the sake of building up love's object as and into a subject. Gestalt therapy and psychotherapy are modern examples of love doing this strange work: the process is painful and entails major reform, but health and well-being are its intention. As Martin Luther famously said, "the love of God creates its own object."
From the point of view of Trinitarian Universalism, if there is no hint of post-mortem salvation in the Bible, then why does Paul refer to people being baptised for the dead, why did Jesus preach to those in hell, and why did the majority of church fathers, including Augustine and Luther, believe in the possibility of post-mortem salvation?
===Arminian objections===
Arminians hold that God will not abrogate Man's will because love must be chosen, not forced, and that some people will chose alienation from God over consummation, and so God has graciously provided a place for them to exist. C.S. Lewis said that hell is locked from within but few will leave because over a lifetime and through the coming ages, they will become more and more at home in hell.Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce. 1973. ISBN 0-06-065295-0
A Trinitarian Universalist believer might counter that for God to allow His misguided and confused children to suffer eternal separation from Him is the very opposite of grace, runs counter to His loving and sovereign nature, and would compare unfavorably to the attitude and behavior of even average human parents toward their children. The Bible seems to teach that those who believe do so because God caused them to believe, not by any freedom of choice of their own, and they might cite the following in support their answer:
"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Eph. 1:4-6
"For He says to Moses, 'I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.' So then it {does} not {depend} on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." Rom. 9:15-16
(See also: John 15:16, Phillipians 1:29, Ephesians 1:11)
Also, the Bible in several places refers to freedom being only for those freed through Christ, and that those who are not in Christ are in darkness under the dominion of Satan (Acts 26:18), and are slaves to sin( John 8:34). Therefore, it would make no sense to maintain that someone can have the "freedom" to "reject God" -- it is only by sin that people reject God, and those in sin are slaves to sin and Satan, and therefore it is only God who can, by his grace, release them from that bondage and then make them able to believe:
"The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses {and escape} from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will."
Furthermore, the idea that God wills us to have real love, and that therefore the love cannot be forced upon us, is not to say that, therefore, the only other alternative is absolute and total freedom, even freedom to condemn ourselves. As a father, I would allow my son or daughter to grow up as their own, genuine, person—but that doesn't mean that my earnest desire for authenticity in their life, based in making real, honest, personal choices, would therefore lead me to not intervene if they were about to jump in front of a moving train, or take a fatal dose of sleeping pills. To say that God either gives us absolute and total freedom to accept or reject Him, or else we are mindless robots (or "marionettes") is a false dichotomy. It also conveniently ignores the blatant fact that almost nothing in our life is under our control, from when and where we are born, to our economic status, to what sorts of beliefs we are taught and raised with, all of which have a bearing on our decision to accept or reject Him. No matter how much we would like to pretend otherwise, the decision to have faith in Christ is not as much "free will" as it is enormously personal, and therefore enormously influenced by external, uncontrollable factors that have shaped our hearts and minds.
Even if one allows for personal freedom, Trinitarian Universalists find it desperately unlikely to suppose that anyone can say "No!" to God, who is Love and Goodness personified, and keep on saying "No!" for ever and ever. If it is by sin, darkness, and the interference of Satan (cf. Gen 3; also, see above) that men reject God, and if everything not planted by God will be uprooted (Mat. 15:13), then, presumably, there will come a time when even the most hardened of all men will finally be free from the influence of darkness, sin, and the devil, and will finally accept the grace offered by Jesus, put his faith in Him, and then, with all submitted to Christ, and Christ submitted to the Father, will God be finally, truly, "all in all." (cf. Col 1:19,20; 1Cor 15:28)
==Hope of universal salvation==
Apart from the dogmatic belief that a sentence of endless torment in hell is incompatible with God's moral character there are notable theologians who believe that God wants everyone to be saved and that it is possible for God to save everyone but, at the same time, they will not limit God's sovereign right to choose not to save everyone.
While theologians Thomas Talbott, Gregory MacDonald and Eric Reitan regard everlasting punishment as impossible,Universal Salvation? The Current Debate. editors: Robin A. Parry & Christopher H. Partridge. 2003. 'Human Freedom and the Impossibility of Eternal Damnation', by Eric Reitan. Chapt. 7. ISBN 0-8028-2764-0 Reformed, neo-orthodox theologian, Karl Barth, and Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar believed that the eventual salvation of all was merely a possibility.von Balthasar, Hans Urs. Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved? With a Short Discourse on Hell. 1988. ISBN 0-89870-207-0
==Quotes==
*In 1997, Bishop Timothy Ware (of the Greek Orthodox Church) wrote:
:"Hell exists as a final possibility, but several of the Fathers have none the less believed that in the end all will be reconciled to God. It is heretical to say that all must be saved, for this is to deny free will; but it is legitimate to hope that all may be saved. Until the Last Day comes, we must not despair of anyone’s salvation, but must long and pray for the reconciliation of all without exception. No one must be excluded from our loving intercession. ‘What is a merciful heart?’ asked Isaac the Syrian. ‘It is a heart that burns with love for the whole of creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons, for all creatures.’Gregory of Nyssa said that Christians may legitimately hope even for the redemption of the Devil."
*Wiliam Barclay, author of the Daily Study Bible, a set of commentaries on the New Testament wrote:
:"I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God." William Barclay: A Spiritual Autobiography, pg 65-67, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1977.
*Former Bishop Carlton Pearson, of New Dimensions wrote
:"I think we in evangelical Christianity have ignored the Sovereignty of God and limited the scope and sweep of His great Love toward all. Scripture says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" ( Romans 5:20)— He died once for all. (Romans 6:10 and 1 Pet. 3:18) And contrary to popular opinion, our belief systems and religious presuppositions do not invalidate or reverse the effectiveness or efficiency of the finished work of Calvary. (Rom. 3:3).
==See also==
*Christian Universalism
*Apocatastasis
*Problem of Hell
*Unitarian Universalism
*Universal Reconciliation
*Universalism
==References and notes==
==External links==
*Discovering Trinitarian Universalism — Trinitarian Universalists found within and without the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Category:Trinitarianism
Category:Christian Universalism